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Maurice
During the 1980s and 1990s, Merchant Ivory Productions epitomised homegrown period dramas with award-winning films such as A Room With A View, Howards End and The Remains Of The Day. Released in 1987, Maurice is a tender romance based on the novel by E. M. Forster, which explores the burgeoning sexuality of a Cambridge graduate in the early 20th century when homosexuality is considered a criminal act. This welcome reissue, following James Ivory's Oscar win for penning the screenplay to Call Me By Your Name, is a poignant reminder of a time when by gay men were forced to deny their true feelings in order to be accepted by society. The film unfolds through the eyes of Maurice (James Wilby), who falls in love with fellow Cambridge student Clive Durham (Hugh Grant). They conduct an affair in secret because Clive harks from privileged stock and needs to appease his mother. Eventually, Clive agrees to marry a woman called Anne (Phoebe Nicholls) and Maurice is heartbroken. He turns to physician Dr Lasker-Jones (Sir Ben Kingsley) to cure his homosexuality but the treatment is not effective. In the meantime, the family's swarthy under-gamekeeper Scudder (Rupert Graves) takes an interest in Maurice and pursues the object of his infatuation with dogged resolve.
