The ladies from Boston

Movie
German title	The ladies from Boston
Original title	The Bostonians
Country of production	United States , United Kingdom
original language	English
Publishing year	1984
length	122 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	James Ivory
script	Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
production	Ismail Merchant
music	Richard Robbins
camera	Walter Lassally
cut	Mark Potter Jr. ; Katherine Wenning
occupation
	Christopher Reeve : Basil Ransome; Vanessa Redgrave : Olive Chancellor; Jessica Tandy : Miss Birdseye; Madeleine Potter : Verena Tarrant; Nancy Marchand : Mrs. Burrage; Wesley Addy : Dr. Tarrant; Barbara Bryne : Mrs. Tarrant; Linda Hunt : Dr. Prance; Nancy New : Adeline; Jon Van Ness : Henry Burrage; Wallace Shawn : Mr. Pardon; Peter Bogyo : Mr. Gracie; Martha Farrar : Mrs. Farrinder; Maura Moynihan : Henrietta Stackpole; Lee H. Doyle : Mr. Filer;

The Bostonians is an American history - drama from the year 1984 . It is a literary film adaptation of the 1881 novel of the same name The Ladies from Boston by Henry James .

action

Olive Chancellor lived in Boston in 1875 and is an ardent advocate of the women's movement . She rejects everything masculine, refuses to marry and desires nothing more than matriarchy . Unfortunately, she cannot stand up for her rights herself. She is a withdrawn woman who is difficult to speak in front of large crowds. One day, however, she meets the beautiful young Verena Tarrant, who lives with her father Dr. Tarrant holds séances and has great rhetorical talent. Olive approaches Verena, asks for her friendship and uses her own fortune to win Verena for the women's movement. She pays her father a small fortune so that he disappears from the scene for a year so that she can turn Verena into a front woman herself. She just doesn't like being around men. After all, they supposedly just want to sabotage everyone and force them into marriage.

One such man is Mississippi- born attorney Basil Ransome , who now practices in New York City . The distant cousin doesn't think much of the superiority of the woman. He values the equality and freedom of every human being, but also the needs of men and women to bind each other. Since he fell in love with the beautiful Verena himself, he tries to approach her. But the competition is great. Powerful families want to marry their unmarried sons with the beautiful, educated and bright Verena. Olive has to fight off all those advances and is even afraid of losing her Verena. Their envy and jealousy literally determine their actions. The annoying cousin is really inconvenient.

Basil visits Mrs. Birdseye's estate, where the women's movement has withdrawn, in order to prepare for the upcoming lecture tour. Basil can stay for three to four weeks. He and Verena come very close. Suddenly she seems to be torn between the women's movement and her passion for Basil. Olive feels that, and she visibly takes it with her. In order not to let her fall even deeper into misery, Verena asks Basil to let her go. You have chosen a career as a feminist. Olive gives this to Basil to understand with satisfaction that he will never see her again. Basil leaves furiously and gets a ticket for the first lecture so that he can speak to Verena personally. But Verena is so gripped by stage fright that she doesn't dare to go on stage. She does not want to. Only when she sees Basil does she let him understand that she feels safe and secure with him. She loves him. The lecture tour is not for them. Rather, Olive now goes on stage to stand up for women's rights and discovers that she can.

criticism

Renowned film critic Roger Ebert said that this was “a much better, smarter and more subtle” film that describes the “tragedy of a woman who doesn't know what she wants” than was the case with Die Europäische .

Janet Maslin of the New York Times said that Redgrave "was born to play Olive Chancellor." It is downright "scary how much she resembles the character in a novel". In addition, it was "a pleasant surprise how convincingly Christopher Reeve Basil portrays". In addition to the film's “sunny, enthusiastic look”, Maslin also praised the fact that the “moral ambiguity of the novel” was retained in the film, and the rest of the cast.

The lexicon of the international film said: "Exquisite pictures depict the complicated human entanglements in a web of puritanical thinking, the enthusiasm for the arts of life" and fashionable trends of the time. Since it only half-heartedly breaks up the well-tended surface, one remains largely uninvolved despite the subtle art of staging. "

background

The film opened in US cinemas on July 20, 1984 and grossed just over $ 1 million. In Germany it opened in cinemas on July 12, 1985 and was broadcast for the first time on October 3, 1988 on ARD . Since September 20, 2005 it has been available as a German DVD .

Christoper Reeve made about $ 1 million per film in the mid-1980s. Still, he pledged a salary of $ 100,000.

The role of Olive Chancellor was offered to Redgrave in the spring of 1981. She declined because she didn't like both the story and the character. Glenn Close then came into question as an understudy . She demanded several changes in the script and wanted to shoot the film Der Unbugsame at the same time . As Closes further demands and claims became too much for the producers and Redgrave changed her mind about the final script, it was finally decided against Close and for Redgrave.