Maurice is a 1987 British romantic drama film directed by James Ivory, based on the 1971 novel Maurice by E. M. Forster. The film stars James Wilby as Maurice, Hugh Grant as Clive and Rupert Graves as Alec. The supporting cast includes Denholm Elliott as Dr Barry, Simon Callow as Mr Ducie, Billie Whitelaw as Mrs Hall, and Ben Kingsley as Lasker-Jones.
The film was produced by Ismail Merchant via Merchant Ivory Productions and Film Four International, and written by Ivory and Kit Hesketh-Harvey, with cinematography by Pierre Lhomme. It is a tale of gay love in the restrictive and repressed culture of Edwardian England. The story follows its main character, Maurice Hall, through university, a tumultuous relationship, struggling to fit into society, and ultimately being united with his life partner.
Plot During a school trip to the beach, Maurice Hall, an 11-year-old schoolboy, receives instructions about the "sacred mystery" of sex from his teacher Mr. Ducie, who wants to explain to the fatherless boy the changes he will experience in puberty. Maurice is left feeling removed from the depiction of marriage with a woman.
Years later in 1909, Maurice is attending the University of Cambridge, where he strikes up a friendship with two fellow students: the aristocratic eccentric Viscount Risley and the rich and handsome Clive Durham. Clive falls in love with Maurice and surprises him by confessing his feelings. At first, Maurice reacts with horror, but he soon realises that he feels the same. The two friends begin a love affair but, at Clive's insistence, their relationship remains non-sexual. To go further, in Clive's opinion, would diminish them both. The upper-class Clive has a promising future in politics ahead of him and does not want to risk losing his social position. Their close relationship continues after Maurice leaves Cambridge and begins a new career as a stockbroker in London.
The two friends keep their feelings secret but are frightened when Risley is arrested and sentenced to six months' hard labour after soliciting sex from a soldier. Clive, afraid of being exposed as homosexual, breaks up with Maurice. After his return from a trip to Greece, Clive, under pressure from his widowed mother, makes overtures toward Maurice's sister until a furious Maurice intercedes. He tries to rekindle their relationship, but Clive spurns him decisively. Clive soon marries a naïve rich girl named Lady Anne Scott and settles into a life of domesticity at his estate, Pendersleigh.
Maurice seeks the help of his family physician, Dr. Barry, who gives him a physical examination and dismisses Maurice's doubts as "rubbish". Maurice then turns to Dr. Lasker-Jones, who tries to "cure" his homosexual longings with hypnosis. During his visits to Pendersleigh, Maurice attracts the attention of Alec Scudder, the under-gamekeeper who is due to emigrate to Argentina. Maurice not only fails to notice Alec's interest in him, but initially treats him with contempt. This does not discourage Alec, who watches Maurice's window at night. Simcox, the butler at Pendersleigh, suspecting the true nature of Maurice and Clive's past relationship, hints to Alec about Maurice's nature. One night, Alec climbs a ladder and enters Maurice's bedroom through an open window. He kisses Maurice, who is completely taken by surprise, but does not resist his sexual advances.
After their first night together, Maurice receives a letter from Alec proposing they meet at the Pendersleigh boathouse. Maurice wrongly believes that Alec is blackmailing him and returns to Lasker-Jones, who warns Maurice that England is a country that "has always been disinclined to accept human nature" and advises him to emigrate to a country where homosexuality is no longer criminal, like France or Italy. When Maurice fails to appear at the boathouse, Alec travels to London and visits him at his offices, causing some surprise amongst Maurice's colleagues.
Maurice and Alec go to the British Museum to talk, and the blackmail misunderstanding is resolved. Maurice begins to call Alec by his first name. They spend the night together in a hotel room, and as Alec leaves the next morning he explains that his departure for Argentina is imminent and they will not see each other again. Maurice goes to the port to give Alec a parting gift, only to discover that Alec has missed the sailing. Maurice goes to Pendersleigh and confesses to Clive his love for Alec. Clive, who was hoping Maurice would marry, is bewildered at Maurice's account. The two separate and Maurice goes to the boathouse looking for Alec, who is there waiting for him. Alec has left his family and abandoned his plans to emigrate to stay with Maurice, telling him, "Now we shan't never be parted".
At home with his wife, Clive's preparations for bed are interrupted by reminiscences about his time with Maurice.
Cast
Production
Background E. M. Forster wrote Maurice in 1913–14, and revised it in 1932 and again in 1959–1960. Written as a traditional Bildungsroman, or novel of character formation, the plot follows the title character as he deals with the problem of coming of age as a homosexual in the restrictive society of the Edwardian era. Forster, who had based his characters on real people, was keen that his novel should have a happy ending.Tomalin, Maurice Film Review, Sight & Sound. Autumn 1987, p. 290 The author did not intend to publish the novel while his mother was alive, but he showed the manuscript to selected friends, such as Christopher Isherwood. Forster resisted publication during his lifetime because of public and legal attitudes to homosexuality. He was also ambivalent about the literary merits of his novel. A note found on the manuscript read: "Publishable, but worth it?" The novel was only published in 1971 after Forster's death. It is considered one of his minor works, in comparison with his novels Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924).
