An American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life ... Read allAn American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life into a nightmare.An American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life into a nightmare.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 5 wins & 15 nominations total
Amy Lindsay
- Miss Molyneux #1
- (as Katie Campbell)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFirst collaboration between director Dame Jane Campion and Nicole Kidman. However, it was Campion who discovered Kidman, where she, at the age of fourteen, was performing at Australian Theater for Young People and subsequently caught the eye of Campion.
- GoofsDuring the ball scene, a full orchestra can be heard while only a chamber orchestra (less than ten people) appears on the screen.
- Quotes
Ralph Touchett: I love you but without hope.
- Crazy creditsJane Campion thanks her family, Colin, Alice and Richard, for their generous support, suggestions and encouragement during the making of this film.
- SoundtracksImpromptu in A Flat Major, Op 90 No. 4, D899
(1828)
Composed by Franz Schubert
Adapted for screen by Brian Lock
Performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet (as Jean Yves Thibaudet)
Courtesy of Decca Records Company Ltd.
Featured review
Incomplete Portrait
I vacillate between preferring films that do a simple thing extremely well (Muppet Movie) or those that shoot high and fail. This film is the latter.
Campion has allied her aspirations with `women's' perspectives; honorable and rich enough. And she selects material ripe with possibilities. Clearly she has a vision, presumably extracted from the author's, but she fails to get on top of it.
Part of the problem is the simplification of the book for the screenplay. We just don't get enough foundation for the travesty of person we witness. A large part of the problem is Ms Kidman. She simply doesn't have the depth to pull this off, though she wears the clothes well. We never really see her supposed extraordinary spirit, and never really see how she's trapped by that very same spirit. Malkovich doesn't help. Here, he's too one-dimensionally a schemer.
Campion knows better than to throw in so many irrelevant film-school angles as a substitute for narrative reflection. This film is worth seeing as a study in how a spirited film maker is seduced by that very spirit into the superficialities of style, so is trapped. The ambiguous ending is, I think, Campion's limbo. Let's hope she escapes for her sake as well as ours. We need that spirit.
Campion has allied her aspirations with `women's' perspectives; honorable and rich enough. And she selects material ripe with possibilities. Clearly she has a vision, presumably extracted from the author's, but she fails to get on top of it.
Part of the problem is the simplification of the book for the screenplay. We just don't get enough foundation for the travesty of person we witness. A large part of the problem is Ms Kidman. She simply doesn't have the depth to pull this off, though she wears the clothes well. We never really see her supposed extraordinary spirit, and never really see how she's trapped by that very same spirit. Malkovich doesn't help. Here, he's too one-dimensionally a schemer.
Campion knows better than to throw in so many irrelevant film-school angles as a substitute for narrative reflection. This film is worth seeing as a study in how a spirited film maker is seduced by that very spirit into the superficialities of style, so is trapped. The ambiguous ending is, I think, Campion's limbo. Let's hope she escapes for her sake as well as ours. We need that spirit.
helpful•2712
- tedg
- May 31, 2000
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Bức Họa Chân Dung
- Filming locations
- Palazzo Pfanner, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy(Osmond's palace in Florence)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,692,836
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $107,819
- Dec 29, 1996
- Gross worldwide
- $3,692,836
- Runtime2 hours 24 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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By what name was The Portrait of a Lady (1996) officially released in India in English?
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