Maurice

The PG rating is well earned 😂

Authentic and excellent condition of the book“ Maurice” that I purchased. Thank you for reading.

The film is another one of those beautifully made period dramas the Merchant/Ivory partnership has produced so many of. It is one of three adaptions of E.M. Forster novels made by them (the other two are 'A Room With a View' and 'Howards End').Maurice is set in England in the early 20th century, in the years before WW1 and it tells the story of Maurice (James Wilby), a young homosexual, and his experiences in a time when love among men was a criminal offense. In his student days at Cambridge Maurice meets and falls in love with fellow student Clive (Hugh Grant). While Maurice can't suppress his sexual desires, Clive eventually withdraws from their relationship and, conforming to the social norm, marries a woman. A later visit from Maurice is rather awkward as Clive tries to avoid him and deny their past relationship. And then Maurice meets Alec (Rupert Graves), a seductive young man in service with Clive's family...The story may not appeal to everybody, and for various reasons. The rigid rules of the English society of the time with its prejudice and lack of acceptance will be infuriating for many. However, as an adaption of the book, the film is rather wonderful. Besides the lovely visuals, there is much else to like about it, not last the excellent performances by the rather exciting cast. The young Hugh Grant (several years pre Four Weddings fame and the ensuing romcom fame) shows what an excellent actor he is in portraying the rather spineless character of Clive. James Wilby is quite impressive as Maurice and Rupert Graves is well cast as his young lover Alec. These are courageous performances by the three young actors, back in 1987, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, when acceptance of homosexuality was still a far cry from what it is now. Many well known faces of British stage and screen acting appear in supporting roles, among them Simon Callow, Denholm Elliott, Billie Whitelaw and Judy Parfitt.The picture and sound quality of the DVD are good. English subtitles are available for those who may need them.

If you are a gay man who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s in England, you will recognise so much of the emotional and historical truth of this film. Today, with gayness largely accepted in many civilised countries around the world (although in some cultures with a more barbaric attitude, it still is not), it is hard to imagine what giant leaps forward have been taken.When I was a boy, you could still go to jail for two years, simply for being gay. Being gay was indeed regarded as the 'unspeakable' - it was almost deemed as bad as being a murderer, and worse than being a (straight) rapist.E.M. Forster, who wrote the novel on which this film is based (a novel that Forster suppressed throughout his life - so shameful still was the stigma that attached to being gay), wanted to create a story of two gay men who found true love and could symbolically walk off happy into the woods forever. He wanted to create a gay couple who were NOT tragic and doomed to misery and loneliness. He succeeded - and so does this gorgeous film. Hugh Grant and all the other lead actors are simply magnificent. If you are gay - your heart will be touched; if you are straight, I hope that your heart will be touched too. At the very least, this film will show you just how difficult it was, within the living memory of many of us, to be born gay in an England that still regarded gayness as a heinous and despicable crime. But the film will also show you how love can triumph in the end - if one is honest with oneself, as Maurice is (but his self-deceiving friend, Clive, is not).An excellent film. One of the most beautiful and sensitive gay-themed films out there. It is simple, not over-played - and it touches the heart.

Whatching tonight will be keeping all three films will get more I thku

I think everyones reviews sum up very nicely how good this film is. I can only agree but wanted to add my review as this is one of my favourite films. I saw it first on Film4 on channel four when they used to show brilliant films such as this as a regular occurance. Takes me back to my mid teens when I'd watch everyone of them. Maurice particularly grabbed me and yes I did and still have a thing for Rupert Graves who plays Alec Scudder, but the whole way the film approaches the subject of homosexuality in Edwardian times, is done exceptionally well and with a thorough understanding of how on the edge it must have been then to be gay. I love the way we get to see Maurice getting to understand how he feels and in the end accepting he loves Scudder and able to tell Clive this with no shame or fear, which shows how far he comes in understanding how he feels and who he is. I love the ending to this, you would imagine considering how awful anyone who was gay was treated then, they'd have a doom and gloom ending, but nope, we get the perfect ending. The actors all play their parts brilliantly and although maybe a tad long, I watched this film so many times, I still love it to this day! This is one of the best and I say this as a straight female! A truly exceptional film.