Cheap A Room with a View (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD) (Helena Bonham Carter) Price

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Customer Reviews of A Room with a View (Two-Disc Special Edition)

A beautiful and lush love story
When i first saw the film back in 1985, I immediately fell in love with the story and the beautiful scenery.The cast is superb and the film is fantastic.

The Film is a Masterpiece, the Extras are Woefully Disappointing
"A Room With A View" remains one of those special cinematic experiences: verdant landscapes, gorgeous costumes, immaculate art direction, a stellar cast, and above all a simple yet well-written story. This is truly the crown jewel of Merchant Ivory productions. <
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>Which is why this "special edition" of "A Room With A View" is so disappointing. Presumably, with a 2-disc version of a film, one would expect a wealth of supplementary material to justify the purchase, and it was with great expectation that I ordered this edition of "A Room With a View." Unfortunately, the bonus features did not live up to the high quality I have come to expect from Merchant Ivory or the moniker "special edition." <
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>The highlight of disc 1 is the audio commentary with James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, Simon Callow, and cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts. The commentary begin vigorously enough, with interesting anecdotes about filming in Florence, working with the actors, and bringing the production together. About midway through the film, however, the conversation begins to diminish, and long periods of time go without anything being said. You would think that with four such charming, garrulous, and immensely creative artists someone could think of something to say, but as the silences multiply and prolong I got the sense that they were either to shy or too absorbed in watching the picture--which is understandable (it is a lovely film, and one would hate to interrupt the impeccable dialogue or Robbins' soundtrack), but the joy of audio commentary is precisely to hear the filmmakers talking over the movie. As I watched I kept hoping that someone would chime in about a particular shot, costume detail, or production note, but it was not to be. By the end the commentary dies out completely, and even when the final credits roll there is not even a word of goodbye to be heard. Even the subtitles left much to be desired. The English subtitles often left out certain details and the French subtitles had odd translations (at one point coming up with two different translations for "fish pie," a strange inconsistancy). <
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>Disc 2 is the greater let-down. A second disc of material should be overloaded with delights, particularly--one would assume--vignettes and detours made especially for this DVD release. Sadly, however, Disc 2's offerings are all archival and can be viewed in less than half an hour, nowhere near as much information that would justify a second disc. The gallery of images from the film are pretty to look at but are unexceptional. The extras consist of old BBC interviews and shorts, the most recent dating from 1996. For those of us who are even moderately aware of Merchant Ivory's career, the information is shopworn and not at all enlightening. Indeed, the most compelling features are the 70s and 80s clothing and hairstyles of the BBC employees. Whereas the film seems timeless, this material definitely shows its age. <
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>Merchant Ivory, "A Room With a View," and we viewers deserve better than this. To promise so much and to deliver so little is atypical of what we have come to expect from this production team. To me, Merchant Ivory is synonymous with high quality, careful attention to detail, and good value--and alas this edition of "A Room With A View" is none of these things. It grieves me to write this of a film I consider my most favorite of all films, and yet I hope that perhaps in another few years or so a better and more fitting "special edition" will emerge.