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)
Ivory's precedent works were masterpieces (Howards end and remnants of the day)but they took place in England and they were not really historical,even if "remnants" made a fine blend of the historical background with the storybook elements.When it comes to history,and mainly French history,all we get here is a full load of clichés:Marie-Antoinette, playing with her flock of sheep,Doctor Guillotin,showing his new machine (he used to say that the condemned person could feel a nice fresh sensation before dying!),La Fayette and his wife Adrienne,and of course,the de rigueur lines (c'est une révolte?Non sire,c'est une révolution").The only daring gesture,so to speak,is the puppet theater,but even that was already in Ettore Scola's "la nuit de Varennes",(1982)with much more finesse,at that.A lot of French actors appear,which is the least Ivory could do but they are not always well cast:Michel Lonsdale is a very competent one,but he's too old to be a credible king (64 when Louis XVI was about 30!)Charlotte de Turckheim is an ugly Marie-Antoinette and some scenes in which she appears ,probably influenced by "Fellini-Casanova" (1977),do not help. This is Jean-Pierre Aumont's farewell to the screen (he was in Carné's "hotel du nord" in 1938!)in a very small part:I thought he was playing Mirabeau,but actually it's an obscure D'Hancarville.Lambert Wilson ,on the other hand,is a good choice for La Fayette,but h,most of the time,he's reduced to a walk-on.
As for the American side of the story,of course,Ivory focuses on slavery,and deservedly so.The French cannot understand that a country so in love with freedom could approve of such a thing.But it finally boils down to Nolte-and-black babe affair and it's overlong and tedious.The first scene between Jefferson and the abbess promised great things.But it's a disappointment when they meet again towards the end.
All in all,this is a lavish production,which is sometimes entertaining,but which lacks epic strength and has missed its date with
destiny.
- dbdumonteil
- Mar 28, 2002
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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