A Room with a View Pt 1: A Florentine Summer
Monday, August 9, 2021 at 5:00PM Occasionally we'll take a movie and baton pass it around the team and really dive in. If you missed past installments we've gone long and deep on Rebecca (1940), West Side Story (1961), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Cabaret (1972), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Aladdin (1992) and A League of Their Own (1992).
A ROOM WITH A VIEW
(a three part retrospective)
part 1 by Cláudio Alves
Ismael Merchant and James Ivory's breakthrough hit, A Room with a View, based on the 1908 novel by E.M. Forster marked the beginning of a new era of British costume pictures. It opened in both the UK and the US in the spring of 1986 (the year we're celebrating this month at The Film Experience) on its way to becoming a beloved modern classic.
The movie won the BAFTA for Best Film and was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Since it's currently streaming on both HBOMax and the Criterion Channel, it's a perfect time to revisit. Let's dive in...
00:32 From the very start, Italian Art and the idea of pleasurable beauty take center stage. It happens before any shot of Italy ever appears, before any actor too. Designed by Chris Allies and scored to Kiri Te Kanawa's rendition of "O Mio babbino Caro," the opening credits unfurl through a collection of painted grotesques. These architectural elements connect to the splendor of Florence, and so does the music. The aria comes from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, an opera with a Florentine setting inspired by The Divine Comedy. Later in the film, Dante's final resting place will get a cameo.
I love how the sequence is perfectly timed so that the title's appearance coincides with the first sound of a human voice. It's a tiny bit of rhythmic and aesthetic perfection, as simple as it is blissful – a synecdoche of the entire film.
02:47 The first proper shots are all about location, establishing our geographical position within Florence, and the titular matter of a room with a view. As Lucy Honeychurch and her chaperone, (poor) Charlotte Bartlett, arrive at the Pensione Bertolini, they sadly realize that their room has no view.
02:56 The opening of Helena Bonham Carter's performance tells us exactly how to watch the movie and its characters. Lucy opens her mouth but promptly closes it, staying silent until Charlotte (Dame Maggie Smith) expresses her discontent.
You see, Lucy Honeychurch is a young lady of quality, a beautiful English Rose of the upper-middle class, blessed with good education and family wealth. She knows, in her bones, that it isn't proper for such a girl to express petulant frustrations about her lodging. So, she stays quiet, the words built up in her throat until her chaperone's indignancy opens a safe context for complaint. It's essential to pay attention to what's not said, just as to what is verbalized. Silent reaction is often more informative regarding a person's true self than any vacuous pleasantry.
03:52 As they make their way to dinner, Lucy and Charlotte bicker about their situation. The adolescent sullenness of Bonham Carter makes for a splendid contrast with Smith's chippering complaints. Technically, this was the young actress' debut, at 19 (a teenager playing a teenager - what a concept!), even though she had already filmed Lady Jane when Merchant-Ivory picked her for this role. In her novice awkwardness, there's much to admire, how a clumsy projection of demure familiarity can give in to accidental cruelty. Lucy is quick to point out that her cousin is also fond of rooms with views, defying Charlotte to continue the charade that her irritation is purely on behalf of the young woman. It's the biting annoyance of a teen who's perhaps not entirely aware of how her spinster companion depends on the kindness and financial support of well-off relatives who mock her at every turn. As much as we're meant to love Lucy, she's not without her thorns.
04:16 The camerawork and cutting are quick to divert our attention from the principal women, introducing us to the supporting characters of this summery romance. Two elderly spinster sisters, the kindly Misses Alan, are played by Fabia Drake and Joan Henley. While similarly bound by Edwardian propriety as Lucy and Charlotte, there's a glint of amusement to them. They are more open to the small wonders of life.
Judi Dench plays Miss Eleanor Lavish, a romance author who collects other people's stories without a hint of subtlety or shame. The sound mix makes sure to impose her voice over everyone else's as the worldly writer holds court. She sees Italians as simpletons but celebrates their pauper's passion, the primitiveness of their character, and the unspoiled nature of rural people. It's a scornful caricature, but the social critique isn't forced. Like in Forster's writing, it organically emerges while every filmmaker portrays the character with good humor. I especially love how Dench makes the pronunciation of Italian words into a spectacle, every Latin syllable wrapping around her tongue in defiance of an unbending British accent.
