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From Amazon.co.uk
The second of the Merchant/Ivory films (A Room with a View, Howard's End), Maurice deals with a theme few period pieces dare mention--a young man's struggle with his homosexuality. It's not just a gay coming-of-age story, however. The hero wrestles with British class society as much as his personal and sexual identity.
The film opens on a stormy, windswept beach, as an older man awkwardly instructs young, fatherless Maurice Hall (James Wilby) in the "sacred mysteries" of sex. The same turbulent, wordless struggle with passion lasts throughout this slowly evolving, beautifully filmed story. Novelist E M Forster's brainy, British melodrama hinges on choice and compulsion, as the pensive hero falls for two completely different men. First comes frail, suppressed Clive (Hugh Grant), who wants nothing more than classical Platonic harmony ... and a straight lifestyle. (Grant's performance is so convincing, one wonders how he ever became a heterosexual sex symbol.) After Clive's wedding, Maurice turns to hypnosis to cure his unspeakable longings. Unfortunately, his "cure" is interrupted by Clive's lustful, brooding, barely literate gamekeeper Scudder (Rupert Graves), a worker more at home gutting rabbits than discussing the classics. Maurice's love for a "social inferior" forces him to confront his illicit desire and his ingrained class snobbery. --Grant Balfour
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Set against the stifling conformity of pre-World War I English society, E.M. Forster's Maurice is a story of coming to terms with one's sexuality and identity in the face of disapproval and misunderstanding. Maurice Hall and Clive Durham find themselves falling in love at Cambridge. In a time when homosexuality was punishable by imprisonment, the two must keep their feelings for one another a complete secret. After a friend is arrested and disgraced for 'the unspeakable vice of the Greeks', Clive abandons his forbidden love and marries a young woman. Maurice however, struggles with questions of his identity and self-confidence, seeking the help of a hypnotist to rid himself of his undeniable urges. But while staying with Clive and his shallow wife, Anne, Maurice is seduced by the affectionate and yearning servant Alec Scudder, an event that brings about profound changes in Maurice's life and outlook. Sparkling direction by James Ivory, distinguished performances from the ensemble cast, and a charged score by Richard Robbins all combine to create a film of immense power, one that is romantic, moving, and a story of love and self-discovery for all audiences. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Oscar Academy Awards, Venice Film Festival, ...Maurice
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 59 people found the following review helpful
By DR
VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
Maurice, which is based on E.M. Forster's heartbreaking and beautiful semi-autobiographical novel of the same name is a wonderful Merchant Ivory productions.
James Wilby stars as Maurice, a young man at Cambridge who begins to develop feelings for his friend and fellow student Clive (Hugh Grant). The feeling turns out to be mutual and the friends soon fall in love with one another, but must keep their relationship secret because of the strict Edwardian society which they inhabit.
Clive maintains that the pair should keep their relationship purely "platonic" which Maurice accepts, despite feeling a need to seal their love physically. When Clive goes on a trip to Greece, he seems to snub Maurice and it soon becomes clear that he has different feelings about their affair.
Maurice is understandably heartbroken, but his ordeal is not over there. He soon discovers that Clive is engaged to be married to a woman named Anne. He is devestated. The question is, will he recover from the break-up and find love elsewhere or is he doomed to forever be without love in a society that does not accept people of his kind?
The film, which was directed by James Ivory, is a heartbreaking account of one man's struggle to accept his sexuality in a world that tells him that everything about his true inclination is wrong. It also highlights the plight of homosexuals everywhere who were forced to hide their identities because of laws against homosexuality in Britain and around the world.
The film is a joy to look at - the cinematography, the art direction and the costume design being a particular highlight - and is very beautiful, capturing the Edwardian period perfectly. James Wilby is excellent as Maurice and Hugh Grant performs well acting against type.... Read more ›
James Wilby stars as Maurice, a young man at Cambridge who begins to develop feelings for his friend and fellow student Clive (Hugh Grant). The feeling turns out to be mutual and the friends soon fall in love with one another, but must keep their relationship secret because of the strict Edwardian society which they inhabit.
