Maurice (1987)
For anyone who is a sucker for dark academia aesthetics, English sophistication and period films, ‘Maurice’ is definitely the one for you. Additionally, it could be easily called one of the earliest path-breaking films on homosexuality.
With a young and handsome Hugh Grant (Clive), finely talented James Wilby (Maurice) and a sensual Rupert Graves (Scudder) in the lead, the film revolves around the concept of gay relationships in an Edwardian England.
Long dark corridors of Cambridge, young men in tweeds carrying heavy books, discussions on Greek and Plato’s philosophies, lovely women in white gowns and hats, a restrictive romantic relationship and the consequences.
‘Maurice’ is a story that torments you yet saves you all at once. In the era where a bond such as of Maurice and Clive was better spoken of as the ‘unspeakable vice’, love still found its ways, intense and hidden.
Being a Merchant Ivory production, the film essentially has a lot of focus on details in every scene and the character arcs. The story is rhythmic and languid, it just sails, develops slowly, giving enough time to audiences to experience the ravishing situations the characters are going through. The grace of the pace with which the intricate parts are dealt with is worth 120 minutes of sitting time.
