The Portrait of Mrs. John Lennox

In the late 1860s, a wealthy young man hires an artist to paint a portrait of his fiancée, only to find that the portrait reveals to him a truth about her that he would rather not know. Based on an early short story by Henry James, “The Portrait of Mrs. John Lennox” is a meditation on the strange communicative power of artistic representation, in which the painting in question is never shown. The film was shot entirely on Super 8 -- the director felt that this medium would be especially good for this film, as it gives it the film the feeling of something from the distant past, something long lost, only now being pulled from the archives.

  • Rebecca Shoptaw
    Director
    Girl, Sweetvoiced, Middlemarch: The Series
  • Rebecca Shoptaw
    Writer
  • Molly Bremer
    Key Cast
  • Liev Manck
    Key Cast
  • David Ladwig
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Experimental, Historical
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 51 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 31, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Super 8mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Rebecca Shoptaw

Rebecca Shoptaw is the director behind a number of award-winning short films, along with the critically-acclaimed web series "Middlemarch: The Series."

Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, Le Monde, and i-D magazine, and screened at festivals internationally such as BFI Flare, NewFest, and the Pilot Light TV Festival.

She has an abiding interest in adaptation, and is always experimenting, trying to figure out new ways to use cinematic language to take what seems untranslatable in writing and get it onscreen.

She is based in NYC.

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