Maurice (1987) - A Director's Perspective

[@donaldwarriner1640]

No matter how many times I watch this film it moves me to the core. The scene where Hugh looks out at the end from his bedroom and sees James Wilby from their college days captures a movement in their youth that I find wrenching as it's a time that is and then is gone.

[@anshwahb9664]

that scene is absolutely crushing to me. I love how Wilby motions for hugh to follow him but ultimately shrugs him off and waves goodbye, signaling that he's over him and is instead going to live his life truthfully and happily.

[@jennyconnatty7635]

Yes - that scene is soooo moving... we must all have had that moment in our lives when we look back to golden times with nostalgia, wistfulness... remorse?

[@rumblefish9]

@@anshwahb9664 "but ultimately shrugs him off and waves goodbye, signaling that he's over him and is instead going to live his life truthfully and happily. " - It's not. The scene is Clive reminiscing his youth... it is Clive's regret. It's how Clive remembers Maurice and continues to remember him even to the last days of his life. "They were his last words, because Maurice had disappeared thereabouts, leaving no trace of his presence except a little pile of the petals of the evening primrose, which mourned from the ground like an expiring fire. To the end of his life Clive was not sure of the exact moment of departure, and with the approach of old age he grew uncertain whether the moment had yet occurred. The Blue Room would glimmer, ferns undulate. Out of some external Cambridge his friend began beckoning to him, clothed in the sun, and shaking out the scents and sounds of the May term."

[@laspilly]

I felt for the wife, who was married to a man who wouldn't want to touch her.

[@mothball5425]

I studied at Cambridge and had my first love there. The setting definitely adds to the gut wrench 😭

[@michaeldooley2842]

This movie.....way ahead of its time ...... a simply amazing movie.

[@Bananadiva1]

This was a joy to watch. Maurice has to be one of my favourite films. It's so beautifully made and acted.

[@michaelsalientes571]

Still one of the most beautiful and moving films EVER made 🌟🌟🌟🌟✨✨✨✨! ! !

[@eduardodifarnecio2336]

Just finished the novel and now reading Forster’s biography. Many people,including Roger Ebert, including a gay contemporary of Forster’s, Lytton Strachey, objected to the happy ending on the grounds that it wasn’t realistic. Except that it was. Many homosexual men members of the English upper class were lived long happy lives with men who were not of their social standing or even level of intellect. Christopher Isherwood and Don Bacardi is a good example. Another is Edward Carpenter and George Merril. Carpenter was a friend of Forster’s and a member of his class. Merril was a working class individual. Both are interred in the same grave. And he and his partner’s relationship were the direct inspiration for Maurice. Carpenter is a very interesting character. A man very much ahead of his time. Worth a look up.

[@trgoohileshea2820]

The first time I saw this movie, I was totally blown away. I come from a very religious background, so even in this day, one can be looked down on for feelings that are as natural to me as breathing. The persecutions I felt growing up were much the same as the persecutions faced by these characters. It was the first time I realized that, yes, what I am feeling is natural and can be normal and loving, despite what everyone around me says. I remember the Anita Bryant crusade against Dade County and her ire over a gay rights bill. I had just entered high school and it was a confusing time for me anyway. It was nowhere as restrictive as what happened to Edwardian society, but I remember mowing the lawn and feeling truly scared. I hadn't even accepted who I was at that point, but the vitriol against gay people, even in the 70s was a frightening thing. Films like this started to show society what people who have certain attractions were subject to and did it beautifully. I think this was a turning point in attitudes about people who don't fit into the convenient box of 'normal.'

[@mpetersen428]

Anita Bryant's cell in Hell still awaits.

[@myboibill]

This movie is the “Jewel in the crown” of gay films. Gorgeous in every way.

[@ctalcantara1700]

It truly is. The writing, cinematography, the score. Absolutely captivating. Also, it seems to flow from "Another Country", another great piece of gay cinema, that was done three years earlier (set during the same period).

