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A Room With A View

A Room With A View

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Dismal DVD
Review: Great film. Horrible DVD. The images are so fuzzy; you'll find yourself looking for a focus knob.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TERRIBLE SOUND SO BUY THE BRILLIANT VHS
Review: DVD SOUND WAS TERRIBLE. NO SUBTITLES. A SHAME BECAUSE THE FILM IS BRILLIANT. THE PRODUCER ALSO HAS A LOVELY COFFEE TABLE BOOK ON HIS COOKING ADVENTURES IN FLORENCE WHILE SHOOTING.

BUY THE VHS.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: almost.... but not quite
Review: I was *forced* to read A ROOM WITH A VIEW during my senior AP British Literature course, and subsequently fell in love with the novel. After reading it several times over and discovering the existence of a movie version, I decided to take a chance and watch it. It wasn't quite what I had expected... a film full of almost-but-not-quites. The actress playing Lucy didn't show enough of the internal "muddle" that Lucy struggles with in the book... it seems almost as if Lucy has figured herself out by the time she reaches the Pensione in Italy at the beginning of the movie -- and if that is the case, there is almost no point to the book. She acts too obviously... a little more subtleness would be great. And then, of course, there is the first kiss which SHOULD be in a field of violets (I was dying to see that, and they screwed it up!) and the whole gratuitous nudity of the swim in the Sacred Lake. I suppose the movie would be fine as long as one isn't comparing it to the book at every step, like I was.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I don't like romances....
Review: But I loved this movie!Actually, I would give it four and a half stars if I could. It was visually stunning, the acting is wonderful, and the story is witty and engaging. This is one of the best movies of it's kind. What is most fascinating is how a movie without a gratuitous sex scene can have such eroticism. You can almost feel the anticipation and magnetisim between the two main characters. This is a truly gracious and beautiful movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A flawless romance in a perfect world
Review: P. G. Wodehouse once admitted that his little comedies existed in a sort of post-Edwardian never, never land where evil couldn't get much further than occasional outbreaks of bad manners. Much the same might be said of E. M. Forster's little Edwardian universe that is explored in this film. A pretty, intelligent, but inexperienced girl finds herself in the incredible beauty of Florence and the spectacular Tuscan summer. She meets a young man who somehow, despite hardly ever saying anything, manages to be the distillation of the Romantic. He falls in love with her and gives her one of the great leaves-you-tingling-all-over kisses in all the movies. She reacts by retreating at full speed into an engagement to the dullest man in the English-speaking world. But, even without Jeeves, things come out right in the end. Even the minor characters are brilliantly cast and performed. The sound track with, I think, Kiri Te Kanawa is enough to levitate the furniture. I wish I could remember who said, "There's a better universe next door -- let's go!" He must have been taking about this one!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: This is one of my all-time favourite movies! If you're into classic romance you should love this one!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One Problem, but the movie stands on it's own
Review: A Room With A view is hands down my most favourite film of all time. This particular DVD that i purchased was dissapointing in that one small sentence by one of the characters in one scene {where Charlotte Bartlet promises to be "as silent as the grave" to Miss Lucy Honeychurch} is missing. I cant explain why the transfer of this film from VHS to DVD seemed to drop this line, or if this was particular to my DVD only. All I can say is that I was not as happy as I thought I would be with the DVD version.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Charmingly crafted
Review: If ever I feel homesick for a romanticised view of England past, I watch this beautiful movie. Late Victorian / Edwardian social behaviour is dissected and displayed amidst beautiful Italian & English scenery. The heroine ends up asserting herself over tradition, going with her feelings rather than social constraints. A movie to relax to, and soak up several times. Daniel Day-Lewis makes a delightfully smarmy & effete prig, scarily re-incarnating a target for Helen Bonham-Carter's mounting frustration.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Great Movie, BAD DVD
Review: This is a very bad video to digital transfer that does not play in my DVD player. It is a pity that the company releasing this great movie has done such a poor job. Quality is grainy and the image does not sync up with the sound and is steppy. As much as I love this film, I would pass on this DVD.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Possibly the Most Romantic Movie of All Time
Review: "Room with a View," based on E.M. Foresters classic novel, is possibly the most romantic movie of all time. A fantastic introduction to the lavish world of Merchant and Ivory's whimsical interpretation of Victorian England, "Room with a View" is engaging, humorous and heart-stoppingly beautiful.

Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter), a proper and petulant Victorian lady, is sent to Italy with her prim, spinster cousin, Charlotte (Maggie Smith). There the women meet a host of Victorian-age oddballs including a pair of spinster sisters, "The Miss Alans," a slightly racy reverend (played perfectly by Simon Callow) and a decidedly odd father and son.

Young, uninhibited George (Julian Sands) is instantly drawn to Lucy, and encourages her to break free from the social mandates which imprison her and all Victorian woman with a swift, sensual kiss in an Italian field. Lucy is thrilled but cousin Charlotte stops the budding romance before it even begins.

Back in England, Lucy pushes George out of her mind and becomes engaged to a most proper Victorian gentleman, Cecil (played by a virtually unrecognizable Daniel Day Lewis). But, when George and his father move into a nearby house, humorously and inadvertently arranged by the pompous Cecil, Lucy must choose between what's right, and what feels right.

Thanks to a superb script, adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, "Room with a View" is marvelously witty and not overly verbose. Like all of Forester's novels, "A Room with a View" is a comedy of manners and subtle condemnation of the hypocrisy of Victorian society - scandalous in Forester's time but too often dull when retold a century later. Prawer Jhabvala's script makes sure the viewer is never left yawning or glancing at his/her watch. The on-location views of the English and Italian countryside are breath-taking and the acting top-notch.

The superb cast - I can't believe Sands didn't became a Hugh Grant-like star thanks to this role - also includes Judi Dench as lusty and ludicrous novelist "Eleanor Lavish," Rupert Graves as Lucy's brother "Freddy" and the late great Denholm Elliott as "Mr. Emerson."

Though there's no sex in this film the last scene is quite likely the most erotic recorded on film. As you can probably tell from my rambling review, this is my favorite movie and anyone who enjoys a good romance, even if you're not usually a Victorian-era fan, will enjoy this film. Even my husband admitted it was "pretty good." So, light some candles, sit back with a glass of wine and snuggle up with a "Room with a View."


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