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The Portrait of a Lady

  • 1996
  • PG-13
  • 2h 24m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
13K
YOUR RATING
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Trailer for Portrait of a Lady
Play trailer2:11
2 Videos
99 Photos
Period DramaDramaRomance

An American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life ... Read allAn American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life into a nightmare.An American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life into a nightmare.

  • Director
    • Jane Campion
  • Writers
    • Henry James
    • Laura Jones
  • Stars
    • Nicole Kidman
    • John Malkovich
    • Barbara Hershey
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    13K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jane Campion
    • Writers
      • Henry James
      • Laura Jones
    • Stars
      • Nicole Kidman
      • John Malkovich
      • Barbara Hershey
    • 79User reviews
    • 49Critic reviews
    • 60Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 2 Oscars
      • 5 wins & 15 nominations total

    Videos2

    The Portrait of a Lady: Blu-Ray (Special Edition)
    Trailer 2:11
    The Portrait of a Lady: Blu-Ray (Special Edition)
    The Portrait of a Lady
    Trailer 2:20
    The Portrait of a Lady
    The Portrait of a Lady
    Trailer 2:20
    The Portrait of a Lady

    Photos99

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    Top cast26

    Edit
    Nicole Kidman
    Nicole Kidman
    • Isabel Archer
    John Malkovich
    John Malkovich
    • Gilbert Osmond
    Barbara Hershey
    Barbara Hershey
    • Madame Serena Merle
    Martin Donovan
    Martin Donovan
    • Ralph Touchett
    Mary-Louise Parker
    Mary-Louise Parker
    • Henrietta Stackpole
    Shelley Winters
    Shelley Winters
    • Mrs. Touchett
    Richard E. Grant
    Richard E. Grant
    • Lord Warburton
    Shelley Duvall
    Shelley Duvall
    • Countess Gemini
    Christian Bale
    Christian Bale
    • Edward Rosier
    Viggo Mortensen
    Viggo Mortensen
    • Caspar Goodwood
    Valentina Cervi
    Valentina Cervi
    • Pansy Osmond
    John Gielgud
    John Gielgud
    • Mr. Touchett
    Roger Ashton-Griffiths
    Roger Ashton-Griffiths
    • Bob Bantling
    Catherine Zago
    • Mother Superior
    Alessandra Vanzi
    • Nun #2
    Amy Lindsay
    Amy Lindsay
    • Miss Molyneux #1
    • (as Katie Campbell)
    Katherine Anne Porter
    • Miss Molyneux #2
    Eddy Seager
    • Strongman's Spruiker
    • Director
      • Jane Campion
    • Writers
      • Henry James
      • Laura Jones
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews79

    6.213.3K
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    Featured reviews

    SKG-2

    Misses the mark, but shouldn't be entirely dismissed

    When I read DAISY MILLER in high school and was completely unengaged, that set me off the wrong foot with Henry James. I also dislike his over-attentiveness to detail, and I must confess a prejudice against any writer who says in 10 pages what they could just have easily said in 2. Yet THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, once you get into it, turns out to be quite a powerful novel, and given how much I loved THE PIANO, I was really looking forward to what Jane Campion could bring to it. Rarely have I seen a movie version, though, which is so far off the mark but still has worthy parts to it.

    Let's start with the mistakes. Campion claimed she was re-imagining the story of Isabel Archer, an American woman of character but not of means, who eventually marries unhappily, instead of just giving a straight filmed version. That's all well and good, but what she and writer Laura Jones do is all but gut the motivations behind the story; we don't see Archer's vitality early on, so we have nowhere to go when she falls, and we don't see what draws people to her. And when Madame Merle and Osmond appear, they are so obviously snakes in the grass that we think Archer is a fool for trusting them, instead of feeling empathy for her. It doesn't help that Malkovich is so obviously bored here he does nothing to exude any charm. Hershey comes off better, but what's done with her character is a little strange as well.

    Nevertheless, this movie can't be easily dismissed. First of all, Campion's gift for imagery still comes through; she visually expresses the passions lying hidden in the novel, which few directors do when adapting period pieces. Also, Kidman grows more confident as the movie wears on, so we do get a sense of Isabel. But as someone already commented, the most worthy element here is Martin Donovan as Ralph, Isabel's sickly cousin in love with her, and whose advice sets the whole story in motion. He doesn't play for sentiment, but earns it instead. The ending also keeps its power. Still, this is quite a missed opportunity for Campion.
    6Joffi

    Supporting Cast saves this Film

    I have always enjoyed period pieces, good adaptations even more so. This film, however, is really only worth a 5 - an average film - if not for the strong performances of the supporting cast. The work of Barbara Hershey and Martin Donovan in particular is stellar, raising my rating to 6 on their merit alone.

    Aside from those two, this film is an exercise in 'almosts' and 'not quites'. It is almost engaging enough, yet just short of drawing me completely in. It not quite makes me believe Nicole Kidman's Isabel is worthy of the love of so many. The love shown by the suitors is believable enough (again, a well acted supporting cast), I simply do not quite believe the object of that love would elicit it.

