Autobiography of a Princess (1975) :: The Pinnacle of Subtlety in the acting!
If Cinema gets a status of a form of art then such films will be the main reasons as they provide solid base to bring that status.
To witness the finest form of acting, this film should be seen. Film ensures the apt and quality acting by two actors Madhur Jaffrey and James Mason. Their sublime acting makes this film a subject of multiple and repetitive viewing. Each of them has given a mesmerising performance which very few actors can boast of. Taut screen play, vigilant direction through the observant camera work create cinematic feast for eyes of audience in this film.
One room, two characters, their conversation, while they watch a film through a projector or during the tea breaks! Through that conversation they try to go back to their past which is related with one man common between them. Can these factors make an interesting film? “Autobiography of a Princess” reveals that mere conversation and behaviour of two persons can bring wonderful cinematic experience to the audience. Superb acting, wonderful script, nice direction make this film a high quality film. Camera catches the nuances of the actors in most visible manner and their every single movement falls in the manner required to portray the character given to them.
This short 1 hour film covers conversation of two people sitting inside a house in U.K. These two characters have met to relive the memories of a person, a common thread of their past. One character, The Princess, is the daughter of this man and other character, Cyril Sahib, is the English tutor of the man. Princess has invited Cyril Sahib, the tutor of her dead father, so that they both can watch a short film showing the old times when her father was a king of the Princely states in Rajsthan in India. She asks the Cyril Sahib to stop the book he is writing at present and start writing a book on the life of her father. With the scenes running on the screen, Princess goes back in to her memories and feels ecstatic to talk about her father. She enjoys every moment of talking about her father, his Princely state, his power, his hunting abilities, his generosity, his demeanour rather everything related to him is a matter of joy for her. But old Cyril Sahib does not keep same opinion about some of the things and he has reservations about past of her father. While she thinks that Cyril Sahib should be grateful for the time he had spent with her father he feels that there was something wrong also with that association and though he enjoyed the royal luxuries provided to him but at same time he wasted so much time and thus spoilt his attitude of becoming an author. He feels he could have become writer at right age if he had not spent his precious years in India. He reveals that he did not like many things happened at that time in India.
Director, script writer and actor all show right from the very first scene that they are able to exhibit the characteristics of the character when Princess intervenes the man who is placing the screen at a place in the room and she picks up the screen and carries to other place. Spent few moments and we know she is a power motivated person and cynical to some extent. She is well dressed and is searching perfection in everything around her.
Madhur Jaffrey plays the vocal Princess and she is a gifted actress in this role of a lonely Princess who is occupied by the old memories and she still thinks that something can be done to make the so called glorious past of her father. She is offended and haunted also by a scandalous event of her Father’s life. When Cyril Sahib picks up the old newspaper cutting she takes it from his hand and throws it inside the fire place. She does not like any blot on the image of her dead father. He has been a real hero for her, part of a glorious past.
James Mason, who plays Cyril Sahib to perfection, had few dialogues and all he had to show his character’s expressions through his face, eyes and body language. And he does it with superb command. He gives a performance which can be said a life time performance by any actor.
Film utilizes very well the footage of interviews with Maharani Gaytri Devi, her son and Maharaja Gaj Singh where they talk about life after India got independence and their states were clubbed with democratic India and Indira Gandhi’s government’s decision to deprive them of Privy purses.
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It has been two years since Ismail Merchant died on 25th May 2005. His association with the Director James Ivory resulted in to the formation of Merchant Ivory Productions in early years of 1960s.
Team of Merchant and Ivory along with the authoress Ruth Prawar Jhabvala (2 Oscars won, 1987,1993) has given many beautiful films. Since their association in 1963, trio had made 4 full length features films (The Householder, Shakespeare-Wallah, The Guru, Bombay Talkie) covering subjects related to India or Indian people. They had made One documentary “Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization”, on the basis of life of UK based Indian Author Nirad C Chaudhury and one short film, “Mahatma and the Mad Boy” later being first directorial venture of Ismail Merchant.
Ismail Merchant, during one of his visit to India, travelled through Rajsthan. Autobiography of a Princess was the result of his journey through Rajsthan and his meetings with the descendents of royal families of Jodhpur, Jaipur and Bikaner.
Ismail Merchant had an eye for an actor. Initially James Ivory was not very keen on taking James Mason for the role of Cyril Saab, an English man, because he was afraid that James Mason, with his glamorous image would not fit in to this role of a suave and less speaking man. But Ismail Insisted and Ivory was taken aback by the capability of James Mason to go deep in to the skin of character.
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Just to recall that how wonderful a film maker Ismail Merchant was and how beautiful films Merchant Ivory Productions have made! They have used cinema as a medium to show some of the beautiful tales on the screen.
It’s a must watch film and for actors it’s a film for repetitive watch. It will be a wonder if this film is not used as a tool to teach acting in acting schools.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Mmmm, thanks for this review. James Mason was truly one of the most amazing actors of the 20th century, and I have never heard of this film. Thanks for once again filling up my Netflix queue…
RK man how a helpless person like us can assess to such kind of antic cinema. Do you have any idea in Mumbai where one gets preferably on rent such breed of film…?
Rk as usual great review feels like view and beyond..:)
t!, you have been adding many films to your Netflix waiting list. Many you might have seen by now, but no account of those. When you will find time?:-w
James Mason was a very fine actor. His “Humbert” in Kubrick’s version of “Lolita” was matching the most with the book. It could have been other version if he had played James Bond in “Dr No” in place of Sean Connery.
Autobiography of a Princess was produced by a British Channel so in USA you might not have known about it.
But if you get it, you will enjoy it throughly, except may be one patch like scene in the whole film.:)
atray:
You must be having British Council Library there at Bombay. There you must find almost all the work of Merchant Ivory Productions. British Library should be associated with British Embassy, you will find many things there, numbers of books which you may be searching and other things also.
You will have to become member there.
Just take a chance. Hope you get what you desire:)
Thanks for your excellent review of Autobiography of a Princess. I have seen the film and having read your review, I want to watch it again immediately. The acting is excellent. James Mason is one of my favorite actors and I believe he could do anything he was asked to do in his performances.