DVD Daisy Miller
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Review(s): DVD Daisy Miller | |
| Stylish, Melancholy and Actually Better Than the Book |
It's rare that I find a film better than the book from which it was adapted, but such is the case with Henry James' DAISY MILLER. I found the book, which is very early Henry James, too "thin," although it did capture perfectly the feelings of Europeans toward Americans during the late nineteenth century. The film does a better job than the book, in large part, because of the flawless performance of Cybill Shepherd as the young, well-meaning, but brash (at least to Europeans), Daisy (actually Annie P. Miller).I will admit right now that DAISY MILLER is my least favorite of all of James' works, but I still fell in love with this film. Daisy Miller (Cybill Shepherd) is the quintessential young American girl who is visiting Europe with her mother (Cloris Leachman) and her bratty younger brother (James McMurtry, yes he's the son of novelist Larry McMurtry). While in beautiful Vevey, Switzerland, Daisy manages to charm just about everyone who catches her eye, chief among them, the snobbish, arrogant, "old money," boor, Frederick Winterbourne. The fact that Frederick is smitten with the loquacious Daisy displeases Frederick's equally snobbish and arrogant aunt, Mrs. Costello (Mildred Natwick). She needn't worry, though, for Daisy's heart belongs to another, one who is, perhaps, Daisy's equal--the charming and loquacious Italian, Giovanelli (Del Prete). From the very beginning, we know DAISY MILLER is going to have a very funny ending or a very tragic one, and, this being Henry James, it isn't hard to guess which wins out. Cybill Shepherd is wonderful as the talkative, ball of fire, Daisy. In fact, DAISY MILLER seems to be a role that could have been tailor made for Shepherd had the book not been written many years before her birth and if Frederic Raphael's witty screenplay hadn't been so true to James' book. Cloris Leachman, Eileen Brennan and Mildred Natwick are also pitch perfect in their roles. Barry Brown as Frederick Winterbourne, however, left something to be desired, at least for me, and his weaker performance is the one and only reason I gave this charming and melancholy film four stars rather than five. Aficionados of thrillers and action/adventure films are going to find DAISY MILLER slow going despite Shepherd's ball of fire performance, however, those who like art films and period pieces will probably be delighted with this film. The cinematography is lovely, though a little "soft." I think it helped this film greatly, that it was, indeed, filmed in Vevey, Switzerland and in Rome, Italy, the locales in which the story takes place in the book. Peter Bogdanovich, who was a wonderful producer, before doing much to sabotage his own career, talks about making the film during a fifteen-minute interview. His insights into the world of filmmaking and the production of DAISY MILLER almost make this film required viewing for a student of cinema. For the rest of us, it will be a very interesting and special "extra." DAISY MILLER is a melancholy, graceful and many-layered film and one that contains much beautiful subtext in its dialogue (subtext is something that is woefully missing from much of today's books and films). I think it's essential that any fan of Henry James own the DVD; others, however may prefer to rent it. It's not a great film, but it is a very, very good one that has been sadly overlooked.
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| underrated |  |
After reading about the bad press that this film received when it opened, I was quite reluctant to watch it but I loved the story too much not to. I'm glad I decided to do so, the film is beautifully filmed (mostly on location), beautifully costumed, with a very good cast. The supporting players are superb especially Cloris Leachman and Mildred Natwick. The two leads took some more time to get used to. Possibly because I always expect people to speak with British accents in period pictures, I initially found their Midwestern sounding accents quite jarring and anachronistic. That feeling never entirely faded until the last third of the film. Cybill Sheperd speaks incredibly fast, but as Bogdanovich explains on the commentary track, this was how women spoke back then and how the character spoke in the book. Nevertheless, it is quite jarring. Cybill Sheperd really does a very good job as Daisy Miller,though, especially in those shots where she doesn't speak but merely looks at Winterbourne, she really communicates everything the character feels and is through those looks. Barry Brown didn't seem to me to fit the role of a sophisticated gentleman, but he and Shepard do have some chemistry. This is really a very good film, 4 for the film itself but along with the excellent commentary by Bogdanovich the DVD deserves a 5.
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| Underrated Masterpiece - James Captured. | |
Peter Bogdanovich chose to make an historical costume film in 1973 against all commerical and critical trends, yet looking at his earlier films, Last Picture Show, What's Up Doc, and Paper Moon, it's not hard to say that all he did direct were historical films--even What's Up Doc has it's roots in the 1930's. Henry James portrait of the quintessential American girl of 1876 struck many as anachronistic, and further allowed the animus arising from Bogdanovich's and Shephard's personal lives cloud their judgement about this film. I think they are all wrong. Cybil Shephard does a remarkable job as Daisy Miller, capturing every maddening nuance that James wrote in his novel. Her performance is shaded, funny, and moving, especially among the group of talented actors surrounding her on this film. In fact, there is no performer who is miscast or does poorly in the film. A large part of the reason this film works so well is that Bogdanovich and Frederic Raphael stuck closley to James' original text, adding little and fleshing out only in a few key scenes. The use of the actual places James set the story also add the force of the work. I like this film better than the Ivory-Merchant versions of Henry James -The Bostonians - The Europeans - mainly because, unlike Bogdanovich - they seem to have little joy in the actual shooting of a film, whereas Bogdanovich's shot choice and blocking stem from his love of cinema and his knowledge of the art. Daisy Miller is a lost film which anyone interested in the art should watch. Reading the James novel before viewing this helps, but this film captures the book so well, reading the James may not be as necessary as for other adaptations. The director's commentary is not to be missed either; Bodganovitch is wry, fatalistic, proud, and erudite all at once. One theme that runs constant betweent the film and commentary is how many of the people involved in the film died young, which is funny in a deeply cosmic way. When I teach Daisy Miller, I will show this film.
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