The Merchant Ivory team scored with Jhabvala’s lyrical and witty Oscar-winning adaptation of E. M. Forster’s novel. The beauty of early 20th-century Italy leads to epiphanies among the holidaying English, causing the rethinking of life choices back home—including Helena Bonham Carter’s engagement to well-nigh insufferable upper-class prig Daniel Day-Lewis. The top-shelf cast includes Julian Sands, Simon Callow, Judi Dench, Fabia Drake, Denholm Elliott, and Maggie Smith.