Themes: Class Differences, Infidelity, Sibling Relationships
Main Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, James Wilby, Samuel West
Release Year: 1992
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 143 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
One of the best Ismail Merchant/James Ivory films, this adaptation of E. M. Forster's classic 1910 novel shows in careful detail the injuriously rigid British class consciousness of the early 20th century. The film's catalyst is "poor relation" Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson), who inherits part of the estate of Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave), an upper-class woman whom she had befriended. The film's principal characters are divided by caste: aristocratic industrial Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins); middle-echelon Margaret and her sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter); and working-class clerk Leonard Bast (Sam West) and his wife (Nicola Duffett). The personal and social conflicts among these characters ultimately result in tragedy for Bast and disgrace for Wilcox, but the film's wider theme remains the need, in the words of the novel's famous epigram, to "only connect" with other people, despite boundaries of gender, class, or petty grievance. Filmed on a proudly modest budget, Howards End offers sets, spectacles, and costumes as lavish as in any historical epic. Nominated for 9 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, the film took home awards for Thompson as Best Actress, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's adapted screenplay, and Luciana Arrighi's art direction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Praised almost as often as its source, Ismail Merchant and James Ivory's version of E.M. Forster's best novel is also widely recognized as the most accomplished filmization of Forster's work. Like Merchant/Ivory's other Forster adaptations, Howards End is saturated with petticoats, stiff upper lips, suffocating class consciousness, and enough repressed longing to blow a hole through Buckingham Palace. But strip away the tasteful facade, and what remains is a bracing critique of the English class system. The film's Oscar-winning script, by frequent Merchant/Ivory collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, is largely faithful to Forster's original work, capturing the spirit of his prose without making it seem outdated. The lead performances are instrumental in the film's timely feel; Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins earned well-deserved praise for their roles, and Thompson won an Oscar and numerous other awards. Equally remarkable but not as lavishly recognized were Helena Bonham Carter, all righteous fire and headstrong will as Helen Schlegel, and Samuel West, touchingly awkward as Leonard Bast, the cause around whom the war between the Schlegels and Mr. Wilcox revolves, and also its ultimate casualty. Thanks to the work of the entire cast, the film manages to be consistently engaging; thanks to the efforts of its production team as a whole, it is one of the rarest of paradoxes, a topical period piece. It was nominated for 9 Oscars overall, including Best Picture and Best Director, and it also won for Luciana Arrighi's art direction. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Jemma Redgrave - Evie Wilcox; Nicola Duffett - Jacky Bast; Prunella Scales - Aunt Juley Mund; Barbara Hicks - Miss Avery; Joseph Bennett - Paul Wilcox; Jo Kendall - Annie; Mark Payton - Percy Cahill; Simon Callow - Music Lecturer; Jim Bowden - Marlett; Allie Byrne - Blue Stocking; Crispin Bonham Carter - Col. Fussell; Peter Cellier - Colonel Fussell; Jocelyn Cobb - Telegraph Operator; Peter Darling - Doctor; David Delaney - Simpson's Carver; Bridget Duvall - Blue Stocking; Lucy Freeman - Blue Stocking; Sally Geoghegan - Blue Stocking; Antony Gilding - Bank Supervisor; Barr Heckstall-Smith - Helen's Child; Anne Lambton - Luncheon Guest; Ian Latimer - Station Master; Patricia Lawrence - Wedding Guest; Tina Leslie - Blue Stocking; Brian Lipson - Police Inspector; Margery Mason - Wedding Guest; Mary McWilliams - Wilcox Baby; Gerald Paris - Porphyrion Supervisor; Luke Parry - Tom-the Farmer's Boy; Siegbert Prawer - Man Asking a Question; Adrian Ross-Magenty - Tibby Schlegel; Rodney Rymell - Chauffeur; Terence Sach - Delivery Man; Andrew St. Clair - Luncheon Guest; Harriet Stewart - Blue Stocking; Mark Tandy - Luncheon Guest; Atlanta White - Maid at Howards End; Susie Lindeman - Dolly Wilcox; Celestia Fox; Alan James - Porphyrion Chief Clerk; Mary Nash - Pianist
Credit
John Ralph - Art Director, Celestia Fox - Casting, Ann Wingate - Co-producer, Jenny Beavan - Costume Designer, John Bright - Costume Designer, Christopher Newman - First Assistant Director, James Ivory - Director, Andrew Marcus - Editor, Paul Bradley - Executive Producer, Richard Robbins - Composer (Music Score), Luciana Arrighi - Production Designer, Tony Pierce-Roberts - Cinematographer, Ismail Merchant - Producer, Ian Whittaker - Set Designer, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala - Screenwriter, E.M. Forster - Book Author
When Howards End was published in 1910, critics generally agreed it surpassed E. M. Forster's earlier novels. Forster had arrived as an important author, and the public and critics eagerly anticipated his next novel. But fourteen years would elapse before the publication of A Passage to India, which would also be the last novel published during his lifetime. Forster's novels are all considered classics, with Howards End and A Passage to India regarded as his best works. Like all of Forster's early novels, Howards End concerns itself with Edwardian society. As a member of the upper-middle class, Forster had keen insight into its attitudes and social mores, which he expertly rendered in Howards End. His humanistic values and interest in personal relationships inform all of his novels, and are revealed in the major themes of Howards End: connection between the inner and outer life and between people, the future of England, and class conflicts. Howards End has been called a parable; indeed, its symbolism reaches almost mythic proportions at various points in the novel. Although elements of the plot construction have been problematic for some critics, opinion of his character creation and development is almost unanimously given the highest praise. With Margaret Schlegel, Henry Wilcox, Helen Schlegel, Leonard Bast, and Forster created some of the most unforgettable and complex characters in English literature.
