Howards End (film)

Howards End
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Ivory
Screenplay by	Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Based on	Howards End by E. M. Forster
Produced by	Ismail Merchant
Starring	Anthony Hopkins Vanessa Redgrave Helena Bonham Carter Emma Thompson James Wilby Samuel West Jemma Redgrave Prunella Scales
Cinematography	Tony Pierce-Roberts
Edited by	Andrew Marcus
Music by	Richard Robbins Percy Grainger (opening and end title)
Production companies	Merchant Ivory Productions Sumitomo Corporation Imagica Corporation Cinema Ten JSB Japan Satellite Broadcasting, Inc. Ide Productions FilmFour International
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics (United States) Palace Pictures (United Kingdom)[2]
Release dates	13 March 1992 (1992-03-13) (United States) 1 May 1992 (1992-05-01) (United Kingdom) 26 August 2016 (2016-08-26) (United States re-release)
Running time	142 minutes[2][3]
Countries	United Kingdom Japan United States[1]
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$26.3 million

Howards End is a 1992 period romantic drama film directed by James Ivory, from a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based on the 1910 novel of the same name by E. M. Forster. Marking Merchant Ivory Productions', third adaptation of a Forster novel (following 1985's A Room with a View, and 1987's Maurice) — was the first film to be released by Sony Pictures Classics. The film's narrative explores class relations in turn-of-the-20th-century Britain, through events in the lives of the Schlegel sisters.

Howards End premiered at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and won the 45th Anniversary Award. The film was theatrically released on March 13, 1992 in the United States and on May 1, in the United Kingdom to critical acclaim and commercial success, grossing $26.3 million on a $8 million budget. At the 65th Academy Awards, the film received a leading nine nominations including for the Best Picture, and won three; Best Actress (for Thompson), Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published and Best Art Direction. At the 46th British Academy Film Awards, it garnered a leading eleven nominations, winning two awards; Best Film, and Best Actress (for Thompson).

Plot[]

In Edwardian Britain, Helen Schlegel becomes engaged to Paul Wilcox during a moment of passion, while she is staying at the country home of the Wilcox family, Howards End. The Schlegels are an intellectual family of Anglo-German bourgeoisie, while the Wilcoxes are conservative and wealthy, led by hard-headed businessman Henry. Helen and Paul quickly decide against the engagement, but Helen has already sent a telegram informing her sister Margaret, which causes an uproar when the sisters' Aunt Juley arrives and causes a scene.

Months later, when the Wilcox family takes a flat across the street from the Schlegels in London, Margaret resumes her acquaintance with Ruth Wilcox, whom she had briefly met before. Ruth is descended from English yeoman stock, and it is through her family that the Wilcoxes have come to own Howards End, a house she loves dearly.

Over the course of the next few months, the two women become very good friends, even as Mrs. Wilcox's health declines. Hearing that the lease on the Schlegels' house is due to expire, Ruth on her death bed bequeaths Howards End to Margaret. This causes great consternation to the Wilcoxes, who refuse to believe that Ruth was in her "right mind" or could possibly have intended her home to go to a relative stranger. The Wilcoxes burn the piece of paper on which Ruth's bequest is written, deciding to ignore it completely.

Henry Wilcox, Ruth's widower, begins to develop an attraction to Margaret, and agrees to assist her in finding a new home. Eventually he proposes marriage, which Margaret accepts.

Some time before this, the Schlegels had befriended a self-improving young clerk, Leonard Bast, who lives with a woman of dubious origins named Jacky. Both sisters find Leonard remarkable, appreciating his intellectual curiosity and desire to improve his lot in life. The sisters pass along advice from Henry to the effect that Leonard must leave his post, because the insurance company he works for is supposedly heading for bankruptcy. Leonard takes the advice and quits, but has to settle for a job paying much less, which he eventually loses altogether due to downsizing of its business. Helen is later enraged to learn that Henry's advice was wrong; Leonard's first employer had been perfectly sound but won't reemploy him.

