Howards End movie synopsis. In the early twentieth century London, the upper class Schlegel siblings, Margaret (Dame Emma Thompson), Helen (Helena Bonham Carter), and Tibby (Adrian Ross), are liberal, straight talking people who indulge themselves in philanthropy and in discussions of the arts and literature.
They begin an association with the similarly upper crust Wilcox family. The Wilcoxes, husband and wife Henry (Sir Anthony Hopkins) and Ruth (Vanessa Redgrave), and their grown children, are in London temporarily from their Hilton country home, Howards End, which has long been in Ruth’s family, and where Ruth was born. Most specifically, a friendship develops between Margaret and the sickly Ruth.
Their friendship is despite an auspicious past association between the two families, namely a doomed romance between one of the Wilcox’s sons, Paul (Joseph Bennett), and Helen, and the fact of the Wilcoxes being more conservative and pretentious in their outlook than the Schlegels. In this regard, the Wilcox children take after their father, the children who believe Margaret has ulterior motives in befriending their mother. In a similar vein, Helen does not much like the Wilcoxes beyond her past association with them.
At the same time, the Schlegels also befriend a man named Leonard Bast (Samuel West), a poor clerk, who has what Margaret refers to as a romantic ambition in life, and who has a strong sense of doing the right thing as demonstrated by his marriage to a woman named Jacky (Nicola Duffett), who he does not love, but to whom he feels protective. Helen in particular feels it is their obligation to help the Basts in whatever way they can. In their associations with the Wilcoxes and the Basts, Margaret and Helen take different paths to a common point a few years down the road.
Howards End is a 1992 romantic drama film based upon the novel of the same name by E. M. Forster (published in 1910), a story of class relations in turn-of-the-20th-century Britain. The film — produced by Merchant Ivory Productions as their third adaptation of a Forster novel (following A Room with a View in 1985 and Maurice in 1987) — was 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.
Howards End was entered as an official selection for the Cannes International Film Festival and won the 45th Anniversary Award. In 1993, the film received nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The film won three awards, including for Best Art Direction (Art Direction: Luciana Arrighi; Set Decoration: Ian Whittaker). Ruth Prawer Jhabvala earned her second Academy Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, while Emma Thompson won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Actress.
Filming locations in London included a house in Victoria Square, which stood in for the Schlegel home, Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly, Simpson’s-in-the-Strand restaurant, and St. Pancras Station. Areas around the Admiralty Arch and in front of the Royal Exchange in the City of London were dressed to film traffic scenes of 1910 London. The scene where Margaret and Helen stroll with Henry in the evening was filmed on Chiswick Mall in Chiswick, London. The bank where Leonard encounters Helen is the lobby of the Baltic Exchange, 30 St. Mary Axe, London. Soon after filming the building was bombed and destroyed by the IRA. The Rosewood London on High Holborn, which was then the Pearl Assurance Building, represented the Porphyrion Fire Insurance Company.
The quadrangle of the Founder’s Building at Royal Holloway, University of London stood in for the hospital where Margaret visits Mrs. Wilcox. The “Howards End” house in the countryside is Peppard Cottage in Rotherfield Peppard, Oxfordshire. At the time it was owned by an antique silver dealer with whom production designer Luciana Arrighi was acquainted. The bluebell wood where Leonard strolls in his dream, as well as Dolly and Charles’ house, were filmed nearby. Henry’s country house, Honiton, was actually Brampton Bryan Hall in Herefordshire, near the Welsh border. Bewdley railway station on the historic Severn Valley Railway featured as Hilton station.
Howards End (1992)
Directed by: James Ivory
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, James Wilby, Samuel West, Jemma Redgrave, Prunella Scales, Susie Lindeman, Siegbert Prawer, Jo Kendall
Screenplay by: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Tony Pierce-Roberts
Film Editing by: Andrew Marcus
Costume Design by:
Set Decoration by:
Art Direction by:
Music by: Richard Robbins, Percy Grainger
MPAA Rating: PG for mild language, violence and sensuality.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: March 13, 1992
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