[VIDEO REVIEWS]2 Last Names and a Wide Range of Roles

Over the years, Helena Bonham Carter has become the epitome of the romantic 19th century lady. She is closely identified with corsets, pale skin and simmering sensuality. So it is rather shocking to see her in her full furry glory for "Planet of the Apes," a movie that recently opened in Korea. She still plays a sex goddess, but this time as a chimpanzee named Ari.

Bonham Carter made her reputation in movie adaptations of E.M. Forster novels. Here are some of those period pieces.

A ROOM WITH A VIEW (1986)

Directed by James Ivory. Starring Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, Denholm Elliott and Julian Sands.

Adapted from the Forster's novel "A Room with a View," this gently makes fun of the stiff British lifestyle.

Lucy Honeychurch (Bonham Carter), a proper young Edwardian lady, travels to the lush Florence countryside with her spinster aunt and chaperone Charlotte Bartlett (Smith).

They meet another Englishman, Mr. Emerson (Elliott), and his thoroughly unsuitable and romantically unhappy son, George (Sands). George kisses Lucy during a picnic in the hills, creating a scandal.

Charlotte rushes her charge Lucy back to England where she becomes engaged to the stiff, effete and very proper Cecil (Day-Lewis), only to run into George once more. Day-Lewis adds a richly textured role to the outstanding supporting cast.

HOWARDS END (1992)

Directed by Ivory. Starring Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Vanessa Redgrave

Ivory again directed Bonham Carter in another Forster novel. This Edwardian Age romance of greed and betrayal charts the fortunes of two families from different classes.

The dying Ruth Wilcox (Redgrave) befriends Margaret Schlegel (Thompson). Wilcox wants to bequeath her country home, Howards End, to Schlegel, who is about to be forced out of her own modest home in London. After Wilcox dies, her husband Henry (Hopkins) marries Schlegel, but does not tell her about his wife's will.

Differences of class and philosophy threaten to destroy the new couple. Margaret Schlegel's sister, Helen (Bonham Carter), is unable to stand by and watch the Wilcoxs' snobbish ways.

WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD (1992)

Directed by Charles Sturridge. Starring Bonham Carter, Rupert Graves, Helen Mirren and Giovanni Guidelli.

Sturridge adapts Forster's first novel, another tale of Edwardian British society.

A British widow, Lilia (Mirren), impulsively marries a Tuscan man (Guidelli) while vacationing in Italy. Her former in-laws are determined to "save" the couple's child, with tragic results. Meanwhile, a relationship develops between one of Lilia's in-laws and Caroline (Bonham Carter).

by Joe Yong-hee