Finally, we have Mr. Emerson and his son, George. The older man, played by Denholm Elliott, is a retired journalist. He speaks with the direct garrulousness one might expect from such a profession, his every utterance marked by a distinct accent that defines him as someone not born into wealth. Mr. Emerson's also a freethinker, and so is George, played by Julian Sands, though the younger man's philosophizing manifests in brooding silence and glinting looks.
04:24 It's one of those looks that first connects George and Lucy. As she glances at him, he glances back, a smile at the ready. He proceeds to showcase his plate, the flavorless boiled meets, and greens arranged in the shape of a question mark, the everlasting why. Guess that's his way of flirting.
04:33 Mr. Emerson shows his uncouthness to all the posh people at the table by intervening in another guest's choice of beverage. He advises Miss Pole (Elizabeth Marangoni) against drinking lemonade as it's far too acidic for the stomach. It's delightful how, in the background, Charlotte is scandalized while Lucy grins and Miss Catharine Alan positively chirps with giddy surprise. Fabia Drake doesn't get much material to work with, but she's one of the film's secret weapons, a constant source of great actressing at the edges.
05:20Case in point, we have the moment when Miss Catharine reminisces about a time when she and her sister came upon a field of cornflowers. There's such reverence in her line delivery. We can practically smell the flowery field in her voice, the warm sun painting it with golden light.
05:56 Overhearing the conversation between Lucy and Charlotte, Mr. Emerson promptly offers his and his son's rooms to the women. They have views but don't care much for them. So it's only logical for the pairs to switch.
06:08 Charlotte is further scandalized, her eyes fluttering about, searching for anywhere to look that's not Mr. Emerson.
"It's ridiculous, these niceties. They go against common sense, every kind of sense."
06:45 Denholm Elliott deserved his Oscar nomination for all the business with his fork. In paroxysms of righteous generosity, he has Mr. Emerson using the utensil to slam against his chest, punctuating the words. How uncouth of him! Poor Charlotte is, once again, aghast. So much so that she flees from the dining room with Lucy in tow.
07:27 Just as Charlotte is talking about abandoning the pensione, Lucy spots the Reverend Mr. Beebe. He's an acquaintance of the Honeychurches, a jolly man with a romantic outlook on life who will be their local vicar. The effusive Simon Callow plays him in only his second feature after appearing in the Best Picture-winning Amadeus (1984). But, of course, with such an acquaintance as a fellow guest of the pensione, there's no way the women can look for other lodgings.
07:37 Recognizing that the clergyman may convince Charlotte to take the Emersons' rooms, Lucy presents their dilemma just as the Alan sisters arrive from the dining room. Miss Theresa Alan seems to share Charlotte's perspective, admonishing Mr. Emerson's tactless lack of decorum.
The text of A Room with a View is very much a critique of Edwardian society, and yet, we don't step foot in England until the story's second act. We first become acquainted with Italy, a place of transgression where the English way of life is awkward and off-putting. It's a setting where people either are unaware of the codes of British society or don't care to follow them. This makes Charlotte's mannered fits even more comical. Both she and Lucy try to avoid showing emotion, speaking in idioms of perpetual subterfuge and delicate insincerity that just don't cut it on the Continent.
Still, to understand the Emersons' cardinal sin, one must realize that to speak one's mind was a no-no in early 20th century genteel society. The tragedy inherent to this conundrum is how high-society ways have defined behavior so constrictively that a woman like Charlotte cannot recognize or openly accept an act of generosity. As the conversation flows with symphonic stiltedness, one can feel E.M. Forster's critical eye as a novelist, abhorring how societal mores, the precepts of high breeding, keep people from simply being people and connecting with each other. Good manners can sometimes be antithetical to humanity.
"But things that are indelicate can sometimes be beautiful."
08:18 Once again, Catherine Alan is a voice of reason, a sweet perspective. The future vicar agrees.
