UNITED KINGDOM:UMA THURMAN ATTENDS THE PREMIERE OF MERCHANT IVORY FILM "THE GOLDEN BOWL" AT THE LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 390315

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM:UMA THURMAN ATTENDS THE PREMIERE OF MERCHANT IVORY FILM "THE GOLDEN BOWL" AT THE LONDON FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 2nd November 2000
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND (NOVEMBER 2, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) UMA THURMAN SAYING "What I like about her is sort of a naughty thing to like, what I like about her is something unusual to see in a female character, which is that she has no shame. "
  • Embargoed: 17th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Communications
  • Reuters ID: LVA6567859I8C7NOIAMGPH8QD00A
  • Story Text: Uma Thurman and Kate Beckinsale flew into London to attend the British premiere of the new Merchant Ivory film based on the Henry James novel 'The Golden Bowl'. The film, which also stars Nick Nolte and Jeremy Northam, is one of the star draws of the London Film Festival.
    An affair between a step-mother and a son-in-law, sweeping landscapes in Italy, grand castles in London.... and one flawed but beautiful golden bowl. That's the lavish setup Merchant Ivory are offering in their new adaption of the Henry James novel 'The Golden Bowl' The film features a star-studded cast, including lead roles for Uma Thurman and Kate Beckinsale who arrived at the British premiere as part of the London Film Festival with particular style. Thurman plays the glamorous and manipulative Charlotte, who marries for his money American billionaire art collector Adam Verver (Nick Nolte), but refuses to give up her obsessive love for her former lover Italian Prince Amerigo, (Jeremy Northam). The problem is set up by Amerigo's decision to make an equally financially-attractive match in the form of Verver's daughter Maggie. The suffocatingly close relationship between Maggie and her father leaves Charlotte and the prince room to develop their own closeness.
    It's not difficult to see what attracted established period drama makers Merchant Ivory to this Henry James novel. The directorial side of the award-winning partnership James Ivory says it's the literary figures who were writing at the turn of the century who knew how to come up with plots that modern writers would hardly dare to touch, but he adds that the dubious father/daughter relationship only seems like that to modern eyes: "That would basically be a modern idea of it, that kind of extreme devotion between fathers and daughters was more acceptable and more common in those days and nobody thought anything about it in terms of incest or having any sort of sexual content."
    Uma Thurman plays the scandalous Charlotte, boldly defying social critics, only seeking satisfaction for her passions: "What I like about her is sort of a naughty thing to like, what I like about her is something unusual to see in a female character, which is that she has no shame. And no shame has a good purpose in life, it's very helpful to keeping people in line but to see a female that is in some way liberated to her own desires, and helpless to them simultaneously in a sad kind of way was really interesting to me."
    But this lack of shame which is so celebrated is suddenly turned upon and the woman who the film set out as its heroine becomes ruthlessly judged and all-out victim:
    "She's much more like a male anti-hero than she is like any typical female character. She's exactly so - you start the film and you think that she's your centre, you think that she's your girl, and you see this fierce kind of independence, and it turns terribly complicated. She end up sort of consuming herself in a way, in her own desire. It's a funny way it turns."
    Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who wrote the screenplay, had Uma Thurman's photograph pinned to her wall while she was the writing the first draft of 'The Golden Bowl', so strong was her conviction that Charlotte should be played by Thurman. But Thurman originally turned the part down due to a combination of motherhood and conflicting ideas with Ivory about the interpretation of the character. But Merchant Ivory held out and eventually Thurman decided to gve it a go, tempted she said by a quality of script that is rare in Hollywood.
    But the opportunities in Hollywood still eclipse those available in Britain, according to British actress Kate Beckinsale who's just returned from filming 'Serendipity' with John Cusack in LA: "No it can't offer the same things but it can offer a good deal, I mean it's just as interesting to do a British movie as it is to do an American movie it's just that there are fewer British movies being made so sometimes you have to go to America but it's not necessarily better."
    'The Golden Bowl' is on release at British cinemas now.
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