    Still, the film is good. It is a pity, though. It could have been great.
    MelBee

    Pretty, but disappointing

    I rented this to get a look at Viggo Mortensen in some of his "other" films. He was beautiful to look at, but probably miscast. The whole movie stumped me. The sets and costumes were sumptuous (I frankly found the sets more interesting to look at than the characters). But this is more a character study than a plot-driven story; the characters should captivate us (or at least interest us) and allow us to come away with an understanding of them. This part failed, for me. Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich seemed to be in a Stone-Faced Acting contest, with Malkovich's monotonous drone matched only by Nicole's insistence on using one solitary facial expression for every "emotion" she supposedly felt. The woman only smiled once, near the end with ill cousin Ralph. What on earth made all these men fall in love with her, and not only fall, but STAY, in Goodwood's case for YEARS? I figured she would be independent and feisty, at least until she allowed herself to fall under Osmond's sway, but... she seemed cold and repressed from the very beginning.

    I tried very hard to understand this woman, and at times I could - but only drawing from personal experience, not through anything Kidman offered. And what's up with that ending?? Some people here seemed to get it, but I was left shaking my head, what, that's the last scene?? Oh well, I got to look at Viggo every once in awhile, so it wasn't a total loss.
    7Kiwi-7

    A cool, enigmatic film, but stylish...

    An interesting film with an undercurrent of sexual repression similar to that in Campion's other films. Nicole Kidman is excellent, given the material, though her transition from likeable, virtuous innocent to a cold and corrupted woman doesn't ring as true as it should--the three years glossed over with a subtitle isn't adequate to show the change. I blame this on the interpretation, direction, and/or editing rather than Kidman's performance, however. Malkovich is not as strong, and one wonders what any woman could see in him as a lover.

    The ending is cold and unsettling. Most filmgoers prefer to know that their hero/heroine is "safe" at the end of the story. Here, who knows ?

    Production values are good, and the film is quite stylish with interesting use of camera tilt, lighting, and angles. It's quite artsy. I am glad I saw the film, but acknowledge it's not likely to be everyone's cup of tea.
    KentRandell

    Why?

    How can Henry James' novella "Turn Of The Screw" swallow me in whole while I find his other work wordy and arrogant? And how can the same director that has made the two most boring movies I have ever seen, "Two Friends" and this one, also be the same person behind "Sweetie" and "Holy Smoke" - the two finest examples of a movie drawing real characters in real places I have ever seen? This film left me in a state of semi-paralysis.

    Being a fan of slow-paced, foreign, and period piece movies, I was pretty surprised at how much this movie bored me. I'm writing this review to try to sort out my feelings of bewilderment.

    I think one problem is the use of John Malkovich. We've seen him soar to great heights in the paradoxical "Being John Malkovich" and "The Glass Menagerie", but here his monotone is overly droll and predictable, almost as if he is playing off himself in a Saturday Night Live sketch. In fact the most enjoyable part of this movie was the scene where Mr. Malkovich twirls the umbrella in an ambiguously literal attempt to hypnotize Isabel. If only there were more of these elements in the film....

    Then there's Nicole Kidman, whose underachieving attempts at acting has managed to ruin films by not one but two of the greats: Ms. Campion and Stanley Kubrick. Her delivery was similar to Gwyneth Paltrow's in "Mr. Ripley" -- obviously lost. She's just another pretty face thrown into a role of substance after receiving excessive amounts of hype. Watching them act gives me the same feeling I get watching the members of Milli Vanilli try to sing. In their element, they can be undeniably sexy or cute, but in deeper roles the viewer is left completely clueless to their characters' motives. Is Isabel supposed to be docile, alluring, witty, in-control, charismatic, or not-in-control? We can't tell.

    In this mess, Barbara Hershey and Martin Donovan as the sickly cousin were both very good. But alongside the weak link Kidman there was little they could do. And Campion made some extremely unusual stylistic sidetracks, the very sidetracks that work in the Holy Smoke India scenes. But in a period piece the fading dream suitors, inexplicable intro, and Chaplin filters seemed inappropriate, although one has to admire her for trying. Even when I don't agree with her methods I respect her sense of adventure (but let's face it, I'll love her forever because of Sweetie). With a little more humility from Campion, a different Isabel, and a more invigorated Malkovich this film might have worked.

    For a good treatment of James, try to scare up a copy of the 1961 film The Innocents.

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    Related interests

    Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen in Little Women (2019)
    Period Drama
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Nicole Kidman spent two weeks in bed after filming wrapped, diagnosed as suffering from "emotional stress".
    • Goofs
      (at around 47 mins) A horse carriage is passing through the shot from right to left. The crew with dolly-cam and equipment is clearly visible.
    • Quotes

      Ralph Touchett: I love you but without hope.

    • Crazy credits
      Jane Campion thanks her family, Colin, Alice and Richard, for their generous support, suggestions and encouragement during the making of this film.
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Michael/Mother/The People vs. Larry Flynt/The Evening Star/The Portrait of a Lady/I'm Not Rappaport (1996)
    • Soundtracks
      Impromptu in A Flat Major, Op 90 No. 4, D899
      (1828)

      Composed by Franz Schubert

      Adapted for screen by Brian Lock

      Performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet (as Jean Yves Thibaudet)

      Courtesy of Decca Records Company Ltd.

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    FAQ18

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 17, 1997 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Italian
    • Also known as
      • Bức Họa Chân Dung
    • Filming locations
      • Palazzo Pfanner, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy(Osmond's palace in Florence)
    • Production companies
      • Polygram Filmed Entertainment
      • Propaganda Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $3,692,836
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $107,819
      • Dec 29, 1996
    • Gross worldwide
      • $3,692,836
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 24m(144 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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