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Back in New York, the Dorsets are still in marital discord and Aunt Julia has died. Lily receives only a fraction of her vast fortune, the bulk having been left to her cousin Grace. Now homeless and adrift, Lily is invited by Carry Fisher to stay with her and the Gormers for the summer. Carry believes Lily's two possibilities for marriage are George Dorset and Simon Rosedale.
Cast
Fearful for her future, a dejected Lily pours out her troubles to Judy's husband, Gus Trenor. He leads her to believe he will help her earn money through investment. Later, Lily purchases scandalous letters written by Bertha Dorset revealing that Selden was her lover.
Eric Stoltz
So, too, in a different way, does Gus Trenor (Dan Aykroyd), playing one of those rich men who offer investment advice to desirable women as if they have only benevolence on their minds. Like the Edith Wharton novel that inspired it, Terence Davies' "The House of Mirth" conceals rage beneath measured surface appearances. This is one of the saddest stories ever told about the traps that society sets for women.
Film Credits
George asks Lily for the truth about his wife Bertha's infidelities, but she denies any knowledge of them. He has found out about Bertha's letters and advises Lily to use them to force Bertha to restore her social standing. He offers to marry Lily once she and Bertha are reconciled, but Lily refuses. In early 20th century New York City, an impoverished socialite desperately seeks a suitable husband as she gradually finds herself betrayed by her friends and exiled from high society. Davies' "The House of Mirth" will be compared with Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence," also based on a Wharton novel. Wharton as a writer was a contemporary of her great friend Henry James, and also of the rising group of realists like Dreiser.
When a woman has the beauty men admire and women envy... it is wise to tread carefully.
The Age of Innocence is a Jamesian novel, but The House of Mirth is more like Dreiser, like an upper-class version of Sister Carrie , in which a woman's life is defined by economic determinism. She goes to tea at Selden's house, and is seen leaving by Mr. Rosedale (Anthony LaPaglia). For a woman to go unaccompanied to a man's room is not proof she is a tramp, but might as well be. Rosedale guesses something of Lily's financial situation, and makes her an offer she refuses.
Bertha flaunts her infidelities, and George is too timid, or well-mannered, to rise to the bait. She all but insists Lily accompany them on their yacht in the Mediterranean, and then gets herself out of a tight spot by a subterfuge against Lily so cruel and unfair, it almost rips the fabric of the film. After that, Lily is all but done for, although her descent is gradual. Despite being a period piece, The House of Mirth's depiction of social cruelty still feels chilling and relevant for today. The month ahead will bring new films from Alex Garland, Luca Guadagnino, Dev Patel, and more. To help you plan your moviegoing options, our editors have selected the most notable films releasing in April 2024, listed in alphabetical order.
We rank every one of the British director's movies by Metascore, from his debut Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels to his brand new film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. With the arrival of Zack Snyder's latest Rebel Moon chapter on Netflix, we rank every one of the director's films—from bad to, well, less bad—by Metascore. The story of Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson), the beautiful society princess who miscalculates in her search for an advantageous match, becomes a Rake's Progress of social shame. The House of Mirth is a 2000 drama film written and directed by Terence Davies. An adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1905 novel The House of Mirth, the film stars Gillian Anderson.
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Perhaps its characters fear that if they ever really spoke their thoughts, their whole house of cards, or mirth, would tumble down. And so they speak in code, and people's lives are disposed of with trivial asides and brittle wit. Lily almost confronts Bertha Dorset with the letters written to Mr. Selden, but finding that the Dorsets have left town, she goes to Lawrence Selden, telling him she knows she lost his love. When Lawrence is not looking, she throws the letters in his lit fireplace. Lily goes home and finds her inheritance has at last been delivered.
Gillian Anderson
We modern viewers are thinking that she need not repay it, that he is a louse and she can save herself, but that is not the sort of thing that would occur to Lily. She cannot keep a job as a rich man's companion because her reputation is wanting. Everyone knows the truth about her--that she is not a bad woman but an admirable one--and yet no one will act on it, because perceptions are more important than reality.
What finally defeats Lily Bart is her own lack of imagination, her inability to think outside the envelope she was born within.
At a wedding, Lily receives a $5,000 check from Gus Trenor, who claims to have reinvested another $4,000. Later, he invites Lily to the opera, where she is seen by her disapproving aunt and Lawrence Selden as she sits with Trenor and Rosedale. Trenor tricks her into leaving the opera and accompanying him to his home, where he tries to kiss her, claiming that Lily is not playing a fair game when she accepts his money but refuses him her attentions. When Lily arrives home, her aunt refuses to lend her the money to repay the $9,000 she received from Trenor. Lily confides in Grace, asking if she should turn to Selden for his understanding, but Grace advises against it; Grace secretly loves Lawrence and is jealous of Lily.
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She puts the check in an envelope she addresses to her bank, and writes another for Gus Trenor, resolving her massive debt, and then takes a fatal dose of the laudanum, drifting off to oblivion in her darkened room. Finding the partially-burnt letters in his fireplace and sensing her intentions, Selden rushes to her boarding room. There, at her deathbed, holding her hand, he weeps, declaring his love for her.
There, Lily is to be seen lounging on deck with the brilliant blue water rippling behind her, evidently shot on a sound stage with a back-projection. Apparently Davies saw a still of her in "The Mighty" (1998) and made her his first choice. Her success on "The X-Files" might seem to disqualify her, but Anderson's talent has many notes, and I liked the presence she brought to Lily Bart. It would be wrong, I think, to cast the role as a fragile flower; Lily is a strong, healthy and competent woman who has everything she needs to lead a long and happy life, except (1) a husband, or (2) a society that provides for independent women. A woman risks losing her chance of happiness with the only man she has ever loved.A woman risks losing her chance of happiness with the only man she has ever loved.A woman risks losing her chance of happiness with the only man she has ever loved. Terence Davies has characterised The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton as Jane Austen with the gloves off.
That isn't quite true - Jane Austen is Jane Austen with the gloves off - but Davies has brought an unexpected intensity, a genuine passion, to his adaptation of Wharton's novel of love, cruelty and guile in America's high society of the early 20th century. "They will forgive a woman almost anything except the loss of her good name." As Lily finds her credit in society running out, she turns to the resources she has left--or thinks she has--and we see finally that she is defeated. She is prepared for two things in life, to be a rich man's wife or to do piecework at poverty wages.
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