MovieChat Forums > A Room with a View (1986) Discussion > 'Poor' Charlotte Paying the Taxi

'Poor' Charlotte Paying the Taxi

posted 13 years ago by KatrinaW
12 replies | jump to latest

What the heck was going on in this scene?! I mean, I get that it was just Charlotte being her usually annoying self (actually, she is always trying to be proper and do the right thing, when it turns out that it's even more annoying to everyone), and wanted to make sure nobody paid on her behalf, but it seemed like the scene dragged out so long with everyone trying to figure out how much to pay the taxi guy, the tip, making change, etc. Maybe there's some other nuance I'm not seeing.

[–] student_points 13 years ago

the scene was ment to reflect the deep sexual lesbian conflict going on in charlotte. Should she she stay with her family and be a proper old maid, or should she take a taxi and go and boink judi dench and live a life of debauchery? She doesn't know, she keeps putting the decision off and that's why she doesn't seem to want to pay for the taxi, because making a choice between two things is actually losing something one of the two.

[–] rizdek 13 years ago

Now that's a funny response.

As to the OP, I took it to be a slice of life showing the relationships of the family, the aunt and Cesil. I rather enjoy it, but agree, it is drawn out.

[–] brainwave-2 12 years ago

It is showing how Charalotte seldom says what she means and how she manipulates people into doing things... in this case paying for her cab fare.

[–] rizdek 11 years ago

She is manipulative...consider in the scene in Italy when they are on the picnic. She goes on and on about how Lucy should take the other sitting pad Eleanor brought...sitting on the damp ground will not affect her...rheumatism or whatever...and if it does, she will stand. She goes on and on until Lucy takes the hint and leaves. Her real motive was to get Lucy outta there so she could talk to Eleanor privately, so perhaps the second poster was right{:

my god its full of stars

[–] Rheli 11 years ago

No, under that she had a deeper motive. She wanted Lucy to go spend time with George so that she could have a fulfilling love relationship because Charlotte knew how much not having one hurts.

Where's your crew?
On the 3rd planet.
There IS no 3rd planet!
Don't you think I know that?

[–] KatrinaW 9 years ago

Her real motive was to get Lucy outta there so she could talk to Eleanor privately,

I agree about that. They were gossiping about an Englishwoman who had moved to Italy and gotten married to a much younger Italian man and had a baby (the woman they were talking about is a character from another Forster Novel, 'Where Angels Fear to Tread'). She didn't want Lucy to hear them talking about such risque (for the time, that is) things.

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 12 years ago

I thought its drawn out nature was part of what made it hilarious.

[–] kristoffer-holmquist 11 years ago

I'm not from the UK, and I thought this scene was hilarious. They're making fun of the ridiculously complicated old English currency system, blurting out the names and trying to figure out the value of shillings, crowns and pence. Maybe native English people fail to see the joke?

[–] james1986london 11 years ago

Yeah, you definitely missed it. It was funny.

[–] KatrinaW 11 years ago

I agree, it was funny. Even Minnie Beebe seemed exasperated by Charlotte!

[–] Degree7 9 years ago

When my parents were growing up in England, they still used that monetary system. Shillings, crowns, sixpence, halfpence, tuppence, farthings. Just the names have this wonderfully quaint and old world charm that no longer exists. I guess they stopped using that system in the 60s or 70s.

~ I'm a 21st century man and I don't wanna be here.

[–] federovsky 9 years ago

From my review:
Everyone plays it deftly, aided by Wildean dialogue which is amusing simply in its own elegant indirectness. A perfect example is the scene where Maggie Smith insists on paying for her cab, though we know she'd rather be pressured into not paying - a lengthy rigmarole involving 'the sordid clink of coins' ensues, full of hilarious shades of temper, smoothed over by polite language.
Very nicely done.

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