Room with a View, A (Roadshow) (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-James Ivory (Director) Gallery-Photo-A Black And White View of 'A Room With A View' Gallery-Original Cinema Lobby Cards And Poster
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	116:43
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	James Ivory
Studio Distributor	Goldcrest Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Maggie Smith Helena Bonham Carter Denholm Elliott Julian Sands Simon Callow Patrick Godfrey Judi Dench Fabia Drake Joan Henley Amanda Walker Daniel Day-Lewis Maria Britneva Rosemary Leach
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$14.95	Music	Richard Robbins

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Whilst the eternally popular novels of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen have undergone numerous translations to the silver screen at the hands of almost countless directors, screenwriters and actors, E.M. Forster, assuming he approves of the filming of his literary creations, owes much to a creative team of just three for reinvigorating interest in his works. Since the great British director David Lean's epic telling of A Passage to India in 1984 - the master's last film - there have been four adaptations of Forster novels, three of them by the trio of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhablava, who won an Academy Award for her work on this, the first of their Forster adaptations, A Room With a View.

    Having thoroughly enjoyed the Merchant Ivory team's interpretation of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, but been bored by much of their lauded take on Forster's Howard's End, it was with a sense of uncertainty that I sat down to review this equally acclaimed film, which garnered eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture in 1986. Set in 1907, both in Edwardian England and the less buttoned-up world of romantic Florence, it is the story of a young English woman, Lucy Honeychurch (a nineteen year old Helena Bonham Carter in her first movie role) who, whilst enjoying the greater freedom a trip to the continent provides (though her older cousin Charlotte (Maggie Smith) does her best to limit this) falls in love with the dashing, but somewhat unorthodox George Emerson (Julian Sands).

    Their love is discovered and before it can develop further Lucy is whisked home to her mother's country estate, where she accepts the proposal of a more 'suitable' man (Daniel Day-Lewis), but one for whom she cannot ever feel the same affection. Gradually Lucy comes to realise, with the help of fate's guiding (and it turns out Italianate) hand, that in matters of love, it is best to follow the heart rather than the head. As with any story of this type and era, as important as the narrative are the witty observations about the manners and mannerisms of those in society, and those trying their best to avoid falling into the trap of observing its sometimes ludicrous rules (Denholm Elliot's portrayal of George Emerson's character is particularly illuminating in this regard).

    This is a finely wrought story, with good performances from a British cast of some pedigree, including Judi Dench and Simon Callow in small but important roles. There are times when I felt Helena Bonham Carter's performance was somewhat stilted and wooden, and the story did venture too much at times into drawing room nothingness, but the locations are sumptuous, the dialogue clever and urbane, and the film as a whole eminently civilised.

Video

    We have been presented with a video transfer that swings between the very good and the disappointing. It is framed at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, with 16x9 enhancement which is relatively close to the apparent original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, so much so that nothing appears to have been lost in the reframing. Note: the cover says the transfer is 2.35:1, letterboxed. This is thankfully incorrect.

    Levels of sharpness are solid and stable if not excellent. Shadow detail is acceptable although some of the lighting disallows the clearest picture.

    There are some occasional instances of grain but these aren't overly distracting, although they do detract from what is some beautifully caught scenery.

    The colour palette is quite muted and dominated by rustic colours, with the occasional burst of (normally floral) colour. Skin tones are generally well rendered.

    Aliasing and other film to video artefacts were not of major concern, although there are pans that cause some shimmering.

    Whilst film artefacts are kept to a relative minimum, there were some occasional moments of juddering that were very disconcerting. The film looks as if it was a little worn when the transfer was done.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    We are presented with two English tracks, Dolby Digital 5.1 and a Dolby Stereo 2.0 track, both of which are perfectly acceptable, making one wonder why a 5.1 track was needed in this dialogue heavy film.

    Audio sync is generally very good, although on occasion I thought some less than absolutely perfect ADR work had been done.

    There were no detectable dropouts or audio blemishes to worry about.

    Dialogue is well presented, with English accents proving relatively easy to grasp.

    The surrounds and subwoofer are, unsurprisingly, given little to do, although in the 5.1 track they do add a little more ambience and depth to an admittedly beautiful selection of classical music, including Beethoven and Schubert piano works and Puccini arias.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Audio Commentary

    The sole notable extra is sadly not as notable as one would have liked. It is an audio commentary from director Ivory, producer Merchant, director of photography Tony Pierce-Roberts and Simon Callow, who plays Revered Beebe in the film. They are quite chummy and praise one another, and the cast who aren't present, but there isn't a whole lot of valuable information divulged.

Gallery (2)

    There are two galleries of photographs - one stylishly presented collection of black & white stills, taken during production, and another gallery of advertising posters and cinema lobby cards - as the English call them.

    A Special Edition Region 1 release of the film is available, and compared to that we miss out on:

• Spanish and French Dolby Stereo 2.0 tracks
• Three short interviews - two with Simon Callow, one with Daniel Day-Lewis (7 minutes)
• Short news report on popularity of the film in the US (3 minutes)
• Short profile of the Merchant Ivory team (5 minutes)
• BBC produced tribute to E.M. Forster (26 minutes)

    The Region 1 release misses out on:

• English Dolby Stereo 2.0 track

    Now I don't know why these admittedly pitiful extras weren't included when the audio commentary was, but in my humble opinion we aren't missing out on a whole lot. The Region 1 release is the better package however, so, considering the currently favourable exchange rate I would be inclined to go for it over the local product...just. If the Region 4 is cheap however, and I think it will retail for less than $20, you won't be disappointed with it.

    A prim and tasteful film that for me lacked the emotional core of The Remains of the Day.

    The video quality is reasonable but marred by some ugly juddering.

    The audio is fine.

    The extras are not particularly interesting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall