Джефферсон в Париже: Роман и политика на пороге революции.

Jefferson in Paris is a 1995 historical drama film, directed by James Ivory, and previously entitled Head and Heart. The screenplay, by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, is a semi fictional account of Thomas Jefferson's tenure as the Ambassador of the United States to France before his presidency and of his alleged relationships with Italian English artist Maria Cosway and his slave, Sally Hemings. The film was critically and commercially unsuccessful, grossing $5.9 million on a $14 million budget.

Set in the period 1784–1789, the film portrays Jefferson when he was US minister to France at Versailles before the French Revolution. French liberals and intellectuals hope he will lead them away from the corruption of the court of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and toward a more democratic form of government. Although deploring the poverty of the common people, he embraces the riches of French culture and civilization. It is his first time abroad, and he takes advantage of the opportunity to extend his knowledge of liberal arts and science while absorbing the refinements France has to offer. A lonely widower, Jefferson develops a close friendship with Maria Cosway, a beautiful (and married) Anglo Italian painter and musician. Although she becomes increasingly devoted to him, he is attached to his memory of his late wife, to whom he promised that he would not remarry, and to his two younger daughters. His elder daughter is especially possessive, and Patsy becomes jealous of Maria's influence on her father. Maria becomes his confidant and correspondent, and their relationship soon becomes romantic, though it is complicated by Maria's marriage and Thomas's vow to his late wife never to remarry. Later, Jefferson becomes attracted to Sally Hemings, his enslaved maid and companion of his younger daughter Polly. Three quarters white in ancestry, she is his late wife's half sister. Their father had taken Sally's slave mother as a concubine after he was widowed for the third time; Sally is the sixth of their children. Sally's enslaved brother James Hemings is also in Paris, training to be a French chef for Jefferson at Monticello. It is strongly implied that Jefferson begins a sexual relationship with Sally, which Patsy is aware of and disgusted by. She implies the truth to Maria, who witnesses the familiarity between Jefferson and Sally first hand and, already having felt neglected by Jefferson, swiftly ends her relationship with him. When George Washington offers Jefferson the post of Secretary of State, he accepts and prepares to sail home with his family. Sally reveals to James that she is pregnant by Jefferson, but James, having enjoyed his freedom in Paris, is unwilling to return to the United States and urges Sally to remain with him for the sake of her child. It is only when Jefferson promises, making an oath upon the Bible, that he will give James and Sally their freedom that they consent to return with him. Jefferson extends his oath to promise freedom to all of Sally's children as well upon his death, with Patsy bearing witness and swearing to carry out his promise.

Nick Nolte Thomas Jefferson
Gwyneth Paltrow Patsy Jefferson
Estelle Eonnet Polly Jefferson
Thandiwe Newton Sally Hemings (credited as Thandie Newton)
Seth Gilliam James Hemings
Todd Boyce William Short
Nigel Whitmey John Trumbull
Nicolas Silberg Monsieur Petit
Catherine Samie Cook
Lionel Robert Cook's Helper

Greta Scacchi Maria Cosway
Simon Callow Richard Cosway
Lambert Wilson Marquis de Lafayette
Elsa Zylberstein Adrienne de Lafayette
William Moseley Georges Washington de Lafayette
Jean Pierre Aumont d'Hancarville
Anthony Valentine British Ambassador

Michael Lonsdale Louis XVI
Charlotte de Turckheim Marie Antoinette
Damien Groëlle The Dauphin
Louise Balsan Madame Royale
Valérie Toledano Madame Elizabeth
Vernon Dobtcheff King's Translator

Nancy Marchand Madame Abbesse
Jessica Lloyd Julia

Daniel Mesguich Mesmer
Thibault de Montalembert Assistant

William Christie Conductor
Jean Paul Fouchécourt Dardanus
Ismail Merchant Tipoo Sultin's Ambassador

Vincent Cassel Camille Desmoulins
Martine Chevallier Mademoiselle Contat

James Earl Jones Madison Hemings
Beatrice Winde Mary Hemings
Tim Choate Reporter

The film was shot on location in Paris, at the Desert de Retz and the Palace of Versailles. The scenes at the Desert reenact the actual visit made by Jefferson and Cosway in September 1787. Many of French supporting cast are members of Comédie Française. It premiered at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. Antonio Sacchini's 1784 opera Dardanus appears in the film. Also Marc Antoine Charpentier' "Leçons de ténèbres", performed by William Christie and Les Arts Florissants with Jean Paul Fouchécourt, Sandrine Piau, Sophie Daneman, and Jory Vinikour. Arcangelo Corelli's La Folia is performed by Nolte, Scacchi, and Paltrow, but the soundtrack CD is re dubbed by others. Although Gwyneth Paltrow studied harpsichord for the film, her playing is dubbed by Jory Vinikour, including pieces by Jacques Duphly and Claude Balbastre. Scacchi's performance of Maria Cosway's song, "Mormora", was dubbed. The film was budgeted at $14 million.

The film opened on two screens in New York and Los Angeles on March 31, 1995.

The film grossed $61,349 in its opening weekend from just two screens. It went on to gross $2,473,668 in the US and Canada. It grossed $3.4 million internationally for a worldwide total of $5.9 million. Since then, a 1998 Nature study found a match between the male lines of a Jefferson and one descendant of Hemings. In 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation issued its own report on the DNA test results in light of other historical evidence and said that it was "highly probable" that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings, the youngest child of Sally, and "most likely" that he was the father of all six, four of whom lived to adulthood. This claim is still disputed by some.