There Will Be Love
DVD: A Room with a View (two-disc edition)
Perhaps it's the fault of my extended family and circle of friends -- lots of creative types and movie buffs among them -- but it's almost impossible to bore me with awards programs, at least where the prizes concern theater and film. So this coming Sunday night I'll be pleased and relieved that the writers' strike is over and I can in good conscience eat up all the movie clips and suspense during the annual Academy Awards broadcast.
And during that program we will no doubt catch glimpses of several of the artists connected with A Room with a View, the Academy Award-winning adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel, brought lovingly to the screen in 1985 by James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
Are you ever afraid that the movies you've loved will be missing their sheen when you revisit them? I have to confess I was haunted by that thought as I sat down with my DVD of A Room with a View. Certainly I'd laughed and sighed over the big-screen version and sprung for the VHS tape, now well-worn from use and lending, but what if the movie had in the meantime lost its power?
No worries. The DVD set is not only what I hoped it would be but also things I hadn't imagined at all (more on that later). Do travel along with the deliciously prim Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith) and her demure young cousin, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter), as they discover that their holiday in romantic Tuscany causes unexpected repercussions when they resume their lives back in England.
The movie itself is a pleasure for the senses: each beautifully composed shot, each grotesque-ornamented scene title (quite unexpected and so chuckle-inducing back in the '80s), each exquisite performance.
You know the names, you know the faces, but it's still a shock to see what an amazing cast the Merchant-Ivory team assembled, from the beautiful and vibrant Italian actors to the cream of the British stage and screen to several newcomers who would more than live up to their initial promise. Yes, that is Judi Dench, as a romance novelist, playing brilliantly off Smith, and Denholm Elliott as the large-hearted tourist Mr. Emerson, whose son, George (Julian Sands), introduces an element of genuine romance to Miss Honeychurch's quiet life. And what a treat to find Simon Callow, Helena Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves, and the great Daniel Day-Lewis in a single project at the beginning of their film careers.
With an assembly like that, there is no shortage of scene-stealers, and Simon Callow is a particular standout as the charming, affable Reverend Mr. Beebe. But it's Day-Lewis who is the revelation. Impossibly slim, ramrod erect, and totally insufferable as Cecil Vyse, the Edwardian aesthete who courts Lucy Honeychurch, Day-Lewis has the audience veering from one emotion to another and believing in the character's humanity by the end. It's astonishing to behold, and be sure to save the interview with a young Day-Lewis (included in the second disc) for viewing after the movie.
The film's other artistic pleasures include an appealing score from Richard Robbins and particularly memorable use of two luscious performances from soprano Kiri Te Kanawa: "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi and "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" from La Rondine. Anyone who saw the movie when it first came out remembers how it felt to watch Helena Bonham Carter walk down that Italian hillside as the passage from La Rondine cast its spell. In fact, it's difficult to think of another movie that has used classical music to such wonderful effect.
But it's not only about the music or even the acting. The cinematography and Jhabvala's screenplay are also a celebration of the visual arts. Homework assignment: Visit the two pictures referenced in the film, Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci and Albert Pinkham Ryder's Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens, both conveniently in the possession of the National Gallery. The links below will guide you to your destiny.
Room with a View fans may remember that Cecil Vyse rapturously compares his fiancee to the very da Vinci painting so proudly displayed in the National Gallery.
The Rhine Maidens reference is a bit harder to dig out, but if Forster doesn't explicitly refer to Albert Pinkham Ryder's painting, he does provide a vivid description of how Freddy Honeychurch, George Emerson, and Mr. Beebe cavort like Wagnerian nymphs during an impromptu dip in the Sacred Lake. James Ivory caught that scene brilliantly on film in the legendary sequence in which Callow, Graves, and Sands sacrifice dignity (and all of their clothing) for literary and cinematic authenticity. That was not what was meant by a view, by the way...
The set's special features include audio commentary -- a real pleasure and full of juicy details about the making of the film, plus cultural tidbits about the Italian and English locations. Actor Simon Callow, director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts serve as co-commentators, and Callow is, as always, a hoot, with that distinctive plummy voice of his. James Ivory is more low-key, but don't miss the bit where he explains how you set up a shot in a picturesque Italian square while the local Communist Party is holding a rally at the same time.
The set also includes the aforementioned interview with Day-Lewis, plus one with Callow, as well as short films on the Merchant-Ivory team and A Room with a View's reception in the United States. The second disc also features a slide show of movie stills and candid shots, and on top of that there's a beautiful little booklet about the film.
Changing the tone considerably, there's also a short television film made following E.M. Forster's death in 1970. It's in black and white, it's very British, and it's a culturally and politically provocative look at the man who never allowed his novels to be filmed during his lifetime.
We can be grateful, though, that David Lean (A Passage to India), Charles Sturridge (Where Angels Fear to Tread), and James Ivory (A Room with a View, Maurice, and Howards End) got to work at precisely that task during the '80s and '90s, with critically acclaimed results. And rarely has any novel been so joyously, beautifully, and affectionately adapted as A Room with a View.
