Rating: 
Summary: BEST BRITISH FILM OF THE 80s
Review: Singing by Kiri Te Kanawa; stars including Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, Julian Sands and Rupert Graves; direction by James Ivory and Academy Award nominated photography, costumes and set decorations - how could it miss? It didn`t It`s a superb transition of the old novel.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect!
Review: A Room With a View is easily one of the most intelligent, perceptive, and romantic films ever made. It's wonderfully faithful to the Forster novel (right down to the chapter titles) and features flawless performances, lush production values, and a gorgeous opera score. Add a dash of full-frontal male nudity, and what have you got to lose? One viewing of this film is never enough, so it's a great addition to a video collection. Perfect!
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect to someone new to opera & classical music
Review: If you think the album is romantic, check out the soundtrack. It's relaxing & melodic, & the arias from various operas are terrific.I'm no classical music or opera buff, but I don't find this at all intimidating, & enjoy it immensely
Rating:
Summary: They do not come better than this
Review: James Ivory's "Room With a View" is a tour de force. Adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by E.M. Forster, "A Room with a View" is a shining example of Merchant-Ivory's ability to achieve maximum quality and opulence at minimum cost. It shows the life of Lucy Honeychurch starting from Italy, going through England and ending in Italy. This is a thoughtful movie that requires one to understand the standards of England then to realize that it is fighting against the set rigid style of life. This style of life is eternal and can be seen in movies like "Guess who is coming to dinner". Denholm Elliot raises his son to not care about anything but truth and beauty. The acting and screenplay is wonderful. Daniel Day Lewis does a superb job as Cecil. Judy Davis is superb as the novelist, Eleanor Lavish as is Maggie Smith. Even the humor in the movie is unusual. When the English chaplain in Florence, Mr Eager shows a chapel and mentions, "Remember that this was built by faith in the full fervor of medievalism", it prompts, Mr Emerson to say, "Faith indeed. It simply means that the workers were not paid well." The movie has understated humor that is refreshing compared to the usual slapstick. Scenes were the brother and sister are together are especially funny. A lot of people found the movie too slow. Well, this is not a cop movie, it requires one to think about what goes underneath each person. The movie is based on one of the special books that breaks down class distinctions, though it is subtle and dignified. I personally felt that this was the best movie of the year and easily bet "Platoon" in its class. A winner of three Academy Awards, "A Room with a View" is not what one could call fast-moving, but fans of the Merchant-Ivory team will enjoy luxuriating in the film's leisurely pace and stimulating cast of characters.
Rating:
Summary: "For every eternal why there is a yes and a yes and a yes!"
Review: "A Room With a View" is the most exquisite movie that I've ever seen. The august artistic vision of Misters Merchant and Ivory is awe-inspiring. I'd place their achievement at number one atop my list of favorite films--which is no mean feat as there are at least 100 that I'd rate with five stars. The production is pure transcendence and bears little in relation to normal life.
Where does one begin regarding "A Room with a View"? So many themes are developed in these two hours, such as the way that love is forged in times of danger and stress along with nature's power to undermine societal repression.
It is one of the few movies that is stronger than the book upon which it is based. It can be interpreted as pure romance and also, independently, as a satire on the Victorian age. I saw it the theatre for the first time at age 17, and it continues to haunt me eighteen years later.
This movie launched Julian Sands, Simon Callow, and Daniel Day Lewis as serious actors. It also features British acting legends like Denholm Elliott, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. Overall, there is not one bad performance in this film. As if it needed any more recommendations, the soundtrack is also extraordinary. You must own this film. It is not a rental. Helena Bonham-Carter, as Lucy Honeychurch, is a paragon of joyous feminity that few on this earth are capable of living up to. She is an ideal as are all of these characters.
This is a depiction of romantic love rarely found on the big screen. You vividly see the passion that forms between George and Lucy, and its force is infinitely believable. The way in which the audience is allowed to witness their attraction is quite rare. In comparison, a strong film like "Sense and Sensibility" becomes weak tea. You cheer for these lovers and long to know what happens in the future. If all lives were like these, then every death would become calamitious tragedy. This movie is the closest many of us will ever come to the sublime.
Rating:
Summary: Slow moving BUT ALL-STOPS-OUT GREAT
Review: If u fancy a slowmoving picture, filled with beautiful locations, actors, music, period costumes and scipt - this film is the ONE FOR YOU. It`s a funny tale of the almost upper-class British and their philanderings leading to almost a near-tragic outcome(a fatal marriage) hehe. The entire cast and crew is a smashing success.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Movie -- but Not for Repeat Viewings
Review: The production of this film onto DVD actually improved it from the original version that I saw in the movie houses when it premièred in 1986. The digital remastering gave the picture a vividness and a vitality that the film did not have when I first viewed it. If anything, I recall that I felt that the entire movie suffered too much from too much English weather; it all looked too dim and devoid of lighting. In the DVD version, the picture was bright and clear, much easier on the eyes and much more enjoyable.
