Age of Innocence

I've been off work with a cold - yet again - today. Second time in just a few weeks.

Anyway, I've been listening to an audio book version of The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton. It's wonderfully ironic in its approach, with the authorial comments often undercutting the characters' thoughts and actions.

I remember seeing the film version back in the 90s. It was directed by Martin Scorcese, and doesn't seem to be one of his well-known movies, perhaps because it's the opposite of all the violent movies he's made. Here there's violence still, but it's all under the surface, and people speak and act as though they're treading on very thin ice at all times.

I don't remember much about the film except the wonderful narration by Joanne Woodward, who kind of stood in for Wharton. The narration frequently undermined what we saw on the screen, telling us things that we wouldn't have gauged for ourselves, and adding a depth of irony to the movie that the actors themselves might not have easily brought to it.

Must try and catch up with it again...!

Incidentally, the photo above strikes me as probably being out of tone with the movie, but not having seen it for 16 years, I may be wrong. Perhaps that scene does occur at some point.