Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

A Room with a View Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 8, 2015

James Ivory's "A Room with a View" (1985) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; new interviews with director James Ivory, cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts, costume designer John Bright, and cast members; and an excerpt from an archival episode of NBC Nightly News. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring critic and author John Pym's essay "English Hearts and Italian Sunshine". In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Surprise, surprise

In sunny Florence, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter), a young and clever upper-class Englishwoman, meets George Emerson (Julian Sands), a young and uninhibited Englishman. While taking a walk together, he unexpectedly kisses her. What she experiences during that short moment while his lips touch her lips later on forces her to begin suspecting that she might have fallen in love with him.

Lucy’s mind, however, insists that her heart is playing tricks on her. Later on, without George next to her, she comes to the conclusion that a woman of her stature couldn’t possibly fall in love so quickly.

A few months later, Lucy announces her engagement to Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day-Lewis), a wealthy moralist obsessed with his public image. Initially she is uncertain if she loves him, but because she feels safe with him she concludes that he is in fact the man she deserves. True love, she assumes, will come as they become more comfortable with each other.

The more time Lucy spends with Cecil, however, the more she begins to realize that they have vastly different expectations of each other. Around the same time, George reemerges together with his father (Denholm Eliot) and Lucy begins to wonder whether she should have listened to her heart instead of her mind.

The contrasts in the film are brilliant. Initially, the footage from Florence creates the impression that one would witness a beautiful story about two people who discover that they were meant to be together and then fall madly in love with each other. There is a lot of talk about feelings and passion, but the more one learns about Lucy and her world, the more one begins to realize that the film is in fact an uncompromising condemnation of the British class system and the values that define it.

Initially, the countryside also seems like the perfect place for progressive and romantic minds to coexist in peace. But this is Edwardian England and the only free-thinker around actually looks and acts a lot like a depressed eccentric struggling with impure thoughts. The gentleman who has stolen the girl he wants is also an unbearably pretentious snob who loves to prove that his opinions are always right with quotes from his favorite books.

Lucy senses that something isn’t right, but instead of questioning her ‘logical’ mind she second-guesses her heart. She also shares her doubts and secrets with her trusted chaperon (Maggie Smith), but discovers that they were never safe with her.

The exchanges are elegant but largely meaningless. The game of manners also never stops but the plays are always the same and the players no longer seem to care about it. And because they are not willing to walk away from it, most of them look like talentless actors rather than real people who care about their lives.

The film ends with a positive message, but one wonders whether it is in fact possible for true love and happiness to exist in Lucy’s world. It just feels too sterile, too intellectually suffocating and painfully dishonest.

Director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant adapted E.M. Forster’s popular novel together with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. In 1987, their film won Academy Awards for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, and Best Costume Design.

A Room with a View Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, James Ivory's A Room with a View arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"A Room with a View is presented in the director's preferred aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Supervised by director James Ivory and cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts, this new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative. It's believed that when the negative was originally processed, it was removed from the final "fixation" bath too soon, resulting in chroma hue shifting across the entire feature. Frames were slightly different even within the same shot, causing distracting color imbalances. The restoration process involved the manual removal of thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps using MTI's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used to address the chroma hue shifting, small dirt, grain, noise management, flicker, and jitter.

The original 2.0 surround soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the 35mm magnetic tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX 4. Please be sure to enable Dolby Pro Logic decoding on your receiver to properly play the Dolby 2.0 surround soundtrack.

Transfer supervisors: James Ivory, Tony Pierce-Roberts, Lee Kline.
Color grading: Stephen Bearman/Deluxe Digital London.
Scanning: Goldcrest, New York."

The film looks very healthy and enormously lush and vibrant. Rather predictably, the outdoor footage boasts striking depth and clarity, but the darker/indoor footage is also wonderfully balanced and natural. Contrast levels remain stable. Some partial traces of the chroma hue shifting mentioned in the quoted text above might be possible to spot during a few of the daylight sequences, but I could not see any anomalies to report in our review. (A whiff of the chroma shift appears to be present in the upper end of screencapture #11). Generally speaking, colors are stable, impressively saturated, and natural. There are no traces of compromising degraining or sharpening adjustments. Transitions are excellent and there are no distracting warps or edge flicker. Debris, cuts, damage marks, and stains have been removed as best as possible. All in all, this is a very beautiful restoration of A Room with a View which should remain its definitive presentation on the home video market. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

A Room with a View Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Clarity, depth and balance are excellent. Richard Robbins' soundtrack effortlessly enhances the period atmosphere, but it never feels like it was mixed to impress. It is just part of the overall experience the film offers. The dialog is stable, clean, and exceptionally easy to follow. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report in our review.

A Room with a View Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for A Room with a View. In English, not subtitled. (3 min, 1080p).

• Thought and Passion - in this brand new documentary, director James Ivory recalls his interactions with producer Ismail Merchant before shooting of A Room with a View, some of the difficulties that had to be addressed during the funding of the film, and his initial impressions of Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Julian Sands, the locations E.M. Forster had described in the book (and how later on very specific sets were built for many of them), etc. Cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts explains how he was approached and then invited to join the project, how various sequences were shot (there were no storyboards), the critical reception of the film, etc. Costume designer John Bright discusses the film's period look, the use of color (with some great comments about the contrasts between the Italians and the English visitors in Florence), and the various costumes that were chosen for the actors. The documentary was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2015. In English, not subtitled. (22 min, 1080p).

• The Eternal Yes - in this new documentary, Helena Bonham Carter explains how she was cast to play Lucy Honeychurch, and recalls her interactions with Ismail Merchant, her work with composer Richard Robbins, her confusion during the shooting of the film, etc. Simon Callow discusses his contribution to the film, James Ivory's directing methods, and the film's style. Julian Sands remembers his work with the rest of the cast in Florence, his initial impression of the final version of the film, and its success. The documentary was produced exclusively for Criterion in 2015. In English, not subtitled. (37 min, 1080p).

• NBC Nightly News - presented here is an excerpt from the March 29, 1987 episode of NBC Nightly News which takes a closer look at the creative partnership between director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant as well ass the success of A Room with a View in America. Included in it are short comments from critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. In English, not subtitled. (5 min, 1080i).

• Leaflet - illustrated leaflet featuring critic and author John Pym's essay "English Hearts and Italian Sunshine".

A Room with a View Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I've always found it difficult to like A Room with a View for the same reasons most people admire it. I do understand what makes it attractive -- it is a very beautiful film -- but I find its elegance too sterile and the majority of its characters unbearably dishonest. The film ends with a positive message, but it isn't difficult to imagine that in Edwardian England young women like Lucy rarely walked away from their safe choices. Most of them had to settle for someone like Cecil Vyse and then endure a life of awful compromises. Naturally, I think that as a condemnation of the system that tolerated the dishonesty the film is far more effective. Criterion's new Blu-ray release is sourced from a brand new 4K restoration of A Room with a View that should remain its definitive presentation on the home video market. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED