Howards End (film)

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Movie
German title See you in Howards End
Original title Howard's End
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1992
length 140 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director James Ivory
script Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
production Ismail Merchant
music Richard Robbins
camera Tony Pierce-Roberts
cut Andrew Marcus
occupation

Reunion in Howards End (Original title: Howards End) is a British feature film from 1992. The film adaptation of the novel of the same name by EM Forster was directed by James Ivory .

action

In late Victorian England , the ways of the unconventional Schlegel sisters, who live in liberal bohemianism , meet with those of the traditionally conservative Wilcox family. Against the background of the social contrasts, a subtle psychogram of English society of those days unfolds .

Since the death of their parents, the three Schlegel siblings Margaret (eldest), Helen and Theobald (called Tibby, youngest) have lived alone in their birthplace in London . The two sisters met Henry and Ruth Wilcox on a trip to Germany and received an invitation to their English country home, Howards End. Helen can only accept this invitation and after a few days falls in love with Paul, the younger of Wilcox's two sons. When she already enthusiastically reported about this in a letter to her sister, Paul explains to her that he will not commit himself for the time being because of an upcoming long trip to Africa. Devastated telegraphed to this her sister with a request not to tell anyone of the previous letter, but it's too late: Even the come to visit Aunt Juley already knows about and is even on the way to Howards End, to get an idea of the The Wilcox family and specifically the niece's future husband. But before she even arrives at the country estate, she learns in a rather unfavorable way at the train station that there is no such relationship, and so the matter becomes a disgrace for the whole family . Accordingly, everyone feels it is a burden when the Wilcox family happens to move into the house on the opposite side some time later, after the older son Charles married Dolly and the whole family revealed their happiness to the outside world.

In the meantime, the three siblings have met Leonard Bast, an insurance employee who lives in extremely modest circumstances. He and Helen are strongly attracted from the start, but avoid regular contact with wealthy siblings. He lives with his fiancée Jacky, he still only 20 years old, age can marry with the 21 years. As you learn later, he did not promise Jacky marriage out of love, but out of compassion in order to free her from a very unfortunate situation. The sisters try to find a better paid job for him through Henry, but he doesn't want to waste any thoughts on people of such social class. When Henry casually hears the name of the insurance company Leonard works for from the sisters, he spontaneously says that the young man should move to another employer as soon as possible, as his company will go bankrupt due to certain unfavorable circumstances . and recommends a specific bank. The sisters manage to persuade Leonard to change his employer, where he earns even less than before. But when he loses this position after a short time because staff are being cut and the last employee is being dismissed first, the sisters turn to Henry again. He still claims that he cannot do anything and continues to show his unwillingness to deal with someone in such circumstances. In doing so, they learn from him by the way that the insurance company had put their things in order in good time and is now in very good shape, so the advice to change the job has harmed Leonard all around. Helen is furious with Henry's lack of interest in recognizing a certain share of responsibility for Leonard's situation and dealing with a possible improvement in his fate, and from then on has a fundamentally negative attitude towards Henry.

In the meantime, Margaret and Ruth have become closer, despite their very different ways, and have finally become good friends. Ruth tells of her love for Howards End, where she was born, and that no one else in her family is really interested in it and the house is barely inhabited. When Margaret tells how she is attached to her birth house and that she and her siblings will soon lose it, Ruth desperately wants to show her Howards End. And since she is about to undergo an operation that she has not revealed to anyone, and she has a premonition that she will not be able to do it for the foreseeable future, she wants to leave immediately. At the train station, however, they meet Henry and their daughter Evie, who are just on their way back home, and Henry ensures that Ruth also turns back and comes with them. Ruth dies shortly after the operation, without her or Margaret having gone to Howards End. Henry receives a slip of paper from the hospital, written in pencil, on which Ruth bequeathed Howard's End to Margaret without a date or signature . He organizes a meeting with his children, with his daughter-in-law Dolly present instead of Paul, who has not yet returned from Africa. Charles, and especially Evie and Dolly, definitely want Howards End to remain family-owned and inherited by one of the three siblings, and all four believe that Ruth only wrote this letter in its defective form in a no longer sane condition may have. Evie quickly snatches the note and throws it into the burning fireplace, and without saying it, everyone is certain that they will never mention this note to the outside world.