Perhaps it's the fault of my extended family and circle of friends -- lots of creative types and movie buffs among them -- but it's almost impossible to bore me with awards programs, at least where the prizes concern theater and film. So this coming Sunday night I'll be pleased and relieved that the writers' strike is over and I can in good conscience eat up all the movie clips and suspense during the annual Academy Awards broadcast.
And during that program we will no doubt catch glimpses of several of the artists connected with A Room with a View, the Academy Award-winning adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel, brought lovingly to the screen in 1985 by James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.Are you ever afraid that the movies you've loved will be missing their sheen when you revisit them? I have to confess I was haunted by that thought as I sat down with my DVD of A Room with a View. Certainly I'd laughed and sighed over the big-screen version and sprung for the VHS tape, now well-worn from use and lending, but what if the movie had in the meantime lost its power?
No worries. The DVD set is not only what I hoped it would be but also things I hadn't imagined at all (more on that later). Do travel along with the deliciously prim Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith) and her demure young cousin, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter), as they discover that their holiday in romantic Tuscany causes unexpected repercussions when they resume their lives back in England.
The movie itself is a pleasure for the senses: each beautifully composed shot, each grotesque-ornamented scene title (quite unexpected and so chuckle-inducing back in the '80s), each exquisite performance.
You know the names, you know the faces, but it's still a shock to see what an amazing cast the Merchant-Ivory team assembled, from the beautiful and vibrant Italian actors to the cream of the British stage and screen to several newcomers who would more than live up to their initial promise. Yes, that is Judi Dench, as a romance novelist, playing brilliantly off Smith, and Denholm Elliott as the large-hearted tourist Mr. Emerson, whose son, George (Julian Sands), introduces an element of genuine romance to Miss Honeychurch's quiet life. And what a treat to find Simon Callow, Helena Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves, and the great Daniel Day-Lewis in a single project at the beginning of their film careers.
With an assembly like that, there is no shortage of scene-stealers, and Simon Callow is a particular standout as the charming, affable Reverend Mr. Beebe. But it's Day-Lewis who is the revelation. Impossibly slim, ramrod erect, and totally insufferable as Cecil Vyse, the Edwardian aesthete who courts Lucy Honeychurch, Day-Lewis has the audience veering from one emotion to another and believing in the character's humanity by the end. It's astonishing to behold, and be sure to save the interview with a young Day-Lewis (included in the second disc) for viewing after the movie.
The film's other artistic pleasures include an appealing score from Richard Robbins and particularly memorable use of two luscious performances from soprano Kiri Te Kanawa: "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni Schicchi and "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" from La Rondine. Anyone who saw the movie when it first came out remembers how it felt to watch Helena Bonham Carter walk down that Italian hillside as the passage from La Rondine cast its spell. In fact, it's difficult to think of another movie that has used classical music to such wonderful effect.
But it's not only about the music or even the acting. The cinematography and Jhabvala's screenplay are also a celebration of the visual arts. Homework assignment: Visit the two pictures referenced in the film, Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci and Albert Pinkham Ryder's Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens, both conveniently in the possession of the National Gallery. The links below will guide you to your destiny.
Room with a View fans may remember that Cecil Vyse rapturously compares his fiancee to the very da Vinci painting so proudly displayed in the National Gallery.
The Rhine Maidens reference is a bit harder to dig out, but if Forster doesn't explicitly refer to Albert Pinkham Ryder's painting, he does provide a vivid description of how Freddy Honeychurch, George Emerson, and Mr. Beebe cavort like Wagnerian nymphs during an impromptu dip in the Sacred Lake. James Ivory caught that scene brilliantly on film in the legendary sequence in which Callow, Graves, and Sands sacrifice dignity (and all of their clothing) for literary and cinematic authenticity. That was not what was meant by a view, by the way...
The set's special features include audio commentary -- a real pleasure and full of juicy details about the making of the film, plus cultural tidbits about the Italian and English locations. Actor Simon Callow, director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts serve as co-commentators, and Callow is, as always, a hoot, with that distinctive plummy voice of his. James Ivory is more low-key, but don't miss the bit where he explains how you set up a shot in a picturesque Italian square while the local Communist Party is holding a rally at the same time.
The set also includes the aforementioned interview with Day-Lewis, plus one with Callow, as well as short films on the Merchant-Ivory team and A Room with a View's reception in the United States. The second disc also features a slide show of movie stills and candid shots, and on top of that there's a beautiful little booklet about the film.
Changing the tone considerably, there's also a short television film made following E.M. Forster's death in 1970. It's in black and white, it's very British, and it's a culturally and politically provocative look at the man who never allowed his novels to be filmed during his lifetime.
We can be grateful, though, that David Lean (A Passage to India), Charles Sturridge (Where Angels Fear to Tread), and James Ivory (A Room with a View, Maurice, and Howards End) got to work at precisely that task during the '80s and '90s, with critically acclaimed results. And rarely has any novel been so joyously, beautifully, and affectionately adapted as A Room with a View.
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