Lucy Honeychurch shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that su... Read allLucy Honeychurch shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?Lucy Honeychurch shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?
- Won 3 Oscars
- 25 wins & 22 nominations total
- Lucy Honeychurch, Miss Bartlett's cousin and charge
- (as Helena Bonham-Carter)
- Cecil Vyse
- (as Daniel Day Lewis)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTheatrical movie debut of Helena Bonham Carter (Lucy Honeychurch) and Rupert Graves (Freddy Honeychurch).
- GoofsIn the plaza scene when the man who was killed in the scuffle falls to the pavement, a cigarette butt with a filter is shown between the bricks. Filters were invented in the 1920s and were not in widespread use until the early 1950s.
- Quotes
George Emerson: He's the sort who can't know anyone intimately, least of all a woman. He doesn't know what a woman is. He wants you for a possession, something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box. Something to own and to display. He doesn't want you to be real, and to think and to live. He doesn't love you. But I love you. I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings, even when I hold you in my arms.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: The Best Films of 1986 (1987)
- SoundtracksO mio babbino caro
from the opera Gianni Schicchi
by Giacomo Puccini
Performed by Kiri Te Kanawa with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by John Pritchard (as Sir John Pritchard)
Courtesy CBS Masterworks
(from the album "Kiri Te Kanawa - Puccini & Verdi Arias") (uncredited)
Often Merchant/Ivory productions ring false ('Remains of the Day', for example), when they attempt to make a political statement; in that case regarding the under-current in Britain that led to the surprisingly popular British Union of Fascists created by Sir Oswald Mosley prior to WW2. But when James Ivory and his team stick to romance and the pretty manners of Edwardians, they are hard to beat.
Of the performers, Julian Sands seems the most "improved" in my opinion from earlier viewings. He is wonderful as the Byronic lover and has a ton of chemistry with Helena Bonham-Carter's lovely, spicey Lucy Honeychurch. Daniel Day-Lewis's Cecil Vyse seems a bit more contrived as time passes but is in the end a touching portrayal of a type of man that I despise.
There isn't weak link in the entire cast. The Puccini arias and Beethoven piano sonatas are beautiful and enhance the story. The photography is gorgeous and the other technical aspects are flawless.
This is the pinnacle of Merchant/Ivory films, I cannot imagine them producing anything better in the future, but who knows. They do seem to be in a cultural rut now, however.
The fringe film crowd will probably descry this sort of populist cinema, but I think that is narrow-minded snobbery, as boorish as Cecil Vyse and his insufferable intolerance to "the plebians."
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Un romance indiscreto
- Filming locations
- Fiesole, Florence, Tuscany, Italy(Florentine countryside)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $3,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $20,966,644
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $42,970
- Mar 9, 1986
- Gross worldwide
- $21,057,686
- Runtime1 hour 57 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1