"I am only here through your kindness. If you want me to turn these gentlemen out of their rooms, I will do it."
09:00 One gets a sense that Smith's Charlotte wanted this result all along, to be placated by higher authorities into accepting the room. The theatrics of initial refusal are necessary for this suggestion of subtle canniness. It's also another opportunity for the text to reminds us of the considerable power imbalance between these two cousins. Through her surreptitious means, Charlotte gets her room with a view. She further gets to make Lucy feel a bit guilty about it. It's not mean-spirited, though.
09:20 If anything, it's comical with the word 'view' repeated so many times it loses all its meaning. Still, while Forster's dialogue may be funny, it's said with great earnestness. That's why the humor works. Apparently, Simon Callow only realized the film was a comedy when, at the premiere, audiences laughed during his first scene.
09:27 Shout out to the Oscar-winning sets, which consist of carefully chosen, splendidly dressed locations. Gianni Quaranta and Elio Altamura were the ones responsible for the production design in these Italian chapters.
09:40 This shared cheeky smile is adorable, even if it's at the expense of Charlotte, as always.
09:51 Of course, Charlotte took the larger room. She says it's because the young man slept there, but we know she's well versed in weaponizing propriety to her advantage. From Bonham Carter's disinterested demeanor, we can surmise that Lucy's aware of this and has learned to live with Charlotte's quirks. The rapport between the two actresses illuminates entire lives that happened off-screen before we ever met these women.
10:05 Charlotte may say she's a woman of the world but she's rather ill-equipped to deal with George Emerson's general oddity. So regard her bemusement, staring at another question mark left by the young man.
10:11 Watching the film, I've always assumed this was an excuse for George to return to the room and mess a bit with Charlotte's strict decorum. He strides right into the place, unannounced, to wordlessly flip the painting. Richard Robbins' twinkling score further underlines the jokey attitude and punctuates Charlotte's bereft movements. Smith is so funny here, walking towards George while looking back at Lucy, a discombobulated motion that serves as marvelous physical comedy.
In the director's commentary, Merchant and Ivory reveal that they were told some characters needed to be changed or cut when trying to get American funding for the film. Lucy had to be made American, and Charlotte was to be excised from the script altogether. How tragic it would have been not to have Smith's performance. Thankfully, they declined the offer and made the film independently.
10:31 Florence looks intoxicatingly gorgeous, and Tony Pierce-Roberts's painterly cinematography further makes the city look like a resplendent Renaissance utopia. I want to go there someday.
10:39 Lucy Honeychurch is truly living the dream, galivanting around beautiful cities, falling in love with young Julian Sands, and sporting some of the best hair ever to grace the Silver Screen.
10:51 A powerful dynamic within the film is the oppressive quality of interiors and the freedom of the outdoors. The shots that combine the two are few and far between, making our first vision of a literal room with a view into one of the flick's most potent images.
11:05 Lucy's playing of Beethoven's piano compositions is so wonderfully aggressive, both methodical and inflamed with intense passion. It's as if she can only express her inner turmoil with the piano. However, musical expression couches the rebellion in a socially acceptable context, making it permissible for the young lady. To shoot the piano playing scenes, Helena Bonham Carter learned to play the instrument.
11:52 As Lucy fills the pensione with music, the Alan sisters marvel at the sound, returning to their room to find a most delightful of surprises.
"There are no jewels more becoming to a lady."
12:28 Knowing how much Miss Catharine loves cornflowers, the Emersons have filled the Alans' room with its colorful blossoms. In a part of the film that's so defined by golden hues and sand-colored stone, brown marbles, and warm light, the purplish blue of the flowers all but glows on-screen. While the beauty of these plants is much more modest than the basilica's mighty cupule, it's undeniable. Man-made majesty and nature's pretty blessings aren't only compatible, they're inexorably connected.
13:00 Just like the film's audience, Mr. Beebe can deduce Lucy's inner passions from her music. "If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting. Both for us, and for her."
