A Room with a View [Blu-ray] starring
Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie
Smith, Julian Sands, Daniel Day
Lewis, Denholm Elliott
Blu Ray Version
The prestigious filmmaking trio of producer Ismail Merchant, director
James Ivory, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala had made other
critically acclaimed films before A Room with a View was released in 1985,
but it was this popular film that made them art-house superstars.
Splendidly adapted from the novel by E.M. Forster, its a comedy of the
heart, a passionate romance and a study of repression within the British
class system of manners and mores. Its that system of rigid behavior that
prevents young Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) from
accepting the loving advances of a free-spirited suitor (Julian Sands), who
fears that she will follow through with her engagement to a priggish
intellectual (Daniel Day-Lewis) whose capacity for passion is virtually
nonexistent. During and after a trip to Italy with her protective companion
(Maggie Smith), Lucy gradually gets in touch with her true emotions. The
fun of watching A Room with a View comes from seeing how Lucys
thoughts and feelings finally arrive at the same romantic conclusion.
Through an abundance of humor both subtle and overt, this crowd-
pleasing art movie rose to an unexpected level of popular appeal. The
Merchant-Ivory team received eight Academy Award nominations for their
efforts, and won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, and
Costume Design. --Jeff Shannon
I've owned this film on VHS for 20 years, and know it like the back of my
hand. So I couldn't help but notice that, on the DVD version, the
soundtrack was of a slightly higher pitch than what I'm used to--probably
because the DVD plays the film at a slightly higher speed. This is quite
noticeable the very start of the film, as the aria plays over the opening
credits (compare this to how it's played over the DVD menu, where it's
played correctly). This flaw is also noticeable in the voices of the women,
particularly Maggie Smith's and Helena Bonham Carter's: Smith sounds
slightly "chipmunk-y", and Bonham Carter's slightly deep, alluring voice is
now somewhat reedy. There's also a slight "clip" in her delivery. I've read
other reviews, and some have mentioned that the running time is about 3-5
minutes faster than what is usually listed.
The film itself however, is still as beautiful as I remember, and it's good to
see Carter, Day-Lewis, and Sands in the roles that introduced me to them.
I have yet to see the PBS remake, but I can't help but wonder as to the
point of it--it's not as if this version was "horribly dated".
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