British, 1985, NR, Color, Romance, 1hr 57m

Directed by James Ivory.  Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Julian Sands, Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis

A Room With a View :  A love story that doubles as a subtle, yet pointed, attack on the British class system.

Our protagonist, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) is an independent minded Edwardian woman who fights the battle between head and heart.  On the surface, she is Edwardian perfection. She is a beautiful, serene, accomplished upper class young woman who is adept at using the womanly arts of propriety to hide her inner passions.  Lucy is a skilled pianist who plays her Beethoven with stormy passion, all the while looking like a Gibson Girl. 

Lucy has traveled to Florence with her older cousin, Charlotte (Maggie Smith) serving as chaperone. While there, Lucy and Charlotte encounter the Emersons, an upper middle-class father and son (Denholm Elliott and Julian Sands).  Mr. Emerson is a romantic, faithfully reading his Thoreau and encouraging is son, George, who is going through an existential crisis. George is open with his passionately held views, and Lucy is unmistakenly drawn to him.  But she’s also being stuffily courted by Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day Lewis), a pompous prig who’s waiting at home.  What to do, what to do??

This lusciously appointed film is the first Merchant-Ivory production that Cinema, Inc has ever screened.  Like all other Merchant-Ivory films, A Room with a View was shot on location in Florence and in Kent, England.  The use of natural light much of the time is a common trait among all Merchant Ivory films.  Each frame is composed in a painterly fashion. The art direction is impeccable.  The costumes are correct.  While all their films look like large budget productions, they were shot as low-budget independents.  The films simultaneously appeal to the intellect, the eye, and the heart.

A Room with a View was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including acting for Denholm Elliott and Maggie Smith, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction (won), Best Adapted Screenplay, (won), Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design (won).

If this is your first venture into the Merchant-Ivory universe, we know you will enjoy this eminently entertaining and beautiful film and that you will soon be seeking out others of their oeuvre (KB).