13:15 As Lucy announces she'll go on a walk alone, we get a good look at her dress. Like most garments in the film's wardrobe, it was probably found at the legendary costume house CosProp, in London. While much emphasis is put on creating original pieces, excellent costume design can come in the judicious selection and adaptation of existing elements. Jenny Beavan and John Bright deserved their Oscars despite not having produced almost any new clothes for A Room with a View. This number is a faded blue and probably a vintage find that was bleached by the sun. Sometimes, when she moves, and the flaps of fabric in front reveal the inner layers, we can see a brighter hue.
13:55 In this red room, her ensemble of greyish blue linen seems to rhyme with the Alans' cornflower adornments.
14:20 Gotta love that Charlotte ditched Lucy to explore Florence with Miss Lavish as soon as she could. Smith and Dench have fantastic chemistry, as always. The real-life friends make Lavish's gatekeeping ways into an amusing bit of un-self-aware humor. She talks as if she's a Florentine native, despising the tyranny of the Baedeker guidebook and the ways of English tourists. Dench delivers her lines with such bravado one can't help but smile, even as her character's declarations grow exponentially pretentious.
15:05 Speaking of the Baedeker. It's interesting to note how the use of intertitles, lifted directly from Forster's chapter headings, allows the film to dispense with transitory passages. Instead, it's always jumping right into the action, moving at a vertiginous pace despite a leisurely appearance. It's an inspired adaptation trick that uses the literary particularities of the work to better condense it into cinema.
16:00 I told you Dante would show up again. This little scene with a pestering Italian guide was taken from an early draft of Forster's creation. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was an admirer of the writer and looked beyond the novel into the drafts and later addendums (though she ignored the ending notes added in the 1950s) when constructing the Oscar-winning screenplay.
17:48 While admiring the Giotto frescos at Santa Croce, we're introduced to the final English player in the Italian chapters of A Room with a View. Played by Patrick Godfrey, the Reverend Mr. Eager is the Chaplain of the Anglican Church in Florence and an astringent counterpoint to Mr. Beebe's more permissible romanticism. Dry and uninspired, his description of Medieval Art attracts the sardonic observations of Mr. Emerson, who happened to be visiting Santa Croce. When the reverend suggests that the edifice was built by faith, Emerson quickly points that such words must mean that the workers weren't paid properly.
18:19 George has a better technique to avoid intrusive guides than Lucy. Still, despite the jesting nature of the sight, his father is concerned about the young man's brooding.
18:42 Elliott's performance is primarily made up of loud interruptions and unwanted bouts of honesty, but there's painful melancholy revolving beneath the surface. At this moment, he expresses his anxieties to Lucy, wondering if bringing up his son with progressive ideals and enlightened ideas hasn't done more harm than good. Then, in parental despair, he begs the girl to help George.
19:40 In her placating answers, Emerson recognizes that Lucy's entrapped within a cell made up of codified niceties. He calls her a poor girl, but she refutes his conclusions. While Lucy proclaims her happiness, the words ring hollow. She says she's having a splendid time, and yet, her posture is rigid. However, her eye is defiant. We get a sense that true happiness for Lucy isn't simple sunniness nor the middle-class purity she must now project. In plainer words, Lucy's a bit of a weirdo, full of pent-up desires and inchoate moods. She's a perfect fit for George Emerson, even if neither of them realizes it yet.
20:15 While Lucy suffers through such complicated conversations, the two middle-aged biddies, Charlotte and Miss Lavish, continue to explore Florence, getting lost in its dark alleys and inhaling the city's odors.
21:00 Judi Dench is a comedic marvel in this picture, and Maggie Smith even more so. As Miss Lavish theorizes that young Lucy is opening herself to physical sensation, Charlotte looks as if she doesn't know if she should be appalled or rejoice. It's here that the novelist admits she's thinking of making Lucy into one of her characters, a young English girl transfigured by Italy. This damned book will return.
22:10 It's a minor detail, but I adore how an overheated Lucy takes off her coat in a wide shot where no other woman has done so. It's a small act of social insubordination that Lucy can allow herself because she's alone in a strange city. Oh, the freedom of passing idly through a place where we don't belong.
