A Room with a View (1985)

What can I say about my favorite film. The first time I saw it I thought it was a laughable bore. However, I grew up a little, got an education and viewed the film again. Let me tell you one thing, if I could live in any film, this would be the one.

To swim in the sacred lake. To venture off to Florence. To play tennis with Freddy, Lucy, and George. To play comical songs on the piano which drives Cecil crazy. To believe not in world sorrow as I play Beethoven. To poke fun at "poor" Charlotte Bartlett.

The adaptation from novel to screen is phenomenal. The Eternal Why. If only I could find such love as George and Lucy. It has been my favorite film for over ten years now. So far there hasn't been a film to knock it off. This film is hard to get in to if you're not used to seeing British flicks but, hang in there and you will see something magical.

The cast is phenomenal. Perhaps the greatest collection of actors to appear together in one film. Just see it for these actors. They all went on to appear in many more popular productions.

Fmovies: This movie is completely beautiful and always fascinating to watch. Each actor does great work, with Maggie Smith (as usual) being the most memorable. Her nomination was deserved, but where was one for Daniel Day-Lewis? I thought he was more memorable than Denholm Elliot, who was nominated. This movie is one to own and take out to enjoy when the mood strikes.

Best line - "Because she IS Charlotte Bartlett"!

Merchant-Ivory always do a good job. Their films are not only stunning visually, but they evoke an emotional response. A Room with a View is superficially a love story. and I hate to admit it kind of stays there. But they stick to the books. Having read the respective, Howard's End, and a Passage to India, I can truly say they adhere to what has been written. But the books are completely about what you read between the lines. E.M Forester was pretty disgusted by his culture. Yet it was his....and he loved it.......because it provided itself with misfits...i.e Lucy and her beau. He was an echo of Oscar Wilde. I think if you look very hard into this movie you will see that. Denholm Elliot is the epitome of an englishman who isn't an englishman. and he is the complete opposite of Mrs. Vyse....his opposing character. Even the vicar isn't what he supposed to be. Nude Bathing (Oh my Goodness) and in praise of passion he is a free spirit. I think anyone who can say bad about his movie has issues. Yes, its main-stream international. But its beautiful.

A Room with a View fmovies. This movie remains one of my favorites of all time. The acting is extremely pro. A case in point, I didn't realize for 5 years after first seeing the movie that Daniel Day Lewis was "Cecil Vyse". That's acting! "Lucy Honeychurch" (well played by Helena Bonham-Carter) embodies the struggle that most people must face at the beginning of their adult lives. Whether to listen to their own voice or the voice of others. Choosing one or the other can severely change the course of one's life. "George Emerson" as perfectly captured by Julian Sands, is the perfect man that most hope to find in their lifetime and we all push for "Lucy" to realize this. The supporting performances by the veteran cast that include Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Denholm Elliot, Simon Callow (the wonderful Reverend Beebe) equally are brilliant. Well done!

This movie made me go to Florence, Italy. And once I got there, they actually showed it every other night at the pensione I stayed in. Though set in Victorian times, it is reminiscent of a Jane Austen novel- romantic and humorous, but more passionate. Characters are lovingly made fun of. The acting is wonderful. People you've seen elsewhere, but in unusual roles. Helena Bonham Carter is the confused heroine, Maggie Smith plays her passive-aggressive aunt, you won't believe it's Daniel Day-Lewis playing the most irritating pompous man, Judi Dench is a gossipy romance novelist, Julian Sands is adorably weird, and the supporting characters are also wonderful. It's one of favorites.

No disrespect to the achingly elegant prose of E.M. Forster, but the last chapter of his novel simply cannot compare to this film's last shot, of a pair of lovers in a pensione in Florence, finally with their view of the Arno. As for the rest of this brilliant adaptation, it is populated with actors so perfectly cast it's as if they'd been invented for the roles-- Julian Sands as the Edwardian bohemian George Emerson, Helena Bonham-Carter, radiant as Lucy Honeychurch, Denholm Elliott, once again stealing every scene he's in, and Daniel Day-Lewis as the priggish Cecil Vyse, in a performance so self-consciously stiff he looks as though he were taken off the cover of the New Yorker. It's romantic, funny, stylish and impassioned. I first saw this film when it was released, and even at a young age, I knew I'd fallen in love. Twenty years later, I'm still in love with it.