One of Merchant Ivory’s undisputed masterpieces, this adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel is a story of class relations and changing times in Edwardian England. Two sisters become involved with a wealthy, conservative industrialist and his wife and a working-class man and his mistress. The interwoven fates and misfortunes of these three families and the diverging trajectories of their lives are connected to the ownership of Howards End, a beloved country home. A compelling, brilliantly acted study, the film earned three Academy Awards including Best Actress: Emma Thompson, and Best Adapted Screenplay: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson
AIFF2017 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient James Ivory will present a new 4K restoration of the 1992 film
Director’s Statement: James Ivory 
We had been successful with the other two Forster films we’d done,
Maurice (AIFF2017) and
A Room with a View. We thought people would like this one and respond to it. It’s a long film, two hours and twenty minutes. A length like that doesn’t always bode well. But yes, we had hopes for it. Fortunately, because I wasn’t the screenwriter, I didn’t have to face the winnowing out of the best storytelling material. Because I knew our writer, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, knew what to do. Of course when I saw her script for the first time, I probably did the usual yelling: “Where’s this? Where’s that?” But that always happens with adaptations. We’d do that, and then we’d have a bit of a re-think. Ruth or Ismail would tell me, “ That’s a good bit, but there’s just not room,” and I’d accept it. That’s how we worked.
