A Passage to India is a 1984 British drama film written and directed by David Lean, inspired by the 1924 E.M Forster novel of the same title.
Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator. Set in India during the late 1920's, this epic motion picture deals with the adventures of a young Englishwoman and her mother-in-law as they journey across the great continent.
NTSC FORMAT
Awards
- Academy Awards 1985 – Nominated for Oscars for: BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTRESS, Best Cinematogrophy, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Writing,Best Costumes, Best Art Direction. Won Oscars for: Best Supporting Actress, Best Music
- Golden Globes 1985 – Won Golden Globes for: BEST FOREIGN FILM, BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Peggy Ashcroft, Best Original Score. Nominated for Golden Globes for: BEST DIRECTOR, Best Screenplay
- BAFTA Awards 1986 – Won BAFTA Film Award: Best Actress Peggy Ashcroft, Nominated for BAFTA Film Awards for: BEST FILM, BEST ACTOR, Best Actor in Supporting Role, Best Cinematogrophy, Best Costumes, Best Screenplay, Best Score, Best Production Design
- National Board of Review USA 1984 – Won NBR Awards for: BEST FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEXT ACTOR, BEST ACTRESS, Top Ten Films
- New York Film Critics Circle Awards 1984 – Won NYFCC Awards for: BEST FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST ACTRESS Peggy Ashcroft
- Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards 1985 – Won BEST FILM, BEXT DIRECTOR, BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Peggy Ashcroft
- Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 1985 – Won BSFC Award Best Actress Judy Davis, Best Supporting Actress Peggy Ashcroft
- Directors Guild of America 1985 – Nominated DGA Award: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
- Evening Standard British Film Awards 1986 – Won Best Actor Victor Banerjee
- Writers Guild of America 1985 – Nominated WGA Award FOR Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Review by Rober Ebert
“Forster's novel is one of the literary landmarks of this century, and now David Lean has made it into one of the greatest screen adaptations I have ever seen…Lean places these characters in one of the most beautiful canvases he has ever drawn (and this is the man who directed "Doctor Zhivago” and “Lawrence of Arabia”). He doesn't see the India of travel posters and lurid postcards, but the India of a Victorian watercolorist like Edward Lear, who placed enigmatic little human figures here and there in spectacular landscapes that never seemed to be quite finished. Lean makes India look like an amazing, beautiful place that an Englishman can never quite put his finger on – which is, of course, the lesson Miss Quested learns in the caves.
David Lean is a meticulous craftsman, famous for going to any lengths to make every shot look just the way he thinks it should. His actors here are encouraged to give sound, thoughtful, unflashy performances (Guinness strains at the bit), and his screenplay is a model of clarity: By the end of this movie we know these people so well, and understand them so thoroughly, that only the most reckless among us would want to go back and have a closer look at those caves." Roger Ebert