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By
THEMIS ATHENA
Most of us connect the
notion of "home" or "childhood home" with one
particular place, that innocent paradise we have
since had to give up and keep searching for
forever after. In Ruth Wilcox's world, Howards End
is that place; the countryside house where she was
born, where her family often returns to spend
their vacations, and which, everyone assumes, will
pass on to her children when she is dead.
And it is through Ruth Wilcox's (Vanessa
Redgrave's) eyes that we first see Howards End;
approaching the house after an evening walk
through her beloved meadow, her long dress
trailing in the grass, as she goes nearer, we see
the open windows letting out warm light from
inside, and hear the voices and laughter from the
family's dinner table. And while Mrs. Wilcox
returns to join her family's company, two others
are leaving the house and its serene world: Helen
Schlegel (Helena Bonham Carter) and Paul Wilcox,
embarking on a passionate romance which is not
even to survive the next morning -- not before,
however, Helen has informed her sister Margaret
(Emma Thompson) that she and Paul are "in love,"
and thus set in motion the first of a series of
confusing and controversial meetings between their
families.
While both families belong to the middle class,
they are nevertheless separated by several layers
of society and politics -- the Wilcox, led by
paterfamilias/businessman Henry (Anthony Hopkins),
rich, conservative and without any sympathy
whatsoever for those less fortunate than
themselves ("It's all part of the battle of
life...The poor are poor; one is sorry for them,
but there it is," Henry Wilcox once comments); the
Schlegels, on the other hand, with just enough
income to lead a comfortable life, brought up by
their Aunt Juley (Prunella Scales), supporting
suffrage (women's right to vote) and surrounding
themselves with actors, "blue-stockings"
(feminists), intellectuals and other members of
the avant-garde. Further complexity is added when
Helen brings to the Schlegel home Leonard Bast
(Samuel West), a poor but idealistic young clerk
who loves music, literature and astronomy -- and
with him, his working class wife Jacky (Nicola
Duffett), the embarrassment of having to interact
with her, and the even more embarrassing
revelation she has in store for Henry Wilcox;
eventually leaving her disillusioned husband to
comment that "books aren't real," and that in fact
they and music "are for the rich so they don't
feel bad after dinner."
E.M. Forster's novel on which this movie is based
is a masterpiece of social study and character
study alike; with empathy and a fine eye for
detail, Forster brings his protagonists and their
environment to life, and James Ivory matches his
accomplishment in this screen realization, finding
the perfect cast and production design (Luciana
Arrighi) to reproduce the novel's Edwardian
society; although he superstitiously declined the
offer to film at Forster's boyhood home Rooks
Nest, the model for the fictional Howards End. The
movie brings together many of Britain's best-known
actors, all trained in the English school which,
as Anthony Hopkins once explained, unlike Lee
Strasberg's Method Acting, is primarily based on
restraint: there are no outbursts of emotion,
self-control reigns supreme, and even a simple
word like "yes" is reduced even further to "hmm,"
leaving it to the actor's intonation alone to
convey the word's (or sound's) deeper meaning in a
given context. And yet, vocal intonation, looks
and little gestures often speak louder than
dramatic actions ever could, and they are as
essential to the movie's sense of authenticity as
are production design, cinematography (Tony
Pierce-Roberts), soundtrack (Richard Robbins) and
the selection of the movie's non-scored music:
excerpts from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, a
favorite with the "educated" Edwardian middle
class, and pieces by period composers Andre Derain
and Percy Grainger.
The story centers around Margaret (Meg) Schlegel,
who is "filled with...a profound vivacity, a
continual and sincere response to all that she
encounter[s] in her path through life," as Forster
described her, and portrayed to perfection by Emma
Thompson. Meg's friendship with Ruth Wilcox brings
the families back together after Helen's
near-scandalous episode with Paul; and the two
women become so close that Ruth eventually decides
to give Meg "something worth [her] friendship" --
none other than Howards End, a wish that has her
panicking family scramble ungentlemanly for every
reason in the book to invalidate the codicil
setting forth that bestowal, from its lacking date
and signature to the testatrix's state of mind,
the ambiguity of the writing's content, the
question why Meg should want the house in the
first place since she already has one, and the
fact that the writing is only in pencil, which
"never counts," as Dolly, wife of the Wilcox'
elder son Charles is quick to point out, only to
be reprimanded by her father in law "from out of
his fortress" (Forster) not to "interfere with
what you do not understand." And so it is that Meg
will only see the house (and be instantly mistaken
for Ruth because she has "her way of walking
around the house," as the housekeeper explains)
when she and her siblings have to look for a new
home and Henry Wilcox, who has started to court
her after Ruth's death, suggests that the
Schlegel's furniture be temporarily stored there:
a fateful decision. And while Meg and Henry slowly
and painfully learn to adjust to each other, the
complexity of their families' relations, and their
interactions with the Basts, finally come crashing
down on them in a dramatic conclusion.
Howards End deservedly won 1992's Academy Awards
for Best Actress (Thompson), Best Adapted
Screenplay, and Best Art Direction; and it was
also nominated in the Best Picture, Best Director,
Best Supporting Actress (Redgrave), Best Original
Score, Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design
categories. Unfortunately, its subtle tones have
recently been muted somewhat by the louder sounds
now filling movie theaters. I for one, however,
will take this sublime movie over any summer
action flick anytime.
The theatrical trailer is included as an extra on
the DVD released in 2001. There's nothing else of
note. |
