Widower Thomas Jefferson (3rd US president 1801-09) lives in Paris 1785-90 with his daughter. He has a pretty slave girl accompany his other daughter to France. He has an alleged affair with... Read allWidower Thomas Jefferson (3rd US president 1801-09) lives in Paris 1785-90 with his daughter. He has a pretty slave girl accompany his other daughter to France. He has an alleged affair with her resulting in children.Widower Thomas Jefferson (3rd US president 1801-09) lives in Paris 1785-90 with his daughter. He has a pretty slave girl accompany his other daughter to France. He has an alleged affair with her resulting in children.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
- Sally Hemings
- (as Thandie Newton)
- Mutilated Officer
- (as F. van den Driessche)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaGwyneth Paltrow's real life mother, Blythe Danner, played Martha Jefferson in 1776 (1972) the mother of her character. Nolte and Danner also played husband and wife in The Prince of Tides (1991).
- GoofsThomas buys items from Parisian merchants who use the metric system of measure over a decade before the adoption of metric units in France.
- Quotes
Maria Cosway: That's how it is here. People play at love. It's not serious. It is different in Italy. There, we kill for it!
- SoundtracksVIOLIN SONATA La Follia, OPUS 5, No. 12
Music by Arcangelo Corelli
Performed by Hiro Kurosaki (violin), Emmanuel Balssa (cello) and William Christie (clavecin) (uncredited)
Jefferson also displays double-think when, though a fierce defender of religious liberty, he stops his pious, dutiful daughter Patsy (Martha) -an admirable portrayal by Gyneth Paltrow in a difficult role - from converting to Catholicism and joining a convent. Overall, Jefferson does not come out of the movie too well. In addition to revealing him as a child-molesting hypocrite, Ruth Jhabvala's scenario allows Nick Nolte to convey the tentative and observant side of Jefferson's character, but gives him scant opportunity to bring out the depth and breadth of Jefferson's mind or his political philosophy.
In addition to the visual delights of costume and setting that we have learned to expect from Merchant-Ivory productions, the most successful aspect of the movie is the all-but love affair between Jefferson and witty, charming Maria Cosway - the wife of a foppish English artist (Simon Callow in full make-up) - a role in which Greta Scacchi lights up the screen. By contrast, Thandie Newton has been criticised for her awkward hamming as Sally, but it should be remembered that she is playing an uneducated 14 or 15 year old girl.
Perhaps the movie's worst features are the "framing" sequences set in the late 19th century, where a Jefferson/Hemings descendent (James Earl Jones) relates his family history to a newspaper reporter. If these superfluous scenes had been cut, perhaps there would have been time to go deeper into Jefferson's politics, which after all is why the man is remembered today.
- Geofbob
- Jul 31, 2001
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Джефферсон у Парижі
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $14,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,473,668
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $61,349
- Apr 2, 1995
- Gross worldwide
- $2,473,668
- Runtime2 hours 19 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1