The Bostonians (1984)

Vanessa Redgrave's best film performance

Christopher Reeve's best film performance

Reeve is so dull I could never understand how Madeleine could prefer him to Vanessa. Guess she was dickmatized.

R3 It was Christopher Reeve's dick though....

No love for The Bostonians?

I prefer The Young Philadelphians.

I read the book a long time ago, and seem to remember an early example of a nutloaf style lesbian. Perhaps I'll revisit soon

It is such a good story, but the movie can be a little boring.

No comments?

I love this movie

Without Redgrave and both Linda Hunt and Jessica Tandy in their few scenes, the film would be tough going, though the young female lead Madeline Potter is good. Reeve is just dull and wooden. This film comes at the tail end of what I would call Ivory's semi-clunky period of directing before he hit his stride with A ROOM WITH A VIEW. Maybe he just got better editors.

R11 I can see that. I do think Reeve is the weakest link, but I have always enjoyed him. I think Wesley Addy is always fun to watch.

I disagree- I enjoyed The Europeans and Quartet a lot.

QUARTET has some things going for it (mostly Maggie Smith and the set design) but Adjani's performance is not one of her best and the way the film ends is rather clumsily done - you expect another scene to follow. I find THE EUROPEANS stilted, except for the wonderful Lee Remick and Addy.

But we'll agree to disagree.

R13 Quartet also has the great Alan Bates. The novel is good, too. The Europeans is fun. A pizza and wine night.

Not Ivory's best movies. I would probably rank Quartet, The Europeans, and The Bostonians behind Maurice, A Room with a View, The Remains of the Day, and Howard's End, but before Heat and Dust, White Countess, and The Golden Bowl.

Middle of the pack

It is a good film!

Redgrave is extraordinary but I thought Madeleine Potter was really irritating. IMDB says she beat out Jodie Foster, who would’ve been interesting and amped up the lesbian overtones.

I am currently rewatching the movie. Wesley Addy steals his scenes. A great character actor.

I want Christopher Reeve's dick too though

Rewatched this film recently. Beautiful

In a book, James Ivory said somewhat regretfully that in the om the set of Surviving Picasso, Julianne Moore told him she tried very hard to land a. audition for The Bostonians. He was complementary towards Potter though.

R20 Julianne Moore would have been better than Madeline Potter

G turned down the lead in this to do The Natural. Even though it would have been her first leading role she said she is glad since The Natural started a life long friendship with Redford.

BTW did G turn down the Redgrave role or the Potter role? Is Potter a lead too?

I thought Glenn more than turned it down. She had signed on and then withdrew quickly when The Natural opportunity came along.

I mainly liked the movie because of Christopher Reeve, although I also enjoyed the settings and costumes - I even bought a copy of the VHS tape. I thought Madeleine Potter's depiction of Verena was supremely irritating, though, and really didn't see what Basil (Reeve's character) saw in her. Her little girl voice and manner were so at odds with her message. Basil , I didn't see how anyone could take her seriously, and Basil certainly didn't and their relationship was obviously going to be doomed. Redgrave's character, Olive, just seemed pathetic in her obsession with Verena. I did enjoy a few of the other actors, especially Linda Hunt.

I eventually read the Harry James novel, so there's that.

Yes Harry James was so talented. A musician and a writer.

[quote]wholistic

Oh, dear.

I much prefer "Eat Me in St. Louis."

R25 I agree with you, but remember it was 1880 and compatibility didn't matter as much

I think that is right r24

Did Close quit Redgrave's role?

Vanessa Redgrave was director James Ivory's first choice for both the lead roles in The Europeans (1979) and The Bostonians (1984). With The Europeans (1979), Redgrave was unavailable due to other commitments, and with The Bostonians (1984), Redgrave originally declined, and Glenn Close was cast. Then Close withdrew, due to being offered The Natural (1984), the part was then re-offered to Redgrave, who accepted.

Blythe Danner, Meryl Streep, and Sigourney Weaver turned down the role of Olive Chancellor.

Vanessa Redgrave was perfect in the role

Potter reminds me of 5 other actresses. That is not a good thing.

R35 Yeah, she is forgettable. She was in several Merchant Ivory movies, I don't understand why she wasn't a bigger star.

OP, I don’t think the word “wholistic” means what you think it means.

I want to read the book so are they lezzing in the novel as much as they seem to be in the film?

R38 yes, but it is understated

Hey OP, read the book in the 1990's, and never saw the movie (didn't know it was a movie). I asked my 3 neighbors (Phyllis, Ruth and Marian) about the movie. All of said, it needs to be redone, early M&I movie and not one of their best movies. But they were learning at the time.

R33, does it say why they turned down the role?

