A Room with a View is a 1985 British romance film directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. The screenplay was written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who adapted E. M. Forster’s 1908 novel A Room with a View. The story takes place in England and Italy and follows Lucy Honeychurch (played by Helena Bonham Carter), a young woman living in the strict and limiting society of Edwardian England. She begins to develop feelings for George Emerson (played by Julian Sands), a free-spirited young man. Supporting actors include Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, and Simon Callow. The film closely follows the novel by using chapter titles to separate different parts of the story.

The film received high praise from critics and was successful at the box office. At the 59th Academy Awards, it was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, and won three awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design. It also won five British Academy Film Awards and a Golden Globe. In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked A Room with a View 73rd on its list of the top 100 British films.

Plot

In 1907, a young Englishwoman named Lucy Honeychurch and her older cousin, Charlotte Bartlett, visit Florence, Italy, and stay at the Pensione Bertolini. They are upset because their rooms do not have a view of the River Arno, as promised. At dinner, they meet other English guests, including Reverend Mr. Beebe, two elderly sisters named the Misses Alan, a writer named Eleanor Lavish, a freethinking man named Mr. Emerson, and his son George.

Mr. Emerson and George learn that Charlotte and Lucy are unhappy about not having a river view. They offer to swap rooms, but Charlotte thinks the idea is improper. Mr. Beebe helps them reach an agreement, and the rooms are exchanged. The next day, while visiting the Piazza della Signoria, Lucy sees a man being stabbed and killed. She faints, but George helps her. After she recovers, Lucy and George have a short, private conversation before returning to the pensione.

Later, Charlotte, Lucy, and the Emersons join other British tourists for a trip to Fiesole. The carriage driver flirts with his girlfriend, which upsets Reverend Eager. He makes the girlfriend leave the carriage in the countryside. Charlotte and Eleanor Lavish encourage Lucy to walk alone, so Lucy searches for Mr. Beebe. The Italian driver may misunderstand Lucy’s Italian or may be teasing her, leading her to where George is looking at the view from a hillside. George sees Lucy across a field of poppies and suddenly kisses her. Charlotte arrives and stops them. Worried about disappointing Lucy’s mother, Charlotte makes Lucy promise to keep the incident secret and ends their trip early.

When Lucy returns to England, she does not tell her mother about the kiss. She soon agrees to marry Cecil Vyse, a wealthy but cold and arrogant man. Cecil loves Lucy, but he and his mother look down on her family, which angers Lucy’s mother. Lucy learns that Mr. Emerson is moving into a cottage owned by Sir Harry Otway, with George visiting on weekends. Lucy had planned for two other women to live there, but Cecil recommended the cottage to the Emersons after meeting them in London. Cecil claims he did this to annoy Sir Harry, who he considers a snob.

George’s presence causes Lucy to feel confused emotions. Cecil asks Lucy for permission to kiss her, then does so awkwardly. Lucy mentions that people she met in Italy were "extraordinary," which makes Cecil compare her to the passionate kiss she received from George. Lucy’s brother, Freddy, becomes friends with George and invites him to play tennis at the Honeychurch home. During the game, Cecil reads a novel by Eleanor Lavish, which includes a scene identical to Lucy and George’s encounter in Fiesole. As Cecil reads, George kisses Lucy in the garden. Lucy confronts Charlotte, who admits she told Eleanor Lavish about the kiss, which was used in the book. Lucy tells George to leave and never return. George says Cecil sees Lucy as a possession, not as a person, and will never love her as he would. Lucy seems unaffected but later ends her engagement to Cecil, saying they are not compatible.

To avoid problems, Lucy arranges to travel to Greece with the Misses Alan. George, unable to be near Lucy, moves his father to London, not knowing Lucy is no longer engaged. When Lucy visits Mr. Beebe’s home to retrieve Charlotte, she meets Mr. Emerson. She finally admits she loves George.

Later, Lucy and George marry and spend their honeymoon at the Italian pensione where they first met, staying in the room with a view of Florence’s Duomo.

Production

E. M. Forster began writing A Room with a View during a trip to Italy in the winter of 1901–02 when he was twenty-two years old. This was his first novel, but he set it aside and returned to it later. Before completing A Room with a View, Forster finished two other novels: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and The Longest Journey (1907). A Room with a View was finally published in 1908. Set in Italy and England, the story follows Lucy Honeychurch, a proper young Englishwoman who discovers passion during her trip to Italy. After returning to England, she must choose between two men: the free-thinking George Emerson and the repressed aesthete Cecil Vyse. The novel is both a romance and a humorous critique of English society at the start of the 20th century. It was Forster’s third novel and was well received, though not as highly as his later works, Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). Forster himself said, “A Room with a View may not be my best, but may very well be my nicest.”

In 1946, 20th Century Fox offered $25,000 for the film rights to A Room with a View, but Forster did not think movies were very important and refused. He would have accepted more money, but he did not want to make a film.

After Forster’s death in 1970, the board of fellows at King’s College, Cambridge, inherited the rights to his books. However, Donald A. Parry, who managed Forster’s estate, refused all offers for the film rights. Ten years later, the film rights became available when Professor Bernard Williams, who loved movies, became the new manager of Forster’s estate. The people who managed Forster’s estate invited producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory to Cambridge to discuss making a film. Ivory said he was more excited about the novel than Merchant was. Merchant and Ivory worked with writer Emma Jhabvala, who first wrote the script, then Ivory rewrote it, and Jhabvala wrote another version.

