A Room with a View (1985)

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting... See full summary »

Director:

James Ivory

Writers:

E.M. Forster (novel), Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (screenplay)

Stars:

Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott

Won 3 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 21 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Maggie Smith	...	Charlotte Bartlett, a chaperon
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Lucy Honeychurch, Miss Bartlett's cousin and charge (as Helena Bonham-Carter)
Denholm Elliott	...	Mr. Emerson, an English tourist
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
Daniel Day-Lewis	...	Cecil Vyse (as Daniel Day Lewis)
Maria Britneva	...	Mrs. Vyse, Cecil's mother
Rosemary Leach	...	Mrs. Honeychurch
Rupert Graves	...	Freddy Honeychurch
Peter Cellier	...	Sir Harry Otway, a landlord

Storyline

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

---

Plot Keywords:

florence italy | piano | chaperon | 1900s | travel | 

---

Genres:

Drama | Romance

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

11 April 1986 (UK)

Also Known As:

Soba s pogledom

Filming Locations:

Bluebell Railway, East Sussex, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$20,966,644 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Goldcrest Films International, National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC), Curzon Film Distributors

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View both opened in New York on the same day, March 7, 1986. Both movies featured Daniel Day-Lewis in prominent and very different roles: in A Room with a View, he played a repressed, snobbish Edwardian upperclassman, while in Laundrette, he played a lower-class gay ex-skinhead in love with an ambitious Pakistani businessman in Thatcher's London. When American critics saw Day-Lewis, who was then virtually unknown in the US, in two such different roles on the same day, many (including Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times and Vincent Canby of The New York Times) raved about the talent it must have taken him to play such vastly different characters.

---

Goofs

In the plaza scene when Lucy faints, her photographs do not fall into the blood, her hat does. The hat rolls to the left into the blood pool. When George retrieves the packet, the hat and the packet have switched places.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Charlotte Bartlett: This is not at all what we were led to expect.
Lucy Honeychurch: I thought we were going to see the Arno.
Charlotte Bartlett: The signora distinctly wrote, South rooms, with a view and close together, instead of which she has given us North rooms without a view and a long way apart.

---

Connections

Referenced in Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill (1999)

---

Soundtracks

"Mademoiselle Modiste"
Composed by Victor Herbert
Courtesy Caedmon/Arabesque Records
Performed by The Eastman-Dryden Orchestra (as The Dryden Orchestra of the Eastman School of Music)
Conducted by Donald Hunsberger (uncredited)
(from the album "Souvenir") (uncredited)

User Reviews

Edwardian love

A Room with a View possesses a fabulous cast, beautiful cinematography, an awesome adapted script, and a tale of oppressed desire during the paradigm shift from the repressive Victorian age to the more liberal Edwardian time. The film moves at a deliberate pace of country strolls and carriage rides filling the viewer with literary awakenings and music compositions. Poppies, barley, and Florence architecture decorate the screen.

The film is witty if anything with carefree individuals roaming about with leisure on their minds. Pure love and desire aches throughout and Italy is the place to bring the lovers together.

It is a handsome picture. Detailed period pieces and costumes. The cast is phenomenal! Helena Bohnam Carter portrays the peevish Lucy Honeychurch on her way to becoming her prudish Cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett (The Great Maggie Smith.) However The spirit of Italy will prevent such an occurrence and fill Miss Honeychurch with pure desire for George, the man who was brought up from the evils and hate of the world.

The adaptation is superb. Fun. It is a film to live in and swim in the sacred lake. One of the best films of the 80's. Terrific!