Film discussion: Howards End

For me, I know—with a confidence approaching certainty—that sitting at home watching election returns will have a shredding effect on my nervous system. And, since I will have voted, I can have absolutely no subsequent effect on the election’s outcome. It’s different with sports teams I favor, where my lucky talismans, cheers and chants, clothing in team colors and rally hats give me the illusion that I’m adding something to the process. But with presidential elections, I got nothin’. And, unlike sports events, election results last for four years. I think the tension just might just kill me.

In short, I’m delighted to have a movie to go to on Tuesday night. And when the movie is a beautifully restored 4K digital print of one of my favorite literary adaptations, ever, the temptation is complete. I will let the Merchant/Ivory production of Howards End take me away for a couple of hours while the rest of the U.S. population tortures itself with maps, poll returns, graphics, commentaries, interpretations, projections and lamentations/jubilations. But not for me. I call it the Power of Positive Ignoring, and I recommend it highly.

Howards End is among the best movies of its type ever made. The stellar cast, led by Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, features a lovely performance by Vanessa Redgrave and an underrated turn by Samuel West as a young striver with Helena Bonham Carter as a concerned member of the intellectual class. It’s a story about the relationship between the rich, who control things, and the poor, who control nothing, and the progressives who wish they could influence society, at least a little.

I have lost much of my patience with costume dramas. After the success of Downton Abbey, PBS and other content providers are cranking them out like high-class Harlequin Romances, and while some are (arguably) better than others, the flood of imitators has mostly chilled me to the genre.

But Howards End succeeds on every level, as a literary adaptation, as a historical commentary, as a drama and a romance and just plain film-making at the highest level. Unlike an evening of watching election results, watching Howards End will make you feel better about being a human being.

Of course, my recommendation applies whether you see the movie on Tuesday or one of its other showings. But I think if you give my method for dealing with Election Psychosis a try, you’ll never go back to your old habits.

I hope to see you there (for so many reasons). The movie will show at 7:00 in The Historic Theater.

Other discussions this month will be: Sully on Tuesday, November 15 and Cameraperson on November 29.