22:13 Ivory's camera finds violence and eroticism in the sculpture of naked men and frozen moments of aggression, suffering, death, and killing. In one sense, this mini montage is a prelude to the incoming burst of morbidity. In another, it's like SFW antecedent to the famous sacred pond scene that will happen later.
22:40 No matter how many times I've re-watched A Room with a View, I'm always surprised by the fight that breaks out in front of Michelangelo's David. The shock of red blood and the operatic way the stabbing is presented startle the senses. Like Lucy, I feel overwhelmed every time this scene comes up in all its brutality.
23:25 At least Lucy has George to catch her fainting body and calm her down. Julian Sands plays the moment as if his character is as perplexed as the young woman and that helping her is almost a way to cope. They share something significant in this scene, a simultaneous loss of innocence.
26:16 The sonic and visual shift from the cacophony of carnage to the reflective peace of the Arno river is another shock, though this one is more soothing than violent.
27:15 Seeing death changes something inside the two characters. They're aware of this, too, even though they might fight against that realization. Lucy does, falling back into pleasantries as soon as she's able to. She thinks she can return to the old life. She can't.
27:21 A ruined envelope full of beautiful photographs is thrown into the mirror-like waters. It's stained with a dead man's blood. It must be forgotten to preserve the peace…
28:05 But the moment shan't be forgotten or ignored. A new reality has opened up for these young persons, as wild and powerful as the river's dilacerating current that's taking the envelope into watery oblivion.
28:12 As the last chapters of A Room with a View's Italian episodes start, Ivory's direction takes on an almost Renoirian quality. This Tuscan picnic recalls A Day in the Country with particular intensity, right down to how rain seems to burst from a moment of fiery, sensual emotion. But wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves. There's much to see before that.
28:27 All the harping about humor may have hinted at the fact that, while often characterized as a period drama, A Room with a View is more of a comedy in Edwardian dress. The social mores define the parameters of storytelling, character, and jokes, but there's an essential lightness to the entire picture. In the trip to a majestic landscape on the outskirts of Florence, little farces occur in each carriage. To Lucy's amusement and curious eye, the Reverend Eager admonishes the strapping coachman for canoodling with a young lady by his side. They say they're siblings, but nobody's fooled.
29:58 On the other coach, Mr. Beebe is forced to be a mute moderator to Charlotte and George's exchanges of meaningful looks, polite insinuations. Yet, at the same time, they spit out inconsequential inanities (in her case) and disaffected disinterested answers (in his).
30:32 The fun comes to an end when the British clergyman demands that his driver's companion abandon the entourage. There's to be no untoward carnality in the presence of Mr. Eager.
31:11 What a beautiful couple they are. His hair is very eighties, but her long blonde locks, interwoven with wisps of wheat, make her look like a Pre-Raphaelite painting come to life.
31:30 I've always cherished how the camera lingers on the young Italian woman named Persephone and played by Isabella Celani. Her departure adds a note of amorous disappointment in what is A Room with a View's most bombastically romantic sequence.
32:24 Not long after, George can be seen atop an olive tree, silence long abandoned. He's shouting his creed, the eternal yes that answers the everlasting why – beauty, joy, love…
32:29 …all while the other men do their best John Gielgud impression…
32:54…until the branches break and he falls on his face.
33:17 The women have a separate picnic, but there are only two mackintosh squares to accommodate three people. Charlotte, who wasn't particularly subtle to start with, further tries to make Lucy give up her fabric seat.
"The ground will do for me. Really, I have not had rheumatism for years, and if I do feel it coming on, I shall stand up."
This is a miracle of passive-aggressive line reading.
33:47 It soon becomes apparent that Charlotte's clumsy shooing of Lucy wasn't necessarily about physical comfort. The older women want to trade saucy stories and reminisce, but they can't do it when an impressionable youth is nearby. For her part, the young woman understands when she's not wanted and, after another one of Smith's brilliant line deliveries – "No, don't be alarmed. This is not a cold. It's just a slight cough. I've had it for three days. It. Has. Nothing. To do with sitting on the ground."- the girl departs.
34:28 Forster geeks and fans of English costume dramas may recognize that the gossip shared between the two women is the story of Where Angels Fear to Tread. Helena Bonham Carter and Rupert Graves also appeared in the 1991 movie adaptation of that novel.
