A Room with a View
Overview
E.M. Forster's 1908 novel, A ROOM WITH A VIEW, is adapted for the screen by director James Ivory in this beautifully lighthearted tale of Edwardian manners. Helena Bonham Carter stars as a young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch. When Lucy and her spinster chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith), travel to Florence, they meet an unconventional Englishman, Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott), and his 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 the stiff, very proper Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis), but after finding out the Emersons have moved close by, Lucy has a hard time ignoring her attraction to the unsuitable George. Producer Ismail Merchant considered A ROOM WITH A VIEW Merchant Ivory's first genuine blockbuster, and it enjoyed more popular success than any previous Merchant Ivory film. Screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was awarded an Academy Award for her screenplay, and the film itself was nominated for Best Picture. Director James Ivory's tale also features British movie icons Judi Dench and Simon Callow. A ROOM WITH A VIEW was the first of three Forster novels (the other two were MAURICE and HOWARDS END) adapted by Merchant Ivory Productions.
Awards:
1986 - Academy Awards - Best Adapted Screenplay - Winner
Main Cast & Crew:
James Ivory - Director
Maggie Smith
Helena Bonham Carter
Daniel Day-Lewis
Denholm Elliott
Julian Sands
Simon Callow
Judi Dench
Rosemary Leach
Rupert Graves
Patrick Godfrey
Details
- Format: DVD
- Color Format: Color
- UPC: 715515157216
- Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE
- Rating: Not Rated
- Release Date: September 2015
Movie Reviews
Reviews:
"...The characters round the central couple beautifully....Most memorable of all, unsurprisingly is Daniel Day Lewis....The performance is a gem..." - 03/01/1985 Sight and Sound, p.134-5
"...Blithely, elegantly funny....Full of rich roles, splendidly acted..." - 03/07/1986 New York Times, p.C6
Included in the New York Times "10 BEST FILMS OF 1986" - 12/28/1986 New York Times, p.II,19
"...Thoughtful....A virtually irresistible film..." - 03/21/1986 Los Angeles Times, p.C1
"...[A] luminous adaptation of E.M. Forster's class-crossing classic..." - 01/11/2002 Entertainment Weekly, p.29
"[T]he film is worth watching for it sumptuous views of Tuscany and the English countryside alone, to say nothing of the flawless performances of its who's who cast..." - 05/01/2004 Premiere, p.106-7
"Helena Bonham Carter is dark and brooding as the heroine and Maggie Smith is perfect as her dotty companion." - 04/09/2004 Chicago Sun-Times, p.33
4 stars out of 5 -- "Florence has never looked lovelier or England so bucolic." - 07/01/2012 Total Film
"[T]he irresistible fantasy of being transformed by a visit to another country has rarely been so gloriously realized." - 09/30/2015 A.V. Club
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