Clive maintains that the pair should keep their relationship purely "platonic" which Maurice accepts, despite feeling a need to seal their love physically. When Clive goes on a trip to Greece, he seems to snub Maurice and it soon becomes clear that he has different feelings about their affair.
Maurice is understandably heartbroken, but his ordeal is not over there. He soon discovers that Clive is engaged to be married to a woman named Anne. He is devestated. The question is, will he recover from the break-up and find love elsewhere or is he doomed to forever be without love in a society that does not accept people of his kind?
The film, which was directed by James Ivory, is a heartbreaking account of one man's struggle to accept his sexuality in a world that tells him that everything about his true inclination is wrong. It also highlights the plight of homosexuals everywhere who were forced to hide their identities because of laws against homosexuality in Britain and around the world.
The film is a joy to look at - the cinematography, the art direction and the costume design being a particular highlight - and is very beautiful, capturing the Edwardian period perfectly. James Wilby is excellent as Maurice and Hugh Grant performs well acting against type.... Read more ›
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Sadly, there are many occasions on which well-meaning film-makers have quite frankly butchered good books, where their metamorphosis onto the big screen has not gone smoothly. I must say, however, that James Ivorys' adaptation of E.M Forsters' classic novel, Maurice, is a welcome exception.
Ivory captures the essence of this book superbly, in terms of character, dialogue and fundamentals such as plot, which is largely in keeping with the original story-line. Where it differs, it does so effectively and plausibly, and this does not detract from the sense of its over-all loyalty to the novel.
Splendid acting is in evidence throughout from James Wilby and Hugh Grant, as well as Rupert
Graves and a good supporting cast. Wilby portrays the conflicted eponymous hero impressively, moving smoothly through a range of emotions, from moments of exuberance, uncertainty and tourtured insecurity.
Although the crucial theme of Maurice is homosexuality in an age which criminalized it, other issues such as social class, individuality/conformity and love mean that it is compelling on other levels too, making it an all-round joy of pre-World War One drama, in which innocence and idealism are still largely possible.
Ivory captures the essence of this book superbly, in terms of character, dialogue and fundamentals such as plot, which is largely in keeping with the original story-line. Where it differs, it does so effectively and plausibly, and this does not detract from the sense of its over-all loyalty to the novel.
Splendid acting is in evidence throughout from James Wilby and Hugh Grant, as well as Rupert
Graves and a good supporting cast. Wilby portrays the conflicted eponymous hero impressively, moving smoothly through a range of emotions, from moments of exuberance, uncertainty and tourtured insecurity.
Although the crucial theme of Maurice is homosexuality in an age which criminalized it, other issues such as social class, individuality/conformity and love mean that it is compelling on other levels too, making it an all-round joy of pre-World War One drama, in which innocence and idealism are still largely possible.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By schumann_bg
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
Every time I watch Maurice I fall in love with it afresh, it is so full of feeling, and the ending goes against everything one might expect. I watched several Merchant Ivory films but this is the one that stands out for me. The fact that it broaches a taboo subject for the time it is set in gives it just the edge the beautifully detailed, well-upholstered style needs to take flight, standing as it does in some conflict with it. We enjoy the material world it shows, and the style of the section shot in Cambridge, for instance, but also realise it isn't going to make Maurice happy. The success of the film hangs on its three male leads, really, with James Wilby giving a particularly stunning performance as the hero, heroic for his honesty and sincerity of feeling. You so want him to break away from the stifling influences of those around him, and the appearance of Scudder has real magic. The scene where he introduces him to his old teacher in the museum has something totally fantastic, a mystery that makes it a great scene in British cinema for me. The same holds true for the scene when Scudder breaks into his bedroom - it was one of those moments of my youthful cinema-going that I shall never forget! I love the way it suggests that love knows no bounds, and the final moments of the film are amazing, of course not without their ambiguity, but leaving you walking on air nonetheless!
