| Director: | Jane Campion |
| Writer: | Laura Jones |
| Director of Photography: | Stuart Dryburgh |
| Editor: | Veronika Jenet |
| Music: | Wojiech Kilar |
| Production Designer: | Janet Patterson |
| Producers: | Monty Montgomery and Steve Golin |
| Gramercy; PG-13; 144 minutes |
| Release: | 12/96 |
| Cast: | Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Donovan, Shelley Winters, Richard E. Grant, Shelley Duvall, Christian Bale, Viggo Mortensen, Valentina Cervi and John Gielgud |
| Based on the novel by Henry James |
 The Portrait of a Lady Juergen Teller/Gramercy |
The Portrait of a Lady is a daring adaptation that reimagines the original James novel with a contemporary point of view. Kidman makes a perfect Isabel Archer, an independent American woman who was orphaned as a child and sent abroad to live with wealthy European relatives. Hungry for new, exhilarating experiences, Archer turns down marriage proposals from a number of well-heeled gentlemen. One of the snubbed suitors, her cousin Ralph Touchett (Donovan), convinces his father to bequeath Isabel a fortune so that she can realize her dream. As a rich woman, Isabel travels to Italy and is lured into a disastrous relationship by the duplicitous Serena Merle (Hershey). When Serena introduces Isabel to Gilbert Osmond (Malkovich), Isabel is enchanted by his exquisitely precious world of art and high-flown ideas. She realizes too late that she has purchased with her willfulness the gilded cage she once set out to avoid. Campion once again explores a woman's soul and emotional core.
