This is the essence of anti-romance - the ideal story of how someone can have their hopes and dreams raised to immeasurable heights, and then the disappointment and disillusionment is like getting hit by a train... and the worst part is life keeps having to go on. Scorsese recently described the picture as having an "emotional brutality" and that is totally accurate.
The Heiress means to punch a hole through your soul because, almost despite how we might at first look at Catherine like she is naive, there is not naivite but vulnerability. And it call comes down to money, doesn't it? When Catherine asks, with a newfound incredulity in the latter part of the story: "I love him - does that humiliate you?" We can feel the absence of everything that she had earlier, which was if not love than some kind of, dare on say, hope for something else outside of this existence.
But life isn't a Disney fairy tale and especially life in the upper crust of New York City in the latter 19th century could be as if not crueler than life in more "working class" straits. I totally get how this later influenced Age of Innocence (and to an extent Killers of the Flower Moon, especially the sickened realization in the latter part of the story), but The Heiress cuts somehow even deeper because of how Catherine's affection is sincere for so long - or, again, the hope for that life where a man can whisk her away to a grander place. She has everything materially someone could ask for, but material things can't replace what really matters - and of course Catherine's father knows this very well; cynically so.
Olivia De Havilland's performance is remarkable when taken in sum; at first, she seems so wide eyed to things she could come close to becoming an Anime caricature version of herself (cue up the stars and other effects around her head when Morris shows up, Montgomery Clift in one of his essentially beguiling and wretched roles), and I did wonder why she was so acclaimed. Not to say she isn't good in these early scenes, she absolutely is, but she is playing it so sincerely that you can't help but understand where her father and other characters come from in wondering how Catherine goes so all in on Morris... but it's important to note that hopeful doesn't mean stupid.
Catherine is an iintelligent and thoughtful person, though perhaps sheltered is a better way to put it and that sheltering and distance between what she wants and what other wants for her is blurred. But once that shock of abandonment comes, she sharpens up and the demeanor of De Havilland changes - and not simply there, when she finally confronts her father, but again after he passes away, and if she hasn't grown up then she's woken to what this life is around her. It's a transformative performance - via a character with one kg the great arcs of the 1940s Hollywood cinema - and an example of someone who conveys so much complexity - and notice how Catherine looks when she hears Morris's voice and then responds "Come in, Morris." Damn. What an actress.
In other words, The Heiress is about how a person, a woman in particular, has to understand their place in that "emotional brutal" world where status is everything and what is in the heart comes second and probably not at all. And the larger societal problems converge with the familial and personal and it creates a tremendous historical (and for 1949 or any year deeply Feminist) drama.
The Heiress means to punch a hole through your soul because, almost despite how we might at first look at Catherine like she is naive, there is not naivite but vulnerability. And it call comes down to money, doesn't it? When Catherine asks, with a newfound incredulity in the latter part of the story: "I love him - does that humiliate you?" We can feel the absence of everything that she had earlier, which was if not love than some kind of, dare on say, hope for something else outside of this existence.
But life isn't a Disney fairy tale and especially life in the upper crust of New York City in the latter 19th century could be as if not crueler than life in more "working class" straits. I totally get how this later influenced Age of Innocence (and to an extent Killers of the Flower Moon, especially the sickened realization in the latter part of the story), but The Heiress cuts somehow even deeper because of how Catherine's affection is sincere for so long - or, again, the hope for that life where a man can whisk her away to a grander place. She has everything materially someone could ask for, but material things can't replace what really matters - and of course Catherine's father knows this very well; cynically so.
Olivia De Havilland's performance is remarkable when taken in sum; at first, she seems so wide eyed to things she could come close to becoming an Anime caricature version of herself (cue up the stars and other effects around her head when Morris shows up, Montgomery Clift in one of his essentially beguiling and wretched roles), and I did wonder why she was so acclaimed. Not to say she isn't good in these early scenes, she absolutely is, but she is playing it so sincerely that you can't help but understand where her father and other characters come from in wondering how Catherine goes so all in on Morris... but it's important to note that hopeful doesn't mean stupid.
Catherine is an iintelligent and thoughtful person, though perhaps sheltered is a better way to put it and that sheltering and distance between what she wants and what other wants for her is blurred. But once that shock of abandonment comes, she sharpens up and the demeanor of De Havilland changes - and not simply there, when she finally confronts her father, but again after he passes away, and if she hasn't grown up then she's woken to what this life is around her. It's a transformative performance - via a character with one kg the great arcs of the 1940s Hollywood cinema - and an example of someone who conveys so much complexity - and notice how Catherine looks when she hears Morris's voice and then responds "Come in, Morris." Damn. What an actress.
In other words, The Heiress is about how a person, a woman in particular, has to understand their place in that "emotional brutal" world where status is everything and what is in the heart comes second and probably not at all. And the larger societal problems converge with the familial and personal and it creates a tremendous historical (and for 1949 or any year deeply Feminist) drama.