Months later, Henry and Margaret host the wedding of his daughter Evie at his Shropshire estate. Margaret is shocked when Helen arrives with the Basts, whom she has found living in poverty. Considering that Henry is responsible for their plight, Helen demands that he help them. However, Jacky becomes drunk at the reception, and when she sees Henry she recognizes and exposes him as a former lover from years ago. Henry is embarrassed and ashamed to have been revealed as an adulterer in front of Margaret, but she forgives him and agrees to send the Basts away. After the wedding, Helen, upset with Margaret's decision to marry a man she loathes prepares to leave for Germany, but not before giving in to her attraction for Leonard having sex with him while out boating.

Fearing that the Basts will be penniless, Helen sends instruction from Germany to her donnish brother Tibby to make over £5000 of her own money to Leonard. Leonard returns the cheque uncashed, refusing to accept the money through pride.

Margaret and Henry marry, with the pair arranging to use Howards End as storage for Margaret's and her siblings' belongings. After months of hearing from Helen only through postcards, Margaret grows concerned. When Aunt Juley falls ill Helen returns to England to visit her, but when she receives word that her aunt has recovered, avoids seeing Margaret or any of her family.

Fearing that Helen is mentally unstable, Margaret lures her to Howards End to collect her belongings, only to turn up herself with Henry and a doctor. However, on first glance she realizes that Helen is heavily pregnant. Helen insists on returning to Germany to raise her baby alone but asks that she be allowed to stay the night at Howards End before she leaves. When Margaret requests this from Henry, he stubbornly refuses and the couple bicker.

The next day, Leonard, still living unhappily in poverty with Jacky, leaves London and travels to Howards End to see the Schlegels. When he arrives he finds the pair, as well as Henry's brutish eldest son Charles. Charles quickly realizes that Leonard is the baby's father and begins assaulting him for "dishonoring" Helen.

In his rage, Charles beats Leonard with the flat of a sword, and Leonard grabs onto a bookcase for support. The bookcase collapses on him, which causes Leonard to have a heart attack and die.

Margaret tells Henry that she is leaving him to help Helen raise her baby, and Henry breaks down, telling her the police inquest will charge Charles with manslaughter.

A year later, Paul, Evie, and Charles's wife Dolly gather at Howards End. Henry and Margaret are still together, and living with Helen and her young son. Henry, who is not looking well, tells the others that upon his death, Margaret will inherit Howards End and leave it to her nephew. Margaret wants none of Henry's money, which will be split among his children. Dolly points out the irony of Margaret's inheriting the house, revealing Mrs. Wilcox's dying wish to leave it Margaret. Henry tells Margaret he did what he thought was right. She says nothing.

Cast[]

Production[]

Financing[]

Merchant-Ivory encountered difficulty securing funding for Howards End, the budget of which stood at $8 million. This was considerably larger than that of Maurice and A Room with a View, which led to trouble in raising capital in the UK and the United States. Orion Pictures, the film's distributor, was on the verge of bankruptcy and only contributed a small amount to the overall budget.^[4] A solution presented itself when Merchant Ivory sought funding through an intermediary in Japan, where the previous Forster adaptations, particularly Maurice, had been very successful. Eventually Japanese companies including the Sumitomo Corporation, Japan Satellite Broadcasting, and the Imagica Corporation provided the bulk of the film's financing. The distribution problem would be solved when the heads of Orion Classics departed the company for Sony Pictures, creating the entirely new division of Sony Pictures Classics. Howards End was the first title distributed by this new division.^[5]

Casting[]

Anthony Hopkins accepted the part of Henry Wilcox after reading the script, passed to him by a young woman who was helping edit Slaves of New York and The Silence of the Lambs simultaneously in the same building. Phoebe Nicholls, Joely Richardson, Miranda Richardson, and Tilda Swinton were all considered for the part of Margaret Schlegel before Emma Thompson accepted the role. James Ivory was unaware of Emma Thompson before she was recommended to him by Simon Callow, who made a small cameo as the music lecturer in the concert scene.^[6] Jemma Redgrave (Evie Wilcox), who played the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave's character (Ruth Wilcox), is her niece off-screen. Samuel West, who played Leonard Bast, is the son of Prunella Scales, who played Aunt Juley.

