Howards End - The Merchant Ivory Collection
by Humphrey Dixon, James Ivory
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Actor: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Joseph Bennett, Vanessa RedgraveDirector: Humphrey Dixon, James Ivory
Brand: Image Entertainment
Producer: Ann Wingate
Producer: Donald Rosenfeld
Producer: Ismail Merchant
Writer: E.M. Forster
Writer: John Pym
Writer: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Stereo; German (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Import, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 142 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-15
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: CV0024
Studio: Merchant Ivory
DVD Reviews of Howards End - The Merchant Ivory Collection
DVD Review: Slice Of Edwardian Life (or Lives)
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't mean this to be snarky at all, but I recently decided that I wanted to watch HOWARDS END again--only to discover that I was actually watching it for the FIRST time! I must have been thinking of REMAINS OF THE DAY--or maybe I just wasn't thinking. Does that say more about me than it does about Merchant and Ivory? Is it really true that if you've seen one M&I production, you've seen 'em all? Or am I just having another one of my cinematic senior moments?
Well, I'll own up to it: these are my problems, not the film's. There are, of course, a number of people who hate Merchant and Ivory productions and just about any other period film. I am not one of them. I found that I did like HOWARDS END very much indeed, and no, I cannot recall actively disliking any M&I effort that I've seen. Yes, the films are veddy British, and for some American viewers that equates to faw-faw-faw stuffiness. They're wrong, of course. A film like HOWARDS END is as more a critique of the stultifying British class system than a Valentine to Britannia. Or maybe it's both.
HOWARDS END can seem almost as much a set-piece as a period piece in that it offers the viewer a schematic portrait of Edwardian society. You have three families each representing a particular social class (the upper class Wilcoxes, the middle class Schlegels, and the working class Basts). In less careful hands, it could come off as almost too calculated, especially so since it is the middle class family which effectively "mediates" between the others.
That is to say, the Schlegels mediate between their social betters and inferiors "IN EFFECT," since their attempts to negotiate class distinctions circa 1910 are anything but "EFFECTIVE." Their attempts are in fact disastrous and lead to tragic consequences for all (although--ironically--the brunt of the tragedy is felt by the upper class Wilcoxes and the lower class Basts: while the middle class Schlegels seem to emerge from all the bad business around them, well, if not unscathed, then at least with their principles and humanity--and lives--still intact.
The film is a surprisingly subtle and effective social critique made all the moreso by its insightful and humane portraits of all its characters. Not surprisingly, these are no mere stick-figure social stereotypes. We see all too well how entrenched class distinctions can be pernicious and debilitating for some--and limiting for all. But even the film's most boorishly snooty character has his endearing traits, and the wealthy clan's pater familias is almost tragic in his isolation and emotionally cramped state.
All of this complexity requires spot-on acting, and thankfully, the film is perfectly--almost ingeniously--cast. In fact, were it a gaudier spectacle, you might even be tempted to view the casting of political firebrand Vanessa Redgrave as a conservative upper class matron (who is "only too thankful not to have the vote") as a kind of stunt casting. As it is, you have to at least see it as a delicious irony. And it's so nice to see Antony Hopkins play a complex, conflicted (but non-psychotic) character. It has oft been asserted that he and Emma Thompson work brilliantly together--and that's true. It's no wonder that they were set for a re-match in REMAINS OF THE DAY (portraying--interestingly enough--more "upstairs" roles than the decidedly "downstairs" ones they have here: of course, these skilled actors pull off both masterfully).
Speaking of being a firebrand, I suspect that for many younger viewers, particularly non-Britons, the perceived reservedness of Merchant and Ivory films and their muted social criticism, will not be not enough. HOWARDS END is a deft critique of English class structure, but it's hardly a call to revolution. In the end, it is more of a character study than a tract--which makes its small scale tragedies all the more human (and in the modern sense) all the more tragic. One comes away from the film with the realization that the social order necessary to maintain civilization has also inevitably set up barriers between individual human beings. And therein lies much of the tragic nature of we like to refer to as the human condition.
Description of Howards End - The Merchant Ivory Collection
Margaret and Helen Schlegel (Oscar® winner Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter) are sisters from a well-educated European family: intelligent, free-spirited, cultured, and highly emancipated by the standards of the time. A series of events brings them into a relationship with the Wilcox family: healthy, conservative, conventional, and very English, headed by the prosperous Henry (Anthony Hopkins) and his priggish son, Charles (James Wilby). Both families also come into contact with Leonard Bast (Samuel West) and his wife, a couple near the lowest tier of the rigid class system. Leonard?s desire for cultural and intellectual status attracts the attention of Helen, who must come to terms with her unexpected feelings toward him. At the same time, Margaret must reconcile her independent spirit with her desire for companionship and a comfortable place in Edwardian society; her moral strength is eventually able to resolve the tangle of opposites. First published in 1910, E.M. Forster?s Howards End remains one of the most important English novels of the twentieth century, and Merchant Ivory Productions? tour-de-force adaptation was one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 1990s.Howards End is E.M. Forster's beautifully subtle story of the crisscrossing paths of the privileged and those they disdain--and of a remarkable pair of women who can see beyond class distinctions. Dramatic and tragic, but also surprisingly funny, this James Ivory film focuses on a pair of unmarried sisters (Emma Thompson, who won an Oscar, and Helena Bonham Carter) who befriend a poor young clerk (Sam West) and, without meaning to, ruin his life. Meanwhile, Thompson also makes the acquaintance of a dying neighbor (Vanessa Redgrave), who leaves her a family home in her will--which her husband (Anthony Hopkins) destroys. But, ironically, he meets and falls in love with Thompson, even as their paths once more intersect with the increasingly miserable young clerk. Nuanced acting, gorgeous but muted cinematography, and a beautifully economical script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, which also won an Oscar. --Marshall Fine
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