E.M. Forster explored the British attitude of superiority to anyone who wasn't British in others of his novels,notably 'Where Angels Fear to Tread" in which an English widow (the same woman Eleanor Lavish and Charlotte Bartlett are gossiping about while sitting in the field-that gossip session was not in the book) marries a younger Italian man, bears him a child and dies. Her English family-in-law, horrified that a half-English child will be raised among the benighted Italians, mounts an expedition to rescue (read kidnap) the child and and bring him to England, resulting in a disaster. Judi Davis as the sister-in-law, never misses an opportunity to denigrate Italians.
In "A Passage to India" Davis, again playing an English woman this time on holiday accusing an Indian doctor who is showing her and her mother-in-law-to-be around caves where there are erotic carvings, of raping her, almost ruining his life and reputation. The overheated young woman had only imagined the assault. The British community is only too willing to believe in the doctor's guilt, based on their perceived inferiority of his race.
His theme in these works from which films were made is that the British loved the arts and beauty in the countries of these (to them inferior) people, but kept their distance from the people. I could swear that I remember from either one of the books or films, one of the British characters saying how wonderful Italy would be except for the Italians.
I could be a morning person if morning happened at noon.
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