Why the 1987 film Maurice was a radical act of queer cinema
In short: Released during the height of the AIDS crisis, the Merchant Ivory adaptation of E. M. Forster’s novel offered a rare, unapologetic depiction of gay love with a happy ending. While initially met with mixed reviews and fear from critics, it became a transformative touchstone for generations of gay men.
E. M. Forster wrote the novel Maurice between 1913 and 1914, but due to the legal and social climate of the era, he kept it private throughout his life. He was deeply ambivalent about its literary quality, once questioning if it was even worth publishing. The manuscript was only released in 1971, a year after his death. When James Ivory sought to adapt it following the success of A Room with a View, he faced initial resistance from King’s College, Cambridge—the holders of Forster’s literary rights—who feared the work would diminish the author's reputation.
The 1987 film, produced on a budget of £1.58 million, was a complex undertaking. Ivory collaborated with screenwriter Kit Hesketh-Harvey to capture the nuances of the British upper-middle class, a social milieu Ivory felt he could not authentically replicate as an American. The production was grueling, involving a fifty-four-day shoot with no rehearsal period. The final film diverged from the source material in several ways, most notably by expanding the role of the hypnotist Lasker-Jones and introducing a subplot where the character Lord Risley is imprisoned for homosexual conduct to justify Clive Durham’s retreat into a conventional marriage.
Upon release, the film’s reception was polarized. In the UK, some critics were openly hostile, a reaction Ivory attributed to the fear felt by gay critics during the AIDS epidemic. Despite this, the film earned significant accolades, including a Silver Lion for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival and a joint Best Actor award for James Wilby and Hugh Grant. Over time, the film’s status has shifted from an undervalued diversion to a celebrated landmark of queer cinema, recognized for its audacity in portraying same-sex desire with dignity and hope.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Maurice (1987 film)
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