Merchant lvory Productions, led by director James Ivory and producer lsmail Merchant, became a household name with A Room with a View, the first of their extraordinary adaptations of E. M. Forster novels. A cherubic nineteen-year-old Helena Bonham Carter plays Lucy Honeychurch, a young, independent-minded, upper-cIass Edwardian woman who is trying to sort out her burgeoning romantic feeIings, divided between an enigmatic free spirit (Julian Sands) she meets on vacation in Florence and the priggish bookworm (DanieI Day-Lewis) to whom she becomes engaged back in the more corseted Surrey. Funny, sexy, and sophisticated, this gargantuan art-house hit features a sublime supporting cast-incIuding Simon CalIow, Judi Dench, DenhoIm Elliott, Maggie Smith-and remains a touchstone of intelIigent romantic cinema. |