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By S. Hapgood
VINE™ VOICE
Format:VHS Tape
I feel a bit cheesy for using that title, but I can't think of anything better. This is a love-story. Understandably, because of the gay content, it is also very political, but if you can step aside from all that you will enjoy it's true heart so much better. This is what I am sure E M Forster intended. He wasn't into making big political statements, if he was he would have have done as his friends urged him to, and had the novel published when homosexuality was legalised in 1967. (Instead it wasn't published in his lifetime. Although he wrote it way back in 1913 he didn't want to shock his mother). But there is no doubt to my mind that Forster was an incurable romantic, "A Room With A View" should prove that, and if "Maurice" was about a star-crossed man-woman relationship as that one was, we wouldn't be in any doubt that we were in Romance with a big R territory.
Maurice (played absolutely superbly by James Wilby) is a young upper-class Edwardian, constantly fighting his own inner demons about his sexuality. Whilst at Cambridge he forms an intense attachment to a fellow student, Clive, (Hugh Grant, again brilliantly acted). When a mutual friend is imprisoned with hard labour for soliciting a soldier outside a pub, Clive gets the jitters and backs off, retreating into starchy middle-class married respectability. Maurice meanwhile goes the rounds of doctors and psychiatrists, trying to find out if he can be "cured". During a weekend visit to Clive's country house he meets Alec Scudder, Clive's rather rough-and-ready gamekeeper. I know what you're thinking, gay version of "Lady Chatterley's Lover"! But I think, with all respect to D H Lawrence, this is better.
... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
DVD FILM OF MAURICE
I love my purchase of this film on DVD. I loved this film because Hugh Grant was in it and I love Hugh Grant. I was impressed with the efficiency and promptness of its delivery. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great!
Knew nothing about this film except that it was produced by Merchant Ivory so I knew it must be a winner. They also produced my favouring of all time, A Room With A View.
Published 4 months ago by JoJumps
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best romance in the world
I think this film is one of the best romances I have ever seen. I am ashamed to have never seen it before this year, as I have been a lover of Merchant Ivory for a long time... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Tania Poole
5.0 out of 5 stars
brillant
one and a while a movie come along which you identify with at some point in you life and i think this film covered this delicate and personel matter extremely well 10 out 10
Published 6 months ago by henryone
5.0 out of 5 stars
A film to be treasured
A brave move for Merchant Ivory to even consider making this (once banned) E.M Forster novel, it was never going to be a huge commercial success due to its subject matter but still... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr Sir
3.0 out of 5 stars
Happy 25th Anniversary!
I bought 2 DVD British version of "The Merchant Ivory Collection" and regretted that I haven't carefully read the review warning this doesn't have subtitles. Read more
Published 9 months ago by non-English native
3.0 out of 5 stars
Book `Maurice` to film
The book to film omits the novels philosophical dialogue and also many subplots. 1) The film should have stuck more to the book, not deleted scenes essential to it nor added ones... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Chandos
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another;great ,& a must Watch Film; By Merchant Ivory.Hugh,Grant &...
I Bought This DVD;Maurice;;by The Exellent Merchant Ivory.& Tells the Story ;Pre War ;One] of Two Cambridge Graduates;;& There Live & Loves a Lavish Prodouction:& Brilliant But Sad... Read more
Published 13 months ago by JOHN .From Clitheroe
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible, so true to the novel.
I seldom find a film adaptation of a novel so true to the original storyline. When reading this novel I connected with the characters incredibly and felt I connected with the... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Divine.M
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth a watch
Not knowing quite what to expect of this film, I found it pretty profoundly moving. It's sensitively and splendidly acted, and acts as an eye-opening reminder of the tragedy of... Read more
Published 14 months ago by anngriffx
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