[@praaht18]

to me and many this was a very important film, just like My beautiful Laundrette, Gay happy ending, wow!

[@gardengeek3041]

Absolutely correct about how using a hairstyle from our era can destroy the authenticity and believability of a period film. It's the most common, but avoidable, mistake that US filmmakers make. Even as a 10 year old, I knew something was wrong in Disney period films where Dorothy McGuire looked the same in Old Yellar and Swiss Family Robinson, as she did in a 1950s movie magazine. Had always assumed it was the fault of amateur hairdressers. Mr Ivory indicates the actors themselves mess it up by insisting on modern hairstyles. Very interesting interview.

[@epheusikay]

What a great interview. I love insights like these especially when it's a conversation between 2 filmmakers but I was kinda disappointed how no one brought up the final scene between Maurice and Clive in the garden. How a huge chunk of it that was so significant to their relationship ended up on the cutting room floor. It was the scene where Maurice released himself off of Clive's grip on him and opted to live his truth with Alec. That scene gave such closure to the entire relationship and in the end, film, but it wasn't included. I really want to know why that was the case. =\

[@rumblefish9]

The speech doesn't make sense in context with the movie because the filmmakers fundamentally changed the reason for Clive's change of heart. In the book, Clive declares that he is cured and "normal" and tells Maurice that he no longer loves him (something that never made sense to me and even Forster contradicts himself). Clive keeps him close because of their friendship but Maurice continues to pine for Clive hoping that he has another change of heart and comes back to him. Maurice is sustained by the little morsel of affection that Clive bestows on him. But that isn't the case in the movie. In the movie, Clive gives in to his fear and marries. He marries not because he has stopped loving Maurice but because he fears his own ruin and successfully represses his homosexual urges, and is even evangelical of the "joys of straighthood" which the audience knows is a facade. I have always seen Clive as an extremely complex character with nuances. He is a man with deep self-loathing and contradictions. The speech is also incredibly unfair to Clive who is left with very little choice. He is burdened by his class because he is upper class, titled, and must live a life predetermined for him -- not of his own choosing. The movie hints at this plenty of times. Maurice is middle class and Scudder is lower class. Maurice and Alec do not have the same expectations placed on them as Clive does. Clive has much more to lose than Maurice or Alec. Adding the speech further unnecessarily villainizes Clive and his decision. Clive represents the many men of the time who have had to make similar decisions. People often accuse Clive of taking "the easy way out" but hiding your true self from the world and never loving the one you love freely isn't easy. Clive is already burdened with having lost Maurice, trapped in a loveless marriage, and lives a life that is not of his own choosing. Instead, the movie chooses to go beyond the petty and treats Clive with sympathy and understanding which he deserves, and ends it as the book does... with Clive's regret.

[@beckyhofheinz6357]

Thank you for casting the radiant Rupert Graves!

[@treesny]

Wonderful interview, full of valuable insights. What a difference it makes to have as interviewer another active professional who appreciates what goes into making a film.

[@thecatman4ever]

Thank you very much for taking the time to upload this video. Maurice has always been one of my favorite films. It touched my heart from beginning to end. Hugh, James & Rupert Graves were brilliantly cast. It was a real joy to see James Ivory talk about the film. I've really enjoyed this. Thank you!

[@RG-ja34sep]

James Ivory (Director), Ismail Merchant (Producer) and the screen writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala were an exquisite team of movie makers. The Merchant Ivory collection of films are simply masterpieces of the cinematic world. James is an absolute Hollywood legend!

[@rumblefish9]

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was not involved in co-writing Maurice. It was Kit Hasketh-Harvey who was the primary screenwriter for the movie because Ruth was writing her novel and didn't want to be taken out from the writing process.

[@badwater]

And Richard Robbins, who composed the score of many Merchant~Ivory films, including Maurice.

[@kitheskethharvey3576]

@@rumblefish9 Thanks, Kit

[@diannalambers7288]

Thank you so much for posting and sharing this interview for us to learn from. I agree on the movie clearing up Clive's "change" and needing the Risley trial to be the cause of him pulling away from Maurice.

