Howards End (DVD)

One of Merchant Ivory's undisputed masterpieces, this adaptation of E.M. Forster's classic novel won multiple prizes including three Academy Awards, with Emma Thompson picking up Best Actress. A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel (Thompson), who, along with her sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter), becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Ruth (Vanessa Redgrave), and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast (Samuel West) and his mistress Jackie (Nicolla Duffett). The interwoven fates and misfortunes of these three families and the diverging trajectories of the two sisters' lives are connected to the ownership of Howards End, the dying Ruth's beloved country home. A compelling, brilliantly acted study of one woman's struggle to maintain her ideals and integrity in the face of Edwardian society's moribund conformist values. Cohen Film Collection is proud to present a gorgeous new 4K restoration from the original negative, overseen and approved by director James Ivory and cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts.