JEFFERSON IN PARIS

Genre: Drama
Director: James Ivory
Rated: PG
Released: 1995
Country: FR

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Thomas Jefferson spent 1784 - 1789 as the American ambassador to France. These were significant years for him in his public and personal life, and fateful ones for France, where the Revolution was about to break out. Jefferson was 41 years old when he arrived from Virginia. His wife had died two years before, and six years before that he had drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence.French liberals and intellectuals turned eagerly to Jefferson to guide them toward a democratic form of government. As an ambassador at Versailles, he had a privileged view of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the corruptions of their court. This led him to give his full support to the movements for reform - although he was as oblivious as any French aristocrat of the horrors that the Revolution was about to let loose. Jefferson was still in Paris when the Bastille fell. While deploring the poverty of the people, Jefferson appreciated all the riches of French culture and civilisation. In his personal life he was profoundly affected by these years in Paris. A lonely widower, he entered into a love affair with a beautiful Anglo-Italian painter and musician, Maria Cosway.