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Title: A Room with a View (1985)
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| 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 | |
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? Written by Bridget Jones
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I have enjoyed 'A Room with a View' since it arrived on the scene in 1985. I have watched it many times and the video is wearing out and I fully intend to get the DVD of it soon. I saw it again the other night and am still charmed by it, in fact, I enjoyed it more than ever. Yes, it's a costume drama under glass, but it's a very well-done example of that popular genre. Films like this are greatly appealing to people like me who yearn for a gentler society and manners, though without the uptight staidness as exemplified by Aunt Charlotte (Maggie Smith) and Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis). So this movie falls under the category of "comfort" film for me, and it is one of the very best.
Often Merchant/Ivory productions ring false ('Remains of the Day', for example), when they attempt to make a political statement; in that case regarding the under-current in Britain that led to the surprisingly popular British Union of Fascists created by Sir Oswald Mosley prior to WW2. But when James Ivory and his team stick to romance and the pretty manners of Edwardians, they are hard to beat.
Of the performers, Julian Sands seems the most "improved" in my opinion from earlier viewings. He is wonderful as the Byronic lover and has a ton of chemistry with Helena Bonham-Carter's lovely, spicey Lucy Honeychurch. Daniel Day-Lewis's Cecil Vyse seems a bit more contrived as time passes but is in the end a touching portrayal of a type of man that I despise.
There isn't weak link in the entire cast. The Puccini arias and Beethoven piano sonatas are beautiful and enhance the story. The photography is gorgeous and the other technical aspects are flawless.
This is the pinnacle of Merchant/Ivory films, I cannot imagine them producing anything better in the future, but who knows. They do seem to be in a cultural rut now, however.
The fringe film crowd will probably descry this sort of populist cinema, but I think that is narrow-minded snobbery, as boorish as Cecil Vyse and his insufferable intolerance to "the plebians."