''The L-Shaped Room'' is a 1962 British 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. The work is considered part of the

kitchen sink realism Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as "angry young men" w ...

school of British drama. Caron's performance earned her the

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

and

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...

for best actress, as well as a nomination for the

Academy Award for Best Actress The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year ...

Synopsis

A 27-year-old French woman, Jane Fosset (Caron), arrives alone at a run down boarding house in

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...

, London, moving into an L-shaped room. Beautiful but withdrawn, she encounters the residents of her house, each a social outsider in his or her own way, including a gay black horn player. Jane is pregnant and has no desire to marry the father. On her first visit to a doctor, she wants to find out if she really is pregnant and consider her options. The doctor's facile assumption that she must want either marriage or an abortion insults her to the extent that Jane determines to have the child. She and Toby (Bell) start a romance, which is disrupted when he learns that she is pregnant by a previous lover. They try to work things out, but he is also unhappy with his lack of income or success as a writer. Jane befriends the other residents and they help her when she goes into labour. Toby visits her in the hospital and gives her a copy of his new story, called ''The L-Shaped Room''. After leaving the hospital, Jane journeys home to her parents in France, saying goodbye to the room where she has lived for seven months.

Cast

* Leslie Caron as Jane Fosset * Tom Bell as Toby *

Brock Peters Brock Peters (born George Fisher; July 2, 1927 – August 23, 2005) was an American actor and singer, best known for playing the villainous "Crown" in the 1959 film version of ''Porgy and Bess'', and the wrongfully convicted Tom Robinson in t ...

as Johnny *

Cicely Courtneidge Dame Esmerelda Cicely Courtneidge, (1 April 1893 – 26 April 1980) was an Australian-born British actress, comedian and singer. The daughter of the producer and playwright Robert Courtneidge, she was appearing in his productions in the West ...

as Mavis * Bernard Lee as Charlie *

Patricia Phoenix Patricia Phoenix Booth (born Patricia Frederica Manfield; 26 November 1923 – 17 September 1986) was an English actress who became one of the first sex symbols of British television through her role as Elsie Tanner, an original cast member ...

as Sonia *

Emlyn Williams George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor. Early life Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at 1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flints ...

as Dr. Weaver * Avis Bunnage as Doris * Gerry Duggan as Bert * Mark Eden as Terry *

Antony Booth Anthony George Booth (9 October 1931 – 25 September 2017) was an English actor, best known for his role as Mike Rawlins in the BBC series ''Till Death Us Do Part''. He was the father-in-law of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and the widower ...

as youth in street * Harry Locke as newsagent *

Gerald Sim Gerald Grant Sim (4 June 1925 – 11 December 2014) was an English television and film actor who is perhaps best known for having played the Rector in '' To the Manor Born''. Career Sim was born in Liverpool, Lancashire and made over a hundred ...

as doctor in hospital *

Nanette Newman Nanette Newman (born 29 May 1934) is an English actress and author. She appeared in nine films directed by her husband Bryan Forbes, including ''Séance on a Wet Afternoon'' (1964), '' The Whisperers'' (1967), '' Deadfall'' (1968), '' The Stepf ...

as girl at end

Music

Peter Katin Peter Roy Katin ( ) (14 November 193019 March 2015) was a British classical pianist and teacher. Biography Katin was born in London; his father was sign-painter Jerrold Katin (who was born in Lithuania) and mother Gertrude. Katin was educated ...

's recording of

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 is used as the background music, and excerpts occur frequently throughout the film. The original film score was composed by John Barry.

Popular culture

A recording of the song "

Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty "Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty" is a music hall song written by Arthur J. Mills, Fred Godfrey and Bennett Scott in 1916. It was popular during the First World War, and tells a story of three fictional soldiers on the Western Front suffering f ...

" sung in the film was sampled at the beginning of the title track of the album ''

The Queen Is Dead ''The Queen Is Dead'' is the third studio album by English rock band the Smiths. Released on 16 June 1986 in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records, and on 23 June 1986 in the US by Sire Records, it spent 22 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, pea ...

'' by

The Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to eme ...

Critical reception

In ''The New York Times'',

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

wrote " eslie Caronpours into this role so much powerful feeling, so much heart and understanding, that she imbues a basically threadbare little story with tremendous compassion and charm.The credit, however, is not all Miss Caron's. She must share it with an excellent cast, including Tom Bell, a new actor who plays the writer on a par with her. Particularly she must share it with the remarkable young director Bryan Forbes, who also wrote the screenplay from a novel by Lynne Reid Banks. Mr Forbes is a sometime actor whose first directorial job was last year's beautiful and sensitive '' Whistle Down the Wind.'' In this little picture, he has achieved much the same human quality, with shadings of spiritual devotion, as in that."

Awards

* Nominee, Best Actress –

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

(Leslie Caron) * Winner, Best Actress –

Golden Globes The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

(Leslie Caron) * Winner, Best Actress – BAFTA (Leslie Caron) * Nominee, Best Picture – BAFTA (Richard Attenborough, Jack Rix, John and James Woolf) * Selected, Top Ten Films of Year –

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

* Nominee, Best Actress –

New York Film Critics Circle The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York-based daily and weekly newspapers, magaz ...

(Leslie Caron)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:L-Shaped Room, The 1962 films 1962 drama films 1960s pregnancy films British black-and-white films British drama films British Lion Films films British pregnancy films 1960s English-language films Films about abortion Films based on British novels Films directed by Bryan Forbes Films featuring a Best Drama Actress Golden Globe-winning performance Films produced by Richard Attenborough Films scored by John Barry (composer) Films set in London Self-reflexive works Social realism in film 1960s British films