The Age of Innocence

Based on the novel by Edith Wharton, this sumptuous costume drama shot in 1993 proved that Scorsese, until then best known for his gritty take on violent New York street life, could also master a radically different kind of genre and stamp his rough and passionate trademark on velvety gowns and inlaid furniture.

New York, the 1870s: Newland Archer is a free-thinking bourgeois engaged to plain May Welland. When her elder cousin, countess Ellen Olenska, returns from Europe leaving a philandering husband behind, the Victorian society’s disapproval is inevitable – but so is the passion that instantly burns between her and Archer.
But their love is never consummated: he marries May trying to forget the countess, she accepts her defeat and tries to forget Archer.
Scorsese has reportedly stated that The Age Of Innocence is the most violent film he ever shot, because of the cruel, stifling social dogma the story was based on.
It was a world where no one could state their real feelings; any kind of genuine sentiment was dismissed as inconvenient and breaking the rules meant ostracism.
Indeed - life was restrained by chains and loyalties that closely resemble those of Mafia.
The extreme care the Victorians took of their decor was clearly a symbol of control, obsession with form and ultimately repression, but Scorsese  suddenly turns it into a sumptuous reflection of what’s going on inside the characters’ hearts.
The two lovers are often shown bathed in a mellow light that cuts them out of the rest of the frame: in those scenes, the gilded cage of the stiff, tormenting environment they live in becomes a love nest that only Ellen and Newland can see, a perfect aesthetic background that drips with passion.
The screenplay perfectly reflects the book and it is now widely recognized that no one could do better than Scorsese in shooting it.
A trio of heartfelt performances from Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder and the cunning narration provided by Joanne Woodward make it a masterwork that defies changes of fashion.

To buy a DVD of The Age of Innocence visit www.amazon.co.uk

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