Howards End: 25th anniversary 4k restoration , 1992.
Directed by James Ivory.
Starring Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Vanessa Redgrave, Samuel West, and Prunella Scales.
SYNOPSIS:
Based on the novel by E M Forster, the story of three families. The Schlegels, two educated, politically minded sisters and their scholarly brother. The Wilcox family, headed by a wealthy businessman. And the Basts, she with a shady past and he constantly struggling to keep enough money coming into their down at heel home. They are all linked by the country house called Howards End.
In the late 80s and early 90s, the combination of producer Ishmael Merchant and director James Ivory could do no wrong. It had been a long haul – their company was founded in 1961 – but A Room With A View (1986) changed all that and they reached their peak with another E M Forster adaptation, Howards End (1992), followed swiftly by their version of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize winner The Remains Of The Day (1993).
The 25th anniversary of Howards End’s original release is marked this week as the BFI releases its new 4k restoration. We’ve probably all watched the film on TV, but this truly deserves to be relished on the big screen, for its superb design, cinematography and performances. This is also the story that gave us Forster’s probably best-known quotation, “only connect”, which is, in part, what it’s all about. That, and social change, inequality, idealism …….
The Howards End of the title is a country house belonging to Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave). She forms a close friendship with Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson) and, on her deathbed, bequeaths the house to the younger woman. But the rest of the Wilcox family, including wealthy businessman husband Henry (Anthony Hopkins), ignore her wishes. At the same time, Margaret’s younger sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter) tries to held Leonard Bast (Samuel West) and his wife when he loses his job, but uncovers a connection between the impoverished couple and the Wilcox family that she could never have anticipated. And it comes after Margaret has become the second Mrs Wilcox.
That’s just a few of the connections. Another is established in the opening shot and remains there, under our nose, throughout the film. And that’s the similarity between the two Mrs Wilcoxes. At the start of the film, Ruth is shown wandering through the garden at Howards End, almost as if she were in a pre-Raph painting. When the two women become friends, that similarity is all the more apparent – their hair, their hats, their clothes. Housekeeper Miss Avery (Barbara Hicks) even mistakes Margaret for Ruth when she first steps into the house because their footsteps sound the same. Henry has replaced his first wife with something close to her double, but he underestimates her. She isn’t the same woman.
As Margaret, Emma Thompson gives a sublime performance, one of complexity, nuance and humanity, and one that hasn’t dated in the slightest. Her character transforms before our very eyes: initially, the idealistic older sister, passionate about all manner of things, women’s suffrage in particular, but gradually altered by her engagement and marriage to Wilcox. She’s influenced by his conservative attitudes and part of her bends to his will – but only part.
The film generally has a superior cast: Hopkins as the cool, business-minded Wilcox who sees the results of his attitudes in his eldest son: Bonham Carter as the headstrong younger sister who loves to defy convention but hates being what she calls “an old maid”: Samuel West in his breakthrough movie role as Leonard Bast, complete with loser’s walk. In fact, the only dodgy note is sounded by James Wilby as Wilcox’s oldest son, Charles, who over-acts from start to finish and sticks out like a sore thumb.
Even if you saw the film first time round at the cinema, go and see it again. To re- discover what you’ve probably forgotten, and to appreciate it in all its splendour on the big screen. If you’ve never seen it before, then make doubly sure you go. This is intelligent filmmaking, crafted with skill and care. A film for everybody, and for all time.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Freda Cooper. Follow me on Twitter, check out my movie blog and listen to my podcast, Talking Pictures.
Originally published July 28, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
