Maurice

Director: James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, Paul Bradley James Ivory

Overview

In Victorian-era England, a Cambridge student (James Wilby) must keep his homosexual attraction to a classmate (Hugh Grant) secret in this adaptation of an E.M. Forster novel. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Costume Design, and also includes an appearance by Helena Bonham Carter.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/05/2017
UPC:	0741952838098
Original Release:	1987
Rating:	R
Source:	Cohen Media Group
Sound:	[stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:20:00

Special Features

New on-stage Q&A with James Ivory and Pierre Lhomme; The Story of Maurice; Original Theatrical Trailer; 2017 Re-release Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

James Wilby	Maurice Hall
Rupert Graves	Alec Scudder
Denholm Elliott	Doctor Barry
Simon Callow	Mr. Ducie
Billie Whitelaw	Mrs. Hall
Barry Foster	Dean Cornwallis
Judy Parfitt	Mrs. Durham
Phoebe Nicholls	Anne Durham
Patrick Godfrey	Simcox
Mark Tandy	Risley
Ben Kingsley	Lasker-Jones
Kitty Aldridge	Kitty Hall
Helena Michell	Ada Hall
Catherine Rabett	Pippa Durham
Peter Eyre	Rev. Borenius
Michael Jenn	Archie London
Mark Payton	Chapman
Maria Britneva	Mrs. Sheepshanks
John Elmes	Hill
Gerald McArthur	Undergraduate
Olwen Griffiths	Mrs. Scudder
Miles Richarson	Undergraduate
Mathew Sim	Fetherstonhaugh
Andrew St. Clair	Undergraduate
Rick Warner	Judge

Technical Credits

James Ivory	Director
Ismail Merchant	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Written in 1914, but published only after its author's death because he didn't wish to cause a scandal, Maurice is E.M. Forster's most personal novel, though it's also his least meaty. Unlike most of Merchant-Ivory's other Forster adaptations, then, Maurice boils its source material down to an essence without losing any of the flavor. As the callow title character, James Wilby does a good job fumbling toward self-knowledge in a social landscape devoid of self-help manuals or vaguely respectable role models. His character's arc may have become a tad overfamiliar in the years since the book was written, let alone since the movie came out, but in the context of pre-World War I England, it resonates. Hugh Grant, meanwhile, gets to have all the fun as Clive Durham, the lover who lapses from intellectual devotion into self-delusion as adulthood plies its many pressures. James Ivory's script insists on depicting Clive as a clear-cut closet case rather than exploring the ambiguous conception of homosexuality in an era before modern ideas about sexual orientation had taken shape. It's to Grant's credit, then, that he makes Clive's inner torment so wrenching. Rupert Graves' gay groundskeeper doesn't show up till the third act, but his unvarnished charm adds some much-needed grit and momentum to a film that sometimes seems to depict coming out of the closet as an endless attack of the vapors. Ultimately, Forster's conflation of working-class vitality with personal freedom is a little too pat for modern audiences. But, seen in its historical context as both a novel and a film, Maurice is as interesting as it is entertaining.