34:39 The coachman looks so hot, smoking in the sun. This film knows how to delve deep into the psyche of a youth becoming aware of her sexual attraction to men. It's positively inebriating.
In any case, Lucy asks the young man to show her where Mr. Beebe is. In the novel, it's made clear that the Italian coachman doesn't understand the English girl's request, guiding her to another person altogether, to George.
35:13 Meanwhile, in my favorite shot from A Room with a View, Charlotte and Miss Lavish trade stories and theories about the powers of the Italian landscape. In her girlish smiles and knowing storytelling, Smith allows us to see that. Charlotte is fascinated by young love. If anything, there's a deep yearning within her for a similar experience. In these moments, the actress surreptitiously plants the seeds that will later blossom into her character's about-face regarding Lucy's loves. From stifling chaperone, Charlotte will become a clumsy and unlikely, but no less earnest, champion for true passion. That character arc starts here, during a lovely picnic under the Tuscan sun, amid a field of overgrown grass and flowers, sharing sweet memories with a gossipy new friend. Adolescent passions may be only for the young, but love lives on in all ages.
35:43 And so, the handsome coachman takes Lucy to George, lost in thought on a field of barley made golden by the afternoon sun. It's a setting made for romance.
36:30 For years, I've wondered what, in the film's universe, is supposed to have attracted Charlotte's attention to the teenager's silent courting. Did she perchance hear the opera that Lucy's passion makes explode through the soundtrack? It's a beautiful mystery.
36:36 The coachman's impish smile makes me believe that his motivations might have been changed from the novel. He's like a strapping Edwardian version of Shakespeare's Puck, a deliberate agent of romantic manipulation, perchance chaos.
36:50 There were no cornflowers, so the kiss was rushed, set in this field just as the sun was setting. The effect is ravishing, one of the most memorable screen kisses of its cinematic decade. At this moment, English emotional constipation is cured by love. Well, by love and Italy, which is a powerful combination.
37:10 Oh, but poor Charlotte had to intervene, neurotic frustrations becoming tenfold when faced with the possibility of ruinous scandal for her charge.
37:18 The interruption of romance, its spoiling, seems to anger Nature itself. Thunders roar high up in the sky, announcing the arrival of those Renoirian rains.
37:37 Looks are exchanged, but nothing is said outright. The teenagers are separated, Lucy rushed to the pensione, and George lazing about the place of his romantic awakening.
39:00 When he finally comes to his senses, if he ever does, the young lover runs through the fields, smiling as he crosses vast blankets of flowers. George reminds me of another Merchant Ivory/E.M. Forster idealist in this moment of euphoria. He's like a ghost of the future Leonard Bast from Howards End. Though I consider that 1992 picture to be these filmmaker's ultimate masterpiece, I can't help but acknowledge A Room with a View as my favorite Merchant-Ivory production. Even as it studies repression, this film is full of life and joy, pleasure and love for people, for Art, for the concept of love itself. No wonder this was Ismael Merchant's predilect work from his filmography.
What will Charlotte do to avoid scandal? How will the teen lovers deal with the events of this Italian afternoon?
Find out, see some life-changing nudity, and discover one of Daniel Day-Lewis' best performances in the second act of A Room With a View which Nathaniel takes on...
Reader Comments (15)
To read such exquisite discussion is a joy. To immerse one's self in the passion of a movie lover's thoughtful insights into the artistry of a beloved film is a privilege.
It's important to remember that "Gianni Schicchi" is a comic opera. The aria is funny in its context which, for opera lovers, sets the tone of the film. While the unaware can hear the music and think, "oh, brother; how pretentious. It's one of those films" people who know their culture are cued to the essentially humorous and lighthearted nature of the film right at the very beginning.
This movie is perfection. Thank you for this retrospective.
I always assumed the editors cut the scene showing why Charlotte was hurrying to that barley field. It really is an abrupt change from her scene immediately before it.
James -- Thank you. Writing this was great fun, though watching A Room with a View three times on the same day was a strange experience. A Merchant-Ivory overdose.
