Rooms and Views: Filming in Florence with Merchant Ivory

Sarah QUILL


Region:
England
Notice Period:
Regular (more than one month's notice)
Type:
Professional
Fee:
Paid: £250 plus train fare, if applicable
Category:
Media
Updated:
15th August 2025

In 1985, the film director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and their scriptwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala adapted E.M. Forster’s 1908 novel, A Room with a View, into a successful feature film for the cinema. Set between Florence and Surrey, this comedy of Edwardian morals and manners explored themes that Forster would develop in his later novels. Sarah Quill worked as the stills photographer throughout the ten-week film, and she will describe some of the experiences of the cast and crew in Italy and England. Illustrated with her photographs, her talk will examine the background to the film and the lasting appeal of Forster’s novel.

Views: 885 | Enquiries: 0

About Sarah QUILL

I have worked between Venice and London for many years to create an extensive photographic archive of Venetian architecture, sculpture and daily life, which is used by publishers and scholars worldwide. My book 'Ruskin's Venice: the Stones Revisited' was published in 2000, followed by a new edition in 2015, which has recently been translated into Italian. During the 1980s, I worked in the British film industry as a stills photographer, working on feature films which included: 'Wagner' (1983); 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1984); 'A Room with a View' (1985); 'White Mischief' (1987); and 'The Orchid House' (1989). My photographs have been exhibited in Venice and in the UK. I give regular lectures in the UK and in Italy, principally on Venetian subjects, and am a trustee of the Venice in Peril Fund, the British committee for the preservation of Venice.


Send a message to the speaker

If you are interested in this talk and wish to contact the speaker, please complete the following form:

 
Please provide your contact name
 
Please provide the name of your group
 
Your phone number so that the speaker can contact you
 
Your email address so that the speaker can contact you
 
Give details about the event, time of day and location
Prove you are human please.
Use the slider to drag the puzzle so that the top and bottom are aligned , or use an alternate text based challenge by clicking here.
Question: Is water wet?
 

Site Search

Search across all speakers, topics and tags. Put your search term in the box and press enter or hit search

Use quotes around exact multiple word searches, eg "winston churchill".