Howards End

Dir: James Ivory

1992

****

It was quite a while after 1992 that I first caught up with Merchant Ivory's Howards End, a film now considered a classic. I've often heard friends and family of an older generation praise it, some even considering it as one of their favourites. I haven't read the book, so I was unaware of what it was about but after seeing it became quite clear that all of those people who have recommended it to me over the years didn't realise what it was about either. Its meandering beginning and often confusing turn of events lead to quite the poignant and most subtly devastating conclusion to a film I may have ever seen. The film pans out to a beautifully lit landscape and the upbeat classical music plays and I'm sure many thought how lovely a finish it was, when indeed they were missing the point quite spectacularly. It is beautifully filmed, perfectly performed and visually pleasing. It stars some of England's finest including Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Vanessa Redgrave and Anthony Hopkins, has a wonderfully ostentatious script and shows some of the country’s most beautiful of beauty spots. Hardly anyone ever makes comment that it is essentially a look at the dark and distasteful habit of austerity we have in the UK. Written in 1910, the story, rather sadly, still rings true today. The upper and middle-classes float about their business without a care in the world, some may try to help their fellow man but no matter if they don't succeed, life goes on as wonderfully as it did before. Two world wars have made a difference but not as much as you'd expect. It's a fantastic historical document of an important sociological issue that has and will remain for some time. It's clear that Merchant and Ivory understand this, it just seems to have gone over the heads of many who think this is just another slice of good old England, which I'm sure would have E. M. Forster spinning in his grave. It's a brilliant adaptation but the irony is sadly lost. I do wonder whether the casting is to blame, even though each actor has a proven range and an eclectic body of work, the public expect certain things from each, so when Anthony Hopkins' asks if he did wrong at the end of the film we assume he hadn't, when it is quite clear he had, all is forgiven and forgotten, the audience is bamboozled by another fine performance and high-end drama and as much as I adore it, Remains of the Day that came out just one year later with the same actors almost dilutes the story even more so. I think if it weren't for the brilliant Samuel West the bigger story may well have been completely overlooked. A Ken Loach (for example) version would have got the point across but without the visual eloquence the story really needed, the Merchant Ivory version tips over the other side somewhat. Brilliant but I'm afraid not quite as well balanced as it should have been, although I think the more modern, somewhat lazier audiences are somewhat to blame too.