The Merchant-Ivory team won praises for their joint effort in this adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel. While Lucy Honeychurch is traveling to Italy as a young and impressionable woman, her companion, Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith), claims to be a woman of the world but, in truth, is only a slave to the excessive repression of Victorian British social behavior and is forever wringing her hands in desperation to protect her young charge from doing the wrong thing -- and ends up doing all the wrong things herself in the process. They travel in the company of other repressed British subjects, among whom are George Emerson (Julian Sands), a young man totally immersed in a world of his own emotions and his somewhat melancholy father (Denholm Elliot). Lucy and George are caught up in a whirlwind of emotion that gets aborted, and after everyone returns to England, Lucy returns to the reality of her engagement to her foppish, passionless fiancé, Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis), who scarcely seems to be aware she is around most of the time as he reads from a book. The larger part of the film seems to revolve around Lucy playing hide-and-seek from her own feelings, with the other characters being incidental in relation to her denial. The only way the movie can end is for everything to work out in the end, with Charlotte continually wringing her hands in despair but everything still turning out fine.
What I was not prepared for was seeing that this film does not wear well with repeat viewings. When I first saw the movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, despite many great performances from the above mentioned cast members and additional members including Simon Callow, Judi Densh, and many others, the story seemed to move incredibly slowly on a second viewing. Even with the sumptuous music of Giacomo Puccini throughout the film (music from the opera Gianni Schicchi appears throughout the film, including the aria O Mio Babbino Caro, which opens the film), the movie seemed to drag on forever. Certain things looked too obvious on a second viewing, such as Lucy hearing from George's father that George is in love with her, her being engaged to someone so uninspiring as Cecil... on a first viewing, these things still surprise because the viewer is taking them in for the first time, but on a second viewing, they look predictable, and Lucy's blindness to the obvious becomes irritating.
The good moments from years ago were still good moments -- I think the scene in which the men decide to go skinny dipping and then get an unexpected female visitor was hardly realistic, however, considering that they were in England, where they would have to be frost-proof to do such a thing, even though it still made for a nice comic effect -- but I decided that A Room with a View is a movie meant to be seen on rare occasions and certainly not meant for frequent viewing. When I say frequent viewing, I mean acting like the doting parent who takes out the baby pictures every time a visitor comes around. Enjoy the film once and maybe quite a LONG time afterward -- but don't overdo it.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful View...
Review: This is such a fabulous film for so many reasons that it's difficult to list them all.
First, it is a sumptuous visual feast. The scenes of the English countryside, the costuming, the furnishing of the Edwardian homes...if you have the slightest interest in wallowing in such lucious detail; you'll be happy with that aspect of the film alone.
Second, there is the equally rich acting...whatever these actors were paid could not have measured up in any way to what they gave. Daniel Day Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, and Judi Dench are only the best known members of a cast that truly, truly dazzles the viewer in this film.
The script is fresh and witty; the directing perfection; and the soundtrack alone can move you to tears.
All highest praise!!
Rating:
Summary: A Gorgeous and Entertaining Film.
Review: The directing team of Ivory-Merchant really outdid themselves with this fine adaptation of E.M. Forster's classic novel. Put together with a low budget and a fine cast of actors who are there out of love for the project in lieu of the almighty dollar, there shouldn't be a complaint from anyone who loves these period films. I love this story because it's akin to some of Jane Austen's wonderful novels that questions upper Victorian English society's silly nonsensical rules.
Not only do we get breathtakingly beautiful shots of Italy and Englands luscious country landscape, but we also get beautiful costumes, a lovely musical score and, most important of all, a fine cast of well-drawn characters and an engaging storyline. No, it's not gripping. Period films generally aren't. If you want gripping, rent yourself some Lara Krofft movies. Touching, romantic, and funny, it's almost hysterical how Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) rebukes the wildly passionate advances of George (Julian Sands) for the stuffy, outspoken, stiff-as-a-board Cecil (Daniel Day Lewis) who doesn't seem to like anybody, only to come full circle in the end.
This film boasts great performances by other castmembers as well, such as Dame Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, and Simon Callow. I could live without the set of DVD extras because they weren't terribly interesting, but I'm only reviewing the movie. If you don't like films of this ilk or are lukewarm to them, you will probably be bored and are better off viewing something else. If you're into Merchant-Ivory productions or others that are similar, this is a treat in every conceivable facet. For sheer beauty in every way (including handsome Julian Sands' very evocative performance), I recommend A Room with a View very highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid 2004 2-disc Special Edition
Review: This is unquestionably a magnificent film. The 2000 DVD from Image was okay, if a trifle blurry and without either 16x9 enhancement or any extras.
The 2-disc 2004 Special Edition is terribly frustrating. The picture has been gorgeously remastered, restoring crisp, brilliant color and detail *with* 16x9 enhancement. But something ghastly happened: the remastering engineer accidentally ran the film far too fast. So despite the great visuals, this DVD version is mutilated and useless. It runs only 112 minutes compared to the correct 117 minutes of all other editions--and which is inaccurately still listed on the box. Because it is too fast, the pitch level of everything is a semi-tone too high, which is seriously upsetting because music plays an important role in this particular film. The actors' voices sound too high and fast, getting close to that dreaded "chipmunk" quality. They would be horrified to hear themselves in this DVD presentation. This is a disaster.
I have tried to contact BBC Video and Warner who issued this mess but have been unable to do so. This DVD must be corrected, and current copies should be withdrawn and replaced. It's too good a film to circulate with great video but running at an insane speed and pitch.
My rating, therefore, is two stars: five for the film, five for the visual remastering, and ZERO for the 2004 Special Edition; the disgraceful carelessness that led to the wrong speed really deserves a 'minus 10.' The blurry, non-anamorphic Image DVD of 2000 is out of print, but sadly, it's still preferable.
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