Movie: A Room With a View (1985)

The 1985 movie version of a A Room with a View, written by E. M. Forster, is basically about a young woman coming from a high social class who meets a young man in Florence, Italy but finds herself trapped between high social class demands and what her heart wants. Since the beginning of the movie I recognized the difference in social classes. For example, when Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin Charlotte are dining with a novel writer who was talking all sorts of complex and proper words, while a man named Emerson and his son George were trying to be nice and offered their room with a view to Lucy and Charlotte.

Throughout the movie I noticed how Lucy was passionate about many things but felt limited because of what was considered proper for a lady. As soon as George kisses Lucy, Charlotte and her cousin leave Florence. Charlotte considered the act improper and Lucy due to her background had to think it was improper too. Later on, Lucy is engaged to an intectual man named Cecil. Her fiancé was not compatible with Lucy at all, but she thought it was correct to marry a man with class. Cecil was constantly reading books, while Lucy liked to bath in the sacred lake (but no longer because she was caught) and play tennis with her brother. Later on, Mr. Emerson moves in next the Honeychurches and George (visited him in the weekends) became good friends with Lucy's brother, Freddy Honeychurch. During this time George kisses Lucy once again and he tries to convince Lucy that Cecil does not love her. He tried to convince her that she felt different after Florence. Lucy, thinking about what George said, breaks off her engagement with Cecil and decides to go to Greece. For me, this trip to Greece was just a way of escaping everything. 

In the entire movie, I saw how the high class had so many rules and limits and Lucy had trouble with this. As a young woman she liked to experience adventure and wanted romance in her life. In one scene were they were riding through Italy, the driver seemed to be romantic with a girl and while the others considered it disrespectful, Lucy thought their affection was harmless. Today we have cases similar to this. There may be young people who's parents want them to acquire a specific profesion or they expect them to marry specific type of people. Thankfully, in most modern day societies, but not in all cultures, young people have a voice and have the liberty of chosing their future. It still surprises me though, how some people take this for granted while some teenagers in other countries cant't even decide what to wear, where to go or even who they marry.