A Room with a View
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A Room With a View
Plot
Adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster, A Room with a View is a shining example of Merchant-Ivory's ability to achieve maximum quality and opulence at minimum cost. Set during the Edwardian Era, the film stars Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, who like all proper young British ladies is compelled to tour Europe in the company of an older chaperone -- in this instance, her spinster cousin Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith). While in Italy, the ladies make the acquaintance of a wide variety of personalities; the most fascinating of their fellow tourists -- at least in Lucy's eyes -- is free-spirited George Emerson (Julian Sands). Aware that her cousin is becoming too familiar with Emerson, Charlotte demands that Lucy return to England posthaste. Lucy complacently settles for the tiresomely traditional courtship of nerdish Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis) -- and then Mr. Emerson moves into the neighborhood. Lucy now finds herself on the horns of a dilemma: Should she opt for a safe, proper marriage to Cecil, or the bohemian unpredictability of the charismatic Emerson? A winner of three Academy Awards, A Room with a View is not what one could call fast-moving, but fans of the Merchant-Ivory team will enjoy luxuriating in the film's leisurely pace and stimulating cast of characters. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviReview
Though they had been making films together for over two decades, director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant didn't reach widespread popular or critical success until 1986's A Room With a View. Adapted by their frequent collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from one of E.M. Forster's lighter novels, the movie is a perfectly weighted, gorgeously staged comedy of manners. In her second film, Helena Bonham Carter made quite an impression as Lucy, and she spent much of the decade typecast in stuffy period-piece roles. Daniel Day Lewis provides spot-on work as the uptight, priggish suitor Cecil, a marked contrast to his almost polar-opposite role in Stephen Frears's My Beautiful Laundrette, which marked him as a new actor of unusual versatility. He would become a sex symbol two years later in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Room was nominated for eight Academy Awards and brought home three, including one for Jhabvala's adaptation. ~ Brendon Hanley, RoviCast
- Maggie Smith - Charlotte Bartlet
- Helena Bonham Carter - Lucy Honeychurch
- Denholm Elliott - Mr. Emerson
- Julian Sands - George Emerson
- Daniel Day-Lewis - Cecil Vyse
Credit
Elio Altramura - Art Director, Jenny Beavan - Costume Designer, John Bright - Costume Designer, James Ivory - Director, Humphrey Dixon - Editor, Richard Robbins - Composer (Music Score), Christine Beveridge - Makeup, Brian Ackland-Snow - Production Designer, Gianni Quaranta - Production Designer, Brian Savegar - Production Designer, Tony Pierce-Roberts - Cinematographer, Ismail Merchant - Producer, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Screenwriter, E.M. Forster - Book Author| A Room For Romeo Brass (1999 Film), A Rookie's Cookie (1943 Film) | |
| A Room With a View (2007 Film), A Room and a Half (2009 Film) |
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A Room with a View
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A Room with a View (film)
| A Room with a View | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | James Ivory |
| Produced by | Ismail Merchant |
| Screenplay by | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala |
| Based on | A Room with a View by E.M. Forster |
| Starring | Maggie Smith Helena Bonham Carter Denholm Elliott Julian Sands Daniel Day-Lewis Judi Dench |
| Music by | Richard Robbins (score) Giacomo Puccini (sung by Kiri Te Kanawa) |
| Cinematography | Tony Pierce-Roberts |
| Editing by | Humphrey Dixon |
| Studio | Merchant Ivory Productions Goldcrest Film Four International |
| Distributed by | Curzon Film Distributors (UK) Cinecom Pictures (US) |
| Release date(s) | 13 December 1985 (RCFP) 11 April 1986 (United Kingdom) 23 May 1986 (United States) |
| Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million |
| Box office | $20,966,644[1] |
A Room with a View is a 1985 British drama film directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. The film is a close adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel of the same name, and even uses his chapter titles to divide the film into sections.
The film stars Helena Bonham Carter as a young woman in the restrictive Edwardian culture of turn-of-the-twentieth-century England and her love for a free-spirited young man. Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands, Simon Callow, Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Rupert Graves round out the principal cast. Elliott and Smith were nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, but lost to Michael Caine and Dianne Wiest from Hannah and Her Sisters.
