The L-Shaped Room | |
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Directed by | Bryan Forbes |
Screenplay by | Bryan Forbes |
Based on | The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
Edited by | Anthony Harvey |
Music by | John Barry |
Production company | |
Distributed by | British Lion Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 126 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $1 million (US/Canada rentals)[1] |
The L-Shaped Room is a 1962 British drama romance film directed by Bryan Forbes, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Lynne Reid Banks.[2] It tells the story of Jane Fosset, a young French woman, unmarried and pregnant, who moves into a cheap London boarding house, befriending a young man, Toby, in the building.[3][4] The work is considered part of the kitchen sink realism school of British drama.[5][6] The film reflected a trend in British films of greater frankness about sex and displays a sympathetic treatment of outsiders "unmarried mothers, lesbian or black" as well as a "largely natural and non-judgmental handling of their problems". As director, Forbes represents "a more romantic, wistful type of realism" than that of Tony Richardson or Lindsay Anderson.[7]
Caron's performance earned her the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for best actress, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.[8][9][10]
Cicely Courtneidge gave what she considered her finest film performance, in a role wholly unlike her usual parts; she played an elderly lesbian, living in a drab London flat with her cat, recalling her career as an actress and forlornly trying to keep in touch with former friends.[11] The Times described her performance as a triumph.[12] For Bell, the film marked his breakthrough as a leading actor in film and television.[13]
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