The Europeans

Woe is us! The writer of the book was the same author who gave us the great "Washington Square," which was turned into an Oscar-winning vehicle for Olivia De Havilland in 1949's "The Heiress.

The obvious issue that many readers have with Henry James' books is that his characters' motives and desires often seem unclear, despite the extensive dialogues. But this is not the late James where a dozen pages of exposition of thought and motive precede each spoken sentence.

While not on the level of Howard's End and other Merchant/Ivory films at their later peak, this film is where they truly took off in presenting period films. the look and details are excellent as has been commented on here.

I got a look at this movie last night on DVD and it was a very good movie viewing experience. I had never heard of this film at all but I liked the front cover (it wasn't the one next to this review) and also noticed Lee Remick was in it.

I first saw this movie in a "Henry James on Film" class back in about 1994. I'd just read the novella of the same name and enjoyed it immensely.

This film is a masterpiece as are all of the Merchant/Ivory's films. The absorbing story and adaptation, the fantastic actors - notably the immensely beautiful Lee Remick - and the eye for detail makes this a unique experience and may be watched again and again.

Ok, maybe I missed something, but the movie seemed very odd to me. The actors and actresses were either lethargic or over-hyper, and seemed to lack sincerity.