MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Director James Ivory brings his subdued, "Masterpiece Theater" style to a forbidden subject -- homosexual love. Maurice is based on E.M. Forster's suppressed 1914 novel that was held back from publication until after his death. The film takes place at Cambridge, before World War I, when homosexuality was outlawed in Great Britain. Clive (Hugh Grant), an aristocratic Englishman with a life of privilege, suddenly shocks his close friend Maurice (James Wilby) by declaring his love for him. Maurice is initially stunned by the pronouncement, but in the end finds himself giving Clive a passionate kiss and telling him that he loves him as well. Clive, in the stiff-upper-lip British manner, considers their love to be more of an intellectual concept, but Maurice becomes passionate about the affair. Clive, afraid of being exposed as a homosexual, backs off and breaks up with Maurice for marriage, family, and politics. Maurice is crestfallen, but then he has a passionate affair with Clive's gamekeeper, Scudder (Rupert Graves), and Maurice and Scudder decide to risk their reputations by openly living together as lovers. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Subtitle: Eng
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (Alternate Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Features:
  • Luminous new high-definition digital transfer, enhanced for widescreen televisions
  • "Conversation With the Filmmakers," part of a new series of interviews with Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Richard Robbins
  • "The Story of Maurice," featuring new interviews with screenwriter Kit Hesketh-Harvey and actors James Wilby, Hugh Grant, and Rupert Graves
  • Over 30 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes, including a reconstructed opening sequence, with commentary by James Ivory
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Costume Design - 1987 (John Bright, Jenny Beavan)

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Won Best Actor - 1987 (James Wilby, Hugh Grant)
•     Won Osella for Best Music - 1987 (Richard Robbins)
•     Won Silver Lion - 1987 (James Ivory)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       James Wilby - Maurice Hall
       Hugh Grant - Clive Durham
       Rupert Graves - Alec Scudder
       Denholm Elliott - Dr. Barry
       Simon Callow - Mr. Ducie
       Billie Whitelaw - Mrs. Hall
       Ben Kingsley - Lasker-Jones
       Judy Parfitt - Mrs. Durham
       Phoebe Nicholls - Anne Durham
       Mark Tandy - Risley
       Helena Michell - Ada Hall
       Kitty Aldridge - Kitty Hall
       Patrick Godfrey - Simcox
       Michael Jenn - Archie
       Barry Foster - Dean Cornwalis
       Peter Eyre - Mr. Borenius
       Catherine Rabett - Pippa Durham
       Orlando Wells - Young Maurice
       Helena Bonham Carter - Bonham,Young Lady at Cricket Match
       Alan Foss - Old Man at Train

• Director:

  James Ivory

• Producer:

  Ismail Merchant

• Screenwriter:

  Kit Hesketh-Harvey, James Ivory, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

• Book Author:

  E.M. Forster

• Cinematographer:

  Pierre Lhomme, Alex Leyton

• Composer (Music Score):

  Richard Robbins

• Editor:

  Katherine Wenning

• Production Designer:

  Brian Ackland-Snow

• Art Director:

  Peter James

• Associate Producer:

  Paul Bradley

• Costume Designer:

  Jenny Beavan, John Bright

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Mike Shoring

• Makeup:

  Mary Hillman

• First Assistant Director:

  Michael Zimbrich

• Casting:

  Celestia Fox

REVIEW:

• 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. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi