MovieChat Forums > A Room with a View (1986) Discussion > They ruined my favorite scene! (book rea...

They ruined my favorite scene! (book readers only)

posted 12 years ago by moviegurl16
1 reply | jump to latest

In the book, as cecil is reading the book written by miss lavish and he is reading and describing the kiss while george and lucy look at each other, there is a long pause in which cecil then inflects "Wait, this isn't the passage I wanted to read" in which Lucy very quickly offers tea. In the movie, cecil just casually said it with no pause at all. In the book, I laughed at that part but was disappointed in how they wasted that moment in the film. Also, I wanted to see the part where in the book, as they are listening to cecil read, lucy wants to touch george's hair and run her hands through it, but alas no such scene.

All in all, good film and liked some scenes not in the book, but I feel the book evoked more passion.

[–] ShannonTriumphant 12 years ago

Well, I re-read the book and though you're right about them leaving out parts, I think the film was quite faithful to the book overall. In any adaptation, they always have to decide which things to cut out, for the sake of time and money, and the different requirements of film (such as it's visual power).

I thought the exchange of glances between George and Lucy said it all. Film relies heavily on eyes and expression to convey what would otherwise need a voice-over, and most directors hate those. And if they had one, and used Forster's language, it would have seemed stilted and absurd to us now.

The main thing I was thinking about in that scene was how Eleanor Lavish got her book published so quickly that it ended up in a library and then at Lucy's house!

Anyway, my favorite scene was the three guys swimming in the Sacred Lake and I thought it was captured perfectly.

She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.