Wiedersehen in Howards End (1992)

Wiedersehen in Howards End: Directed by James Ivory. With Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, Joseph Bennett, Emma Thompson. A businessman thwarts his wife’s bequest of an estate to another woman.

“If itu0026#39;s raining, if itu0026#39;s late, if Iu0026#39;m tired of working, if Iu0026#39;m restless or if Iu0026#39;m in a quandary of sorts, u0026quot;Howardu0026#39;s Endu0026quot;. I put the film on and Emma Thompson – presumably with the help of her accomplices, Ivory, Jhavhala, Hopkins etc – takes me away from whatever mood Iu0026#39;m trying to escape and leads me through her own, brilliantly drawn, gently torturous path. I donu0026#39;t recall when was the last time an actress has had this kind of power over my own psyche. The film is constructed with an Ivory attention to detail worthy of a vintage Visconti. The screenplay has no lapses of any kind and never falls into the usual traps. Loyal to its source material and yet, cinematic in the most revolutionary traditional sense of the word. The Britishness of Anthony Hopkins character is turned upside down giving us a glimpse into a character thatu0026#39;s a mass of contradictions. But it is Emma Thompsonu0026#39;s film from beginning to end. What a glorious achievement.”