According to James Ivory, although Vanessa Redgrave was his preferred choice for the role of Ruth Wilcox, her participation was uncertain until the last moment, because she was committed to other projects and it took some time to negotiate an acceptable salary.^[6][7] When she did agree to play the role of Mrs. Wilcox, she mistakenly believed she would be playing Margaret; only when she showed up on set to begin filming her scenes did the person in Hair and Makeup explain that she would be playing the elder Mrs. Wilcox.^[6]

Music[]

The score was composed by Richard Robbins, with 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. Orchestral works were conducted by Harry Rabinowitz and performed by the English Chamber Orchestra.^[8]

• "Bridal Lullaby" by Percy Grainger
  Courtesy of Bardie Edition (used for the main title and Margaret's Arrival At Howards End)
• "Mock Morris" by Percy Grainger
  Courtesy of Schott & Co. (End Credits theme)
• 5th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven
  (uncredited; featured in the lecture scene 'Music and Meaning')

Also of note is a Tango composed and performed by the Teddy Peiro Tango Quintet,^[9] and the music of Francis Poulenc, the Nocture #8. This theme is used while Ruth Wilcox walks at Howards End in the Evening Scene.^[10]

Filming locations[]

Peppard Cottage in Rotherfield Peppard was used as filming location for "Howards End"

Filming locations in London included a house in Victoria Square, which stood in for the Schlegel home, Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly, Simpson's-in-the-Strand restaurant, and St Pancras railway station.^[11] Areas around the Admiralty Arch and in front of the Royal Exchange in the City of London were dressed to film traffic scenes of 1910 London. The scene where Margaret and Helen stroll with Henry in the evening was filmed on Chiswick Mall in Chiswick, London. The bank where Leonard encounters Helen is the lobby of the Baltic Exchange, 30 St. Mary Axe, London. Soon after filming the building was bombed and destroyed by the IRA. The Rosewood London on High Holborn, which was then the Pearl Assurance Building, represented the Porphyrion Fire Insurance Company.^[11]

The quadrangle of the Founder's Building at Royal Holloway, University of London stood in for the hospital where Margaret visits Mrs. Wilcox. The "Howards End" house in the countryside is Peppard Cottage in Rotherfield Peppard, Oxfordshire. At the time it was owned by an antique silver dealer with whom production designer Luciana Arrighi was acquainted. The bluebell wood where Leonard strolls in his dream, as well as Dolly and Charles' house, were filmed nearby.^[12] Henry's country house, Honiton, was actually Brampton Bryan Hall in Herefordshire, near the Welsh border.^[13] Bewdley railway station on the historic Severn Valley Railway featured as Hilton station.^[14]

Release[]

Critical reception[]

The film received massive critical acclaim. On 5 June 2005, Roger Ebert included it on his list of "Great Movies".^[15] Leonard Maltin awarded the film a rare 4 out of 4 star rating, and called the film "Extraordinarily good on every level."^[16] Dave Kehr of The Chicago Tribune gave a mixed review while reporting that the film "provides more than enough in the way of production values to keep its primary audience entertained. An audible gasp went up at a recent sneak preview over the film's re-creation of a Christmas-bedecked Harrod's of the turn of the century; the movie, like the store, knows how to put its merchandise on display."^[17]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 94% of 65 reviews are positive for the film, and the average rating is 8.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A superbly-mounted adaptation of E.M. Forster's tale of British class tension, with exceptional performances all round, Howards End ranks among the best of Merchant-Ivory's work."^[18] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 89 out of 100, based on 10 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[19] American audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on a scale of A+ to F.^[20]

According to the website Box Office Mojo, the total gross of the film stands at $26.3 million.^[21]

In 2016, the film was selected for screening as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival,^[22] and was released theatrically after restoration on 26 August 2016.^[23]

Howards End was placed on more top ten lists than any other film in 1992, edging out The Player and Unforgiven. It was placed on 82 of the 106 film critics polled.^[24]

Home media[]

The Criterion Collection released Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film on 3 November 2009, which have since gone out of print. The release was unfortunately subject to a bronzing issue which would discolor the disc bronze and render it unplayable, due to a pressing issue at the factory, though not every disc was subject to bronzing.^[25] Cohen Film Collection released their own special edition Blu-ray on 6 December 2016.^[26]

Awards and nominations[]

References[]

External links[]

• Howards End at IMDb
• Howards End at Rotten Tomatoes
• Howards End: All Is Grace an essay by Kenneth Turan at the Criterion Collection