The story takes place in England at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is about three families who represent three social classes: the Wilcoxes, who are rich Victorian capitalists and who represent the class that is displacing the aristocracy; the Schlegel sisters, who represent the enlightened bourgeois class; and the Basts who are the lower middle-class. Forster is clear, however, that the novel is 'not concerned with the very poor.' The film asks the question 'Who will inherit England?' and answers it through the ownership of the house, Howards End, as it passes from person to person.
At the start of the film, the younger sister, Helen Schlegel (Helena Bonham Carter), rashly becomes engaged to the younger Wilcox son, Paul. The next day both realise their mistake and break it off but Helen has sent a letter to her family announcing their relationship. Her Aunt Juley (Prunella Scales) arrives at Howards End and so makes the Wilcox family aware of an engagement that the two young people would rather have kept from them. Later, when the Wilcox family takes a house near to the Schlegels in London, the older sister, Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson), feels compelled to visit because of the social embarrassment of the previous year. She befriends the mother, Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave). Ruth is descended from English yeoman stock and it is through her family that the Wilcoxes own Howards End, a house which she dearly loves and which is the symbol of rural England and English tradition. Over the course of a few months, the two women become close and Ruth sees in Margaret a kindred spirit. Hearing that the Schlegels are to be turned out of their apartment when their lease ends, and knowing she is soon to die due to an illness that she has kept from her family, Ruth bequeaths Howards End to Margaret. This causes great consternation for the Wilcoxes, who refuse to believe that Ruth was in her "right mind" or intended her home to go to a relative stranger. The Wilcoxes burn the piece of paper that Ruth's bequest is written on, and decide to keep her will secret. Because he knows that he has prevented the Schlegels from finding a home in Howards End, Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins) offers to help Margaret find a new place to live. As a result, the two become close and Henry proposes. Margaret accepts.
A parallel plotline involves the younger sister, Helen. Whilst the Schlegels are still living in the London flat, and about the same time as the Wilcoxes arrive in the neighbourhood, Helen attends a lecture about Beethoven and accidentally leaves the hall with an umbrella belonging to the clerk Leonard Bast (Samuel West). He follows her and calls at the house to retrieve it. Later, his lover Jacky finds the Schlegels' card in Leonard's possessions and is convinced he is having an affair.
In a fit of jealousy she calls on the Schlegels but leaves after an embarrassing scene due partly to the sisters having forgotten Leonard after the umbrella incident. Leonard returns to the house to make an apology and during tea the sisters find that he has an ambition to better himself through the kind of literature and sentiments that they share. They begin a project to improve his lot, and take advice from Henry Wilcox about Leonard's financial situation. Henry advises that Leonard should leave his post at the insurance company because it is heading for a crash. Leonard does so but the advice is premature and he finds himself in a worse position and eventually unemployed.
The two plotlines come together at the marriage party of Evie Wilcox (daughter of Henry and Ruth). Helen has found the Basts starving and brings them to the party. Jacky Bast becomes drunk and she comes to the attention of Margaret, who approaches her with Henry to find out who she is. Jacky recognises Henry and it becomes clear that some years previously he had an affair with her and that she had effectively to prostitute herself in order to survive. Humiliated, Henry breaks off the engagement but that evening he and Margaret are reconciled and she forgives his sexual impropriety and infidelity. She insists that Helen take the Basts away and refuses them help, in accordance with Henry's wishes and sense of pride.
Because of this, the Schlegel sisters drift apart. Helen has spent time with Leonard and we see an idyllic moment spent on a boat in a romantic scene. After this, Helen drifts away from Margaret and stays in very distant contact with her, much to Margaret's puzzlement. After several months, Helen comes back for her possessions, intending to move to Germany for good. She asks if she can keep them at Howards End and stay there for the night, in order to avoid contact with everyone. However, it is revealed that she is pregnant with Leonard's child. He is not aware of this. When Henry Wilcox finds out, he insists that she cannot stay in the house, and that the man responsible must be found out and punished for dishonouring her.
Margaret and Henry argue bitterly about the different standards of sexual propriety applied to men and women and Margaret says she is leaving Henry. Margaret, Leonard and the oldest Wilcox son Charles (James Wilby) all make their way separately to Howards End and the final tragedy unfolds. Charles inadvertently kills Leonard, and is later taken away by the police.
Ultimately, Ruth Wilcox's wish is fulfilled: Helen is eventually reconciled with Margaret who now owns Howards End, where Helen will raise her son as its heir. In both film and novel, the final ownership of Howards End is a symbol of new class relations in England: the wealth of the new industrialists (the Wilcoxes) married to the politically reforming vision of liberalism (the Schlegels) that will benefit the children of the lower classes (the Basts).
The score was composed by Richard Robbins, elements of the score based on Percy Grainger's works Bridal Lullaby and Mock Morris. The piano pieces were performed by the English concert pianist Martin Jones.
Trivia
Anthony Hopkins accepted the part of Henry Wilcox without reading the script.
The first film to be released by Sony Pictures Classics.
Jemma Redgrave (Evie Wicox) plays the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave (Ruth Wilcox). In real life she is her niece. This is the only time they have shared the screen, although Jemma did act with her Aunt Vanessa on stage in Chekhov's Three Sisters in 1990. The third sister was played by Vanessa's sister and Jemma's aunt, Lynn Redgrave.
Along with several other Merchant-Ivory movies, Howard's End was parodied in the 1998 comedy, Stiff Upper Lips. Castmembers Prunella Scales and Samuel West appeared in the film.
A television adaptation of the novel was broadcast in 1970 with Leo Genn and Glenda Jackson.
