Merchant Ivory, the production company renowned for its textured portrayal of period drama and emotions, has now turned its attention to 18th-century Paris. Set in the 1780s in a country on the brink of revolution, Jefferson in Paris follows American president-to-be Thomas Jefferson (Nick Nolte) during the five years he spent as ambassador to France.
Jefferson arrived in Paris six years after drafting the Declaration of Independance and shortly after the death of his first wife. But although the political aspects of his life are well documented, historians still disagree over the personal aspects of the statesman's life and it was impossible for Merchant Ivory not to interpret certain events and people somewhat creatively.
"Jefferson in Paris comes out of two of my boyhood interest that have become interwoven in the story of this film," says director James Ivory. "The French Revolution and pre-Civil War Amercian South. I had to read hundreds of books about Jefferson and then make my own interpretation of the facts I found there. And since I was not making a documentary, I had to create scenes in which the man could be seen as he was - or might have been."
Merchant Ivory long-time collaborator, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, set about writing the screenplay: it took her two years to write after years of research prior to that. "Certainly there was a lot of material for her to draw upon because Jefferson, apart from being the subject of so many books, was an obsessive writer himself, recording everything, particularly his experiences in France," says producer Ismail Merchant. "But the main thing is Ruth had to focus these people into a particular time. When you're adapting a novel, the story's already there. But when you're writing an original screenplay you have to create a great deal, imagine what could have been - or should have been. Ruth managed to get into this very definite focus."
In Merchant Ivory's version, Jefferson leaves for Paris and soon falls in love with artist and musician, Maria Cosway. However, he is unnerved by Maria's liberal views towards slavery, particularly in the light of his relationship with one of the slaves he inherited from his father in law, Sally Hemmings (Thandie Newton), who was not only once his father-in-law's slave, but also his daughter, and therefore Jefferson's dead wife's half-sister.
A contradition between the political and the personal was something that could not be avoided - Jefferson is depicted as truly a man of his time, an upholder of 18th-century ideals of liberty and equality, but also a Virginian slave-owner; a man who not only gave his country its independence, but also more slave children, thus continuing a tradition which he himself prophesised would "produce convulsions" through future generations. Although it is no secret that Jefferson owned slaves, the tendency to elevate him in stature often obscures this fact, and to Ivory this part of his life was as important as any other. "I had to create scenes...with his family, his friends and yes, his slaves," he says
Jefferson in Paris does what Merchant Ivory does best: giving painstaking attention to the smallest detail. While every visual aspect of the period was meticulously researched and reproduced and 18th-century social etiquette employed, the production's coup was being granted unprecendented access to Versailles and its Hall of Mirrors.
Despite - or perhaps because of - Merchant Ivory's authentic visual detail, James Ivory gives a surprisingly free rein to his actors, acknowledging the importance of their intuitive response to their role. "I don't believe in inhibiting actors when they want to do something that naturally comes out of themselves," he says. "That's the way they develop their part. There must be intuition and a subjective approach to the character."
But it is the historical legacy which is the crux of the film, according to both director and producer. "Thomas Jefferson's conflicts between what should be in the ideal world he worked to bring about, and the personal one he inherited as a Virgianina plantation owner, still echo through every American's life today," affirms Ivory. "But may people don't even realise he's on the five cent piece," laughs Ivory. Monika Maurer
Prod cos: Merchant Ivory Productions, Touchstone pictures
Prod: Ismail Merchant
Dir: James Ivory
Scr: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Ph: Pierre Lhomme
Costumes: Jenny Beavan, John Bright
Ed: Andrew Marcus
Mus: Richard Robbins
Cast: Nick Nolte Nolte, Greta Scacchi, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Simon Callow, Thandie Newton, James Earl Jones
Running time: 140 mins
International sales: Mayfair