After Ruth's death, Henry and Margaret get closer and Henry proposes to her. The rest of the family is horrified, but does not feel able to assert themselves against the head of the family. When Helen, meanwhile, meets Leonard Bast and is horrified to see how bad he and Jacky are, she takes her to the wedding party of Henry's daughter Evie. Henry should finally be softened, but the behavior of the drunk Mrs. Bast causes a scandal at the party. Even before Jacky and Henry meet, there is a heated argument about it, which escalates when Jacky recognizes in Henry the man who seduced her abroad as a sixteen-year-old and then left her sitting on herself for a long time after the death of her parents until she could afford the return trip to England. Remembering the way Margaret always urged him to support her fiancé Leonard, Henry suspects that this is a conspiracy agreed by both sisters against him, and he breaks off his engagement to Margaret. Margaret decides to forgive Henry for what he has done long ago and finally convinces him that she knew nothing of Jacky's background, so he withdraws the termination of the engagement.

Helen and Leonard have a brief affair, she becomes pregnant and leaves for Germany for an indefinite period without telling anyone about the pregnancy. The meaningless postcards in Helen's name that Margaret receives appear so strange to Margaret that she suspects that something has happened to her sister and that someone else is sending these cards. Margaret is now living with Henry. Since Helen is permanently away and Tibby has moved out for his studies, Henry had the furniture picked up and stored so that the house could be handed over. When Helen returns several months later and Charles learns that his stepmother's sister has been illegally impregnated and the father is not looking after the mother-to-be, he is furious about the shame that has fallen on his family. He seeks out Tibby and attacks him so hard that he suggests that Leonard might be the father.

Shortly thereafter, Leonard, who is now in very poor physical condition, looks for the sisters and falls into the hands of Charles, who beats him until he falls against a cupboard that falls over and buries him under himself. Leonard dies and the police investigate the circumstances, with Henry quickly realizing that his son will be sentenced at least for manslaughter and thus to prison. When this proves to be true, Henry consults with Margaret and calls the children together again; this time Paul who has returned is also there. He suggests that Howard's End, which was intended for Charles and Dolly, should now be bequeathed to Margaret, and that she inherit nothing else, so that all the rest of the fortune goes to the children. The others finally agree and as they leave, Dolly and Evie briefly drop the remark that Howard's End, as directed on Ruth's note, is now going to Margaret without noticing that she is standing near the door and can hear her. Margaret did not understand everything, however, and asks her husband what they were talking about. Henry only says that he got a note from the hospital that Ruth had written in pencil, which was obviously no longer written in a sane condition, so he found it appropriate not to pay any attention to it.

backgrounds

Peppard Cottage in the village of Rotherfield Peppard near Reading served as the setting for Howard's End

After Zimmer mit Aussicht and Maurice , producer Ismael Merchant and director James Ivory filmed EM Forster's third novel with Reunion in Howards End .

The grandmother of Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Helen Schlegel in this film, lived in 1913 in the same monastery hotel in Sicily where Bonham Carter stayed during a film production with Woody Allen . At that time, her grandmother was reading the recently published novel Howards End there .

Reviews

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

“The result was a masterful film adaptation of the 1910 novel. But what is for some enjoyable historical costume ham with composed images of the times and morals of a society in upheaval, others consider Oscar-winning, well-groomed boredom. "

- Prism Online

Awards (selection)

DVD release

  • See you in Howards End. Arthaus Premium Edition (2 DVDs). Kinowelt Home Entertainment 2009

Soundtrack

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b [1] at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on January 2, 2014
  2. ↑ a b [2] at Metacritic , accessed on January 2, 2014
  3. ↑ Howards End in the Internet Movie Database (English)