JANE AUSTEN IN MANHATTAN

US, 1980, 108 minutes, Colour.
Anne Baxter, Robert Powell, Michael Wager, Tim Choate, John Guerrasio, Katrina Hodiak, Kurt Johnson.
Directed by James Ivory.

Director James Ivory, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and producer Ismail Merchant have worked together for years producing "civilised" entertainments in Britain, America and, especially, India. Taking a theatre setting (avant garde vs. traditional, wealth and patronage, precarious careers and temperaments of actors), the film highlights an auction of a Jane Austen text for dramatising Samuel Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison. As Jane Austen wrote comedies of manners in an elegant 18th century style, this film's comedy of manners contrasts the ironies of contemporary manners, society, privilege, ambition. Robert Powell is gaunt intense new director, Anne Baxter represents old style. Imaginative, elegant, tantalising, a gentle exploration of contemporary manners. Ivory's work in India includes Shakespeare Wallah, The Guru, Bombay Talkie. American work includes Roselands and The Wild Party. British filming: Autobiography of a Princess, Hullaballoo over Georgie's and Bonnie's Pictures.

1. The significance and tone of the title? Expectations? The facts of Jane Austen's manuscript and its American auction? The attempts to transfer it to the stage? Jane Austen and her very English background contrasted with contemporary Manhattan? Ironic point? English styles? American styles? The 18th and 19th centuries contrasted with that of the 20th? Jane Austen and her ironic comedy of manners - American style?

2. The background of the film-making team - Indian and American backgrounds? The experience of film-making in India and Britain? The international cast? The use of Manhattan - exteriors? The use of theatres both conventional and experimental? Interiors - apartments, wealthy homes? The importance of creating an atmosphere? Characters within the atmosphere? The characters and the comedy of manners? Colour photography? Musical score? Katya's songs? The opera of Sir Charles Grandison?

3. The structure of the screenplay: the auction and the focus on Pierre and George? Pierre and his avant-garde conceptions for dramatising Jane Austen? Liliana's conventional and 18th century styles? The interplay and contrast of the two productions? The introduction to the various members of Pierre's group? The flashbacks? The patterns in changing relationships and loyalties? The background of the committee and their supervision? How well did the screenplay intermingle these facets of the plot?

4. Interest in the theatre: theatre people and their styles, emotions, ambitions, creative genius? Conflict of personalities, taking of stances, exercising of power and influence, the drama teachers and their strong power over the actors and actresses, the nature of acting, impersonation, empathy? The ambitions of success in theatre? The focus on the production for the sake of the actors and artistic insight? For audiences to respond to?

5. Jane Austen and her values, civilised style? The manuscript of her juvenilia? Samuel Richardson and his romantic sentimental novels of the 18th century - with a touch of the suggestive and melodramatic? 18th century views on men and women and their relationships? Class distinctions? Heroines being taken advantage of? The saving of virtue? The dramatising of the kidnapping of the heroine by Pierre? The music? The experiments in rehearsal? The padded cell stage? The decor and costumes for a 20th century experimental kidnapping and confrontation of the heroine? The contrast with the operatic style in Lilianna's vision? The parallels between the two styles focusing on what Jane Austen and the 18th. century novelists saw? Jane Austen transplanted to America?

6. The picturing of the avant-garde - the point about liberating audiences from expectations of how theatre should work, dramatic impact? Expanding the frontiers of the new? Old style preserving values, responding to expectations, the nature of skill for both presentations? The different audiences? The importance of patronage - as-exercised in New York with committees, grants, supervision. reputations for wealthy patrons, wealthy families?

7. Robert Powell's style as Pierre? His exercise of power e.g. the initial rehearsal and his speaking the parts of all the characters as they spoke, test Ariadne about the kidnapping and her feelings, causing her to remember how he had kidnapped her from Victor? The clash with Liliana and the flashback memories for her of Pierre's presence, his wilfulness in being trained, his living with her, the emotional relationship., the discovery of Billy and bringing him into the home? Pierre's independence? Erratic and eccentric behaviour? Taking the money from his troupe? His insights into the play, into staging? His demands on the cast? Friendship with George and his influence in the purchase of the manuscript? The clashes with Victor and his fear of fighting with Victor? His diplomacy and insinuations in getting the group to stay with him, to come back to him? The staging for the approval of the committee? His acceptance of his loss and his bargaining with Liliana? The ironic portrait of the pseudo-creative artist? The criticism of his false attitudes? Acknowledgement of his genius?

8. The contrast with Liliana - her age and experience, her grand style, her training people in bearing and diction? Fashion? Her wealth, place on the committee, influence with George, her desire to get the manuscript? The dinner and her dropping her pearls in the drink? Her memories of Pierre and her regrets? Rivalry and jealousy? Friendship with Victor and her putting pressure on Ariadne? The clash with Katya and Katya's jealousy about Ariadne? Her winning against Pierre - and her rehearsing a scene on the stage and finding Pierre present, her embarrassment? Her finally calling Pierre's bluff?

9. Ariadne as the enigmatic actress? Her place in the troupe, the kidnap scene, her memories of being kidnapped by Pierre from Victor, the brittleness of her marriage with Victor, being wrapped up in her own career? Katya's possessive attitude towards her? Liliana's liberating her from the influence of Pierre? Pierre's technique and pressure in getting her back? The irony of her disappearance completely from either production of the play? What did she represent in terms of the younger generation, the aspiring actress, the woman with brittle relationships, the woman who was lost and disappeared?

10. Victor and his love for Ariadne, his reaction to Pierre's taking her, his discussion with actor at the stage and their sharing experiences? His rehearsals and the Bob Fosse type of choreography? His success in the musical? His getting Lilianna to get Ariadne back? The bonds of the two and his losing her again?

11. The members of the troupe - the taxi driver, the shop assistant, Katya and her singing? Their loyalty to Pierre, their skills in acting, their arguments, the precarious acting career and their moving from one director to another? Divided loyalties, ambiguity? Billy and his loyalty to Pierre?

12. George and his wealth., buying the manuscript, his affectation, his memories of his mother? His camp and effeminate way of speaking? The married couple on the committee? The chatter, the dinners, the rehearsal and their disapproval of Pierre's methods? The satire on wealth and patronage of the arts in New York?

13. Themes of relationships, changing patterns of relationships, love, power and ambition? Within the American culture and values?

14. Themes of American society - with the insight's of Jane Austen's cool observations of her own society? The New York village, the theatrical village, class distinctions, playing roles, spheres of influence, patronage, betrayal? Ironic hullabaloo about Jane Austen's manuscript?