Rent Portrait of Jennie (1948)
3.8 of 5 from 71 ratings
1h 26min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Eben Adams (Joseph Cotten) is a struggling and mostly failing New York artist until one day, in Central Park, he meets Jennie (Jennifer Jones). Jennie seems to possess an almost mystical quality and as Eben sketches her, his work shows more expression and emotion than anything he has ever done before. But before he knows it, Jennie has disappeared. Eben frantically searches for his mysterious model and when they meet again a few weeks later, Jennie seems to have aged several years. What then unfolds is one of the most unusual and unforgettable love stories ever told as they are both swept up in a strange love that even time cannot contain.
- Actors:
- Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Cecil Kellaway, David Wayne, Albert Sharpe, Henry Hull, Florence Bates, Felix Bressart, Clem Bevans, Maude Simmons
- Directors:
- William Dieterle
- Producers:
- David O. Selznick
- Writers:
- Robert Nathan, Leonardo Bercovici, Paul Osborn, Peter Berneis, David O. Selznick, Ben Hecht
- Others:
- James, James G. Stewart, J. McMillan Johnson, Joseph August, Paul Eagler, Charles Freeman, Russell Shearman, Clarence Slifer
- Studio:
- PT Video
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
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- Awards:
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Reviews (1) of Portrait of Jennie
Romantic Fantasy (spoiler). - Portrait of Jennie review by Steve
Whimsical and spooky fantasy/ghost story produced by David Selznick to star his soon-to-be wife Jennifer Jones in the title role. It's a hyper-romance about how some people are destined to be together, no matter what, even if it breaks the laws that bind the universe.
Joseph Cotten plays a struggling artist who sketches Jennie as a child. And begins a portrait... He occasionally meets her again but makes the unsettling discovery that she seems to come back to him from the past, and always a few years older. They fall in love even though it appears she died in an accident at sea many years ago.
This is sweet, crazy hokum with the kind of lush orchestral score (Dimitri Tiomkin) typical of Hollywood romantic fantasies. There's even a choir of angels. It is all atmosphere. Jennie's theme (by Bernard Herrmann) is suitably haunting. Cotten and Jones are glamorous as the lovers who find each other across time.
The b&w photography is lovely with fine locations. William Dieterle sometimes shoots through gauze which makes the picture look like a canvas. The climax with a tsunami off the coast of Massachusetts is evocative and powerful. And the final shot of the portrait- in colour- of the sad/lovely Jennie hung on the wall of a gallery, is a heartbreaker.
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