Movies
Jefferson in Paris
A movie for those who just want to be transported to another time and place, never mind what there is to do upon arrival. Lacking a renowned novel as a guidebook, the team of James Ivory (director), Ismail Merchant (producer), and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (writer) jump off from a base of 1873 in Ohio, at the humble home of the elderly black offspring of Thomas Jefferson(!), and touch down in Paris during Jefferson's stint there as ambassador. The material is quite rich thematically, with special concentration on the discrepancy between the American philosophy of egalitarianism and the Southern institution of slavery, while in the background the French are warming up for a revolution of their own. (Because it's the 18th Century, nothing much need be made of the fact that the widowed Jefferson's eventual bedmate is fifteen years old.) Narratively, however, it's a bit threadbare, reduced much of the time to disconnected illustrations of passages from Jefferson's journal. Handsome illustrations, to be sure: the moose skeleton wheeled into a tony Parisian soiree, its antlers tinkling the chandelier; the experimental balloon flight manned by dispensable animals; the bogus seance; etc. With Nick Nolte (nobody's idea of Thomas Jefferson), Greta Scacchi, Gwyneth Paltrow, Thandie Newton, James Earl Jones. 1995.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG-13
