E.M. Forster called it a “social contretemps,” a picnic presided over by the little go Pan, who presides over unsuccessful picnics.
It’s unsuccessful because when George Emerson kisses Lucy Honeychurch on the hillside above Fiesole, she doesn’t understand how to respond. She feels different but doesn’t understand what love is.
Ivory follows the episode in Forster’s A Room with a View where a group of English tourists gather for an afternoon of leisure and a chance to enjoy the view. It’s a congenial group, but the men and women separate, essentially having separate picnics for some screwy reason.
The source of the contretemps happens when Lucy wanders off looking for Mr. Emerson and Reverend Bebe, who are picnicking separately. She asks their carriage driver, “Dove buoni uomini?” [Where are the good men?”]. But instead of leading her to the older men, he guides her to the edge of a promontory, a place of great beauty, looking down at George Emerson standing in a field. Whether this is a mistake or not is ambiguous.
As Lucy steps out, George sees her standing there like a goddess, dressed in white. He calls, “Lucy, Lucy!” and impulsively kisses her on the cheek. He is in love. Lucy is surprised and feels a whiff of an unknown sensation.
The spell is broken immediately when Lucy is called to rejoin the other picnickers.
Afterwards, Lucy is unaccountably uncomfortable, and George decides to walk back despite the threat of rain. Something has happened. And it rains.
Food is of no consequence on this memorable day.
See: James Ivory’s A Room with a View (1986). Screenplay by Ruth Prawar Jhabvala based on Forster’s novel. E.M. Forster. A Room with a View. London: Edward Arnold, 1908), Laura Mackie’s A Room with a View (2007) is a very loose adaptation.