@@davidlee6720 No, they were considered 'bad-box-office' and never produced for the most part. All characters sounded like Henry James, minus his clinical narrative. The characters simply do not live by dialog and cannot transmit to the audience. Damn shame!
This documentary provides the decor of James' life without examining in any way the nature of his work, his writing. He was a revolutionary, a kind of modernist who captured nothing less than the full depth of human consciousness. No one who reads James, who follows him on the page, is the same.
Why no mention of one of his most famous novels, "Washington Square?" This was a fascinating story. When it was made into a major academy award winning film in 1949 "The Heiress" it became a favorite of mine. Olivia de Havilland won an Oscar for her performance. Unforgettable story.
There was also a 1997 film called ‘Washington Square’, starring Albert Finney, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ben Chaplin and Maggie Smith. It was brilliantly acted. One could really feel the father’s passive aggressive abuse (Finney) and the daughter’s (JJL) conflicted love for her father and then when she finds “love”, desperation to be out of her father’s house. And Maggie Smith as the aunt, well what can I say? She was brilliant, as always.
I just got it from the library and watched it today. Because Scorsese said it was one of his best favorite films. It was nearly perfect technically and the acting was superb. But the story was compelling. You couldn't wait to see what happened next. But it was a very poignant story. Loved it. Watched it twice in a row.
Yeah so beautiful 🥰 Carol my friend and I pray to God to give you a lot of beautiful days and I hope God bless you to have a great day, I'm Steven by name from Happy camp and you where are you from?
"Turn of a Screw" freaked me stone dead when I read it at age 19. This, after "Sound & the Fury," "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad," "The Shining," and plenty of other up-front crazy and/or bone-chilling reads. Nope. Henry James knocked it out of the park. ...the film is heartstoppingly terrifying, too!
Yeah so beautiful 🥰 Evelyn my friend 😊 and I pray to God to give you a lot of beautiful days and I hope God bless you to have a great day, I'm Steven by name from Happy camp and you where are you from?
I thoroughly enjoyed this mini documentary on Henry James. A prolific writer of the heart and the haunted. Love his stories, especially acted out on RU-vid movies. Thank you!
Thank you for these documentaries but also for the classical music. My friends and I often bemoan the slow disappearance of the classical performances.
Excellent video. I enjoyed this one; especially the scenes of his time in Newport, which is close to where I live and which I know fairly well. But I thought it neglected the books in favor of his life and I wished it had been twice or thrice as long. Many years ago, I read Leon Edel's monumental life of Henry James. In 5 volumes and over 2000 pages, it's the longest book I've ever read--and I recommend it highly. It's been condensed into one volume and received plenty of critical acclaim as such. The only novel by James that I've read is "The American," which I've read 3 times and really admired. The music by Brahms in this video added to its overall excellence. Thanks again.
2000 pages. That's amazing. And here I am hemming and hawing over Ulysses and Moby Dick. Glad you liked the doc. I did notice the lack of novel discussion too
@@AuthorDocumentaries Oh, I love so many of his novels like The Ambassador, The Bostonians and Driving Miss Daisy (this one was a translation in Indonesian language) some 30 years ago. I somehow love James longish and meandering passages) and will read these books again just to enjoy his descriptive sentences.
In about 1958 I was 17 years old. My father gave me Huxley's "Brave New World." I thought it was great and asked for another one that good. He gave me Orwell's "1984." I loved it. After that I asked him to give me something as good as the first two: He gave me "The Turn of the Screw." It was just as good.
The Portrait of a Lady is epic. Isabel and her monster husband are one of literature's deepest portrayals of a tragic marriage. And her visit to her beloved cousin's deathbed makes me cry every time I read it. James always presents us with extensive descriptions of his character's public selves, while delving into their most private motives and behaviors at the same time.
*Thank for this enlightening introduction to Henry James! However, I have to confess that, with the exception of "Washington Square" and "Daisy Miller," I find his other "major" works to be unreadable--with their long, serpentine sentences that seem to go on forever, to the extent that once I've gotten to the end of one sentence I've forgotten how it started!*
His book Washington Square is how I came to admire Henry James work. I sometimes wish I could listen in on his conversations with the greats during his time, especially Lady Edith Wharton.
Stayed with it as long as I could. Good subject, history, footage, but once again some squeaky violinist etc noisily scraping away all through it distracting from the subject.
Very interesting. I think we may have the origin of “The Turn of the Screw” in James Sr. ‘s early experience. I think he wrote about himself, as in “The American “. and “Beast in the Jungle.”
For Americans it was much cheaper to live in Europe at the time. So if your money was running low you’d just go to Europe. That’s what happened with the James family.
sacrilegious to say my favourite is 'the turn of the screw' but I do love shorter fiction, and I think because of films and our shorter attention spans, we are going in that direction, so many distractions now from finding the time to read longer novels, unlike previously ...
You certainly have a point regarding readers short attention span. Perhaps the universe is speeding up so rapidly it affects our minds. I am a big fan of Turn of the Screw. And must admit the earlier works, with more brevity won me more than HJ in later years.
@@davidlee6720 Thank you, for the same. I shall always have reverence for Henry James. I loved reading so much I tried to transform his unsuccessful plays into musicals! Unsuccessfully.
