The Age of Innocence (1993)

In my ongoing quest for film education, I've been going through the works of Martin Scorsese; currently I've seen, in order, Goodfellas, The Aviator, The Departed and this (I currently have the second Scorsese-Day-Lewis collaboration Gangs of New York in from Netflix). It's one of those Scorsese films that doesn't seem to get talked about a lot, and that's a real shame since it's a great one. The period detail is just astonishing, for one thing; I almost felt like I had been transported back in time, the costumes and sets were so rich.

The story is obviously great, and the acting is... well, astonishing. This served as my introduction to Daniel Day-Lewis, and it'll be interesting to contrast this to his more... broad performances. I will say that the hype is true: Day-Lewis is one of the best actors of his generation. His performance is so subtle and minute throughout the film, and it's definitely one of the major reasons the ending is so moving. Michelle Pfieffer is simply luminous as the countess, and Winona Ryder does the best work of her career. The supporting cast is filled with British greats like Stuart Wilson (does this guy always play tools or what?), Michael Gough, Richard E. Grant and personal favorite Miriam Margoyles. The narration by Joanne Woodward is also excellent; Woodward's voice is soft and pleasant to listen to, and she seems objective but not completely detached.

It's a lovely film. Anyone agree?

Yeah, I definitely like how, because emotions are so repressed, when they do come out it's much more powerful. For example, there's only one curse word in the whole film ("With all due respect, sir, what the hell does that mean?"), and a fairly mild one, but it still comes as a shock (and not just because Scorsese's other films tend to be littered with swearing).

Rain Dog, were you as touched as I was by Scorsese dedicating the film to his recently-deceased father? I thought it was a moving gesture, especially since it came on the heels of the final scene, which is all about parenthood.