If I were asked to name my second favourite film I would have to consider many; my favourite is an easy choiceThe L-Shaped Room. As a teenager I saw it on its first release, then four times soon after. Bryan Forbes has crafted this film from a rather maudlin novel by Lynne Reid Banks; it becomes, in his hands, quite a different storya work of art. Leslie Caron, although uniformly fine in all her films, has never been better than she is here. The supporting actors (and there are many) all give sensitive, human performances. The evocative score (parts of the first movement of the First Piano Concerto by Brahms) is a consummate fit with the narrative. The result of this collaboration of sources and talents is a restrained, perfect tapestry that depicts the human condition. The L-Shaped Room has no flawsnone.
Review of The L-Shaped Room
