Lee Remick lights up the screen in 2K restoration of The Europeans
THE EUROPEANS (James Ivory, 1979)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
December 20-26
212-255-2243
quadcinema.com
From her big-screen debut in Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd in 1957, it was clear that Massachusetts native Lee Remick would be more than just another face in the crowd. In conjunction with the theatrical release of the fortieth anniversary 2K restoration of The Europeans, the Quad is celebrating Remick with that 1979 Merchant Ivory costume drama in addition to six other works that make up the too-brief series “A Face in the Crowd: Remembering Lee Remick.” In The Europeans, Remick, who tragically passed away in 1991 at the age of fifty-five, plays the très chic and cultured Eugenia Münster, who has arrived from the continent with her brother, bohemian painter Felix Young (Tim Woodward), seeking to stay awhile with their cousins, the Wentworths, who have a large country estate outside Boston.
Patriarch Mr. Wentworth (Wesley Addy) is suspicious of the siblings, who are very different from his more staid family. Eugenia’s marriage to a German prince is falling apart, so she is in the market for a new partner. One potential match is the ne’er-do-well Clifford Wentworth (Tim Choate), but Eugenia has her eyes on the more mature Robert Acton (Robin Ellis), another cousin of the Wentworths from a different side of the family. Unitarian minister Mr. Brand (Norman Snow) is in love with one of Clifford’s sisters, the iconoclastic, church-skipping Gertrude (Lisa Eichhorn), who has taken a liking to Felix, who thinks that Mr. Brand is a better match for Gertrude’s sister, Charlotte (Nancy New). Also in the mix is Robert’s younger sister, the ingénue Lizzie (Kristin Griffith).
Adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novella by Henry James, directed by James Ivory, and produced by Ismail Merchant — the trio would also collaborate on James’s The Bostonians (with Remick) in 1984 and The Golden Bowl in 2000 — The Europeans is a slowwwww-moving melodrama that too often feels like it’s going nowhere during its mere ninety minutes. Remick is simply fab as Eugenia, a twinkle ever-present in her sparkling eyes as she bandies about in Judy Moorcroft’s jaw-dropping costumes and dazzling hairdos. The film looks great, courtesy of cinematographer Larry Pizer and art director Jeremiah Rusconi, and Remick is transfixing, lifting another of James’s tales of morally corrupt European nobility vs. the wealthy, prim, upright Puritans of New England. As a bonus, the ninety-one-year-old Ivory (A Room with a View, Call Me by Your Name) will be at the Quad on December 20 for a Q&A following the 7:15 screening.
Lee Remick made her feature-film debut in Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd
Remick made twenty-eight feature films and more than two dozen television movies and miniseries in addition to appearing on Broadway several times. The Quad festival, running December 20–26, shows her alongside some of Hollywood’s finest leading men. In Otto Preminger’s gripping and tense Anatomy of a Murder, she’s married to Ben Gazzara, who is on trial for murder, caught between defense attorney James Stewart and prosecutor George C. Scott. In Robert Mulligan’s emotional Baby the Rain Must Fall, Remick is married to Steve McQueen in a story by Horton Foote. Remick was nominated for an Oscar for her daring performance in Blake Edwards’s harrowing Days of Wine and Roses, in which she and Jack Lemmon battle the bottle in a big way. In Gordon Douglas’s gritty, effective The Detective, Remick is having marital problems with Frank Sinatra, a cop on a brutal case. In Richard Donner’s still terrifying The Omen, Remick and Gregory Peck are a high-powered Washington couple who just might be raising the devil. And Remick sizzles in the Trump-ist A Face in the Crowd, in which Andy Griffith made his film debut as well. Remick had a uniquely mesmerizing charm; when she’s onscreen, you can’t take your eyes off her, no matter who she is next to. Head over to the Quad to see for yourself — and be prepared to fall in love with one of the most underrated stars of the twentieth century.