A Room with a View (1985)

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A Room with a View (1985)

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A Room with a View is a 1985 British drama film directed by James Ivory and written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The film is a close adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel of the same name, and even uses his chapter titles to divide the film into sections. The movie stars Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Julian Sands, Simon Callow, Daniel Day-Lewis, Rupert Graves and Judi Dench.

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A Room with a View (1985)

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Plot: Miss Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter) from an English hamlet in Surrey is on holiday in Italy with her much older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith). Charlotte is conventionally English, with an extremely restrictive personality and tends to get her way by expressing her emotions to manipulate others. Lucy has been brought up in an upper class but loving and easygoing household, and had fewer inhibitions, which creates a strong tension between Charlotte and herself. They are in contrast with the more free-thinking and free-spirited backdrop of Italy. At a small pensione Lucy meets such people as Reverend Beebe, the two Miss Alans, and the author Miss Eleanor Lavish, as well as the aging Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his handsome, philosophical son, George (Julian Sands), who becomes friends with Charlotte. These men, although also English, represent the forward-thinking ideals of the turn-of-the-century, seeking to leave behind the repression and caution that was the norm in Victorian times. At first, the two Emerson men seem strange and unfamiliar to Lucy and Charlotte. The men seem unaware of finer upper class Victorian manners, and offer Lucy and Charlotte a room with a view where the gentlemen have already slept, and Charlotte fusses until she must give in or appear overbearingly rude. As Lucy begins her journey to maturity, she finds herself drawn to George due to his mysterious thinking and readily expressed emotions. A number of people residing at the pensione take a carriage ride in the country.

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A Room with a View (1985)

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A mischievous Italian driver gets back at Charlotte by misdirecting an unchaperoned Lucy to George in a barley field as he admires the view. George suddenly embraces and passionately kisses Lucy as she approaches him. Charlotte has followed Lucy, witnesses the act, and quickly stops the intimacy. George's unreserved passion shocks Lucy, but also lights a secret desire and romance in her heart. Charlotte suggests George kissing her was the act of a rake. Charlotte makes reference to a heartbreak from her youth that occurred the same way and has behaved accordingly with disgust and anger toward George. Charlotte uses guilt to coerce Lucy to secrecy to save both their reputations as a young lady and a chaperone, but it is mostly for her own benefit. Normally, if a young man kissed a young lady, an engagement should be announced to preserve her reputation, but Charlotte considers George to be an undesirable influence. Upon returning to England, Lucy tells her mother nothing due to Charlotte's influence, and pretends to forget the incident. She accepts a marriage proposal from an uptight, but respectable and wealthy man named Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis). However, she soon learns that both George and his father have moved to her small village and will be her neighbors due to a letter from Cecil Vyse inviting them to reside in an empty cottage. The appearance of George soon disrupts Lucy's plans and causes her suppressed feelings to resurface, complicated by the supposed need for secrecy. Lucy consistently refuses George's attempts to woo her because of Charlotte's admonitions.

–from wikipedia

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A Room with a View (1985)

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A Room with a View (1985)

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A Room with a View (1985)

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A Room with a View (1985)

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A Room with a View (1985)

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