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Contents
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Plot
Miss Lucy Honeychurch from an English hamlet in Surrey is on holiday in Italy with her much older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. Charlotte is conventionally English, with an extremely restrictive personality and tends to get her way by expressing her emotions to manipulate others. Lucy has been brought up in an upper class but loving and easygoing household, and had fewer inhibitions, which creates a strong tension between Charlotte and herself. They are in contrast with the more free-thinking and free-spirited backdrop of Italy. At a small pensione Lucy meets such people as Reverend Beebe, the two Miss Alans, and the author Miss Eleanor Lavish, as well as the aging Mr. Emerson and his handsome, philosophical son, George, who becomes friends with Charlotte. These men, although also English, represent the forward-thinking ideals of the turn-of-the-century, seeking to leave behind the repression and caution that was the norm in Victorian times. At first, the two Emerson men seem strange and unfamiliar to Lucy and Charlotte. The men seem unaware of finer upper class Victorian manners, and offer Lucy and Charlotte a room with a view where the gentlemen have already slept, and Charlotte fusses until she must give in or appear overbearingly rude. As Lucy begins her journey to maturity, she finds herself drawn to George due to his mysterious thinking and readily expressed emotions.
A number of people residing at the pensione take a carriage ride in the country. A mischievous Italian driver gets back at Charlotte by misdirecting an unchaperoned Lucy to George in a barley field as he admires the view. George suddenly embraces and passionately kisses Lucy as she approaches him. Charlotte has followed Lucy, witnesses the act, and quickly stops the intimacy. George's unreserved passion shocks Lucy, but also lights a secret desire and romance in her heart. Charlotte suggests George kissing her was the act of a rake. Charlotte makes reference to a heartbreak from her youth that occurred the same way and has behaved accordingly with disgust and anger toward George. Charlotte uses guilt to coerce Lucy to secrecy to save both their reputations as a young lady and a chaperone, but it is mostly for her own benefit. Normally, if a young man kissed a young lady, an engagement should be announced to preserve her reputation, but Charlotte considers George to be an undesirable influence. Upon returning to England, Lucy tells her mother nothing due to Charlotte's influence, and pretends to forget the incident. She accepts a marriage proposal from an uptight, but respectable and wealthy man named Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis). However, she soon learns that both George and his father have moved to her small village and will be her neighbors due to a letter from Cecil Vyse inviting them to reside in an empty cottage.
The appearance of George soon disrupts Lucy's plans and causes her suppressed feelings to resurface, complicated by the supposed need for secrecy. Lucy consistently refuses George's attempts to woo her because of Charlotte's admonitions. A confused Lucy breaks her engagement to Cecil due to George's influence, and plans to travel with the two Miss Alans, this time to escape the nearness of George. George has also decided that he must move for peace of mind and makes arrangements. Lucy stops by Reverend Beebe's and is confronted by George's father before they are to leave town. Lucy runs down the road and catches up with her mother's carriage and reveals the truth about her feelings. At the end, we see George and Lucy honeymooning in the Italian pensione where they met, in the room with the view.