[@Heine976]

I saw this movie when I was a teenager and it saved me for its optimism

[@universityofnowhere]

It's well known that the love story about Maurice and Alec Scudder was inspired by Edward Carpenter's domestic partnership with George Merrill, so I don't know why they skipped over that (with confusion) in the discussion. Carpenter's relationship with Merrill worked, because George was always officially Carpenter's servant and he took care of the domestic needs of the household. Carpenter's previous domestic help, George Adams had retired recently, which was perfect timing, indeed.

[@noimandersen]

i wish he'd asked about the scene that was cut where maurice gave clive a long speech in the garden (i was yours 'till death if you'd cared to keep me once). i always wondered why they decided to cut that part out.

[@rumblefish9]

The speech doesn't make sense in context with the movie because the filmmakers fundamentally changed the reason for Clive's change of heart. In the book, Clive declares that he is cured and "normal" and tells Maurice that he no longer loves him (something that never made sense to me and even Forster contradicts himself). Clive keeps him close because of their friendship but Maurice continues to pine for Clive hoping that he has another change of heart and comes back to him. Maurice is sustained by the little morsel of affection that Clive bestows on him. But that isn't the case in the movie. In the movie, Clive gives in to his fear and marries. He marries not because he has stopped loving Maurice but because he fears his own ruin and successfully represses his homosexual urges, and is even evangelical of the "joys of straighthood" which the audience knows is a facade. I have always seen Clive as an extremely complex character with nuances. He is a man with deep self-loathing and contradictions. The speech is also incredibly unfair to Clive who is left with very little choice. He is burdened by his class because he is upper class, titled, and must live a life predetermined for him -- not of his own choosing. The movie hints at this plenty of times. Maurice is middle class and Scudder is lower class. Maurice and Alec do not have the same expectations placed on them as Clive does. Clive has much more to lose than Maurice or Alec. Adding the speech further unnecessarily villainizes Clive and his decision. Clive represents the many men of the time who have had to make similar decisions. People often accuse Clive of taking "the easy way out" but hiding your true self from the world and never loving the one you love freely isn't easy. Clive is already burdened with having lost Maurice, trapped in a loveless marriage, and lives a life that is not of his own choosing. Instead, the movie chooses to go beyond the petty and treats Clive with sympathy and understanding which he deserves, and ends it as the book does... with Clive's regret.

[@noimandersen]

@@rumblefish9 thank you!! you've made some great points, actually. i think i should've been more sympathetic toward clive! :)

[@eliaol4231]

@@rumblefish9 but the speech was in fact in the book and I suppose everyone has to choose their hard in this life. I can understand Clive's very real concerns but he acted rather cowardly.

[@Oldman808]

@@rumblefish9 Thank you for your insightful analysis.

[@jeffwatkins352]

Wonderful discussion of one of cinema's great films. Tough to beat Merchant/Ivory in any case, but this one's especially brilliant.

[@avanthiga8176]

the last scene in the movie broke me

[@stuartthomas3105]

Wow i loved this. Thank you so much.

[@INDIEMUSICGUY1966]

Please do an uncut version as a 2 or 3 part mini series for TV..please

[@Osato_June]

Loved the interview

[@pedroluginick4810]

great movie..

[@許修華]

❤❤❤

[@TheZhongguang]

I still can't get over the last theme where Clive looked over the window saw Maurice wave his hands at him, and walked away. If I have a chance to ask James Ivory personally - what kind of message he wants to deliver to the audience? Was Clive still in love with Maurice? Or just a formal goodbye to end their past? Any suggestion will be much appreciated!

[@pianoman551000]

Clive will always have a special place in heart for Maurice. Had it been a different time, Clive and Maurice would have lived happily ever after.

