Room with a View, A (1985)
A Room with a View (1985), directed by James Ivory.
Lush costume romances, comedies of manners, are not for everyone, but if you like the genre, this is one of the great exemplars. It's in the genre of "repressed English people busting loose in the warm and green Italian countryside". Recommended if you know someone who gets the winter blues. Enchanted April (1992) is another.
Tightly-wrapped Lucy is going to marry priggish Cecil, even though she (unconsciously?) loves the manly, free-spirited George. All cannot be made happy, but someone will get a honeymoon back in Florence.
Merchant-Ivory had been making films for 20 years, but this was their first to break out into great international success. This time I noticed how fine the composition and editing is; it's beautiful throughout.
The actors are so young:
Helena Bonham Carter (19): a small but valuable package.
Julian Sands (27): "a young girl's fancy and an old maid's dream" (J.Tull)
Daniel Day-Lewis (28): exquisitely acidic
Rupert Graves (22): the kid brother!
Also with two of my favorites: Denholm Elliott and Maggie Smith (bringing the Harry Potter count to 2).
It's a rare film where there is more male than female nudity (of which there is none). In a funny scene the ladies love, Sands, Graves and Simon Callow let it all hang out at a swimming hole in the woods. Says the mother: "Who were those unfortunate people?" and then to her naked son: "You are in no position to argue!"
Available on an early but very pleasing Blu-ray. The aspect ratio is 1.66:1.
