Howards End (film)

Howards End is a 1992 British romantic drama film based upon the novel of the same name by E. M. Forster published in 1910, a story of class relations in turnofthe20thcentury England. The filmproduced by Merchant Ivory Productions as their third adaptation of a Forster novel following A Room with a View in 1985 and Maurice in 1987was the first film to be released by Sony Pictures Classics. The screenplay was written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant.

The story takes place in Edwardian England and concerns three families who represent three social classes the Wilcoxes are wealthy capitalists, the class that is displacing the aristocracy the Schlegel sisters standing for the enlightened bourgeoisie and the Basts, a young couple down on their luck, who may be traced to the lower middle class. Forster is clear that the novel is not concerned with the very poor. The film asks the question Who will inherit England? and answers it through the ownership of the house, Howards End, as it passes from person to person.The younger sister, Helen Schlegel Helena Bonham Carter, briefly becomes engaged to the younger Wilcox son, Paul. They realise their mistake and break it off by mutual consent. Later, when the Wilcox family take a house in the vicinity of the Schlegels in London, the older sister, Margaret Schlegel Emma Thompson, becomes friends with Pauls mother, Ruth Wilcox Vanessa Redgrave, 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. It stands symbolically above class distinction in both the film and the novel, representing rural England, the rich tapestry of its manifold traditions, and the deeply rooted cultural heritage associated with them. ........

Source: Wikipedia