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[dotinthesky]

I watched The Age of Innocence last night and wanted to jot down some impressions and ideas I had about it. Feel free to add anything you like if you have seen the movie (or read the book) and would like to discuss it. I'm a sucker for costume dramas, specially if they are well made and based on novels of the time (The Age of Innocence was based on the novel by Edith Wharton - a book I've never read but would now love to!)

This is another movie by Martin Scorcese that marks his exploration of the history of New York. I had never realized he was doing this with his work until I started thinking of all the other movies he set in New York, and of how they represented different periods (or different views) of the city's history.

The Age of Innocence takes place at the end of the 19th century and moves all the way to the beginning of the 20th. It's the discovery that America also had its Victorian age, most clearly symbolized by Countess Ellen Olenska, who returns to America escaping her marriage and discovers that she is not free from the European-style conventions of American society. She has to learn the etiquette, much like in Europe, and the codes that will help her navigate a society that can so easily reject her.

It's also the story of two people (including Countess Olenska) who couldn't break free from the conventions of the time and the passionateless lives they led because of that - but also happy, insulated and protected in their own way. The other person is Archie, the lawyer who is engaged with Countess Olenska's cousin May but who falls in love for the Countess. At one point in the movie, Archie describes May as being a vast emptiness covered by smiles and rules (he didn't say exactly that, but something similar), but this is really what also describes the person he becomes as well as the Countess.

The breakdown of the story is simple: a man (Archie) is engaged (to May) but falls in love for his fiance's cousin (Countess Olenska). The cousin realizes the damage this love could do to all of them and asks him to marry his fiance and forget her. He does so, his lover moves away, they never see each other again and he goes on to lead a succesful life with his wife and their three children. Finally, when he becomes a widow and visits Paris with his son, he is given a chance to see his old lover once again... but he declines.

Scorcese shows Ellen to be different from all the others by the clothes she wears, and the colours she uses. Scorcese introduces her with red gowns and blonde hair, unlike all the brunettes in New York's society who only wear pale colours or black. Everywhere she appears she stands out from everyone else. She's the rebel, the free thinker (like Archie too). But, as the movie progresses, her clothes begin to lose colour until, at the end, she is wearing black like all the other ladies and her personality is completely washed away.

There was a scene where May's wedding dress was also used as a symbol. At the time, women who married would wear their wedding dresses to formal occasions during the first & second year of their marriages. May never does this until the night that she sees Ellen (by then she knows, like everyone else, that Ellen is her husband's "lover"). She tells Ellen that she is pregnant, even though it isn't true. Scorcese uses her white wedding dress to contrast the idea that May is supposed to be virginal and pure - but how can she be that if she is a liar and manipulator? But, then again, who doesn't lie in this story? Lying is a pre-requisite for surviving New York.

The most beautiful scene in the movie is when the family's grandmother asks Archie to go look for Ellen at the beach (because, as the audience knows, Ellen went there to avoid him and May.) He goes and sees her by the docks, looking at a boat sailing by. The sun is in the horizon. He says to himself that he will go to her if she turns towards him before the boat crosses the lighthouse. The boat slowly crosses the lighthouse and she never turns around. So, with regret, he goes back to the house and tells them he never found Ellen. Months later, Ellen tells him that she sensed he was there and she decided not to turn around.

The scene at the beach also comes back at the end of the movie, when Archie is sitting outside Ellen's house. He is looking up at her apartment and one of the glass window's begins to move. The reflected sun hits his eyes and he is reminded of that walk by the sea decades ago. In his memory, she turns around and smiles at him. He realizes that she chose, back then, not to have him and now there is no point anymore in him seeing her again. So he walks away...

Nobody in the movie seemed to want Archie and Ellen to be together. The entire society came together behind May to help her push Ellen away. But I was thinking last night that maybe the matriarcal grandmother wanted to help them (perhaps even in an unconscious way). In the beginning of the movie, her house is described as being somewhat like the "old, decadent homes" because she has her bedroom near her living room (she's too fat to go up and down stairs so she has to live on the first floor.) Also, her house is covered with paintings and her walls are painted in red, like Ellen's house. Ellen is also her favourite grandchild (she asks Ellen to take care of her when she has a stroke.) It's the grandmother who asks Archie to go look for Ellen at the beach (unconsciously trying to bring them together?), and she says that Ellen reminds her of how she used to be when she was younger.

Some links I found on the internet:


Love is Close at Hand: The Age of Innocence, by Tyler Benedict

People's thoughts on the novel and the movie