Plot
The film tells the story of Isabel Archer (Kidman), an innocent young woman of independent means who is manipulated by her "friend" Madame Merle (Hershey) and the devious Gilbert Osmond (Malkovich).
The film is not faithful to the novel but caused controversy with an interpolated dream sequence in which Isabel has an erotic fantasy involving all of her suitors.
Read more about this topic: The Portrait Of A Lady (film)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)