Cast
- In Florence
- Maggie Smith – Charlotte Bartlett
- Helena Bonham-Carter – Lucy Honeychurch
- Denholm Elliott – Mr. Emerson
- Julian Sands – George Emerson
- Simon Callow – The Reverend Mr. Beebe
- Patrick Godfrey – The Reverend Mr. Eager, Chaplain of the Anglican Church in Florence
- Judi Dench – Eleanor Lavish, a novelist
- Fabia Drake – Miss Catharine Alan
- Joan Henley – Miss Teresa Alan
- Amanda Walker – The Cockney Signora
- In England
- Daniel Day-Lewis – Cecil Vyse
- Maria Britneva – Mrs Vyse, Cecil's mother
- Rosemary Leach – Mrs Honeychurch, Lucy's mother
- Rupert Graves – Freddy Honeychurch, Lucy's brother
- Peter Cellier – Sir Harry Otway, a landlord
- Mia Fothergill – Minnie Beebe
- Other cast
- Kitty Aldridge – New Lucy
- Brigid Erin Bates – Maid at Windy Corner
- Isabella Celani – Persephone
- Luigi Di Fiore – Murdered Youth
- Matyelok Gibbs – New Charlotte
- Mirio Guidelli – Santa Croce Guide
- Freddy Korner – Mr. Floyd
- Patty Lawrence – Mrs. Butterworth
- Elizabeth Marangoni – Miss Pole
- Peter Munt – Coachman
- Lucca Rossi – Phaeton
- Stefano Serboli – Fighting Youth
- Phillida Sewell – Lady at Sir Harry's Garden Party
- Margaret Ward – Lady at Sir Harry's Garden Party
- Cameos
- Richard Robbins – Party Guest
- James Wilby – Party Guest
Awards
- Wins
- Academy Awards: Best Art Direction (Brian Ackland-Snow), Best Costume Design (Jenny Beavan), Best Adapted Screenplay (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)[2]
- BAFTAs: Best Actress (Maggie Smith), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), Best Costume Design (Jenny Beavan), Best Film (James Ivory), Best Production Design (Brian Ackland-Snow)[3]
- Evening Standard British Film Awards: Best Film (James Ivory), Best Technical/Artistic Achievement (Tony Pierce-Roberts)[3]
- Golden Globes: Best Supporting Actress (Maggie Smith)[4]
- Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Denholm Elliott), Best Supporting Actress (Maggie Smith)[3]
- London Critics Circle Film Awards: Best Film (James Ivory)[5]
- National Board of Review: Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)[6]
- New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Best Cinematography (Tony Pierce-Roberts), Best Supporting Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)[7]
- Writers Guild of America: Best Adapted Screenplay (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala)[8]
- Nominations
- Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Denholm Elliott), Best Supporting Actress (Maggie Smith), Best Picture (Ismail Merchant), Best Cinematographer (Tony Pierce-Roberts), Best Director (James Ivory)[9]
- BAFTAs: Best Supporting Actor (Simon Callow), (Denholm Elliott), Best Supporting Actress (Rosemary Leach), Best Cinematography (Tony Pierce-Roberts), Best Direction (James Ivory), Best Editing (Humphrey Dixon), Best Score (Richard Robbins), Best Adapted Screenplay (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala), Best Sound[10]
- Directors Guild of America: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (James Ivory)[11]
- Golden Globes: Best Director (James Ivory), Best Motion Picture – Drama[12]
Soundtrack
- "O mio babbino caro" (from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini) – Kiri Te Kanawa with London PO, conducted by Sir John Pritchard
- "The Pensione Bertollini"
- "Lucy, Charlotte, and Miss Lavish See the City"
- "In the Piazza Signoria"
- "The Embankment"
- "Phaeton and Persephone"
- "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" (from La Rondine, Act One by Puccini) – Kiri Te Kanawa with London PO, conducted by Sir John Pritchard
- "The Storm"
- "Home, and the Betrothal"
- "The Sacred Lake"
- "The Allan Sisters"
- "In the National Gallery"
- "Windy Corner"
- "Habanera"
- "The Broken Engagement"
- "Return to Florence"
- "End Titles"
- Original music composed by Richard Robbins
- Soundtrack album produced by Simon Heyworth
- Arrangements by Frances Shaw and Barrie Gurad
- Music published by Filmtrax PLC
See also
- Baedeker, a travel guide mentioned several times in the film
- Chiddingstone Castle, used as a location for the film
References
- ^ A Room with a View at Box Office Mojo
- ^ "The 1987 Oscar Winners – RopeofSilicon.com Award Show Central". Ropeofsilicon.com. http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/award_show/oscars/1987. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
- ^ a b c [1]
- ^ "The 1987 Golden Globe Award Winners – RopeofSilicon.com Award Show Central". Ropeofsilicon.com. http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/award_show/golden_globe_awards/1987. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
- ^ [2]
- ^ "National Board of Review of Motion Pictures :: Awards". Nbrmp.org. Archived from the original on 13 August 2010. http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/past.cfm?year=1986. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
- ^ "New York Film Critics Circle: 1986 Awards". Nyfcc.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2010. http://nyfcc.com/awards.php?year=1986. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
- ^ [6]
- ^ [7]
External links
- Merchant Ivory Productions
- A Room with a View at the Internet Movie Database
- A Room with a View at AllRovi
- A Room with a View at Box Office Mojo
- A Room with a View at Rotten Tomatoes
- A Room with a View at Metacritic
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