FRANCE: WORLD FAMOUS CAST PLAY IN JAMES IVORY'S 'THE GOLDERN BOWL', A TURN OF THE CENTURY DRAMA PREMIERED AT THE 53RD CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 389272

  • Title: FRANCE: WORLD FAMOUS CAST PLAY IN JAMES IVORY'S 'THE GOLDERN BOWL', A TURN OF THE CENTURY DRAMA PREMIERED AT THE 53RD CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 14th May 2000
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 14, 2000) (REUTERS) ( * BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) LOU BEGA AND DANCERS ARRIVING FOR PREMIERE OF "THE GOLDEN BOWL" PRESS JERRY HALL ARRIVING CAST, PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR ARRIVING (UMA THURMAN, ISMAIL MERCHANT, NICK NOLTE, JEREMY NORTHAM, JAMES IVORY, MADELINE POTTER) CAST ON RED CARPET
  • Embargoed: 29th May 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA19CPCCRTWCAECF2JN9S5QV90F
  • Story Text: A world-famous cast play in James Ivory's "The Golden Bowl" - a turn-of-the-century drama in which the worlds of Old Europe and New America collide. The film premiered at the 53rd International Film Festival in Cannes.
    "The Golden Bowl" is the work of long time collaborators James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, famed for their sumptuous period dramas. This time it is once again the turn of Henry James to be given the lavish Merchant Ivory treatment. The screenplay, adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from James' novel tells the story of Prince Amerigo, an impoverished Italian aristocrat, who marries Maggie, the daughter of an immensely wealthy American art collector, despite the objections Charlotte, Amerigo's equally poor lover.
    Charlotte (Uma Thurman) marries Maggie's father (Nick Nolte), and the four of them become part of the same family, living in the same mediaeval castle in the English countryside. Bored with their new lives of leisure and luxury, Charlotte and Amerigo (Jeremy Northam) resume their affair. Both Maggie and her father suspect what's going on, but neither lets the other know to spare them suffering. In the end, it all works out for the better.
    For Nolte, part of the attraction of the film was the international cast, and he joked with reporters about his intentions as an American in Europe: "I get to get away from all the danger thats back there, all the problems. I just love working with an international cast, it's such a fun thing to cross the cultures, and very much this applies into Henry James, he also was very excited about this mix of old Europe and new America, and he did see it that it was the old wisdom decadence of Europe combining with this new young American, whatever he thought, purity, which now at the turn of the century, America was becoming the richest people in the world, and these guys like Morgan, Carnegie and a few of these fellows came over and raped Europe to a certain extent and took it all away, but that's not my intention of coming over here to Europe, to rape, that's long been past."
    Director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant have been working together for almost forty years, and have often collaborated with Indian writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
    The team are famed for their adaptations of classic novels.
    At the press conference Merchant was keen to emphasies that the film should not be dismissed as just another period drama, and took the opportunity to state the merits of the genre: ""I think we have to revise our thinking, and say, why are these people attracted to these stories, because there is some meat to it, there is some passion to it, so let's support them for this, some people from the New York Times, or some people from somewhere who write, oh it's a period film, what is a period film? So yes, please abolish that completely from your criticism, because it is important, and it is these actors who bring things to life, so we are grateful to Forster, we are grateful to Henry James, we are grateful to Jean Rhys and we are grateful to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, so I expect your support for the next forty years and of course I will have my Indian magic."
    Uma Thurman lent support to his statement, despite frequently taking roles in films where action is as important as acting, she also relishes roles which give her the chance to display her highly praised skills as a dramatic actress: "We are drawn to try and get the chance in the middle of our Batman and rubber suits and shooting guns and running round and whatever it is that we do as well, it's our life's blood and James and Ismails and Ruth are unique in the fact that they haven stood by their own taste and they have stood by stories about people and acting and drama and all these things and they obviously love it, and I do and I just want to say when you try to wrap up what people are doing and where they fall and what slot and everything, the core essential thing is I still really want to see dramas, I don't want everyone to stop making them, particularly in my country."
    The stars of the film took time out to relax at a party held to celebrate the films screening at Cannes, where it is one of the twenty three films in line for the prestigious Palme D'Or. Thurman was joined by proud husband, actor Ethan Hawke, and Nolte admitted to reporters that he has more than once enjoyed the excesses of the Cannes party scene.
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