Maurice (1987)

Director:

James Ivory

Writers:

E.M. Forster (from the novel by)
Kit Hesketh-Harvey (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 September 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Two male English school chums find themselves falling in love at Cambridge. To regain his place in society...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Gamekeeper | Newspaper | Cafe | Shower

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

James Wilby	...	Maurice Hall
Hugh Grant	...	Clive Durham
Rupert Graves	...	Alec Scudder
Denholm Elliott	...	Doctor Barry
Simon Callow	...	Mr. Ducie
Billie Whitelaw	...	Mrs. Hall
Barry Foster	...	Dean Cornwallis
Judy Parfitt	...	Mrs. Durham
Phoebe Nicholls	...	Anne Durham
Patrick Godfrey	...	Simcox
Mark Tandy	...	Risley
Ben Kingsley	...	Lasker-Jones
Kitty Aldridge	...	Kitty Hall
Helena Michell	...	Ada Hall
Catherine Rabett	...	Pippa Durham

Runtime:

140 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:(Banned) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Hong Kong:III | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Ireland:15

Filming Locations:

Assyrian Saloon, British Museum, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, England, UK

Company:

Merchant Ivory Productions

Trivia:

Just before filming the nude bed scene in the hotel, the bed that Rupert Graves and James Wilby were in collapsed.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Maurice Hall and Clive Durham are shown attending a concert at the Wigmore Hall in London in 1911. This renowned concert venue was originally called Bechstein Hall, having been built by the famous German piano firm, and was not renamed Wigmore Hall until after the First World War, when anti-German feeling had caused the owners to sell up and Westminster Council renamed the venue.

Quotes:

Maurice Hall: England for me!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Comic Relief Does University Challenge (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Miserere Psalm 51

An absolutely classic about 'the love that dare not speak its name'.

A gay classic that is situated at the beginning of the twentieth century. 'Maurice' is the story of Maurice Hall, a student at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. There he meets Clive Durham. Both men develop a strong friendship, which to a certain level, becomes physical. Clive is gay, but Maurice doesn't want to know anything about it. Until he admits he also has feelings for persons of the same sex, even though in intellectual circles homosexuality is 'the love that dare not speak its name'.

Maurice doesn't know how to behave. Of course he wants to be himself, but society doesn't accept gay people. When he more or less decides to live as a gay man bosom friend Clive changes his mind, frightened by a lawsuit against a gay man. According to Clive the physical friendship between Maurice and Clive must end and from that moment on he wants to experience real love: the love of a woman. The relation between Maurice and Clive gets tense.

Even Maurice tries to get his sexual preference changed by visiting a hypnotist, but the treatment fails. That becomes very clear when Maurice sleeps with Scudder, Clive's under gamekeeper. A passionate love develops between Scudder and Maurice, which makes Clive realize what kind of appearance he has to keep up as a 'converted' gay man.

'Maurice' is based on the novel of the same name written by E.M. Forster. The film is beautiful and made with a feeling for historical notion. The actors playing the leading roles are straight in real life but act the gay roles in a beautiful way. Actually everything in the film is right: image, usage of language, costumes and music.