I was a tender 14 years old in 1962, when I accompanied my mentor (my high school Spanish teacher) to an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village to see this film. My only previous encounter with Leslie Caron had been in the wonderfully entertaining film "Gigi". I must say, this two hour spectacle of unrelieved misery came as quite a shock to me. I left the theater thinking I had just seen the most depressing film I had ever seen in my life. And yet...I loved it! In fact, I felt very grown up at having survived it. This would not have been possible without the aid of the movie's soundtrack, Brahm's Piano Concerto No.1, which my astonished ears heard for the first time that evening. I've been in love with that piece--and with Brahms--ever since.
39 Reviews
Odd, life-like characters--rich, textured script
garlinda-114 July 2005
The characters in the oddly appealing drama are so deliciously flawed and the texture is so utterly British art. Leslie Caron is underrated as a dramatic actor--having made a name for herself in musicals--but she shines in this one. Her performance is reminiscent of the character she played in "The Subterraneans." She is perfect as the tortured free-spirit who stumbles. Another standout is Brock Peters. You feel the closeness of his room when he is lying in bed, talking to Jane through the wall. In fact, the whole boarding house feels real, seedy and full of dashed hopes. You ache for the pain and loneliness each person on the
house endures--I felt myself like a resident in this menagerie. The direction is taut, spare and real. I would have liked to have learned more about Toby's background, what drove him to this place. But I suppose a good film is supposed to leave a place for the viewers imagination.
house endures--I felt myself like a resident in this menagerie. The direction is taut, spare and real. I would have liked to have learned more about Toby's background, what drove him to this place. But I suppose a good film is supposed to leave a place for the viewers imagination.
Bittersweet story of hellos and goodbyes...
moonspinner558 June 2008
Forlorn Frenchie Leslie Caron--27-years-old, unwed, pregnant and alone--takes a room in a British boarding house bustling with funny, mercurial people. Next-door to her is a black jazz musician, while downstairs is a handsome writer (who, naturally, hasn't sold anything in months). Down the hall from the writer is a lesbian shut-in, also a man-hungry landlady and two prostitutes. Bryan Forbes directed and adapted Lynne Reid Banks' book, taking careful steps to let this humanistic tale unfold as naturally as possible (when Caron upsets the horn-player, she talks so sensibly to him at his door that his initial anger suddenly seems unfounded and embarrassing). Certainly the dramatic and romantic predicaments which transpire are familiar, and Caron's insistence on keeping her condition a secret is a little bit nutty, no matter how afraid she is. However, the dignified film has a bittersweet tinge to it that draws one in, and the cast is uniformly strong (especially Caron, doing Oscar-nominated work). A few of the arguments become repetitive, though Forbes handles the characters sensitively. It's a happy/sad piece with a lovely message which says people change, they come and go, yet the rooms they once occupied carry on without them, renewed with fresh voices. Caron lost the Oscar to Patricia Neal in "Hud", but she won the BAFTA for Best British Actress. *** from ****
The effect of the incidental music
gill_shave27 July 2006
I saw this film first when I was twenty and, for me, it summed up all the anguish of being young, female and alone in London. The performances are magnificent, and at the time, I found Tom Bell to be quite attractive. I later went off him when he was successively portrayed as a seedy villainous type. The thing which completely mesmerised me at the time was the music (Brahms First Piano Concerto). I haven't read any other comments about the music and I am interested to know if anyone else was as affected by it as I was. It is, of course, a fabulous piece but this was my first introduction to it. I was a music student in 1962 but in common with many other music students of the time, not very knowledgeable. I immediately became very passionate about this piece.
Mum -- I'm preggers!
rmax30482327 August 2017
Leslie Caron, in what may be her best performance, is a poor single pregnant French woman of twenty-seven who moves into the most drab little English walkup you can imagine. She's on like the fourth floor and the lavatory is on the first, or ground floor if you live in this place. The L-shaped room looks like hell and it's got bedbugs. That's a bad sign. I had a small hotel room in Skopje with bedbugs and there's little that's more discomfiting than opening your eyes at night while repositioning your body on the bed and seeing half a dozen black varmints where your ear had just rested. What we have here is a lot of urban distress.
There are, however, neighbors and some are friendly in a no-nonsense kind of way. Others try to be helpful. But Caron is quiet and secretive, and likely to answer a question with another question, if she answers at all. We get at least a portion of the back stories of the other roomers, including the young novelist who falls too promptly in love with her. Not that I blame him. She's quite pretty.
The months come and the months go and Caron's abdomen swells apace. Everyone she knows seems intent on persuading her to abort the pregnancy or to give it up for adoption without seeing it first. That last is grounded in experience. After birth, there are a few hours that form a launch window, during which, if the mother sees the neonate, some sort of reflex occurs and a bond between them is cemented.
The performances are up to par, even if some of the characters exhibit stereotyped traits. The direction is by Brian Forbes, who also adapted the novel for the screen, and he does an excellent job with what is essentially a carefully wrought soap opera.
There are, however, neighbors and some are friendly in a no-nonsense kind of way. Others try to be helpful. But Caron is quiet and secretive, and likely to answer a question with another question, if she answers at all. We get at least a portion of the back stories of the other roomers, including the young novelist who falls too promptly in love with her. Not that I blame him. She's quite pretty.
The months come and the months go and Caron's abdomen swells apace. Everyone she knows seems intent on persuading her to abort the pregnancy or to give it up for adoption without seeing it first. That last is grounded in experience. After birth, there are a few hours that form a launch window, during which, if the mother sees the neonate, some sort of reflex occurs and a bond between them is cemented.
The performances are up to par, even if some of the characters exhibit stereotyped traits. The direction is by Brian Forbes, who also adapted the novel for the screen, and he does an excellent job with what is essentially a carefully wrought soap opera.