James Ivory was interested in making a screen adaptation after the critical and box office success he achieved with another of Forster's novels, A Room with a View. While involved in this earlier project Ivory had read all of Forster's books, and eventually came to Maurice. "I thought," Ivory said, "that it was interesting material and would be enjoyable to make – and also something we could make in that it wouldn't require too much organization and wouldn't cost all that much." The situation it explores seemed to him to be still relevant: "People's turmoil and having to decide for themselves how they want to live and what their true feelings are and whether they're going to live honestly with them or deny them. That's no different. Nothing's any easier, for young people. I felt it was quite relevant."Long, The Films of Merchant Ivory, p. 147
In his will, Forster left the rights to his books to King's College, Cambridge, which has a self-governing board of fellows of the college.Long, James Ivory in Conversation, p. 211 They were initially reluctant to give permission to film Maurice, not because of the subject matter of the novel, but because it was considered an inferior work, and a film that called attention to it would not enhance Forster's literary reputation.Long, The Films of Merchant Ivory, p. 150 Ismail Merchant, the producer of the film, conferred with them and was very persuasive. They were favourably impressed with the adaptation by Merchant Ivory Productions of A Room with a View and relented.Long, The Films of Merchant Ivory, p. 151
Writing Ivory's usual writing partner, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, was unavailable because she was busy writing her novel Three Continents. Ivory wrote the screenplay with Kit Hesketh-Harvey, who had become connected with Merchant Ivory Productions through his sister, journalist and author Sarah Sands (born Sarah Harvey), who was then the wife of Julian Sands, the leading man in A Room with a View. Hesketh-Harvey had previously written documentaries for the BBC. He had attended Tonbridge School and Cambridge University, where Forster was educated, and knew the background. Ivory later said, "What Kit brought to the script was his social background. He went to Cambridge and a fancy prep school. His knowledge of the British upper middle class, that was incredibly useful – the dialect, the speech, the slang, and so many other things. As an American, I could not have possibly written the script without him."
Jhabvala reviewed the script and suggested changes.Long, James Ivory in Conversation, p. 212 On her advice, Clive Durham's unconvincing conversion to heterosexuality during a trip to Greece was justified by creating an episode in which Clive's university friend Risley is arrested and imprisoned after a homosexual entrapment, which frightens Clive into marrying.
Casting Julian Sands, who had played the male lead in Merchant Ivory's A Room with a View, was originally cast in the title role, but backed out at the last minute. John Malkovich was due to take the role of Lasker-Jones. He had become a friend of Sands while both were making The Killing Fields. After Sands left the project Malkovich lost interest in the film and was replaced by Ben Kingsley.Long, James Ivory in Conversation, p. 213
James Wilby had auditioned for the role of Clive Durham's brother-in-law. When Sands left the project, Ivory considered two unknown actors for the role of Maurice: Wilby and Julian Wadham. Since he had already cast the dark-haired Hugh Grant as Clive, Ivory decided on the blond Wilby over the dark-haired Wadham, who was given a role as one of Maurice's stockbroker friends.
Grant, who later found international stardom with Four Weddings and a Funeral, had previously appeared in only one film, Privileged. He was doing review comedy at the time and had lost interest in professional acting when Celestia Fox, the casting director, sent Grant to Ivory who immediately gave him the role of Clive.Long, James Ivory in Conversation, p. 214 It helped that Grant and Wilby had worked together in Grant's first film, made at Oxford. Rupert Graves was cast as Alec Scudder, Maurice's working-class lover. He had appeared as Lucy Honeychurch's young brother in A Room with a View, a performance with which he was unsatisfied, and so he appreciated the opportunity to deliver a better performance.
The supporting cast included veterans Denholm Elliott as Dr. Barry and Simon Callow as the pedagogue Mr. Ducie, both from A Room with a View; Kingsley as Lasker-Jones; Patrick Godfrey as the butler Simcox; Billie Whitelaw as Maurice's mother; and Helena Bonham Carter in an uncredited cameo as an audience member at the cricket match.
Filming The film was made on a budget of £1.58 million that included investment by Cinecom and Britain's Channel 4. Maurice proved more complicated to make than Ivory had anticipated. Its fifty-four-day shooting schedule, which involved working six-day weeks, proved long and gruelling. There was no rehearsal period, only a read-through before shooting began.
Maurice was shot on location largely in the halls and quadrangles of King's College, Cambridge including interiors in the college's chapel, where Forster was educated and later returned as a Fellow. The other interiors were primarily shot at Wilbury Park, a Palladian house in Wiltshire. Its owner, Maria St. Just, an actress and trustee of the estate of Tennessee Williams, was a friend of Merchant and Ivory. In 1979 they had been weekend guests at Wilbury Park, which made an impression on James Ivory, who, when Maurice was being prepared, chose it to serve as Pendersleigh, the country house where Maurice visits his friend Clive.
In the style of Merchant Ivory's A Room with a View, old book endpapers accompany the theme music played in minor scale at the beginning and in major scale at the end to bracket the film as a cinematographic novel.
Differences from the novel