There seems to be a magic in Italy, where the god of love always cares for this place and becomes the source of many love bonds. Italy is also loved by writers and poets, whether it is Henry James's Wings of the Pigeon or Edward Morgan Foster's The Room with the View, the love stories in which the love story takes place in this romantic capital.
In 1985, "The Room with the View" directed by James Evelin told the love story of the famous Lady Lucy and the young George, and this encounter began in Florence. Such plot routines may not be a minority, but this movie tells the story of a young girl's growth through love. Growing up is not only how many difficulties you have to experience and how much reflection you get, but also in the process of recognizing your own heart and making choices independently. Being able to make a decision for yourself is also a sign of maturity.
Obsessed with rooms with a view
It is worth mentioning that the cast of the movie "Room with a View" is very interesting, and the female Death Eater Bellatrix and Professor McGonagall in "Harry Potter" play cousins. Lucy, played by Helena Bonham Carter, is a young lady from British high society who came to Florence on holiday with her cousin Charlotte, played by Maggie Smith.
The movie opens with a view outside the window of Lucy and Charlotte's house, and she's a little unhappy. When they went downstairs to eat, a pair of enthusiastic fathers and sons offered to change rooms with them, and they did not care whether there was a beautiful scenery outside the window. Charlotte thinks they're too disrespectful and refuses, while Lucy thinks her cousin is the odd one. Persuaded by the priest, she changed her mind and exchanged success, the first time Lucy and George intersected.
Although this is not a love story at first sight, Lucy must have found George interesting. At the dinner table, he would put a question mark on the plate with food, and he would put on his face his disgust for pretentious ladies and gentlemen, and he would be a little frank and cute. She was as eccentric as he was.
The women in the film are obsessed with seeing the landscape room, and George's dad says that for men, the scenery is in their hearts. What about liking a person? Lucy may not know that George has fallen in love with her, and as for why, there is no reason to like it.
Lucy is a romantic, somewhat rebellious teenage girl who, like George, doesn't like her cousin's broken thoughts. She dodged Charlotte and went sightseeing alone. In the square there was a group of Italians fighting, and a man bled and fell at Lucy's feet, and she fainted in fright. It happened that George passed by and carried her to the side, and when she recovered, she begged George not to say anything about it. It was their second intersection, and George had a premonition that the girl would come into his life, and he said that life would not go on as it was, that he would not, and that she would not. In fact, he realized that he was in love with her.
When reading Jane Austen's novel "Northangjue Temple", the love in it is also very hasty, and I will feel a little far-fetched and unreasonable. However, in "The Room with the View", George's "sudden" love for Lucy seems natural to me. Perhaps because it is because of the movie, George's look at Lucy is so firm and pure, the emotional changes of young men and women are not clear, it can be said that it is metaphysics or fate.
George was a very simple man, and in the suburbs he would walk far alone, climb the trees, look at the surrounding scenery, and shout from the bottom of his heart to be pretty. Although George always seemed to be out of the crowd and absent-minded, he had indeed discovered the most beautiful scenery, which was probably more than all the scenery he had read so far.
Lucy, led by the young Italian coachman, came to George. He stood in the poppy field in the distance, saw Lucy walking towards him, did not know whether it was the ghost that sent the gods, or he was confused by the scenery in front of him, he could not suppress the feelings in his heart, walked quickly to her, and kissed her passionately. Lucy was obviously startled by his actions and just gently put her arm around his shoulders, but didn't reject him either. What did Lucy think? At that moment, it cannot be said that she has fallen in love with George, but in such a romantic atmosphere, the girl will fall into it.
The two people who hugged each other were discovered by cousin Charlotte, and they were like two children who had done something wrong. For the traditional cousin, this was an unbelievable and discredited affair, and she immediately returned to England with Lucy, and George and Lucy also broke off contact.
Perhaps this encounter and that ridiculous kiss deserve to be left in the Italian landscape. The landscapes that Lucy liked were indeed buildings and rivers, and George's father's assertion that men did not care as much about landscapes as women was a bit wrong, and in George's case, on the surface, the landscapes that attracted him existed in all things of nature, when in fact these ordinary landscapes became beautiful after Lucy appeared. In his eyes, having her landscape is worth saying a beautiful word.
She no longer clings to the most beautiful scenery
It makes me think that this movie is not simply unfolded after Lucy returned to England, she agreed to Cecil's marriage proposal, very happy. If the audience starts with this plot, they should not realize that Lucy is the woman who once kissed George in the flower field. Or did Lucy not like George in the first place? He hadn't pushed him away at the time, but he had been tempted, and in her mind, it might have been just a small thing on impulse.