A truly touching performance by Leslie Caron
snoozer18 October 2004
I first saw this film when I was I'm my early teens and for some reason it always stuck with me. Some 30yrs later, I watched it again last night and was awestruck by the performances in this fine fine film.
Leslie Caron was nominated for an Oscar for her role and won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for her performance .. and rightly so. Such a touching, understated delivery that will have you too fall in love with her character Jane.
It's hard to believe I am only the 2nd user to comment on this forgotten gem. Films like this really illustrate the dire state of motion picture making these days. They sure don't make em like they used to folks.
Available on DVD, unfortunately not in it's original aspect ratio. Perhaps one day someone will release it in wide screen to truly appreciate the gritty black & white photography.
Highly recommended .. a flawless film throughout !
Leslie Caron was nominated for an Oscar for her role and won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for her performance .. and rightly so. Such a touching, understated delivery that will have you too fall in love with her character Jane.
It's hard to believe I am only the 2nd user to comment on this forgotten gem. Films like this really illustrate the dire state of motion picture making these days. They sure don't make em like they used to folks.
Available on DVD, unfortunately not in it's original aspect ratio. Perhaps one day someone will release it in wide screen to truly appreciate the gritty black & white photography.
Highly recommended .. a flawless film throughout !
The L-Shaped Room
jboothmillard6 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I don't know the meaning of the title, but there is a reference to it towards the end with the guy writing a novel with 'The L-Shaped Room' as its title. Anyway, basically it is all about French born Jane Fosset (BAFTA and Golden Globe winning, and Oscar nominated Leslie Caron). She moved to England to escape her dreary life in France, and has moved into a flat block. In this place she makes friends with manager Doris (Avis Bunnage), Sonia (Patricia Phoenix), neighbour Johnny (To Kill a Mockinbird and Batman: The Animated Series - Lucias Fox - star Brock Peters), and downstairs neighbour Toby (Tom Bell). The main story is that Jane is pregnant, and unknowing Toby forms a close relationship with her. She does give in one night to his love, but is gone the next morning, after Johnny told him about the baby coming. She is now trying to sort everything out with everyone in the flat block, get back together possibly with Toby, and not let the baby get in the way of a happy life. Also starring Anthony Booth as Youth in Street and James Bond's Bernard Lee as Charlie. It was nominated the BAFTAs for Best British Film and Best Film from any Source, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film. Very good!
Avoids every pitfall...
Balthazar-59 February 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This was the first 'grown-up' (guess these days you can't use the word 'adult' as you should be able to) film I remember seeing. I put the profoundly moving effect it had on me down to my tender (15) years. So after around 42 years, I saw it again this week - I had reason to screen it for my Film Studies class... and it's still quite wonderful.
At the centre is an earthy and moving story of the central character, Jane's, single pregnancy. But Jane is not a scatter-brained bimbo who stumbled into pregnancy, she is a sophisticated 27-year-old French woman, whose virginity was becoming burdensome. But this is the late-50s and social attitudes to single pregnancy are wholly different from those of today.
The film details Jane's 'go it alone' strategy, as she moves into a grotty boarding house occupied by a bunch of unremarkable misfits. Though this 'kitchen sink' drama seems, for much of its length like an 'issue' film, it is, ultimately, triumphantly not. There is a black trumpeter (Brock Peters) who doesn't experience racism, and nearly destroys Jane's budding relationship through his judgemental moral attitudes. There is an ageing lesbian music hall artist (Cicely Courtneige) who isn't ostracised. There is a prostitute (Patricia Phoenix) who doesn't have a heart of gold, or an exploitative pimp.
In other words, this is a moral tale that refuses to preach. And at the centre of this is the curious and heart-warming theme of all of the well-meaning people (well, some of them are well-meaning) who Jane meets who want to help her abort her baby.
Our interest is, for much of the film centred on the relationship between Toby (penniless writer) and Jane, a relationship that we will to succeed. But in the end, it (probably, as the ending is to some extent inconclusive) is not this relationship that we treasure from this film, but the sense, made, oh so movingly, in the final scene, that Jane has, through her hardship and the friendship of people whom she would previously have dismissed, become a much fuller person living in this hovel than she could ever have become in the cosy bourgeois bosom of her parents.
For this reason, and others, this is a truly subversive work. No wonder it left so great an impression on me, at the tender age of fifteen, living in my council flat with my very respectable parents in leafy Sevenoaks...
At the centre is an earthy and moving story of the central character, Jane's, single pregnancy. But Jane is not a scatter-brained bimbo who stumbled into pregnancy, she is a sophisticated 27-year-old French woman, whose virginity was becoming burdensome. But this is the late-50s and social attitudes to single pregnancy are wholly different from those of today.
The film details Jane's 'go it alone' strategy, as she moves into a grotty boarding house occupied by a bunch of unremarkable misfits. Though this 'kitchen sink' drama seems, for much of its length like an 'issue' film, it is, ultimately, triumphantly not. There is a black trumpeter (Brock Peters) who doesn't experience racism, and nearly destroys Jane's budding relationship through his judgemental moral attitudes. There is an ageing lesbian music hall artist (Cicely Courtneige) who isn't ostracised. There is a prostitute (Patricia Phoenix) who doesn't have a heart of gold, or an exploitative pimp.
In other words, this is a moral tale that refuses to preach. And at the centre of this is the curious and heart-warming theme of all of the well-meaning people (well, some of them are well-meaning) who Jane meets who want to help her abort her baby.