Dan -- That's a great observation, and something I should have mentioned when defending that this is a comedy. Thank you for the wonderful comment.
Cash -- Thank you for the positive feedback. While the tonal change is abrupt, the moments do flow together beautifully. Maybe it was a choice between an intoxicating mood and a more logical scene progression. If so, I'm glad they chose the first one, even though it does end up feeling as if we're missing a scene.
Cláudio -- this was a wonderful read. I especially loved the following observations
1) that bit about lucy opening and closing her mouth without saying anything. wow. It's true. It does teach us how to watch this movie. Lucy's voice, or lack of one, is a fascinating conundrum of the movie since it all hangs on her.
2) Denholm Elliot and the fork -- LOL. love him in this.
3) That HORRIFYING reveal from the directors commentary. I've never listened to that and now i'm scared to do it. Executives should never be allowed near art.
4) the quality of interiors and freedom of the outdoors. Such a strong point and one that comes up again in a major way in my section.
5) that sun bleached dress. I've never noticed the blue underneath. great detail.
6) and mostly just want to say "SAME" when it comes to everything you said about the stabbing scene.
7) the cemera lingering on the "sister" of the driver. I've noticed this so often when watching this movie and it's not just the sister. Other characters get oddly specific grace notes... especially Freddy where a scene will end and we'll just hang on his face... though I'll talk about that in part two.
I love this film. It showcases why Merchant Ivory are the standard bearer of period dramas as they're not films for teenagers or young adults but rather films for adults as it requires patience and thought about what the audience is watching.
I am extremely biased as I absolutely adore A Room With A View but this really is one of my all-time favourite pieces ever on The Film Experience - really fantastic work Claudio thank you
ugh Julian Sand looks incredibly hot in this movie, he's the perfect George,just like Forster describes him in the book
I love this movie so much it hurts. And I echo everyone's praises - Claudio, this was a really wonderfully observed and written tribute that really highlights just how beautiful and exquisitely crafted the film is.
100% on the killing in the square scene. It was so shocking, especially to me as a kid. (Nathaniel, I don't think it's a stabbing - amazingly. Even in the book, the "murderer" is described as striking him lightly, at least at first, and seems quite desolate about the death - the film shows this quite well.)
But speaking of stabbing, Mr. Emerson jabbing his own chest with a fork = gold.
I am really looking forward to the next installment, which is my favorite act in the movie, but Nathaniel has a lot to live up to after this one. This was one excellent piece.
Absolutely glorious work of art, this film.
And yes, the coachman is so naturally, excessively sexy, one almost shouts for Lucy to follow him to a space of overgrown grass rather than (the still very attractive) Julian Sands.
I adore this film more than I can say-- mostly for it's unapologetic, un-ironic adoration of life, art, and beauty. We need more films like this re-aired and viewed, please. The world would be a better place.
I was so excited to see this film discussed and it did not disappoint. I have been in love with this movie from the first time I saw it when it was released and am thrilled how beautifully timeless it has remained. Cannot wait to read more. Claudio, your analysis could not be more perfect.
A perfect movie. This post, wayyy tldr but I'm happy for you though or sorry that happened.
This is so amazing, thank you so much! It's like being able to take a little Italian vacation in the middle of all of "this" still going on in the world!
Sorry to be late to this discussion, I adore "Room With a View", and consider the film to be one of those rare instances where the film adaptation is actually better than the novel.
I really adore the satiric tone towards the Edwardian English code of manners. Growing up in an English family I find myself easily relating to the intricate code of unspoken rules that governs behaviour. And I am here to tell you that it didn't totally disappear with the Edwardians.
For example, you were never supposed to say yes to any offer, without first politely refusing, (at least a couple of times) Very bewildering but it really is expected in terms of good manners.
I had an Uncle who would cut through this by saying "Don't say no if you mean yes"
That's why I love Denholm Elliot's character in this film, he just wants to dispense with the intricate web of dance steps, and just say yes to life. Naturally this appears rude.
But I love him for his bold honesty.
Thank you Claudio for an essay as sumptuous as this movie. You have added to my delight in this film.