Portrait of Jennie

Portrait of Jennie is a 1948 fantasy film based on the novel by Robert Nathan. The film was directed by William Dieterle and produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten. In 1934, impoverished painter Eben Adams meets a fey little girl named Jennie Appleton in Central Park, New York. She is wearing old-fashioned clothing. He makes a sketch of her from memory which involves him with art dealer Miss Spinney , who sees potential in him. This inspires him to paint a "Portrait Of Jennie". Eben encounters Jennie at intermittent intervals. Strangely, she appears to be... growing up much more rapidly than is possible. He soon falls in love with her but is puzzled by the fact that she seems to be experiencing events that he discovers took place many years previously as if they had just happened. He sets out to investigate but does not reveal what he discovers to anyone and is puzzled by what he finds. The book on which the film was based first attracted the attention of David O. Selznick, who immediately purchased it as a vehicle for Academy Award winner Jennifer Jones.
more