Our interest is, for much of the film centred on the relationship between Toby (penniless writer) and Jane, a relationship that we will to succeed. But in the end, it (probably, as the ending is to some extent inconclusive) is not this relationship that we treasure from this film, but the sense, made, oh so movingly, in the final scene, that Jane has, through her hardship and the friendship of people whom she would previously have dismissed, become a much fuller person living in this hovel than she could ever have become in the cosy bourgeois bosom of her parents.
For this reason, and others, this is a truly subversive work. No wonder it left so great an impression on me, at the tender age of fifteen, living in my council flat with my very respectable parents in leafy Sevenoaks...
Leslie Caron and the Kitchen Sink
evanston_dad20 September 2018
A drab British kitchen sink drama that scored Leslie Caron the second of her two career Oscar nominations.
She plays a young pregnant woman who rents out a room in a boarding house and then falls for a fellow tenant. He throws her over when he finds out she's going to have a baby, and the majority of the dramatic tension in the film revolves around whether he'll eventually be a stand up guy or not.
Caron is okay, but I just don't think she was a great actress and she's not up to giving this character the nuance and spark that another, better actress could have. It's a pretty shocking film for its time, dealing frankly with topics like abortion and lesbianism unapologetically. But there's something missing from it that prevents it from being a really memorable drama.
Grade: B+
She plays a young pregnant woman who rents out a room in a boarding house and then falls for a fellow tenant. He throws her over when he finds out she's going to have a baby, and the majority of the dramatic tension in the film revolves around whether he'll eventually be a stand up guy or not.
Caron is okay, but I just don't think she was a great actress and she's not up to giving this character the nuance and spark that another, better actress could have. It's a pretty shocking film for its time, dealing frankly with topics like abortion and lesbianism unapologetically. But there's something missing from it that prevents it from being a really memorable drama.
Grade: B+
My brief review of the film
sol-27 September 2005
A very unusual but also very compelling and fascinating film, there is little given plot to it, with events occurring without any warning, and this actually makes it rather exciting as one never knows exactly what to expect from it. The directing work by Forbes is simply beautiful, with attention to shadows, lighting and camera angles, plus some effective close-ups. The extent of the unpredictability is a little over-the-top, and it is not the most satisfying film out there, especially at a rather generous two-hour length. However, for something different for a change, this is top quality film-making, helped out also by an Oscar nominated performance by Leslie Caron, who is dazzlingly believable in the main role.
The L-Shaped Room
CinemaSerf6 November 2022
Leslie Caron is really good in this rather quirky tale of a French lass who, pregnant, takes up residence in a pretty grotty London boarding house. Initially wary of the other "guests", "Jane" befriends aspiring writer"Toby" (Tom Bell) and the film depicts her lively relationship with him and her assimilation into this curious group of individuals whom she gradually begins to get used to. There are two things that help this stand out. The photography - it is intimate and very effective; and the use of the Brahms Piano Concerto which is as effective as any of the, frequently potent, dialogue. Caron is in her element here, her performance is confident and engaging. Tom Bell contributes strongly, as do Avis Bunnage and Patricia Phoenix, and there is something quite uplifting about Bryan Forbes' take on this outwardly rather depressing tale of solitude and abandonment. It sags just a bit in the middle with perhaps a more judicious pruning of the character establishment in order at the start, but it does hold the attention well for two hours and deals with adult topics in a remarkably - for the time - frank and plausible fashion.
All human life is here
ianlouisiana27 June 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The camera follows a well-dressed attractive young woman through the down-at-heel back streets of west London.It is almost a ghetto,although the word is not currently in use.She is clearly out-of-place amongst the peeling paintwork and scruffy pavements.She is referring to a piece of paper and it soon becomes clear that she is flat-hunting.As she crosses the street into brilliant sunshine there is a huge poster on the wall advertising "The News of the World"."All human life is here" it says. It is 1963,dogs outnumber cars in the street,the CND is on the march,two shillings will buy you lunch(called dinner) at the corner cafe,Kennedy and MacMillan are the Bush and Blair of the day.It is the sixties but no one has realised it yet. Tony Blair's future father-in-law has the first lines of dialogue in "The L-shaped room".Perhaps rather old for a "youth",he tries to engage the girl in conversation but fails to hold her attention and throws down his cigarette in annoyance(an extravagant gesture in 1963),blithely unaware of his destiny. The girl is French and pregnant,she has come to England to have her baby in secret then return home.She finds a room in a run-down house owned by Miss Avis Bunnage-no stranger to playing landladies.Her fellow lodgers are Mr Tom Bell'an unpublished writer,Mr Brock Peters a jazz trumpeter and a "little bit bent" according to Mr Bell,the wonderful Miss Cicely Courtneidge as a former Music Hall entertainer and Miss Pat Pheonix,a working girl."All human life is here"indeed.And all the ingredients for a cornucopia of clichés which,marvellously,the writer and director Mr Bryan Forbes manages to avoid by coaxing performances far beyond the call of duty from everyone concerned.In the case of Miss Leslie Caron a performance that was rightfully nominated for an Oscar. Her strength and inner beauty push the film through its occasional longeurs and she is obviously far too good for Mr Tom Bell's hypocritical bitter and twisted would-be novelist. There is a lovely turn from Mr Emlyn Williams as a slimy doctor and Miss Nanette Newman makes her presence felt as the girl who takes over Miss Caron's L-shaped room right at the end. Back in the day...I was 22 years old the last time I saw this film and as cynical and world -weary as only a know-nothing 22 year old can be. Mistaking sentiment for sentimentality I disliked it.43 years on ,rather ashamed at my folie de jeunesse I applaud "The L-shaped Room" as a film made with a love for humanity,its strengths,weaknesses and contradictions,diversities and small tragedies.Thank you Mr Forbes.
