SMHowley
Joined May 2002
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SMHowley's rating
This movie is lovingly crafted by Polanski and near perfect in it's storytelling.
Kinski is certainly destined to be considered one of the most beautiful women that ever existed but in this movie she achieves so much more. When she stands on the staircase at the end of the film and says, "I waited for you, but still you did not come", you realize all she has gone through and that it was for nothing. Heartbreaking.
Kinski is certainly destined to be considered one of the most beautiful women that ever existed but in this movie she achieves so much more. When she stands on the staircase at the end of the film and says, "I waited for you, but still you did not come", you realize all she has gone through and that it was for nothing. Heartbreaking.
The story is so tragic that this should be a hard-core drama, and parts of it are very poignant, but I also laughed hysterically. This is mainly due to Judy Davis' performance which is so priggish and delightful. Graves and Bonham-Carter played brother and sister in 'A Room With A View' and their chemistry carries over into this film quite well. The music is enchanting. All the way around, a great film.
Howard's End is not an easy movie to sit through if you do not typically watch period films. The language and euphemisms are very old fashioned (1910). But if you really sit back and watch the story unfold you will become engrossed. The crafting of the story by Merchant Ivory is impeccable. They tell the story so visually that you may not notice how physically alike Margaret Schlegel is to Ruth Wilcox in carriage and deportment, but the light-bulb goes off when the housekeeper of Howard's End mistakes Margaret for Ruth. The story itself is so quiet and brilliant that you don't realize something so very profound has happened until the credits roll. Every performance is amazing, but Emma Thompson (she won the Best Actress Oscar) and Vanessa Redgrave stand out. Their scenes together are so full of nuances that it's hard to take it all in during a first viewing.