Judy Davis (1982). In 1984, she was cast as Adela Quested in David Lean's final film "A Passage to India", an adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. The film became a critics' favourite, opening to tremendous praise worldwide and "Variety" praised Davis for having "the rare gift of being able to look very plain (as the role calls for) at one moment and uncommonly beautiful at another. Likewise, "The Washington Post" wrote, "With makeup the color of smudged ivory, her pallor enhanced by the off-white linens she wears, Davis is
David Lean in New York, including "The New Yorker"'s Pauline Kael, and ask them why they objected to the movie. "I sensed trouble from the moment I sat down," Lean says of the now famous luncheon. "TIME" critic Richard Shickel asked Lean pointblank how he, the director of "Brief Encounter", could have made "a piece of bullshit" like "Ryan's Daughter". These critics so lacerated the film for two hours to David Lean's face that the devastated Lean was put off making films for a long time. "They just took the film to bits," said Lean in a later television interview. "It really