A classic of its time.
crumpytv16 November 2022
A 1962 British kitchen sink drama film directed by Bryan Forbes, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Lynne Reid Banks. It tells the story of Jane Fosset (Leslie Caron), a young French woman, unmarried and pregnant, who moves into a cheap London boarding house, befriending a young man, Toby (Tom Bell), in the building. A refreshing change from the dour characters he went on to play.
It is possibly the definitive kitchen sink drama and depicts the seedy, squalid life that a lot of people had to endure back in the 1950s and 1960s.
Some sensitive subjects are covered here, especially for the time, but all are handled with consummate skill rather than the sledge-hammer, in your face depictions nowadays.
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 although her sobbing scene was a bit embarrassing.
It is possibly the definitive kitchen sink drama and depicts the seedy, squalid life that a lot of people had to endure back in the 1950s and 1960s.
Some sensitive subjects are covered here, especially for the time, but all are handled with consummate skill rather than the sledge-hammer, in your face depictions nowadays.
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 although her sobbing scene was a bit embarrassing.
The L-Shaped Room
d_m_s17 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Really dull kitchen sink drama. Sometimes even the dull ones are worth watching for acting or historic interest but this one had nothing. Miserable French woman moves into seedy apartment block and is 'courted' by one of the men who live there. Really nothing more than that. Boring.
Forgotten, but marvelous
Patsy-921 June 1999
It's a shame this film has been all but forgotten. It's an excellent drama and character study, and features a career best performance from Leslie Caron, as an unwed pregnant French woman at a London boarding house. Though they all want her to get an abortion for various reasons, she refuses, and this forces them all to emerge from their shells and become a framework of friendship and love. The ending is sad, and just about perfect. The fact that time has neglected it is a true shame.
Top Drawer British Realism
mackjay213 July 2008
One of the best of the so-called "kitchen-sink" films, THE L-SHAPED ROOM is nearly perfect. The set decoration probably deserved an award for the way it evokes, with poetry, the incredibly realistic environment of a down-and-out London rooming house. As many commentators have noted, this film avoids clichés and gives us real-seeming characters played by gifted actors. There is not a single weak link in the cast, with Tom Bell, Avis Bunnage, Brock Peters, Cicely Courtneige among others providing so many memorable moments. At the heart of the film is Leslie Caron in an award-nominated performance that is not likely to be forgotten by anyone who sees it. This is a performance that elicits true feeling, done with a kind of invisible artistry, so it seems completely real. Bryan Forbes, one of Britain's finest directors of the period, paces the film well, relying on Caron and others to fill what may have been longueurs with true meaning. The only criticism is the use of the Brahms First Piano Concerto in the soundtrack. The surging romanticism, while appealing in itself, doesn't fit very well with the mood of the film, apart from a couple of quiet scenes. It's certainly not a big problem, only it seems an odd musical choice. A deeply affecting, unforgettable film.
A gemthe movie that plays most often in my mind
allin217 October 2006
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.
The Lonely Room...
Xstal20 March 2023
There's a room on the top floor where you are staying, it's partitioned from another where Johnny's laying, the bed is full of bugs, the landlady just shrugs, all in all the situation is dismaying. But that's the least of all the things that's on your mind, as you've got yourself in somewhat of a bind, after a fling with that man Terry, now you're growing like a berry, this is not the way your life had been designed.
An outstanding performance from Leslie Caron as Jane, a lost and lonely French young woman seeking sanctuary in a rundown rented London room after discovering she's pregnant. More than ably supported by Tom Bell as the love-struck youth with little to show for his troubles and Brock Peters as the friendly face next door, as their lives entwine and disconnect as the birth of the child approaches.
An outstanding performance from Leslie Caron as Jane, a lost and lonely French young woman seeking sanctuary in a rundown rented London room after discovering she's pregnant. More than ably supported by Tom Bell as the love-struck youth with little to show for his troubles and Brock Peters as the friendly face next door, as their lives entwine and disconnect as the birth of the child approaches.
Leslie Caron's Oscar Nominated Dramatic Role
theowinthrop8 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This gritty little film is the victim of it's star's glitz. Leslie Caron has been identified with many classic films, but they tend to be musicals ("An American in Paris", "Lili, "Gigi"). Occasionally she is recalled for a dramatic performance - but it is usually "Fanny" which is pointed to, because the cast there is full of named stars (Boyer, Chevalier, and Buchholz). But her second Oscar nomination (after one for "Lili") was for the role of Jane Fossett in "The L-Shaped Room". While "Fanny" is set in a colorfully shot Marseilles and environs, "The L-Shaped Room" is set in the mean streets and rooming houses of grimy London districts. It is shot too in black and white. This makes the sadness of the story all the more intense, and helped make Caron's performance here possibly the best she ever gave in an English speaking film. As for the cast here, only two (Cecile Courtneidge as "Mavis" and Emlyn Williams as "Dr. Weaver") had reputations on par with Cevalier and Boyer in stage and screen work, and a third (Brock Peters as "Johnny", the Anglo - Caribbean who is the neighbor of Jane) is better recalled for his smaller part of the defendant that Gregory Peck tries to save in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.
"The L-Shaped Room" is about Jane, a Frenchwoman who comes to England to get away from her puritanical and harsh parents in France, in order to have a child she got from a one night stand with an actor she met on one occasion. She checks into a boarding house (on the top floor - attic rooms) run by Doris (Avis Brunnage). Initially Jane plans to have the baby aborted - and she got the name and address of a Harley Street specialist Dr. Weaver. But the self-satisfied Weaver is so sure of himself (he knows all the answers from his patients, and he knows how to steer the patient to the story facts he needs to know to protect himself from prosecution for giving abortions, that he turns off Jane even before she realizes his price (100 guineas in 1962 - about two thousand dollars today with inflation rates). Caron tells off the amazed Weaver (Williams just can't believe this one is not behaving like the other unwed mothers and taking orders), and tells him she is now convinced to have the child.