The film was made with a budget of $3 million. This included money from Cinecom in the United States and from Goldcrest Films, the National Film Finance Corporation, and Curzon Film Distributors in Great Britain. Merchant and Ivory had been turned down twice by Jake Eberts of Goldcrest Films but got money from the company after Eberts left. Eberts later admitted he was “completely wrong” about the film.

Helena Bonham Carter played Lucy Honeychurch in the film. This was her first major role in a movie. She was eighteen years old and had just finished the film Lady Jane (1986). Ivory chose her because he thought she was smart, quick, and beautiful. She matched Forster’s description of Lucy as “a young lady with a quantity of dark hair and a very pretty, pale, undeveloped face.”

Rupert Everett tried out for the role of Cecil Vyse. He would have preferred to play George Emerson, but Ivory thought he was not right for that role. Julian Sands was cast as the male lead. Sands had previously been noticed for his role as a British photographer in The Killing Fields (1984).

Daniel Day-Lewis was chosen for the role of Cecil Vyse after being noticed for his performance as Guy Bennet, a gay student, in the play Another Country. He chose to play Cecil, a more challenging role, instead of George Emerson. Rupert Graves, in his first film role, played Freddy Honeychurch, Lucy’s brother. He had previously appeared as a schoolboy in the play Another Country.

Simon Callow was originally chosen by Ivory to play Harry Hamilton-Paul in the film Heat and Dust, but he had already committed to a play in London. He had previously played Mozart in the stage version of Amadeus and had a small role in the film version. In A Room with a View, he played Mr. Beebe, the vicar.

Other actors included Maggie Smith, who had appeared in another Merchant Ivory film, Quartet, and Judi Dench, who had a long theatre career and made her film debut in 1964. Dench played Eleanor Lavish. She and Ivory had disagreements during filming, including Ivory suggesting she play her character as a Scottish woman.

A Room with a View was filmed in many places in Italy, including Florence, where the Piazza della Signoria was cleared for filming. Pensione Quisisana was used as the Pensione Bertolini, and Villa di Maiano was used for some interior scenes. Decorative paintings called grotesques were created for use between scenes, like chapter headings in the book. Other scenes were filmed in London and around Sevenoaks in Kent, where the Kent family estate of film critic John Pym was used for countryside scenes. Lucy’s engagement party was filmed in Emmetts Garden, and Foxwold House near Chiddingstone was used for the Honeychurch house. An artificial pond was built in the forest of the property to use as the “Sacred Lake.” Two years later, the Great Storm of 1987 damaged the area, destroying gardens and parts of the forest. In London, the Linley Sambourne House was used for Cecil’s house, and the Estonian Legation on Queensway was used for the boarding house where the Miss Alans live. The film was shot in ten weeks: four in Italy and six in England. A notable scene includes George, Freddy, and Mr. Beebe swimming nude in the Sacred Lake.

Reception

The film received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 100% rating based on 35 reviews, with a weighted average score of 8.40 out of 10. The site’s consensus states: "The challenging parts of E. M. Forster’s novel may be softened, but the film A Room with a View is a very entertaining comedy that thoughtfully explores love." According to Metacritic, which collected opinions from 21 critics and gave the film a score of 83 out of 100, the film received "universal acclaim." Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, writing: "It is an intellectual film, but it focuses on emotions. It encourages people to think about how they feel, rather than just acting on feelings." In a survey of 100 US newspaper critics’ top-ten lists for 1986, A Room with a View appeared on 61 lists, more than any other film except Hannah and Her Sisters.

When Jake Eberts returned to Goldcrest Films and saw the movie, he believed it had little chance of being a commercial success. However, the film became popular in Britain and the United States. It earned $4.4 million at the US box office during its first 12 weeks of release. After six months, it made £2,026,304 in Britain. The film earned $14 million from North America and, according to one report, $60 million worldwide.

Goldcrest Films invested £460,000 in the film and earned £1,901,000, resulting in a profit of £1,441,000. Eberts noted that the money earned "was not large enough to greatly improve our cash flow." He added that the film’s main benefit was increasing Goldcrest’s reputation, helping maintain its high profile in international markets, and earning sales commissions. Despite the film’s box office success, it was not enough to help Goldcrest recover from financial losses from other films: Absolute Beginners, The Mission, and Revolution.

Soundtrack

• "O mio babbino caro" (from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini) – Kiri Te Kanawa with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Pritchard
• "The Pensione Bertollini"
• "Lucy, Charlotte, and Miss Lavish See the City"
• "In the Piazza Signoria"
• "The Embankment"
• "Phaeton and Persephone"
• "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" (from La Rondine, Act 1 by Puccini) – Te Kanawa with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Pritchard
• "The Storm"
• "Home, and the Betrothal"
• "The Sacred Lake"
• "The Allan Sisters"
• "In the National Gallery"
• "Windy Corner"
• "Habanera" (from Carmen by Georges Bizet)
• "The Broken Engagement"
• "Return to Florence"
• "End Titles"

• Original music composed by Richard Robbins
• Soundtrack album produced by Simon Heyworth
• Arranged by Frances Shaw and Barrie Guard
• Music published by Filmtrax PLC

The film also includes music played by Lucy on the piano:
• In the pensione, Piano Sonata No. 21 Op. 53 "Waldstein" II. Adagio, by Ludwig van Beethoven
• For Cecil's family, Piano Sonata No. 4 Op. 164 D 537, by Franz Schubert
• Piano Sonata No. 8 K. 310 I. Allegro maestoso, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart