Why Haven’t You Seen ‘Effie Gray’?

The gorgeous film, featuring Riccardo Scamarcio and Claudia Cardinale, hasn’t been easy to find.

I’d been reading about Emma Thompson’s period piece for years, and excited about it, because it was being filmed in Venice and starred two Italian actors I was interested in, Riccardo Scamarcio and Claudia Cardinale. But why was it taking so long for the film to be released?

Claudia Cardinale and Riccardo Scamarcio

Then I started to read about the lawsuits accusing Thompson of plagiarizing other scripts with the same subject , that is, the weirdo marriage of “Effie” Gray (Dakota Fanning) and art critic John Ruskin (Greg Wise, Thompson’s husband). Thompson won the lawsuits and the film was finally released, but finding it in a theater became a challenge. After all that, and thinking, “Yay! I finally get to see Scamarcio in a gondola with old timey clothes”, I set out to find Effie Gray.

And I did, and it wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.

When Victorian London’s leading art critic John Ruskin marries Euphemia “Effie” Gray in 1848, Effie’s aim is to be a good wife and support her husband in every way, sharpening his pencils and the like, but as the saying goes, “he just wasn’t into her”. The story goes that the real Ruskin was grossed out by his young wife’s pubic hair, but this is speculation, and in the film, Effie is simply aware that he is repulsed by her body and doesn’t pay any attention to her.

They live with tyrannical and cold in-laws and she’s expected to do nothing, but do it perfectly. Luckily for Effie a kind older woman, played by Thompson, sees her increasing depression and befriends her. Effie and John take a trip to Venice (hence, Scamarcio and Cardinale in a gondola in old timey clothes) and then Effie gives up and finds someone who appreciates her.

And the whole thing is just beautiful. And odd. And a mesmerizing story.

You like Masterpiece theater, and Jane Austin, and Downton Abbey? What are you waiting for? Figure out where Effie Gray is playing in a theater near you and go! I can’t promise you that finding it will be easy, but it will be worth it.