The film follows Caron's interaction with the other people in the boarding house, including Doris, Mavis (a one time West End headliner), Sonia (Patricia Phoenix) and Jane II (Verity Edmet) - two prostitutes, Toby (Tom Bell) - a struggling writer, and Johnny. In the course of her pregnancy she gets to see the secrets in most of their lives, in particular Mavis (a decent woman, who had a secret lover who died), and Toby, with whom Jane falls in love. But the pregnancy becomes a major factor in Jane's sexual/emotional tie to Toby. Will it derail their love or not?
Caron is intense in the film, whether telling off Williams, or trying to come to an understanding with Bell. Without over-acting she does make one see a woman who has been deserted by everyone in a moment of need, but determined not to destroy what can be the best thing in her life up until now. The film observes her decision and how it pans out, and how the rest of the world accepts it, or rejects it, or just passes it by.
"The L-Shaped Room" has never been a very popular film. My suspicion is that in a world where the issue of who has the right to have an abortion, and the right of the woman to choose, is so touchy to so many people, the fact that the abortion method is thrown away just not really popular with many modern audiences. Like it's contemporary film, LOVE WITH A PROPER STRANGER, despite the well produced movie results, the message against abortion (even if thoroughly understandable) is just not acceptable in many quarters as a solution to the problem. It so, the movie audiences at revival houses are missing one fine film and a grade-"A" performance by Caron here.
"The L-Shaped Room" is about Jane, a Frenchwoman who comes to England to get away from her puritanical and harsh parents in France, in order to have a child she got from a one night stand with an actor she met on one occasion. She checks into a boarding house (on the top floor - attic rooms) run by Doris (Avis Brunnage). Initially Jane plans to have the baby aborted - and she got the name and address of a Harley Street specialist Dr. Weaver. But the self-satisfied Weaver is so sure of himself (he knows all the answers from his patients, and he knows how to steer the patient to the story facts he needs to know to protect himself from prosecution for giving abortions, that he turns off Jane even before she realizes his price (100 guineas in 1962 - about two thousand dollars today with inflation rates). Caron tells off the amazed Weaver (Williams just can't believe this one is not behaving like the other unwed mothers and taking orders), and tells him she is now convinced to have the child.
The film follows Caron's interaction with the other people in the boarding house, including Doris, Mavis (a one time West End headliner), Sonia (Patricia Phoenix) and Jane II (Verity Edmet) - two prostitutes, Toby (Tom Bell) - a struggling writer, and Johnny. In the course of her pregnancy she gets to see the secrets in most of their lives, in particular Mavis (a decent woman, who had a secret lover who died), and Toby, with whom Jane falls in love. But the pregnancy becomes a major factor in Jane's sexual/emotional tie to Toby. Will it derail their love or not?
Caron is intense in the film, whether telling off Williams, or trying to come to an understanding with Bell. Without over-acting she does make one see a woman who has been deserted by everyone in a moment of need, but determined not to destroy what can be the best thing in her life up until now. The film observes her decision and how it pans out, and how the rest of the world accepts it, or rejects it, or just passes it by.
"The L-Shaped Room" has never been a very popular film. My suspicion is that in a world where the issue of who has the right to have an abortion, and the right of the woman to choose, is so touchy to so many people, the fact that the abortion method is thrown away just not really popular with many modern audiences. Like it's contemporary film, LOVE WITH A PROPER STRANGER, despite the well produced movie results, the message against abortion (even if thoroughly understandable) is just not acceptable in many quarters as a solution to the problem. It so, the movie audiences at revival houses are missing one fine film and a grade-"A" performance by Caron here.
Long-lasting impressions
Snowbird12196925 February 2006
I first saw this movie when I was eleven years old, and have never been able to get it out of my mind. I'm glad to see that it hasn't been completely forgotten. I've just ordered the DVD, and I'm anxious to see if it is as poignant to me at fifty-four as it was when I was eleven. There are only one or two scenes that I can actually vividly remember, but I'd say that's pretty impressive after forty-three years! I do remember how I felt when I left the movie-house... life is not easy, some decisions are forever, the way can be rife with disappointments, but if you are honest and open with yourself and others, there will be a firm foundation of strength in your relationships that can support you through anything.
The L Word
Lejink9 June 2020
Bryan Forbes' second directorial feature was in sharp contrast to the lighter-toned "Whistle Down The Wind" from the year before. At times a sombre mood-piece, it nevertheless is a sensitive character study of the struggling tenants at a cheap Notting Hill (before it was Notting Hill!) boarding-house to which Leslie Caron's Jane character winds her weary way at the outset.
A 27 year old single French woman, she's pregnant and on her own after her first sexual encounter with an English actor who, like her parents, has recently rejected and abandoned her. Now friendless, she's down at the end of lonely street at this seeming heartbreak hotel where under the bawdy, boozy landlady's charge live a disparate and desperate set of individuals. These comprise a young black jazz musician, a handsome, young, white out-of-work writer, a nosey, fading old white lesbian actress and down in the basement, an old prostitute and her young Hungarian protege, the latter learning the dopes you might say.
After much pressing, Caron eventually, if reluctantly enters into a relationship with Tom Bell's possessive writer which seems to upset the musician next door who possibly has feelings for either one of them. However, once he learns of the pregnancy, Bell quickly drops her, leaving her to seek friendship at each of the other doors in the establishment. As Caron puts it herself, everyone it seems wants her to have an abortion but apart from one major wobble, she's determined to have the child.
It all winds up at a Christmas party for all the tenants in the landlady's front room (Bell excepted) and a nicely written (literally) bitter-sweet conclusion as Caron has to face up to her far from certain future.
