Jefferson in Paris [DVD]

Don't waste your money on this DVD. It is VERY poorly written, extremely poorly directed and a bad job of acting... but the problem starts with the bad adaptation which does not begin to properly portray the events and people as historical documents and letters have shown them to be. It was obviously written with overt prejudice and the intent to trash the character of Sally Hemings.This film tries to portray Sally as a scheming tramp who was ignorant and wormed her way into the bed of an innocent, vulnerable statesman. This DVD "Jefferson in Paris" is pure trash and not worth the money even if you obtained it for free.It is well known and documented that Sally Hemings was educated and tutored with Jefferson's daughter in France. She learned to read and write in both English and French. She was schooled in etiquette, dance and literature. She was intelligent, well mannered, well-spoken and educated with the qualities of a lady of high station who are taught how to walk, talk and carry themselves as ladies of means. Sally attended all the same lessons and was tutored with Jefferson's daughter Polly. While in France, Sally was dressed in fine gowns, attended aristocratic parties, balls and events. She was an escort and companion to both Jefferson and his daughter while they were in France.Another inaccurate portrayal in this movie was the depiction of an aged actor representing the French King Louis XVI as an elderly man in his 60's. The real King of France was beheaded at the age of 38. His Queen, Marie Antoinette was 37. It is apparent that the director was either ignorant of the facts or was determined to deliberately mislead the audience as is grossly obvious by the extremely offensive depiction of Sally Hemings in this movie. The roll written for the character of Sally Hemings is downright degrading and disgraceful. The dialogue and portrayal for Sally can only have been the product of a deeply prejudicial frame of mind and a twisted stereotype meant to completely degrade Sally's character in total contradiction with documented history concerning the true nature of Sally and her relationship with Thomas Jefferson.If you want to see an accurate portrayal of the life and mannerisms of Sally Hemings, then buy the DVD "Sally Hemings: An American Love Story" which is an excellent film with excellent direction and acting and was written to portray Sally and her relationship with Jefferson as history has recorded it. That DVD is less than 5 do11ars so quite affordable.Whomever was responsible for this "Jefferson in Paris" piece of trash should be ashamed. It is obviously the work of someone with deep racial prejudices trying to rewrite history to suit their own warped bigotry. The writer and director tried to twist Sally into some kind of scheming, money hungry tramp... because they could not face the truth of Jefferson's deep affections for Sally and the tender nature of the feelings and loyalty she had for him. This DVD tried to make it look like Sally imposed herself on Jefferson against his will. This DVD is unbelievably pitiful and was written to cast unwarranted blame upon Sally.Sally was the half sister to Jefferson's late wife and the aunt to his children. She was treated as an equal by the French aristocracy as well as the commoners who felt she would understand their plight. Jefferson was quite taken with Sally and it was not unusual to court females in their teens during that era. In France, you were considered a woman at age 13 as recently as the late 1960's and 70's. I used to live there. Both males and females were considered mature at that age as late as the 1970's. Even in the US, we had several states, including Texas, who allowed females to marry as young as 12 with parents permission... and this was as recently as the 1980's. The age taboos did not begin until the late 1990's... so it is important not to judge someone in the past based on modern morals.Considering the nature of things during that era, Jefferson had to protect Sally from crazies who might retaliate against her if he were to publicly acknowledge their relationship. Sally would have been in terrible danger from racial hatred and fanatics. She did, in fact, suffer to some degree from relatives and neighbors who terrorized her because of the close relationship she shared with Jefferson. Thus, they had a narrow line to walk.As it was, Sally still became the victim of retaliation after the story was published by Callender. You can see some of the belligerence she had to endure from some of Jefferson's relatives and enemies on the other DVD about the life of Sally Hemings.People often blame Jefferson for not doing more about enslavement during his Presidency... but the country was just barely hanging onto its independence after the Rev war and had to fight again in 1812. Any efforts to free the south would have been met with secession of the southern states which would have weakened the country's ability to maintain its independence. The Rev war would have been lost and the country would have been irreparably divided at the time when their cohesiveness was the only thread holding all of the colonies together in the pursuit of independence. The politicians remained on the fence until the country could be strong enough against foreign enemies to risk splitting the country into a civil war... and that's what it eventually took to accomplish the free south. If the colonies had been fighting over slavery during the revolutionary war, the British would have retaken the colonies while in turmoil and this country would have never achieved independence. It was a terrible price but freedom was finally achieved after the country had forged a strong independent nation which could stand alone.Save your money and buy the other DVD about Sally Hemings. You won't regret it.Another Video I highly recommend is called "Enslavement" which is about the life of Fanny Kemble, a British actress who married a southern plantation owner and became involved helping slaves escape on the underground railroad, costing her the custody of her daughters... but even despite her great sacrifice, she continued to help the slaves to freedom.

