Reflection: A room with a view

           A room with a view, a film by James Ivory tha takes place in Florence, Italy. This movie shows how an external journey can be part of such an important internal journey in your life. Lucy struggles finding herself as a woman. Her trip to Italy gives her the opportunity to open up to other ideals different from the ones she was used to back home. Eleanor says in the move, “One doesn’t come to Italy for niceness, one comes for life.” This is an example of an important internal journey. We all go through experiences that shape us as a person, but traveling to other places gives us an opportunity to realize that there is other cultures, other ideas and values. It gives us the opportunity to really choose the ones that you want to be part of your truly self. I think that every human being has a point in his or her life that we go through a phase looking for something. Looking for inspiration, for love, friends, dream. Anything that makes us feel alive. Lucy is a young woman going through this phase in her life where she really doesn’t know what she wants. Throughout the movie she grows into a woman and we can see how she chooses to follow her heart. She discovers love with George.

Many important encounters are seen while Lucy is visiting Italy. She encounters the Emersons and meets George who rescues her from another encounter. But this time, it was with two Italian men who were in the middle of a fight. This is when she is kissed by him and everything start,  and after many ups and downs and change of decisions it ends as it started. Another important theme that we find in this film is the identity of a tourist vs. a traveler. Lucy first explains how she goes to Italy as a tourist and the Reverend replies: "We residents sometimes pity you poor tourists not a little...Handed about like a parcel of goods from Venice to Florence, Florence to Rome, quite unconscious of anything outside Baedeker. Their one anxiety to get done and flew and go on elsewhere else." This is a perfect explanation on how tourists do not really interact with the culture of the place they are visiting because in many cases they just visit certain places, take pictures and leave.

            In contrast, George is a traveler. He experiences interest in getting to know the people of Florence and England while he was staying there. He goes out, explores, talk to people; actually learning from the place where he is staying. This is what everybody should feel when going to a new place; the feeling of wanting to learn and experience the culture, the people, their beliefs and traditions. This is the only way that you could actually learn and experience not only an external journal but an internal one as well.