[@jean-francoisbrunet2031]

It is just a perfect cinematographic rendering of the final sentences in the book: "To the end of his life, Clive was not sure of the exact moment of departure and with the approach of old age, he grew uncertain whether the moment had yet occurred. The Blue Room would glimmer, furns undulate. Out of some external Cambridge his friend began beckonning to him, clothed in the sun, and shaking out the scents and sounds of the May term".

[@rumblefish9]

@@jean-francoisbrunet2031 Yes. Clive very much still loved Maurice until his last days.

[@GTK4217]

@@pianoman551000 no they wouldn’t. Clive never wanted to give what Maurice actually desired in love-physical relationship. In fact, Clive gaslighted Maurice into believing that being platonic is happy enough. If Maurice and Clive were together you’re asking Maurice to live a life of lies. So Maurice would always find Alec and be with him instead as his salvation in any timeline or universe. Not to mention: Clive is an intellectual who’s all talk and no walk, whereas Maurice is a simple virile man who’s NOT an intellectual but rather flesh and blood and values action over words. In their relationship Clive just kept talking about intellectual stuff that Maurice didn’t care for or understand to make Maurice feel small. Maurice only put up with Clive because he didn’t want to be lonely. You think that’s a healthy relationship in any other time?

[@tridentmaple]

The scene depicts Clive's realization that he has finally lost his first and only love. Clive has flashbacks of their happiest times at the King's college, with Maurice waving goodbye to him makes this ending scene extremely sad and touching. However, in real life I was anticipating Clive to see (through the window) Maurice and Alec walking across the lawn, traveling back to London :-)

[@liamwhitney509]

I enjoyed this very much. Thanks!

[@connectingthedots100]

❤

[@bernie4268]

I like to see more “wiggle room” for people regarding the complications of sexuality, feelings and identity. Comparing today’s views on these things with the past only goes to show these things evolve and change over time. In other words, culture helps create identity in forms that are specific to that time. Witness the trans movement now. So today it seems the “law of attraction” is king and human identity all flows from that. In previous times “sexuality” did not form the central part of identity that it does today.

[@csmtcqueen]

I thought James Ivory was British all this time. Lol

[@publiusovidius7386]

A Latin error in the film. The term is membrum virile, not membrum virilis.

[@maxlinder5262]

Take apart a film .... well .!!????

[@56big992]

ซึ้งจังครับ อยากให้มีภาพณ์เสียงภาษาไทย. ดูไม่เข้าใจ. หนังน่าจะซึ้งมากแต่แปลไม่ออก. 😍Please translate into Thai or dub it in Thai. I really want to watch it because I don't understand it. I want Thai language.

[@hopeless128]

Whose the interviewer?

[@Oldman808]

I like best when the senile old lady, once again asks Scutter, “What’s your name?”

[@lukasmiller486]

She wasn’t senile, she just had a whole bunch of people to remember while he was just an acquaintance she needed to run errands for her. He was a total punk.

[@CeaseEcho]

What about the idea that Clive was bisexual instead of gay and that is the reason he came back from Greece changed? All too often bisexuals, as well as gays in the past, ended up conforming to social pressures. We pans also embody a spectrum with some of us have a gender preference while the rest of us are indifferent about gender.

[@milkythoughts9500]

I'm not sure about the film, but in the book it's pretty clear that he is exclusively gay, and then somehow after Greece becomes straight ("against my will I have become normal"). The film is more ambiguous because there is less dialogue and inner thoughts revealed.

[@ghostchiryou]

