James Ivory

Howards End

Howards End

The pinnacle of the decades-long collaboration between producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory, Howards End is a luminous vision of E. M. Forster’s cutting 1910 novel about class divisions in Edwardian England. Emma Thompson won an Academy Award for her dynamic portrayal of Margaret Schlegel, a flighty yet compassionate middle-class intellectual whose friendship with the dying wife (Vanessa Redgrave) of rich capitalist Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins) commences an intricately woven tale of money, love, and death that encompasses the country’s highest and lowest social echelons. With a brilliant, layered script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (who also won an Oscar) and a roster of gripping performances, Howards End is a work of both great beauty and vivid darkness, and one of cinema’s best literary adaptations.

Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1992
  • 142 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.35:1
  • English
  • Spine #488

Special Features

  • New high-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts and approved by director James Ivory, with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New video appreciation of the late Ismail Merchant by director Ivory
  • Building “Howards End,” a documentary featuring interviews with Ivory, Merchant, Helena Bonham Carter, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and Academy Award–winning production designer Luciana Arrighi
  • The Design of “Howards End,” a detailed look at the costume and production designs for the film, including original sketches
  • The Wandering Company, a 50-minute documentary about the history of Merchant Ivory Productions
  • Original 1992 behind-the-scenes featurette
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by critic Kenneth Turan

    New cover by Andre Junget

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New high-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts and approved by director James Ivory, with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • New video appreciation of the late Ismail Merchant by director Ivory
  • Building “Howards End,” a documentary featuring interviews with Ivory, Merchant, Helena Bonham Carter, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and Academy Award–winning production designer Luciana Arrighi
  • The Design of “Howards End,” a detailed look at the costume and production designs for the film, including original sketches
  • The Wandering Company, a 50-minute documentary about the history of Merchant Ivory Productions
  • Original 1992 behind-the-scenes featurette
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by critic Kenneth Turan

    New cover by Andre Junget
Howards End
Cast
Emma Thompson
Margaret Schlegel
Anthony Hopkins
Henry Wilcox
Vanessa Redgrave
Ruth Wilcox
Helena Bonham Carter
Helen Schlegel
Samuel West
Leonard Bast
James Wilby
Charles Wilcox
Prunella Scales
Aunt Juley
Jemma Redgrave
Evie Wilcox
Joseph Bennett
Paul Wilcox
Adrian Ross Magenty
Tibby Schlegel
Susie Lindeman
Dolly Wilcox
Nicola Duffett
Jacky Bast
Barbara Hicks
Miss Avery
Credits
Director
James Ivory
Screenplay
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Producer
Ismail Merchant
Based on the novel by
E.M. Forster
Associate producer
Donald Rosenfeld
Music
Richard Robbins
Cinematography
Tony Pierce-Roberts
Editing
Andrew Marcus
Costumes
Jenny Beavan
Costumes
John Bright
Production design
Luciana Arrighi
Art Direction
John Ralph

Current

Howards End: All Is Grace
Howards End: All Is Grace
Who speaks of Howards End these days? Who expounds on the virtues of this magnificent drama, whose traditional style seems almost as distant as its Edwardian setting? Seen today, years past its 1992 release, it strikes one as not only the ultimate ac…

By Kenneth Turan

Celine Song’s Top 10
Celine Song’s Top 10

The director of Past Lives shares a list of favorite films, many of which reflect her background in theater and her interest in the smallness of human life in the face of time and history.

Hopkins in Color
Hopkins in Color
It may be news to many, but in addition to creating such larger-than-life characters as The Silence of the Lambs’ Hannibal Lecter and Howards End’s Henry Wilcox (not to mention, once upon a time, the titular protagonist in James Ivory’s Survivi…