Philistine that I am, I cannot appreciate James' purple prose. As a short story writer and journalist, my prose borders on the mauve but James' prose is beyond my simple grasp. In all honesty, please, some one, explain to me the importanse of Henry James' stories. This is not a challenge nor do I ask it lightly, I want to know: What is the intrinsic worth of Henry James' written works. I ask in all humility for an honest answer,
The short stories don’t have those serpentine sentences. His problem with sentence length arose in his old age when he started dictating to a typist. James dissected the human heart with tremendous skill and developed the novel as a form beyond what had been achieved before. For this reason he is “The Master”.
Nice excerpt on Henry James (Key: define what caused him Writer's Block, Henry's personal wavering flow of free thought energies, that charity, confidence, and direction, and what was interfering in his having it, what allowed it?) ie: 15:30 -->
Who was the John Rogers that you speak of toward the end of your video? Please, what year would that have been, that Henry met John Rogers? I am a Rogers by birth.
Everyone has their own unique mission in life. And some poor composers have to settle for elevator music their whole lives. A bitter and unavoidable destiny.
@@JohnBaldwin100 Why is his sexuality so important to you? I have a feeling he would have preferred other people mind their own business in that respect.
You clearly don't seem to mind that the documentary implies that he was heterosexual. I would ask why do you care that someone points out he wasn't? Throughout history LGBTQ people have been made invisible. Many people have argued that James' sexuality was a big influence on his writing. when we understand the full history of an artist it helps us understand their work all the more.
Very good decision fans, put them thoughts on paper because they are worthy, these days become double precious, anyone is free to hold a camera making any kind of movie. Having the proper words to tell a story instead it's requested another kind of training and.. a lot of faith for sure. Exploring the other EPIC novelists experience of life might help mostly enjoying now web happenings watching such TV documentaries reunited with followers and cyber supporters, discovering the next level of human evolution, let them spiritual assets prevail because . ..we can have super human powers as well, you can do great jobs guys, let them genius writers inspire you more. Dealing these days with Putin's madness of how such a powerful man could be so unhappy frustrated and anti human, we still can dig deeper, what on earth happens to us? How come some men having nothing they worth all the fortune in the world and how could we dig out from the human DNA the secret of being good kind of guys or not. I trully hope some day bring back to life all genius minds...to replace bad guys psychopaths and criminal losers.. if we could be that lucky, let's dream forward friends, who knows?
In case you haven’t noticed “work” is a four letter word. If Henry Hanes had been forced to “work”, he would never have produced the works of genius that he did produce! Great literary talent should be provided with sufficient funds to enable them to write without having to worry about the necessity of earning a living.
@@stevenyourke7901 I do not disagree completely, but I have a caveat. Reality vs mental masturbation Think think think words words words Who cares? Human life is accessible to those who engage with life at a basic level. Ivory towers breed brilliant douche sucklers.
Are you referring to Henry James or his father. In those days people still valued the kind of life where you had inherited money and had no need to work. It was admired not looked down upon. The focus of many of James tales was the attempt of😅 both men and women to jockey into an economic position thru marriage where they did not need to work.
I can't imagine moving around that much while maintaining friends and writing on top of it. They had so much clothes back then. Suits, and great coats, gloves, top hats. And the women w their many skirts and frocks and furs and hats. Traveling in trains and ships and carriages. How'd they live from place to place and transfer all their furniture and on and on. They must have had an army of people hired to move them around. What happened to his dog when he moved yet again? Maybe the people he hired in London kept it, as he j jaunted off to Italy or France or Rome or Florence or back to America for the hundredth time on another voyage. 😀. Can't imagine living like that. All the museums and culture, bouncing around everywhere.
Our birthplace is this Earrh, theres no need to define boundaries by lines of borders, we are attracted ti where we feel our greater sense of Wellbeing. The whole idea of patriot is affixed ti the Lower Mind's limiting thiyghts 8f Physical and Fears, of aggressiins and wars. Grow into the Higher Mind, axa the Mature Mind to experience the intended Journey. The other is limiting.
Ruined by very LOUD music!!! Is it necessary? When you're speaking the most important parts the pianist bangs the keys like a demented squirrel running across the keys!!! Awful!!!
I gave up about 3/4 of the way through. That fruity voice was putting me to sleep. A thorough list of every house he ever lived in and a prohibition on all Americans, savages to a man. No thank you.
If his father never had a job, where did he get all of the money to keep going to Europe? The father seems to spend quite well. How did Henry afford his flat in Italy? You never mentioned that he got paid for his early writing. Okay, you did mention his pay, some.
Henry James Sr. had a pension from a partial inheritance after his father died. They didn't get along so James Sr. Didn't get all of the money. The $10,000 mentioned here is about $500k a year now.
The father's income is mentioned here and also mentioned is the strong US dollar in Italy. I recommend watching this again and listening without distraction. His private life is not discussed but you can figure out that bit.
@@denizalgazi James Sr. also made some money from the few philosophy books he wrote, and he was friends with all of the wealth Transcendentalists in New England, so I doubt he was really paying for much anyway. I discovered last week that he actually knew Mathew Brady and didn't have to pay for that portrait of him and Henry Jr. that they had taken for mom/wife.