​@@milkythoughts9500 I really don't think that he suddenly "became straight" after Greece. In the book, it states that he started having doubts as soon as he got that pretty nasty case of influenza, right after he passed his bar exams. When he's talking to Maurice before he goes to Greece, he starts talking about how one can be "too dirty" and that there's a possibility of a Hell after death, so it's best to not be like that. He also seems to like keeping to traditions (he feels bad when he first gives up Christianity as it was a tradition, and he feels good when he toasts to the ladies when at dinner with the Halls, since it's a tradition), and his "attractions" to women seem SUPER fleeting -- he convinces himself before his fight with Maurice that he finds Ada really pretty and that he'd like to be with her a bit, but the moment he leaves after the fight he dismisses that idea and decides to find someone who he really likes and who is the total opposite of Maurice... he then marries someone, and they never even see each other naked (haven't gotten past the big fight with Maurice in the book yet, but I have seen the movie). So, based on all of this, my suspicion is that while he had influenza, he had a sort of existential crisis (perhaps because his flu was so bad that he thought he was dying), which made him feel like he might go to Hell. He had also finished his bar exams and was about to set off on a conventional, upper class life, just as his forebearers had done. But... he couldn't live that conventional life if he continued to be with Maurice. He also probably had temporarily fallen out of love with Maurice anyway, since Maurice had for a while up till that point been becoming a bit of a tyrant, to the point where his whole family secretly hates him and Clive doesn't really want to be around him. This all probably lead him to try and convince himself that he actually was attracted to women, especially since he felt like he finally knew what it was like to be "normal" when women paid attention to him, whereas men, who usually don't expect other men to be attracted to them, would ignore him in a romantic sense. He also, during his fight with Maurice at the end of part 2 of the book, looks at Maurice and feels the "horror of masculinity return[ing]" and wonders what would happen if Maurice tries to embrace him, implying that if he did the illusion Clive is trying to build up for himself would shatter, in a sense. Plus, I've gone a similar sort of phase where I tried to convince myself that I had crushes on people because all of my peers seemed to be getting crushes on people and I wasn't, and the way Clive acted throughout the whole latter part of part 2 was reaaaalllly reminicient of that time in my life. So yeah, based on all that I sort of don't think Clive "became straight," but rather went through a crisis and tried to convince himself that he was straight. Besides, I don't think one's sexuality can do a complete 180 like that in the first place. He could, of course, be bi in some way and only realized it later on, but I sort of don't think that's at all likely due to how he acted for his entire life prior to having that crisis. Hopefully all that rambling made sense, lmao.

[@rumblefish9]

@@ghostchiryou Absolutely. The hint there that Clive represses his homosexual urges is this passage: "He hated queerness, Cambridge, the Blue Room, certain glades in the park were-not tainted, there had been nothing disgraceful-but rendered subtly ridiculous." Because before that, these were things and places Clive held dear to his heart. It broke him that they would no longer see each other in Cambridge and that they had lost the sidecar which he associated with Maurice. He didn't believe their love could exist elsewhere but these places. But cut to the ending and Clive is reminded of these places. "The Blue Room would glimmer, ferns undulate. Out of some external Cambridge his friend began beckoning to him, clothed in the sun, and shaking out the scents and sounds of the May term. " But rather than hating them, he longs for them and most of all, Maurice. he relives the night Maurice was lost to him forever - never knowing the exact moment of departure.

[@rumblefish9]

@@ghostchiryou The key to understanding Clive repressing his urges is Clive's childhood. He was religious and knew he was gay. Clive had a nervous breakdown at 16 because he was convinced he was damned. "It must not ever become carnal." Its why he keeps his relationship with Maurice platonic. He refused to let anybody close to him because of his fear of corrupting another boy. clive mostly keeps to himself and lived a lonely life as a young boy and young adult. But even in the 3 years he was happy with Maurice, he's internalized that conflict so much that it grows and grows into intense self hatred. Things he used to hold dear like Cambridge, The Blue Room, the ferns he then hated because it reminded him of his own queerness. It is only after he loses Maurice that he realizes that he was still deeply in love with Maurice. In the end he can no longer hide from his lie. Clive is a deeply broken man.

[@slenderman3510]

@@rumblefish9 is the passage above from the book? it's beautiful

[@Poemsapennyeach]

Interesting at the beginning...but waffled on for too long. Besides...I have my own picture of the characters and scenes in this novel..and Hugh Grant is not in my version.

[@CyrilNarayan]

This is the story of my life... :( I love so much Maurice !!