FILM Howards End. Starring Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave. Directed by James Ivory. Category II. Coming soon AMERICAN director James Ivory has obviously found his greatest source of inspiration in the novels of E.M. Forster.
Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala captivated audiences with their award-winning adaptation of Forster's A Room With a View. But their most memorable achievement to date is their incisive, exquisitely crafted interpretation of Forster's true masterpiece, Howards End.
They have done the impossible - created a movie of such sublime artistry that it is as rich and rewarding as reading the actual novel.
The film takes place in Edwardian England; its staid, stultifying traditions are clearly on the verge of major changes as the technological advances of the industrial age threaten the very foundation of the empire.
In London, they are already tearing down elegant Victorian townhouses and replacing them with monotonous apartment houses. Howards End, on the other hand, is a vine-covered brick house deep in the heart of the English countryside and, as such, symbolises the comforting stability of the past. The house is the pride and joy of Ruth Wilcox, who, played with touching fragility by Vanessa Redgrave, clings to traditional ways.
Having devoted herself exclusively to the service of her husband, Henry (Anthony Hopkins), and her irritatingly shallow children (played by James Wilby, Jemma Redgrave and Joseph Bennett), she has decided to protect them from the fact that she's gravelyill.
She holes up alone in a rented London flat, where she finds herself drawn to the vibrant Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson), a woman who is everything she's not - educated, opinionated and independent.