It was exactly thirty years ago that Merchnat-Ivory made their twentieth film, the first commercial success of their long collaboration, a film which stands the test of time better than any of their films and even better than Platoon, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Blue Velvet, the three other must-see films released commercially in 1986.
Director James Ivory, having made so many period films, was anxious to make a modern dress film, but producer Ismael Merchant had just purchased the rights to E.M. Forsterโs A Room With a View, which dictated that that was the film they were going to make. Their long time writing partner, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, would write the script and the film, which takes place in the early days of the Twentieth Century, would be made on location in Florence, Italy and Kent, England (standing in for Surrey). Veteran British TV cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts, making only his second theatrical film, would be director of photography, and Richard Robbins, who had scored their last five films, would compose the filmโs original music interspersed with dollops of Puccini and Victor Herbert. With a superb hand-picked cast in place, off they went.
Forster (1879-1970) had suddenly been in vogue thanks to the success of David Leanโs A Passage to India, released at the end of 1984, so there was enormous interest in the film. Its worldwide success surprised everyone, not the least of whom was Ismael Merchant, who on the eve of the Oscars in March 1987 couldnโt get over the fact that the film made back its cost in one Manhattan theatre alone and was still packing them in at a theatre in Waco, Texas โof all places,โ as well it should have. The seemingly plotless diversion was one of the great love stories with universal appeal that hasnโt dated a bit since Forster wrote it in 1908 and Merchant-Ivory filmed it in 1985.
Helena Bonham Carter, in her star-making role, is the forthright upper-middle-class girl who goes on holiday in Florence with her straight-laced cousin and chaperone, beautifully played by Maggie Smith in one of her signature roles. There they meet, among others, a free thinking gentleman played by Denholm Elliott and his stalwart son played by Julian Sands. Sands is immediately smitten with Bonham Carter, but she has a beau back home, an insufferable snob played to the hilt by Daniel Day-Lewis, also in a star-making role. Other important characters are made memorable by the likes of Judi Dench as a shallow romance writer, Simon Callow as a liberal clergyman, Rupert Graves as Bonham Carterโs rascally brother, and Rosemary Leach as her perplexed mother. They are all absolutely delightful.
The film factored into all year-end awards consideration. The National Board of Review named it the yearโs best film and gave Daniel Day-Lewis its supporting actor award jointly for My Beautiful Laundrette and this. The New York Film Critics followed suit with their award to Day-Lewis and cinematographer Pierce-Roberts. Jhabvala came in third in their voting for Best Screenplay. The Golden Globes gave it nominations for Best Picture, Director and Maggie Smith, who won for Best Supporting Actress. Oscar gave it eight nominations including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Supporting Actor (Elliott), Supporting Actress (Smith), and three wins for Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, and Costume Design.
The film really scored with BAFTA, earning fourteen nominations and five wins. The wins were for Best Film, Actress (Smith), Supporting Actress (Dench), Production Design, and Costume Design. The other nominations were for Best Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography, Score, Editing, Sound, Supporting Actor (Elliott, Callow), and Supporting Actress (Leach).
The Criterion Blu-ray release is a beautifully restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by Ivory and Pierce-Roberts. It contains two new documentaries featuring interviews with Ivory, Pierce-Roberts, Costume Designer John Bright, and actors Bonham Carter, Sands, and Callow.
Merchant-Ivoryโs subsequent films include two others made from Forsterโs works, Maurice and Howards End, as well as Kazuo Ishaguroโs The Remains of the Day. Those films, along with A Room with a View comprise the films known as Merchant-Ivoryโs British period films, the most successful of their thirty-three works. 87-year-old Ivory is at work on his first film since Merchantโs and Jhabvalaโs passing, William Shakespeareโs infrequently filmed Richard II.
Criterion has also released a 4K digital Blu-ray restoration of Leonard Kastleโs The Honeymoon Killers.
Premiering at the 1969 New York Film Festival, the film was not released commercially until February 1970 when it went into wide release. Although not a huge success at the time, it has since developed a cult following. Writer-Director Kastle, a composer of modern operas, never made another film. It was made with an unknown cast, most of whom stayed unknown. It was Shirley Stolerโs first film and Tony Lo Biancoโs first credited film role. Of the supporting cast, only Doris Roberts, who plays Stolerโs friend and neighbor, is familiar to most viewers.
Based on a sensational murder spree that took place in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Stoler plays a supervisor of nurses who falls for lonely-hearts club correspondent Lo Bianco and then poses as his sister as they fleece and murder a number of susceptible, gullible women. The film tells the middle part of their story. An excellent documentary, included as an extra on the Blu-ray release, puts it into perspective, filling in the events that led to the meeting of the two and the sensational trial that followed their capture, resulting in their deaths on the electric chair at Sing-Sing in 1951. Martha Beck (Stolerโs character) had to be electrocuted four times before she died.
Kastle made the film as the antithesis of Bonnie and Clyde, a film he loathed for glamorizing its titled killers. He filmed it in stark black-and-white, firing original director Martin Scorsese after just one week on the job for wasting time and money on a shot of a beer can in the woods. Except for one hammer murder, most of the violence is kept off-screen with the final murder, that of the drowning of their last victimโs little girl, experienced through a cellar door as Lo Biancoโs character listens to Stoler carrying out his orders.
Stoler went on to an even more sensationalistic role as the prison camp commandant in Lina Wermullerโs Seven Beauties made six years later.
Previously available on Blu-ray from Twilight Time, Sony has finally come up with its own non-limited edition release of Christine, John Carpenterโs 1983 film which remains one of the directorโs most popular films aside from Halloween. Based on Stephen Kingโs bestseller, Keith Gordon (Dressed to Kill) stars as the nerd in love with his car, a 21-year-old red Plymouth Fury which has a mind of its own โ an evil one.
Two of Britainโs best current mystery series have released new editions.
George Gently โ Series 7 finds the venerable 1960s Durham detective, played by Martin Shaw, afflicted with multiple sclerosis, but still able to perform his job better than anyone else as the decade comes to an end. Vera-Set 5 finds the caustic, but compassionate Northcumberland detective, played by Brenda Blethyn, with a new partner to take under her wings and baffling new murders to solve. Gently is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD, Vera on DVD only.
This weekโs new releases include the When Marnie Was There and Magic Mike XXL.
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