Excellently filmed and played by all, this was a fine example of the early 60's kitchen-sink drama prevalent in U.K. cinema at the time. The situations, characterisations, sets and dialogue are credible and natural and shot and played in a convincingly realistic manner. Caron, previously only known to me from big-budget Hollywood movies from her youth is something of a revelation as the alien presence trying to cope with her further alienation all on her own. Bell, too, I was impressed with as the wounded, loquacious charmer unable at the key moment to man-up as today's phrase goes and do the decent thing for someone he clearly loves. All the other supporting characters, played by Brock Peters, Cicely Courtneidge, Avis Bunnage and a pre-Elsie Tanner Pat Phoenix likewise turn in strong performances making this a strong ensemble piece.
Honest, straightforward and moving, this is one of the best movies of its type I've yet seen, the better for focusing on a female character at its bruised, shifting, but always beating heart.
A 27 year old single French woman, she's pregnant and on her own after her first sexual encounter with an English actor who, like her parents, has recently rejected and abandoned her. Now friendless, she's down at the end of lonely street at this seeming heartbreak hotel where under the bawdy, boozy landlady's charge live a disparate and desperate set of individuals. These comprise a young black jazz musician, a handsome, young, white out-of-work writer, a nosey, fading old white lesbian actress and down in the basement, an old prostitute and her young Hungarian protege, the latter learning the dopes you might say.
After much pressing, Caron eventually, if reluctantly enters into a relationship with Tom Bell's possessive writer which seems to upset the musician next door who possibly has feelings for either one of them. However, once he learns of the pregnancy, Bell quickly drops her, leaving her to seek friendship at each of the other doors in the establishment. As Caron puts it herself, everyone it seems wants her to have an abortion but apart from one major wobble, she's determined to have the child.
It all winds up at a Christmas party for all the tenants in the landlady's front room (Bell excepted) and a nicely written (literally) bitter-sweet conclusion as Caron has to face up to her far from certain future.
Excellently filmed and played by all, this was a fine example of the early 60's kitchen-sink drama prevalent in U.K. cinema at the time. The situations, characterisations, sets and dialogue are credible and natural and shot and played in a convincingly realistic manner. Caron, previously only known to me from big-budget Hollywood movies from her youth is something of a revelation as the alien presence trying to cope with her further alienation all on her own. Bell, too, I was impressed with as the wounded, loquacious charmer unable at the key moment to man-up as today's phrase goes and do the decent thing for someone he clearly loves. All the other supporting characters, played by Brock Peters, Cicely Courtneidge, Avis Bunnage and a pre-Elsie Tanner Pat Phoenix likewise turn in strong performances making this a strong ensemble piece.
Honest, straightforward and moving, this is one of the best movies of its type I've yet seen, the better for focusing on a female character at its bruised, shifting, but always beating heart.
Caron's Affecting Performance Is All That Matters Here
EUyeshima13 March 2012
After spending the better part of the 1950's as MGM's resident French gamine, Leslie Caron finally turned in her toe shoes and delivered a poignant performance in this 1962 British "kitchen sink" drama directed and written by Bryan Forbes ("The Stepford Wives"). She plays Jane Fosset, a 27-year-old Frenchwoman who finds herself in a standard predicament - she thinks she may be pregnant after a brief, loveless affair. After visiting with an insolent doctor who presumes the worst about her, Jane decides to keep the baby and moves into the eponymous studio up in the attic of a rundown boarding house in the then-seedy Fulham area of London. Initially withdrawn from her fellow residents, all social outsiders in their own way, Jane finds herself bonding with everyone, especially Toby, the tortured writer who lives in the unit below. They naturally fall in love, but once he finds out about her pregnancy, he struggles with it and becomes overwhelmed by his own failures.
Forbes keeps the story going at a pace that sometimes feel glacial as the film runs an overlong 126 minutes, but Caron imbues so much compassion into her role that it makes it all worthwhile. The supporting cast is fine as well with Tom Bell quite good as Toby. Bearing a striking resemblance to Laurence Harvey, Bell had his only leading man role in this film and later became a busy character actor facing off Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison in "Prime Suspect". Fresh off his 180-degree turn as the wrongfully accused rapist in "To Kill a Mockingbird", Brock Peters provides an ebullient presence as Johnny, a West Indian jazz musician who lives next door to Jane. His character is rather intriguing because you can't quite tell whether Johnny's jealousy of Jane and Toby's burgeoning romance is spurred on by his attraction toward one or the other. Cicely Courtneidge makes an impression as a former vaudevillian who has become a lonely woman obsessed with her cat. Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, is used effectively as background music on the soundtrack. You should read Caron's fond recollection of the film's production in her affecting autobiography, Thank Heaven.
Forbes keeps the story going at a pace that sometimes feel glacial as the film runs an overlong 126 minutes, but Caron imbues so much compassion into her role that it makes it all worthwhile. The supporting cast is fine as well with Tom Bell quite good as Toby. Bearing a striking resemblance to Laurence Harvey, Bell had his only leading man role in this film and later became a busy character actor facing off Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison in "Prime Suspect". Fresh off his 180-degree turn as the wrongfully accused rapist in "To Kill a Mockingbird", Brock Peters provides an ebullient presence as Johnny, a West Indian jazz musician who lives next door to Jane. His character is rather intriguing because you can't quite tell whether Johnny's jealousy of Jane and Toby's burgeoning romance is spurred on by his attraction toward one or the other. Cicely Courtneidge makes an impression as a former vaudevillian who has become a lonely woman obsessed with her cat. Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, is used effectively as background music on the soundtrack. You should read Caron's fond recollection of the film's production in her affecting autobiography, Thank Heaven.
