A Room with a View movie storyline. It’s the Edwardian era. The Honeychurches – Marian Honeychurch (Rosemary Leach) and her two just of age children Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) and Freddy Honeychurch (Rupert Graves) – are a carefree and fun-loving family that live in the country town of Summer Street, Surrey. Regardless, Lucy is a proper young woman. Some can tell by the way she plays Beethoven on the piano that there is a seething passion underneath her proper demeanor.
She and her older cousin, her chaperon Charlotte Barlett (Dame Maggie Smith), who is officious in a slyly undermining way, travel to Florence, Italy for a week-long respite. The Pensione Bertolini where they are staying is popular amongst British tourists. Amongst the disparate group of other British guests at the pensione are a Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott), who Charlotte considers vulgar because of his forwardness, and his son, the bright, but brooding, George Emerson (Julian Sands).
As their stay progresses, George feels that Italian life is opening his eyes to what is important in life, and he feels the same is happening to Lucy. On a group outing, an incident occurs which both Charlotte and Lucy consider improper, which leads to the two leaving Italy early and heading back to England. Shortly thereafter, Lucy gets engaged to the upper crust and passionless Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis). And Mr. Emerson moves to Summer Street, with George visiting on the weekends. As George befriends the Honeychurches, Lucy begins to tell a series of lies, mostly to herself, about what and who she really wants for and in her life.
A Room with a View is a 1986 British romance film directed by James Ivory with a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and produced by Ismail Merchant, of E. M. Forster’s novel of the same name (1908). It stars Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy and Julian Sands as George, and features Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench and Simon Callow in supporting roles.
Set in England and Italy, it is about a young woman named Lucy Honeychurch in the restrictive and repressed culture of Edwardian England, and her developing love for a free-spirited young man, George Emerson. The film closely follows the novel by use of chapter titles to distinguish thematic segments.
A Room with a View received universal critical acclaim and was a box-office success. At the 59th Academy Awards, it was nominated for eight Academy Awards (including Best Picture), and won three: 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 placed A Room with a View 73rd on its list of the Top 100 British films of the 20th century.
A Room with a View (1986)
Directed by: James Ivory
Starring: Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Judi Dench, Simon Callow, Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands, Daniel Day-Lewis, Fabia Drake, Patrick Godfrey, Rupert Graves, Joan Henley, Rosemary Leach
Screenplay by: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Production Design by: Brian Ackland-Snow, Gianni Quaranta
Cinematography by: Tony Pierce-Roberts
Film Editing by: Humphrey Dixon
Costume Design by: Jenny Beavan, John Bright
Art Direction by: Elio Altamura, Brian Savegar
Music by: Richard Robbins
Distributed by: Curzon Film Distributors
Release Date: April 11, 1986
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