The Bostonians

The Bostonians is a 1984 romantic drama period film directed by James Ivory. The screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is based on the 1886 American novel The Bostonians by Henry James. The film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve, Madeleine Potter, and Jessica Tandy. The Bostonians was released in the United States on 2 August 1984. The film received respectable reviews and nominations by the Golden Globe Awards, Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards, and won Golden Peacock (Best Film) at the 10th International Film Festival of India. Plot Olive Chancellor, a Back Bay Boston spinster and leader of the women's suffrage movement, becomes enamored of Verena Tarrant, an inspirational young speaker, and adopts Verena as her protégée, her friend, and her companion. When Olive's distant relation, the chauvinist Southern lawyer Basil Ransom falls in love with Verena and wishes to marry her—to relegate the young woman to the kitchen and the nursery—Olive and Ransom find themselves competing for Verena's affections. The charismatic Miss Tarrant must then choose whether to get herself to the nunnery of Olive's social cause or submit to the sensual but subservient life promised by Ransom. Cast Christopher Reeve as Basil Ransom Vanessa Redgrave as Olive Chancellor Madeleine Potter as Verena Tarrant Jessica Tandy as Miss Birdseye Nancy Marchand as Mrs. Burrage Wesley Addy as Dr. Tarrant Barbara Bryne as Mrs. Tarrant Linda Hunt as Dr. Prance Charles McCaughan as Music Hall Police Officer Nancy New as Adeline John Van Ness Philip as Henry Burrage Wallace Shawn as Mr. Pardon