A Room with a View (1986) may be the title that first jumps into one’s mind upon hearing the name James Ivory. The filmmaker has spent most of his career making stately dramas about elegant people who desperately try to maintain a stiff upper lip while dealing with the violent passions of falling in love. Howards End is his third filmization of E.M. Forster novels – and the finest piece of cinema he ever made, respectful of the novel but also taking on a life of its own.
Receiving a letter from her sister
Sometime in the early 1900s, Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson) receives a letter from her sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter), telling her that she’s engaged to Paul Wilcox (Joseph Bennett), the son of a wealthy, conservative businessman, Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins). Helen’s aunt Juley (Prunella Scales) immediately leaves for Howards End, the Wilcox estate, to represent the family – without knowing that the letter was sent in haste and that Helen and Paul’s engagement has already been called off. The incident causes social awkwardness between the two families. Some time later, the Wilcoxes leave Howards End temporarily for a house in London that happens to be close to an apartment rented by the Schlegels.
In order to avoid embarrassment, Helen goes to Germany to see a relative, but Margaret tries to mend fences with the Wilcoxes and befriends Henry’s sickly wife Ruth (Vanessa Redgrave). Ruth is intrigued by the degree of openness in the Schlegel household, which is quite a difference from her own family. When she eventually succumbs to her illness, Henry is given a new, pencil-written will where Ruth expresses a desire for Margaret to have Howards End. Startled, Henry decides that the will must be illegitimate and burns it…
Complex consequences
Both the novel and the film portray three different social classes in Britain. The Wilcoxes are upper middle class, not aristocrats but rather the type that makes too much money to be ignored; the Schlegels belong to the bourgeoisie, fairly well-off and culturally enlightened; and the Basts are lower middle class, always concerned with money (or rather, the lack of it). The motto of the novel is “only connect” and the interaction between these classes is what creates the drama of the story, with complex consequences – not just because of the classes, but also the personalities involved.
The cast portray these people in a remarkably effective way. The part of Margaret seems so close to Thompson herself that one can hardly separate them; intelligent, talkative, emotional and self-mocking, she’s perfect. Redgrave, quite the radical, is touching as the frail woman who shudders at the mere thought of suffrage. Hopkins, fresh off his chilling portrait of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, is equally magnetic as the cold-hearted tycoon who honestly believes in his own superiority vis-à -vis his family and the lower classes. Bonham Carter is also tremendously good as Helen, a person who’s entirely guided by her feelings, unable to balance them with a rational mind.
The novel is flawlessly adapted and directed in a way that emphasizes the lyrical aspects of the novel; Howards End and its wonderful countryside surroundings stand as a nostalgic symbol of something utterly English, more lasting than the class system. Richard Robbins’s music score is greatly varied, occasionally using the work of the pianist Percy Grainger as a symbol of the old, rural England.
Forster argues that as long as the classes “only connect” with each other, good things will come out of it. In the end, there is change for the better… but there is no doubt that the advent of social democracy did more to improve the lives of people like the Basts.
Howards End 1992-Britain. 140 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Ismail Merchant. Directed by James Ivory. Screenplay: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Novel: E.M. Forster. Cinematography: Tony Pierce-Roberts. Music: Richard Robbins. Art Direction: Luciana Arrighi. Cast: Anthony Hopkins (Henry Wilcox), Vanessa Redgrave (Ruth Wilcox), Helena Bonham Carter (Helen Schlegel), Emma Thompson (Margaret Schlegel), James Wilby, Sam West… Prunella Scales.
Trivia:Â Miranda Richardson was allegedly considered for the part of Margaret. The novel was also filmed for British television in 1970 and as a 2017 miniseries.
Oscars: Best Actress (Thompson), Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction-Set Decoration. BAFTA: Best Film, Actress (Thompson). Golden Globe: Best Actress (Thompson).
Quote: “Don’t take up that sentimental attitude over the poor. The poor are poor, and one’s sorry for them, but there it is.” (Hopkins to Bonham Carter)
Last word: “I don’t always know it at the time, but I wouldn’t be choosing some of this material if it didn’t already resonate me with on some unseen kind of way. When it’s all done, I realize sometimes that I’ve been, or that we all have been creating our own three-part autobiography out of our films. They’re full of our interests and the stuff that was meaningful to us in different kinds of ways, and in some cases deeply psychological. Sometimes it’s just for the sheer possibility of enjoying making something . ‘Howard’s End’ was something like that. I hadn’t thought to make ‘Howard’s End’ and Ruth said ‘OK, you’ve made two other E.M. Forster books, sort of minor works, why don’t you do a great E.M. Forster book, and climb a mountain?’ So we did. But years after I’ve made a film, for some reason watching it, I think ‘Oh, that’s what it was all about. That’s what I was thinking. That’s why I made it.'” (Ivory, Moviefone)
