Way back in 1979, before they became a powerhouse, Oscar-winning duo known for films such as “Remains of the Day” and “Howards End,” director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant spent a month in New Ipswich to film “The Europeans,” based on a story by Henry James.
The Park Theater in Jaffrey will screen “The Europeans” on Sunday, October 4, at 2 p.m., followed by a Q&A session.
The film’s main setting was New Ipswich’s Barrett House mansion, built around 1800, which is part of Historic New England. The film starred Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Tim Woodward and Lisa Eichhorn.
Anyone who remembers the filming or participated in the production is encouraged to attend the screening.
Steve Jackson, director of the Park Theater, said he has always been curious whether any movies were filmed in the Monadnock Region.
“I started to research around, and I came across ‘The Europeans.’ Every time I mention that the movie was shot in this region, people are just flabbergasted. I thought it was time we brought it back,” Jackson said.
Cullen Media Group recently acquired and fully restored the film. The Park Theater will show the restored version, followed by a reception and a recorded question-and-answer session with British actor Robin Ellis, who played the romantic lead alongside Lee Remick.
Other films shot in the region include the original 1995 “Jumanji,” filmed partly in Keene and Jaffrey, and “Summer,” based on an Edith Wharton story, which was filmed mostly in Jaffrey and Temple.
Historic New England, a nonprofit organization that collects, preserves, and restores historic objects, buildings, and landscapes, is partnering with the Park Theater to screen the film.
Daniel Ziarnik-Case, who has been a tour guide at Barrett House for 17 years, says some information about the movie is included on regular tours of the estate.
“A lot of people ask about it. They have seen the movie, and they come ask about certain scenes,” Ziarnik-Case said.
Barrett House rooms featured in the film include the dining room, a front parlor and the third-floor ballroom. According to Ziarnik-Case, one bed in a second-floor bedroom still has the Waverley linens that Merchant and Ivory created for the movie.
“One character in the film is a young woman having emotional problems, and she throws herself on this bed, and it’s still the same linens as in the film,” Ziarnik-Case said.
Many scenes were also shot on the grounds of the house.
British actor Robin Ellis, who is retired and living in the south of France, said he has wonderful memories of spending October 1979 in New England.
“We started about this time, in October, when the trees were really starting to change color. It took them about a month to change color. I had never seen it before, and there we were, right in the middle of it; and it was superb. It really was part of the film, and it added to the film. It’s one of the wonders of the world,” Ellis said.
Ellis remembers that a neighbor of the Barrett House was disgruntled about the filming. While the crew was trying to shoot one outdoor scene, they realized the neighbor had put a television playing outside on his windowsill to ruin the shot.
“I do remember that there was one scene where I was walking in the garden with Tim (Woodward), who played Clifford Wentworth, and there was a building behind us with a television playing outside on the windowsill. Apparently, this person objected to the film being made below him in the garden. I’m not sure how they got him to stop it,” Ellis said.
Both Jackson and Ellis said that at the time, no hotels in the region were large enough to accommodate the entire Merchant and Ivory film crew.
Ellis, who also starred in the original and new editions of “Poldark” on PBS, recalls the 45-minute drive to the hotel in Leominster, Mass.
“I believe it was the oldest Holiday Inn in the United States,” Ellis joked.
Based on a short novel by Henry James, “The Europeans” is about American siblings raised in Europe who return to visit their cousins in the wilds of New England. Merchant and Ivory made two more films based on Henry James’s work: “The Bostonians” and “The Golden Bowl.”
Ellis remembers that the production was low-budget and bare-bones.
“One day, we had come back from filming, and Ismail Merchant arrived from the supermarket with an enormous basket of food, and at 8 p.m. that night we sat down to a banquet of Indian food. He had spent 4 hours cooking. They were strapped for cash at the time,” Ellis said. “It was quite normal for him to improvise like that. Of course they went on to have this extraordinary career. James Ivory is still alive at 98; he won an Oscar at 89, which was really lovely.”
Ellis, who rewatched the film recently with his wife, Meredith, also remembers having to drive a horse and buggy down a dirt road in New Ipswich.
“On my very first day, here I was, I had never been to America before, and I knew nothing about horses, and I had to drive a buggy, with a world-famous actress by my side,” Ellis said. “That is not the sort of thing one forgets.”
For more information, go to theparktheatre.org.