Fantastic
gbill-7487722 April 2019
Loved this one. Really, very nice and ahead of its time in its feminism, and in a minor key, its depiction of race and homosexuality. The film has a strong cast, and with lots of great scenes that add layers to the story, each of its supporting characters is given a moment to shine. The script is intelligent and the cinematography in Notting Hill is beautiful. I really love the tone director Bryan Forbes set in this film and how he told the story, which also has an outstanding finish.
Leslie Caron plays a young woman who is unmarried and two months pregnant when she moves into a seedy apartment building. There she meets a set of people around her who seem quite annoying initially, including the landlady who angrily denies the room could have bugs (Avis Bunnage), the guy next door who can hear her through paper thin walls (Brock Peters), the guy downstairs who invites himself in to her room (Tom Bell), the old woman on the ground floor who eavesdrops on her phone call (Cicely Courtneidge), and a couple of prostitutes in the basement to boot (led by Pat Phoenix). Meanwhile the doctor she sees is condescending and asks all sorts of irrelevant personal questions while just assuming she's going to have an abortion.
Through all of these annoying interactions, she listens patiently and then quietly asserts herself. She's a young French woman in London alone, vulnerable, and in a difficult circumstance - but she's always in control of herself. Caron plays this part beautifully and with depth, and through her character the film confronts the double standard regarding sexuality, asserts a woman's right to choose, and shows that she can truly be independent and content without a man. She's a loving person, but doesn't need to be protected. Among many other great lines, I just love how she calmly says "In the end I decided my virginity was becoming rather cumbersome" when explaining the fling that led to her pregnancy.
Just as Caron is comfortable with who she is and forces others to deal with her in an unassuming way, so the rest of the characters do as well. The film defies the standard clichés we often see in the characterization of gay people, minorities, the elderly, and even prostitutes, and by contrast, the common theme here is unaffected dignity and acceptance of all of them. It also doesn't take the easy or simple path that so many others would take. Sex is frankly mentioned or lightly joked about in several contexts as just a fact of life. It's all very refreshing, and because the film makes some pretty radical points for 1962 without shouting, I think it's more powerful as a result. Highly recommended.
Leslie Caron plays a young woman who is unmarried and two months pregnant when she moves into a seedy apartment building. There she meets a set of people around her who seem quite annoying initially, including the landlady who angrily denies the room could have bugs (Avis Bunnage), the guy next door who can hear her through paper thin walls (Brock Peters), the guy downstairs who invites himself in to her room (Tom Bell), the old woman on the ground floor who eavesdrops on her phone call (Cicely Courtneidge), and a couple of prostitutes in the basement to boot (led by Pat Phoenix). Meanwhile the doctor she sees is condescending and asks all sorts of irrelevant personal questions while just assuming she's going to have an abortion.
Through all of these annoying interactions, she listens patiently and then quietly asserts herself. She's a young French woman in London alone, vulnerable, and in a difficult circumstance - but she's always in control of herself. Caron plays this part beautifully and with depth, and through her character the film confronts the double standard regarding sexuality, asserts a woman's right to choose, and shows that she can truly be independent and content without a man. She's a loving person, but doesn't need to be protected. Among many other great lines, I just love how she calmly says "In the end I decided my virginity was becoming rather cumbersome" when explaining the fling that led to her pregnancy.
Just as Caron is comfortable with who she is and forces others to deal with her in an unassuming way, so the rest of the characters do as well. The film defies the standard clichés we often see in the characterization of gay people, minorities, the elderly, and even prostitutes, and by contrast, the common theme here is unaffected dignity and acceptance of all of them. It also doesn't take the easy or simple path that so many others would take. Sex is frankly mentioned or lightly joked about in several contexts as just a fact of life. It's all very refreshing, and because the film makes some pretty radical points for 1962 without shouting, I think it's more powerful as a result. Highly recommended.
! Love You! That isn't a dirty word is it!
sol-kay9 June 2008
Warning: Spoilers
(Some Spoilers) Leaving her well to do family in France 27 year-old Jane Fosset, Leslie Caron, is trying to get away from her past.
Having gotten involved with a young Englishman, Terry played by Mark Edan, while on a trip to Cornwall England Jean soon found that she was pregnant. Not knowing what to do Jean went to the downtrodden section of London's Notting Hill to find a place to stay as well as what to do with her giving, or not giving, birth to Terry's child. Should she go full term or have the child aborted. The problem with having an abortion back then in 1962 England is that abortions were illegal!
Renting a top-floor apartment and this Notting Hill boarding house Jean soon became friendly with a number of her neighbors. One of them Toby, Tom Bell, a struggling 28 year-old writer took a liking to the sweet and insecure Jean as soon as he saw her giving her a hand with her luggage up the six flight of stairs. There's also former stage actress Mavis, Cicely Courtneidge, who lives on the ground floor with her pet black cat Benji. Marvis senses that Jean, in how she carries herself, is not exactly the kind of person who would live in a place like that, the boarding house, and wonders what was the reason for her moving there! Is Jane running away from something or someone?
There's also Jane's next door neighbor Johnny, Brock Peters, a Black West Indian trumpet player. Johnny is about as kind and friendly as you, or Jane, would want for a neighbor making Jane feel at ease and wanted in the boarding house almost as soon as she moved in. It's later when Johnny first senses that Jane is pregnant and is at the same time romantically involved with his good friend Toby that he completely changes.
Being either very religious minded or feeling that Jane is taking his friend, or possible lover, Toby away from him Johnny informs Toby that Jane is, in Johnny's words, a whore who's been having illicit affairs with other man and has also been put in the "family way" by one of them. All this stunned Toby who's suspicions about Jane, he had earlier seen Jane and her ex-lover Terry together, were confirmed by Johnny! There and then Toby feeling a deep sense of betrayal has nothing at all to do with a heart-broken Jane who's very much in love with him.
