December 12, 1986| Julian Sands, the handsome young star of A Room with a View, had tried to be a game fellow the night before and joined his Houston hosts for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. But the food — well, let us say, it didn’t quite agree with him.
In any case, he was in the mood for something different Thursday afternoon, a few hours before he would appear as a special guest for the official re-opening of the Bel Air Theatre. So, when I suggested a nice, juicy sirloin at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, he readily accepted the suggestion.
Fashionably disheveled in a beige linen suit and a wrinkled, blue-striped shirt, Sands enjoyed lunch as much as he enjoyed talking about the movie that has emerged as a phenomenon on the art-house circuit. Room With a View, an inexpensive but elegant romantic comedy-drama based on E.M. Forster’s novel, has been the surprise success story of 1986. It actually has outgrossed many ballyhooed Hollywood productions, while attracting audiences not usually partial to independent film fare. And it has managed to do this without the allure of glitzy stars, the din of special effects or the shock value of gory violence and sexual gymnastics.
Sands described Room with a View as “an alternative to the sort of hardware pictures and star vehicles” which cluttered movie screens this year. “I think, in many ways, the old-fashioned values in the film really touched a lot of people, because they were entirely unthreatening. And, to some degree, escapist.
“The film just has a warmth, and a compassion, which is irresistible to a lot of people. At least, that’s the impression I get from audiences I’ve sat through the film with, and some people I’ve spoken with.”
Adapted for the screen by the prestigious team of producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory and scriptwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Room with a View is at heart a simple story.
While vacationing in Florence, the very well-brought-up Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) is overwhelmed by the violence and passion of the city. Shedding the propriety she usually maintains back home in Edwardian England, she allows herself to be wooed — and kissed! — by another vacationer, the impulsive young George Emerson (Sands).
After returning home to her family, and her insufferable twit of a fiancé, Lucy manages to cool her ardor. But will her emotions begin to roil once more when George slips back into her life?
Well, what do you think?
“I think,” Sands said, “the universality of it is part of its appeal: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. We’ve all lived through that — and no doubt will again.”
Just as important, though, are the individual contributions of the excellent ensemble players — Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott and Daniel Day Lewis, among others — and the characters they portray. “They’re all sufficiently, individually drawn for them not to be two-dimensional,” Sands said. “I think it’s probably because such an intelligent and amusing and charming group of people came together to work on a script which also had the same degree of charm, that people have responded as they have.
“That’s what I think people enjoy: The sheer, overwhelming rush of the romance, and the characters surrounding it.”
Whatever the reason, audiences have been flocking in droves to Room with a View. It grossed more than $1 million at a single theater during a long Manhattan run. Locally, it played for the better part of six months earlier this year at the River Oaks Theatre. And now, the very week it was named Best Picture of 1986 by the National Board of Review, it’s back at the Bel Air.
Ironically, Sands notes, Room with a View very nearly wasn’t made, due to the failure of a notably less successful film.
“Goldcrest, the British company, had some money in it,” Sands said. “And because another of their films, Revolution, was going so monstrously bad, and over budget, they tried to cancel Room with a View two weeks before shooting. Can you imagine? They blew out three or four other small movies for the same reason, which is outrageous.
“The success of Room with a View is gratifying to everyone involved with it — but also to everyone who works in independent filmmaking. Because it has demonstrated that having a low budget needn’t compromise production values one bit. Having a low budget, all that does is cut out the corporate business perks. The carpets don’t have to be lush, and lunches don’t have to be long. All the overhead can be minimalized, while what goes on the screen needn’t be.”
That’s why Sands, a Yorkshire native who first made waves as photographer Jon Swain in The Killing Fields, wants to continue working in small-scale, high-quality films. Since Room with a View, he has found two more projects to his liking: Gothic, a psychological horror film directed by the irrepressible Ken Russell; and Siesta, a fantasy in which he plays “a sort of guardian angel . . . a very rock ‘n’ roll, very hip Gabriel.”
Gothic, set for release early next year, finds Sands cast as poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in a fanciful story involving Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne), Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson) and the writing of Frankenstein. Working with Russell on the film, Sands said, was a heady experience. “He’s a dynamic man, very demanding and assertive and totalitarian and monstrous. But also very charming and winning.
“And his combination of intellect and imagination and cultural background — you can see the antennae sort of twitching in his head. But he’s a wild man. I think he’s the most interesting of the British filmmakers, and somebody I’ve wanted to work for for 10 years.”
Sands makes his home in New York City these days, and he’s willing to travel anywhere for the right role. But don’t expect him to visit Hollywood anytime soon.
“Independent movies are really my beat,” he said. “I don’t see my future as being involved with the studios too much.”
