"Howard Manor" is a 1992 British film. It is also the third time for director James Ivory to include EM Foster's literary novels after "Blue Sky Outside the Window" and "Morris' Lover". Big screen. The writer EM Foster has completed six novels in his lifetime. Among them, "Howard Hill" published in 1910 is called Foster's best work, and the film adapted from this is also called the most perfect British literature of the 20th century. One of the movies.
The background era of "Howard Manor" is England in the early twentieth century. It has a strong Victorian color. Through the stories between three families, it shows that the era existed among the wealthy capitalists, middle-class intellectuals, and the lower class. Conflict and contradiction. However, "Howard Manor" is not as dimmed and conflicted as Dickens's works. It is based on the gentleness of women, through the tolerance of the heroine, Margaret, and the inconsistency.
■Like many realistic works of the Victorian era, each character in "Howard Manor" represents a typical social class, and the relationship between the characters presents the stance and attitude that prevail among all social classes. In the film, the core of the story is the Shi family representing middle-class intellectuals, and the three children of the Shi family each represent different types of intellectuals. Among them, the eldest sister Margaret is a lady who inherits the aristocratic temperament, and the second sister Helen is full of Idealists with a sense of justice and the courage to pursue themselves, the youngest is a weak scholar who indulges in knowledge learning.
The Shi family, who was living in a peaceful life, fell into class conflicts because of accidentally meeting the wealthy Wei Guoshi family and the poor Renner couple. The Wei Guoshi family is an emerging wealthy capitalist who owns many real estate and businesses, but apart from Mrs. Wei Guoshi, the other members are selfish and arrogant by nature. Mrs. Wei Guoshi is an old-fashioned woman with aristocratic feelings. It is this trait that makes her feel at first sight of Margaret Shi, whom she met by chance. After a brief contact between the two, the wife of Wei Guoshi fell ill, and her death note turned out to be a gift of the Howard Manor under her name to Margaret. It's just that this suicide note was intercepted and destroyed by Wei Guoshi's family, so Marguerite never knew about it.
The family of Renner and his wife is very poor. Among them, Mr. Renner has rich knowledge and romantic ideals, but because he has no background, he can only work as a small employee in a large company. As for Mrs. Renner, because of the early death of her parents, she has to be in society. Survive in the bottom layer. Mrs. Renner is much older than Mr. Renner and has a complicated experience. Mr. Renner married her mainly out of sympathy and commitment. Mrs. Renner is a poor woman with no education, shallow knowledge, and suspicious personality. Although Mr. Renner is poor, he is an ideal, credible, and sturdy person. At a music introduction meeting, Mr. Renner accidentally met Helen, the second daughter of the Shi family, and has been in close contact with the Shi family ever since. Margaret and Helen of the Shi family admired Mr. Renner's talents and character, secretly hoping to help Mr. Renner find a better way out.
The intersection of the three families occurred after the death of Mrs. Wei Guoshi. Because Mrs. Wei Guoshi intends to bequeath Howard Manor to Margaret, this aroused Mr. Wei Guoshi's curiosity about Margaret, so she took the initiative to invite her to have a meal with her family. After several contacts, Mr. Wei Guoshi was attracted by Margaret's character, and then asked for marriage. At that time, Margaret was already quite young, and she had a good impression of Mr. Wei Guoshi, and soon agreed to marry him. However, the other two members of the Shi family disliked Mr. Wei Guoshi, especially the second daughter Helen. Helen had previously left a rift because of emotional entanglements with Wei Guoshi’s youngest son. Later, because of the misinformation provided by Mr. Wei Guoshi, Mr. Renner lost his job and fell into a more impoverished situation, so he was extremely disgusted. Wei Guoshi's family, but for her sister's decision, she and her younger brother can only show respect.
Due to the marriage contract between Margaret and Mr. Wei Guoshi and the difficult life of Mr. Renner, the three families are involved. Mr. Wei Guoshi is a typical selfish capitalist. He thinks that Mr. Renner should be responsible for his failure. He once said: "Yes, we should help the poor, but we cannot abuse our feelings on the poor. It will be endless. "Mr. Renner is a typical poor person with strong self-esteem. He is extremely unwilling to let people know his plight, unwilling to ask for help, and unwilling to accept charity from others.
The three of the Shi family also held different attitudes and positions. Helen believes that the miserable situation of the Renners was entirely caused by Mr. Wei Guoshi. He should take responsibility and find a job for Mr. Renner. Not only did she give her all her respect to Mr. Wei Guoshi and give all her help to Mr. Renner, Regardlessly and angrily, he dragged the Renners to find Mr. Wei Guoshi to settle the accounts. Margaret privately thinks that Mr. Wei Guoshi does owe him to Mr. Renner, but she hopes to ask Mr. Wei Guoshi for help in a gentle and tactful way, so that everyone's face can be enjoyed. As for the youngest son of the Shi family, he is like a closed scholar, completely hiding in his own world, unwilling to get involved in disputes between the two sides.
