Directed by James Ivory (UK, 1985, 117 min.).

Led by director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, Merchant Ivory Productions became a household name with A Room with a View, the first of their extraordinary adaptations from the novels of E. M. Forster. A cherubic nineteen-year-old Helena Bonham Carter plays Lucy Honeychurch, an upper-class and independent-minded Edwardian woman trying to sort out her burgeoning romantic feelings. Her affections are divided between an enigmatic free spirit (Julian Sands) she meets on vacation in Florence and the priggish bookworm (Daniel Day-Lewis) she becomes engaged to back in Surrey. Funny, sexy, and sophisticated, this gargantuan art house hit features a sublime supporting cast—including Simon Callow, Judi Dench, Denholm Elliott, and Maggie Smith—and remains a touchstone of intelligent romantic cinema.