Cecil and George are different types of men, he's a musician, and he likes the way Lucy looks when she plays the piano. Not only in terms of clothing, Cecil is a gentleman without compromise, and he is also deliberately suppressing his feelings for Lucy. This brings up a very interesting scene that contrasts with the previous "rendezvous" of Lucy and George.
Cecil dragged Lucy away from the crowd and fled into the woods, where he asked her gently if he could kiss her since they were already engaged. Not only does Lucy think it's necessary to ask, of course, the audience may also laugh out loud, Cecil is too polite, or he is a little bored. This kiss is no pain or itch than George's. She accidentally touched his glasses and apologized.
Seeing this, I have a hush that their careful marriage will not be happy because they are not all the way. Cecil is dignified and old-fashioned, while Lucy is enthusiastic and lively, and complementary personalities are not a bad thing, but running into each other is bound to expose many problems and exacerbate the instability of this relationship.
Although up to now, the audience can't see what kind of feelings Lucy has for George, but we can find that the personalities and pursuits of the two of them are similar. Lucy is not a "doll" of famous ladies, she will play tennis with her younger siblings, she will play her favorite Beethoven behind her mother's back, she will bluntly say that she hates red tape. Why did she like Beethoven? The powerful, majestic, passionate music echoes her inner cry, her yearning for freedom, her desire to break through the rules. Lucy seemed obedient, but she was definitely a woman with her own ideas.
As we see Cecil and Lucy growing in love, it seems unlikely that their marriage will break up because of their very different personalities. It wasn't until George recovered England and became their neighbor that the whole story began to move in a different direction.
Lucy had left Italy at the time of her cousin's words, which meant that she was going to let go of everything related to her, scenery, people and anecdotes. Sometimes a memory is dusted off just to move forward better, to reach the next destination, to see a more beautiful scenery. For her, George was just a passerby, like a room with a view, and could actually be less persistent. Now with Cecil, George faded from her memory. And she probably didn't expect George to look hanging, but he couldn't let go of her, because their definition of scenery was so different. When she was no longer obsessed with seeing the scenery, he was upset.
She was the most beautiful landscape in his eyes
George's reappearance is a threat to Lucy and cousin Charlotte, who fears that he will tell Lucy what offends lucy and mess up the marriage. Lucy's love for Cecil was not shaken by George, and she decided to make it clear to George.
The meeting between the two is a classic scene in the film, with cousin Charlotte standing in front of the door stalking for them, and Lucy making it clear that she only wants to marry Cecil, but he angrily pokes the truth: Cecil just wants to possess her and then looks at you like an oil painting or an ivory box. She was just one thing he could possess and show. He didn't want her to think, didn't need her to be real. But George loved her and wanted her to have her own thoughts and feelings.
This passage shocked Lucy, and it was impossible to say that George's words had some elements of rhetoric, but in that era, such words did make young girls move. If she hadn't been sure about that kiss and George's feelings before, she could be sure that she liked him in her heart. Because he was able to accept the side of her that had always been rejected by those around her – the ego. It may seem like a quick change, but it's the revival of love, like that hot kiss, hitting the soul. Lucy was no longer confused, and her fondness for George should have started the first time she saw him, but she had been deliberately forgetting.
Lucy's love for Cecil is beyond doubt when George does not puncture the views of Cecil or the class he represents, and although she knows that Cecil is not like George, who can play with her younger siblings and enjoy the songs she likes, all of this seems to be tolerable. In fact, she was also wronging herself, and she was a little hesitant about the marriage in her heart, but she didn't figure out why.
George's words gave Lucy an answer, and she determined her choice and bravely proposed to Cecil the idea of dissolving the marriage. And I don't know if Cecil is really as selfish as George said, at least in the matter of retiring from marriage, he listened thoughtfully to Lucy's words, there was no difficulty for her, and the two of them broke up peacefully.
Another reason to say that this movie is a girl's growth story is that Lucy finally chose George, chose love, and chose to be honest with her heart. Whether it was fleeing back to England with her cousin or unwavering love for Cecil, Lucy had been deceiving others and herself. She wasn't doing it to look her feelings straight, she was lying to herself that she didn't love George.
Because her mother, cousin, and society demanded that she be an elegant lady, she needed to sacrifice her personal preferences and suppress her own emotions, from music to marriage. George from different classes seems not to eat this set, his enthusiasm, bravery, and frankness are really unrestrained, so he has the courage to say what others think is normal "unspoken rules of marriage", to a certain extent, to this naïve Lucy sounded the alarm bell, and this moment is the beginning of Lucy's transformation.
The ending of "The Room with the View" is perfect, and Lucy and George elope to Florence to live in the room where she once insisted on seeing the view. They have made the landscape in their eyes and hearts eternal.