MAURICE (DVD/1.78/STEREO/1987/2 DISCS) DVD

Maurice
Director James Ivory brings his subdued, "Masterpiece Theater" style to a forbidden subject -- homosexual love. Maurice is based on E.M. Forster's suppressed 1914 novel that was held back from publication until after his death. The film takes place at Cambridge, before World War I, when homosexuality was outlawed in Great Britain. Clive (Hugh Grant), an aristocratic Englishman with a life of privilege, suddenly shocks his close friend Maurice (James Wilby) by declaring his love for him. Maurice is initially stunned by the pronouncement, but in the end finds himself giving Clive a passionate kiss and telling him that he loves him as well. Clive, in the stiff-upper-lip British manner, considers their love to be more of an intellectual concept, but Maurice becomes passionate about the affair. Clive, afraid of being exposed as a homosexual, backs off and breaks up with Maurice for marriage, family, and politics. Maurice is crestfallen, but then he has a passionate affair with Clive's gamekeeper, Scudder (Rupert Graves), and Maurice and Scudder decide to risk their reputations by openly living together as lovers. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Cast James Wilby as Maurice Hall Hugh Grant as Clive Durham Rupert Graves as Alec Scudder Denholm Elliott as Dr. Barry Simon Callow as Mr. Ducie Billie Whitelaw as Mrs. Hall Ben Kingsley as Lasker-Jones Judy Parfitt as Mrs. Durham Phoebe Nicholls as Anne Durham Mark Tandy as Risley Helena Michell as Ada Hall Kitty Aldridge as Kitty Hall Patrick Godfrey as Simcox Michael Jenn as Archie Barry Foster as Dean Cornwalis Peter Eyre as Mr. Borenius Catherine Rabett as Pippa Durham Orlando Wells as Young Maurice Helena Bonham Carter as Bonham,Young Lady at Cricket Match

Crew Peter James - Art Director Paul Bradley - Associate Producer Celestia Fox - Casting Jenny Beavan - Costume Designer John Bright - Costume Designer Michael Zimbrich - First Assistant Director James Ivory - Director Katherine Wenning - Editor Richard Robbins - Composer (Music Score) Mary Hillman - Makeup Brian Ackland-Snow - Production Designer Pierre Lhomme - Cinematographer Alex Leyton - Cinematographer Ismail Merchant - Producer Mike Shoring - Sound/Sound Designer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Screenwriter James Ivory - Screenwriter Kit Hesketh-Harvey - Screenwriter E.M. Forster - Book Author

Maurice
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. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
 

Hugh Grant: Venice International Film Festival, Best Actor (winner) James Wilby: Venice International Film Festival, Best Actor (winner) Jenny Beavan: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Costume Design (nominated) John Bright: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Costume Design (nominated) Richard Robbins: Venice International Film Festival, Osella for Best Music (winner)

Venice International Film Festival, Silver Lion (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: English Sound Processing: DD2: Dolby Digital Stereo Additional Features: Luminous new high-definition digital transfer, enhanced for widescreen televisions "Conversation With the Filmmakers," part of a new series of interviews with Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Richard Robbins "The Story of Maurice," featuring new interviews with screenwriter Kit Hesketh-Harvey and actors James Wilby, Hugh Grant, and Rupert Graves Over 30 minutes of deleted and alternate scenes, including a reconstructed opening sequence, with commentary by James Ivory Original theatrical trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1: Alternate Wide Screen MPAA Rating: DVD Discs Included: 2 DVD Sides: 2 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 140 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- Disc 1 1. Opening Credits/"The Sacred Mystery of Sex" [6:19] 2. Michaelmas Term, 1909, Cambridge [3:13] 3. Meeting Clive Durham [4:09] 4. "The Unspeakable Vice of the Greeks" [5:28] 5. "Your Father Always Went to Church" [1:33] 6. First Embrace [6:38] 7. "Can't You Kiss Me?" [4:32] 8. Maurice Returns Home [2:01] 9. Pendersleigh Park, 1910 [5:33] 10. The City, 1911 [2:56] 11. Viscount Risley Arrested [6:29] 12. Clive Breaks Down [6:27] 13. Durham Visits Greece [2:25] 14. "Can the Leopard Change its Spots?" [7:02] 15. Maurice and Ada [2:00] 16. "Clive Durham Is to Be Married" [5:54] 17. A Visit With Dr. Barry [4:34] 18. Pendersleigh, Autumn, 1913 [12:34] 19. Maurice Hypnotized [4:00] 20. Alec Scudder [10:25] 21. Cricket Match [6:07] 22. A Second Visit With the Dr. Lasker-Jones [3:07] 23. Scudder Visits London [11:11] 24. Southampton Sendoff [7:56] 25. The Boathouse [4:30] 26. End Credits [2:38]