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Amazon.co.uk Review
The prestigious film-making trio of producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala had made other critically acclaimed films before A Room with a View was released in 1985, but it was this popular film that made them art-house superstars. Splendidly adapted from the novel by E.M. Forster, it's a comedy of the heart, a passionate romance and a study of repression within the class system of manners and mores. It's that system of rigid behaviour that prevents young Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) from accepting the loving advances of a free-spirited suitor (Julian Sands), who fears that she will follow through with her engagement to a priggish intellectual (Daniel Day-Lewis) whose capacity for passion is virtually non-existent. During and after a trip to Italy with her protective companion (Maggie Smith), Lucy gradually gets in touch with her true emotions. The fun of watching A Room with a View comes from seeing how Lucy's thoughts and feelings finally arrive at the same romantic conclusion. Through an abundance of humour both subtle and overt, the film rose to an unexpected level of popular appeal. The Merchant-Ivory team received eight Academy Award nominations for their efforts, and won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction and Costume Design. --Jeff Shannon
DVD Description
A Room with a View is a part-love story, part-attack on the English class system and manners of Edwardian times. Based on E.M. Forster's 1908 novel of the same name, the film adaptation was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. One of three Forster novels adapted by Merchant Ivory Productions, A Room With A View has enjoyed more popular success than any previous Merchant Ivory film. Screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala received an Academy Award for her screenplay, and the film itself--which also features Judi Dench and Simon Callow--was nominated for Best Picture. The A Room With A View (Special Edition) DVD contains many extra features, including: BBC Breakfast Time special appearances and reports; a tribute to E. M. Forster (hosted by James Mossman); a Film '96 Merchant/Ivory tribute profile; and additional commentaries by Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, Tony Pierce Roberts and Simon Callow.
Synopsis
When a young Englishwoman named Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) and her spinster chaperone Charlotte (Maggie Smith) travel to Italy, they become acquainted with a free-spirited and unconventional Englishman named Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliot), and his enigmatic and romantically unhappy son, George (Julian Sands). After George makes the grievous mistake of kissing Lucy during a picnic in the Florentine hills, Charlotte rushes her back to England. Safely home, Lucy becomes engaged to her stiff and very proper fiancé Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis), however, after finding out the Emersons have moved close by she has a hard time ignoring her attraction to the unsuitable George.
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Customer Reviews
Among the extras are interviews with Simon Callow and Daniel Day-Lewis. The most interesting extra for me was a 1970 BBC tribute to E. M. Forster, featuring footage, photographs and quotations of himself and interviews with some of his friends, critics and contemporaries, including Frank Kermode, Christopher Ishwerwood and George Steiner.
Priceless!
The heroine, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter really could do a great turn in a corset) plays Beethoven with a passion. Meeting the unconventional Emersons (a father and son) on the Grand Tour, she is reprimanded by her very correct spinster cousin, Charlotte (Maggie Smith). And what is the real issue at hand? - the ladies have been shortchanged out of a "room with a view" of Florence's Duomo. The Emersons have a view, and "indelicately" offer to swap rooms. What follows is a comedy of manners, with a contrast between the passion of the strong sunlight of an Italian cornfield (with just the faint hint of drains in the air) and the ordered home life in Kent, where the roses must be tied up so they don't blow about in the wind and girls mustn't bathe in the woodland pool. Played by a faultless ensemble cast, Lucy steadfastly makes the wrong choices throughout the film, nearly marrying the wrong man (a toe curling performance by Daniel Day Lewis). Throughout we're willing her to fall for the passionate, questing soul of George Emerson (who wouldn't swoon into Julian Sands' arms?). She is only rescued by the amiable old Mr Emerson (ah there was a time when every film had Denholm Elliot in it) who thankfully is prepared to speak plainly. This is a film to reflect the British psyche and is one of the best of the Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala collaborations.
Is this film really over 20 years old? Once banned for nudity (on UK television, I remember it showing in C4's groundbreaking 'banned' movie season), it's an example of how literary adaptations should and can be done. This is a personal favourite, however a warning - those who are not fans of Miz Bonham Carter, of Forsters novel or of Merchant Ivory would be better off steering clear, you won't enjoy this film.
of the many favourable reviews. Read more
Found it extremely boring and was glad when the end came round.
I didn't get it
It didn't arrive in the mail
It wasn't sent
I would like to have it
Especially as I have paid... Read more
A brilliant merchant Ivory production!
The story is set in Florence and the English countryside, Dorking. Read more
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