■There is an inevitable tragedy and an unexpected reconciliation in the ending of the story. Under Margaret’s soft words, Mr. Wei Guoshi had promised to help Mr. Renner find a job, but he unexpectedly discovered that Mrs. Renner was his mistress many years ago. As a result, not only did the work fail. Jointly almost ruined the marriage contract between him and Margaret. Finally, under Margaret's request for completeness and forgiveness, the two married successfully. Just after the marriage, his sister Helen left home for Germany, and kept in estranged contact with her family through postcards and short telegrams. Everyone thought that Helen left because she was angry with Margaret and Mr. Wei Guoshi, but she was actually pregnant. Because Helen sympathized with and admired Mr. Renner, had a passionate relationship with him and became pregnant, so that he avoided his hometown.
Helen originally wanted to give birth to a child abroad by herself, but because her aunt was seriously ill, she rushed back to the UK and caused the pregnancy to happen. Although Mr. Wei Guoshi had affair with others, he was extremely mean to Helen's "depraved" behavior. He did not even agree to let her live in Howard Manor for one night, and he even asked his eldest son to stand up for the family reputation. As a result, Mr. Wei Guoshi’s eldest son met Mr. Renner who came here in Howard Manor. Under malicious beating, Mr. Renner, who had a heart attack, died unfortunately, and Mr. Wei Guoshi’s eldest son also Was prosecuted for homicide.
When Mr. Wei Guoshi firmly refused to allow Helen to live in Howard Manor temporarily, Margaret had a fierce argument with him, asking why he could not accept Helen if he could forgive him and Mrs. Renner’s past, not to mention just Spend one night at Howard Manor. After Mr. Renner’s accident, Margaret even decided to leave Mr. Wei Guo Shi, but when Mr. Wei Guo Shi was in a daze and confused about the trial that her son would face, Margaret decided to go again. Forgive him.
The following year, Mr. Wei Guoshi announced the division of his estate in front of all his children. Howard Manor was left to Margaret, and the rest of the money was shared equally by the other three children, and Margaret decided that he would take the manor after him. Leave it to Helen's children. Mrs. Wei Guoshi said before her death that although Margaret had never been to Howard Manor, she would definitely like this place very much. Margaret really liked Howard Manor. Except for this place, she gave up sharing other assets of Mr. Wei Guoshi. Just after the announcement of the property distribution, Margaret heard the conversation between Mr. Wei Guoshi’s wife and daughter, mentioning that Mrs. Wei Guoshi had gifted Howard Manor to Margaret. Later, Mr. Wei Guoshi admitted that this happened, but he believed that his ex-wife was unconscious at the time, so he did not deal with it according to her wishes. Margaret didn't say much after listening, and continued to walk forward holding Mr. Wei Guoshi's hand.
■The story of "Howard Manor" is gentle and simple, but through the disputes and entanglements between the three families, it truly shows the class contradictions that existed in the British society of that era, and through Margaret's tolerance and Helen's Justice is to find a way out for the contradictory social dilemma.
After the Industrial Revolution, British society has entered a prosperous and prosperous society, but it has also accumulated a large number of social problems. The rapid rise of capitalists and the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor have caused cruel exploitation and hatred between the rich and the poor, leaving scars that are difficult to heal in society. However, with the improvement of the economy, the number of middle-class intellectuals is also increasing. They have a wealth of knowledge and broad insights. As long as they are supplemented by an inclusive attitude and a mellow approach, they can become a bridge between the two ends of the class and become a stable society. Middle power.
Just like in the movie, the wealth and selfishness of the Wei Guoshi family and the poverty and helplessness of the Renners eventually lead to inevitable mutual harm. Such hatred and damage will only continue to accumulate and expand. Fortunately, there are two sisters, Margaret and Helen. Although they hold very different positions and attitudes, their feelings and identification with each other end the hatred and hurt in this generation. In fact, no matter what era or country, the knowledge, insight, sense of justice, and tolerance possessed by intellectuals are all forces for social progress and stability, including contemporary China, of course.
■ "Howard Manor" is played by Emma Thompson as Margaret, Anthony Hopkins as Mr. Wei Guoshi, and Helena Baolin Carter as Helen. The actors are strong, and Emma Thompson is even more so. Won the Oscar for best actress. The Taiwanese translation of this movie has nothing to do with the content of the movie in the sense, but it can be called my favorite title---it's a question.
View more about Howards End reviews
