Howards End

Howards End (1992) is James Ivory's period drama you can watch online on iFILM. Adapted from E. M. Forster's novel, it follows three families in an England slipping toward the modern age, with the fate of one country house tying them all together.

The bookish, idealistic Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, drift into the lives of wealthy industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth. On her deathbed Ruth scribbles a note leaving her beloved house to Margaret — but the Wilcoxes burn it and keep the property. Henry later proposes to Margaret, while the impulsive Helen tries to rescue a struggling clerk named Leonard Bast, and a single well-meaning gesture sets off a chain of lies, class snobbery and ruined lives. Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter carry it.

This is Merchant Ivory at full strength: exact Edwardian interiors, restrained conversations where everything is at stake. The film took three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Emma Thompson. Calm on the surface, quietly merciless underneath — a film about who gets to inherit England. Stream Howards End (1992) online on iFILM.