Jane who, against everyone's advice, was willing to go full term with her pregnancy now-in the very depressed state that's she in-wan't to terminate it. Swallowing a number of pills that Marvis gave her Jane soon goes into convulsions and ends up in a local hospital. To Jane's surprise and delight she finds out that her baby wasn't aborted which if it was would have very well lead to her to kill herself.
While all these emotional events were being played out both Johnny and Toby begin to realized how both shabby and unfeeling they were to Jane. Johnny depressed over spreading the rumor that Jane was a whore pleaded for Jane's forgiveness, which she gladly gave him, but Toby just couldn't bring himself to love, he still remained her good friend, Jane anymore. The fact that Jane was carrying another man's-Terry-child was something that Toby couldn't come to grips with.
***SPOILER ALERT*** Extremely touching ending with Toby coming to visit Jane, after she gave birth to a baby girl, in the hospital with a manuscript of his, after five tries, soon to be published novel "The L-Shaped Room". A novel inspired by his relationship with Jane as well as his fellow neighbors at his boarding house.
After a heart-felt conversation with Jane Toby as he's leaving the maternity ward is approached by one of the nurses who asks him innocently "when will you see her next time?". Thinking that's the nurse is talking about Jane Toby, after asking who, is pleasantly surprised to hear that the nurse was asking him about his "daughter"! "She's very pretty" the nurse tells him "just like her mother": Jane.
Having gotten involved with a young Englishman, Terry played by Mark Edan, while on a trip to Cornwall England Jean soon found that she was pregnant. Not knowing what to do Jean went to the downtrodden section of London's Notting Hill to find a place to stay as well as what to do with her giving, or not giving, birth to Terry's child. Should she go full term or have the child aborted. The problem with having an abortion back then in 1962 England is that abortions were illegal!
Renting a top-floor apartment and this Notting Hill boarding house Jean soon became friendly with a number of her neighbors. One of them Toby, Tom Bell, a struggling 28 year-old writer took a liking to the sweet and insecure Jean as soon as he saw her giving her a hand with her luggage up the six flight of stairs. There's also former stage actress Mavis, Cicely Courtneidge, who lives on the ground floor with her pet black cat Benji. Marvis senses that Jean, in how she carries herself, is not exactly the kind of person who would live in a place like that, the boarding house, and wonders what was the reason for her moving there! Is Jane running away from something or someone?
There's also Jane's next door neighbor Johnny, Brock Peters, a Black West Indian trumpet player. Johnny is about as kind and friendly as you, or Jane, would want for a neighbor making Jane feel at ease and wanted in the boarding house almost as soon as she moved in. It's later when Johnny first senses that Jane is pregnant and is at the same time romantically involved with his good friend Toby that he completely changes.
Being either very religious minded or feeling that Jane is taking his friend, or possible lover, Toby away from him Johnny informs Toby that Jane is, in Johnny's words, a whore who's been having illicit affairs with other man and has also been put in the "family way" by one of them. All this stunned Toby who's suspicions about Jane, he had earlier seen Jane and her ex-lover Terry together, were confirmed by Johnny! There and then Toby feeling a deep sense of betrayal has nothing at all to do with a heart-broken Jane who's very much in love with him.
Jane who, against everyone's advice, was willing to go full term with her pregnancy now-in the very depressed state that's she in-wan't to terminate it. Swallowing a number of pills that Marvis gave her Jane soon goes into convulsions and ends up in a local hospital. To Jane's surprise and delight she finds out that her baby wasn't aborted which if it was would have very well lead to her to kill herself.
While all these emotional events were being played out both Johnny and Toby begin to realized how both shabby and unfeeling they were to Jane. Johnny depressed over spreading the rumor that Jane was a whore pleaded for Jane's forgiveness, which she gladly gave him, but Toby just couldn't bring himself to love, he still remained her good friend, Jane anymore. The fact that Jane was carrying another man's-Terry-child was something that Toby couldn't come to grips with.
***SPOILER ALERT*** Extremely touching ending with Toby coming to visit Jane, after she gave birth to a baby girl, in the hospital with a manuscript of his, after five tries, soon to be published novel "The L-Shaped Room". A novel inspired by his relationship with Jane as well as his fellow neighbors at his boarding house.
After a heart-felt conversation with Jane Toby as he's leaving the maternity ward is approached by one of the nurses who asks him innocently "when will you see her next time?". Thinking that's the nurse is talking about Jane Toby, after asking who, is pleasantly surprised to hear that the nurse was asking him about his "daughter"! "She's very pretty" the nurse tells him "just like her mother": Jane.
Leslie Caron, Brock Peters, Tom Bell
ekelks-220 February 2019
A pregnant young French woman comes to London to have or not have her baby, searches for rooms to let and meets a boarding house full of characters played by the inimitable Brock Peters (famous mostly for his role in To Kill A Mockingbird) and Tom Bell (who three decades later would be Helen Mirren's nemesis police officer in Prime Suspect). Caron is elegant and lovely, innocent and tough. The older women in the house, Doris, Maisie, and Sonia downstairs are fascinating glimpses into London's earlier days, during and before the second world war. Johnny (Peters) playing his horn in a beatnik jazz club presents life in the early 60s scene, biracial, jazzy, kind of sad. There are fiercely judgemental stares from middle-aged married couples throughout the film, harsh words from policemen, self-pitying screeds from lonely depressed writers, but 'Jane' (Caron) grows less innocent and tragic as the film moves along, becoming more self-assured, composed, and brave. A lovely realistic film, highly recommended.
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