I think only Helen Mirren could have pulled off Olive besides Redgrave.

I have always had a crush on Christopher Reeve. He always came off as upper class, intelligent, kind, and easy going.

R33- I would guess $$$. Christopher Reeve said he agreed with a reduced salary.

Christopher Reeve said of this film in his autobiography "Still Me" (1998): "[Producer] Ismail [Merchant] could only afford to pay me $100,000, less than a tenth of my established price at the time. I insisted that the money was not an issue, that this was the kind of work I ought to be doing, but my agent told me, 'If you do that picture with those wandering minstrels, it will be one foot in the grave of your career'. ... I cheerfully ignored their advice".

I saw Mr. and Mrs. Addy along with Christopher Reeve in The Irregular Verb to Love at this theatre.

Reeve was a descendant of William Bradford.

Why wasn't he in Eight is Enough?

Pauline Kael wrote that the only good reason to see the film was Redgrave. The actress gave the role mythological size. With her powerful neck and broad shoulders, she's like a mature swan; she's gloriously neurasthenic. And an actress who can be glorious a role in which she never laughs is a miracle worker.

A high school music teacher of mine had a tiny part in this movie and he NEVER stopped talking about it. Of course we had to watch it in his class when it became available. I paid no attention to it then—I was busy passing notes (the 1980s version of texting). I would watch it today now that nearly 40 years have passed.

Barbara Byrne, who played Madeline Potter's mother, also plays Mozart's mother in law.

This is my favorite scene in Amadeus

Most of the cast really is top notch:

Redgrave, Reeve, Tandy, Hunt, Wesley Addy, Marchand, Shawn.

Potter is the weakest link.

WHT Linda Hunt?

Linda Hunt was on some TV show for a while. Some CBS procedural thing. She's almost 80 now. She's probably at home posting on DL.

Linda Hunt gained international fame for The Year of Living Dangerously, a film where she played a man. It earned her an Academy Award.

She never stopped working since- Dune, The Bostonians, She-Devil, Kindergarten Cop, Pocahontas, Stranger Than Fiction, and Solo: A Star Wars Story. She was also in many television series, from The Practice to NCIS Los Angeles.

She quietly lives in an elegant house in California with her wife.

Never seen The Bostonians but Reeve was fantastic in The Remains Of The Day. Perfect casting.

R55 Watch this film! Reeve is good here, too. He was a serious actor in his own right.

Bump

This OP has a hole-istic in her head.

Madeleine Potter’s Verene is nowhere near as mesmerizing as she’s supposed to be.

The book is much better and even quite funny in parts the movie is deadly serious.

Sorry, Verena.

Jodie Foster would have been better

Addy was the negligent ob-gyn in The Verdict. He was a great asshole.

The movie was done on the cheap, so the scenes of 1880s Boston and NYC are never very convincing.

The novel is so good. A very good satire of life in Boston in the post-Civil War era. The movie didn’t seem to get the humor in the story, maybe no surprise as James wasn’t known for humor. But the novel is a great takedown of Boston society.

And I agree with many others. Potter just doesn’t have the “it” factor that made Verena so captivating and fought for between Olive and Basil. And Potter’s feminist speeches don’t enrapture and inspire.

Henry James really didn’t care for Boston. He ended his life as a British citizen. Yet he is buried in Cambridge and his grave looks out over onto the skyline of Boston.

Mt. Auburn

Can we discuss what’s really important?

Miss Potter found Nastassja Kinski’s name on a label in one of her costumes. It had previously been used in TESS (1979)

I think it was this one:

World War I killed James

A better look at all those buttons:

I just saw this. I found the subtle lesbian scenes interesting but wondered if Olive's sister and the help knew what they were up to. Did the other characters (Tandy, Hunt) know?

Basil (Reeve) seemed to know. Was Potter a terribly short person? She seems like a midget next to Reeve and Redgrave. I do not get the appeal of her character or why people seemed enthralled with her.

I never realized how sturdily Vanessa Redgrave was built, like a football player, until this film.

I thought it was high minded tough going. Couldn't finish it.

Olive is fighting a losing battle throughout the entire film and she knows it.

R72... I agree. However, Olive is just as controlling of Verena as Basil is going to be. Telling her not to marry, when to leave events, what events to go to, what people to talk to, isolating her. She is no better than Basil, but offers less in society than a marriage would. And she knows that. Was the doctor Prance character (Linda Hunt) a lover of Miss Birdseye (Tandy)?

I never miss a Wesley Addy film!

James makes it very clear in the last line of the novel that Basil and Verena will have a troubled marriage.

I don't care for the movie very much but Reeve is beyond gorgeous in it.

Barbara Bryne

And of course...