Maurice

Director: James Ivory 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
Sales rank:	49,119

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
Hugh Grant	Clive Durham
Rupert Graves	Alec Scudder
Denholm Elliott	Dr. Barry
Simon Callow	Mr. Ducie
Billie Whitelaw	Mrs. Hall
Barry Foster	Dean Cornwallis
Judy Parfitt	Mrs. Durham
Phoebe Nichols	Anne Durham
Patrick Godfrey	Simcox
Mark Tandy	Risley
Ben Kingsley	Lasker-Jones
Kitty Aldridge	Kitty Hall
Helena Michell	Ada Hall
Catherine Rabbett	Pippa Durham
Peter Eyre	Rev. Borenius
Michael Jenn	Archie
Mark Payton	Chapman
Orlando Wells	Young Maurice
Maria Britneva	Mrs. Sheepshanks
John Elmes	Hill
Miles Richarson	Undergraduate
Alan Foss	Old Man on Train
Mathew Sim	Fetherstonhaugh
Philip Fox	Dr. Jowitt
Olwen Griffiths	Mrs. Scudder
Breffini McKenna	Guardsman
Christopher Hunter	Fred Scudder
Gerald McArthur	Undergraduate
Miles Richardson	Undergraduate
Helena Bonham Carter	Young Lady at Cricket Match
Matthew Sim	Featherstonaugh
Phillada Sewell	Matron
Andrew St. Clair	Undergraduate
Harriet Thorpe	Barmaid
Julian Wadham	Hull
Alan Whybrow	Mr. Scudder
Jean-Marc Barr	French Colleague
Richard Warner	Judge,Judge
Serena Gordon	Gladys Olcott
Richard Robbins	Composer

Technical Credits

James Ivory

Kit Hesketh-Harvey

James Ivory	Director,Screenwriter
Kit Hesketh-Harvey	Screenwriter
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.