The Age of Innocence (1993)

When Martin Scorsese decided that  he wanted to make sprawling period romance picture he chose to adapt Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize winning 1920 novel of forbidden love in 1870's New York society, The Age of Innocence. The result is probably Scorsese's least Scorsese like picture, with the arguable exception of Hugo. This is probably also the directors slowest movie, the pace is so un-Scorsese that you might find it off putting, it certainly took me a while to adjust to it. Featuring sumptuous sets, excellent camera work, and the lead actors (Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder) at there best looking, the film is all about slowly seething passions repressed beneath a cool formal exterior. This may be Scorsese's subtlest work. Descriptive narrations presumably from the novel and read by Joanne Woodward work nicely and certainly set the tone, as does one of the last Saul Bass produced title sequence. This movie reminded me a lot of a novel I only recently read, Gore Vidal's 1876, only without the politics. The Age of Innocence was a great opportunity for Scorsese to stretch some of the cinematic musicals he least  gets to use, and is really a unique picture and something of a triumph. Finally I have got to make mention of Miriam Margolyes performance as Mrs. Mingott, a kind of 'dowager empress'  of New York society, what a great character, and wonderful performance. ***1/2