If anyone knows the histoty of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, they would know the movie is accurate. The first half of the movie is about Thomas Jefferson trying to have an affair with Maria Cosway. For the most part it failed. Sally went to Paris to help care for his daughter. He did impregnate Sally when she was 16 years of age. Her brother James had his fee paid by TJ to learn how to be a French chef. He promised Sally her freedom upon his death and her children when they reached the age of 21. Nothing was in writing. The story was told by James Madison (Jefferson's son thrrough Sally ).after he reached the age of around 60. He wrote down all the things he could remember about the life of the Hemings at Monticello. He had a 40 year relationship with Sally, and I believe he loved her. I don't believe she was as silly as she appeared in the movie. She really did not grow up around the local black slaves. Sally was the half sister of Jefferson's wife. All the Hemings lived at Monticello in the main house and not down below the mountain where the working slaves lived and socialized. She grew up around educated people and could read and write. After spending 2 years in Paris, she knew a lot of the French language. Her brother became a Chef schooled in French cuisine, worked at Monticello and was paid a salary. I enjoyed the movie. Historically it was very accurate. The only shortfall Is that the French spoke in French, and without subtitles I was lost. Basically we were seeing the beginning of the French Revolution.In my opinion, TJ loved Sally Hemings. He could not marry her because marriage between blacks and whites was illegal. Also, he propmised his wife of 10 years he would never remarry. So, to keep Sally with him legally he had to keep her enslaved. Her only household activities were to take care of her children and TJ. After he died she was free to do whatever she wanted, and she did. Also, he could not free one of his daughters (Harriet )through TJ, because females were never freed since they added to the inventory of slaves. He faked her runaway with her brother Bevely by giving her money and free stagecoach passage through his foreman to a safe haven in Virginia. She looked completly white and married a white man. All her brothers except Madison as depicted in the movie married white people. They never let on that they were children of TJ and Sally. In all, there were about 20 descedents of Elizabeth Hemings( Sally's mother )who lived at Monticello and did no physical labor. TJ who was an excellent violin player taught allhis enslaved sons to play the violin. Although he never showed them the affection he showed his daughter through his marriage, he taught them all something that they could use to support themselvs when they were freed at age 21. All his children were listed in his Farm Book. He never said they were his children, and he made certain there was no mention of them in any of his voluminous letter writings. The true identity of this was DNA evidence in 1998 from the grand children of Madison. The Jefferson Foundation therefore acknowledged that TJ was infact the father of of Sally Hemings children.Fred Palmieri

But this portrays him as some stupid buffoon

I've read several books on the life of Thomas Jefferson and this movie comes the closest to telling his real story as our Ambassador to France. Nick Nolte gives an extraordinary performance as the low-key Jefferson and is very convincing as the former President. If you watch this movie, you will be both entertained as well as informed about this early chapter in our history.

This isn't the best Merchant & Ivory movie, and the plot is subtle to the point of non-existent, but the production values are fantastic, and Nick Nolte warms up to being pretty good. (And I think he really looks a bit like Jefferson, too.) The music is fantastic and very well researched. Most of the historical detail is very well done. There are minor errors that only a Jefferson fanatic like me would notice (Jefferson says his first child died young, but actually his first child was Martha, the only one who survived him; Jefferson tells his daughter he's been asked to be secretary of state, but he didn't actually learn about this till he had returned to America--and other minor flaws). But there is much here for the Jefferson fan to love.

I remember seeing this film a few years and decided to buy it on dvd for further viewing. Yes its a good quality new dvd with an interesting story about Thomas Jefferson, the famous American statesman, based on his time in Paris during the French revolution. It throws light on his life at that time and his secret romance with his pretty young slave girl, Sally Hemmings, a secret and forbidden love story , which now seems to be proved as a fact via recent dna evidence.

Good movie, but had the wrong region code (not Europe).

A fascinating story

good movie

good-ok