Flashback: The Age of Innocence – Martin Scorsese’s sumptuous tale of passion and propriety
Scorsese marshals a big-name cast – Daniel Day Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder – for his adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel about the New York elite of the 1870s and their suffocating social structures
It was a surprise when stately period drama The Age of Innocence appeared in 1993, as director Martin Scorsese was known for hard-hitting modern New York stories such as Taxi Driver (1976) and Mean Streets (1973).
But the screen adaptation of Edith Wharton’s 1920 novel about the emotional suffocation of the New York elite in the 1870s was not, at heart, any different to his more contemporary works, the director once stated. In any social circle, whether it be aristocratic or mafia, “if someone needs to be taken out, they’re taken out”, he said.
Of course, “taking out” in that context meant social strangulation, rather than murder. The story, which is faithful to the book, is set in the milieu of rich New York families. In a manner reminiscent of Victorian England, there are social rules for everything, and every action is codified. Those who flout convention risk a humiliating expulsion from the group.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Newland Archer, a lawyer from a respected family engaged to marry the straight-laced May (Winona Ryder) of the powerful Welland clan. Newland feels affection for May, but when he meets the bohemian Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), he feels passion for the first time – and that feeling is returned.
Olenska, an American, married a Russian, but has left him and returned to New York, a situation considered shameful by her peers. Truly in love, Newland befriends Olenska and attempts to initiate an affair. But his own gentlemanly instincts, and the restrictive attitudes of society, prove difficult obstacles to overcome.