A visit to Howards End suits this Autumn in August quite well

Now that we’re heading into cooler weather, our next Autumn in August  selection feels especially agreeable as the 1992 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s  Howards End is our next cinematic destination.

Emma Thompson , well before her sister act in Sense & Sensibility, plays older sister Margaret Schlegel who resides with her younger and more openly passionate sister Helen(Helena Bonham Carter), their younger brother Tibby(Adrian Ross Magenty) and lively Aunt Julie(Prunella Scales).

This eclectic family finds their lives changing due to contact with the more conservative Wilcox family, first by Helen spending time with them at the title country house owned by the quietly kind hearted matriarch Ruth(Vanessa Redgrave).

After a very brief romance with younger son Paul Wilcox (Joseph A. Bennett) that leads to a even briefer comedy of errors involving an engagement , Helen does her best to avoid the whole family. When the Wilcoxs happen to rent a house in London right across the way from the Schlegels, Helen goes out of town as does Paul (who is doing a residency overseas).

Margaret, however, pays a friendly call on Ruth and finds herself making friends, with the latter slowly but surely determined to show the former her beloved house , feeling that her new companion would appreciate it greatly:

Ruth is seriously ill as it turns out but before her passing, she writes a note that gives Margaret the house, a last request that now widower husband Henry(Anthony Hopkins) and his obnoxious children secretly agree to deny.

Margaret has no idea of any of this but over the course of consoling the Wilcox’s, finds herself falling in love with Henry and accepting his offer of marriage.

Helen, meanwhile, grows angry with Henry over a series of miscommunications that put a new acquaintance named Leonard Bast(Samuel West) in financial jeopardy.

While Helen feels responsible for his situation, her solution of dragging Leonard and his wife Jacky(Nicola Basset) to a family wedding to demand Henry’s help backfires in more ways than one.

The whole theme of the story is about class divisions and lack of true understanding as Leonard discovers to his increasing distress.

 With all of Helen’s good intentions, her middling middle class methods of aiding Leonard, who longs for a more sophisticated life but lacks the means for one, makes  things worse.

  Henry’s casual callousness (not to mention personal hypocrisy) are worth being challenged yet both he and Helen feel entitled to put poor Leonard in the middle of their debate while Margaret tries to compromise with each of them.

  Despite this story being set in Edwardian England, much of this emotional discord does have a strong reflection upon our modern times indeed:

Margaret does eventually chose a side, particularly when a major revelation about her sister becomes known. 

When applying to Henry for simple permission to allow Helen to stay the night at Howards End(which is unoccupied), Margaret rightly confronts him on his two faced attitude about the entire situation and brooks no refusal here, pointing out the equal disparities between him and her sister accordingly.

While there is so much quality in this production, a classic Merchant(producer)/Ivory(director) film with a wonderful screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jbhabvala, one of the major standouts is the chemistry between Thompson and Hopkins, who later went on to another Merchant Ivory film , The Remains of the Day. 

These two just seem to instinctively know which buttons to push to make the other character react more realistically in whatever circumstance they’re in. It’s like watching the perfect tennis match, although who the winner is by the end is not a happy outcome at all:

Our last entry in this Autumn in August festival follows Anthony Hopkins to 84, Charing Cross Road, where he plays a London bookseller in post WWII who happily deals with long distance customer Helene Hanff(Anne Bancroft).

This 1987 film is based on a play and book, written by Hanff who had a real life correspondence with the British bookstore Marks and Company as it was hard to satisfy her “taste in antiquarian books” in New York at the time. I must confess that this film is a personal favorite of mine and such a good excuse to watch this delightful bookish bond yet again: