A documentary film "Building Howards End" filmed in 2005 introduced the background of the film "Howards End" (1992). Check out the daily bickering between Ismail Merchant and James Ivory
Documentary link? https://m.weibo.cn/1256250217/4613653079267139
Some highlights of the documentary are listed below:
1. Regarding Charles Wilcox (played by "James Wilby"), there is a paragraph in the original book that says that Charles drove a dog to death? Ivory has always wanted to make this group of shots into the film (mainly to highlight Charles' recklessness, for the last time he Mistakenly kills Bast as a foreshadowing), but in the end it was not included (Damn, this is going to be included in the movie, JW's Charles is even more hated...)
2. The funding process for the Howards End film was extremely difficult. Hollywood doesn't want to make such a humanities movie at all (here, Merchant says that Americans don't think it's worth making, and Ivory chokes him "All Americans?" Merchant goes on to say "Yes, all Americans! "(Ivory is not an American?, Merchant, you are wrong again....)), the then Orion Picture (later Sony Classic) company agreed to contribute to Howards End, but the amount was limited (only 25% ).....here comes the point: a lovely Japanese lady, who especially likes A Room with a View (1985) and Maurice (1987), offered to raise money for it from Japan, as the film Maurice was an unprecedented hit in Japan The success of the Japanese lady raised 45% of the funds for Merchant from Japan. The remaining funds were invested by Merchant's old partner, UK-based film4.
3. "James Wilby" recommended "Anthony Hopkins" to Ivory for Henry Wilcox (Ivory knew almost nothing about Hopkins at the time...and found that JW was very good at paving the way for others....), at the time Hopkins The filming of "Silence of the Lambs" has just finished, and there is a gap, and he has shown great enthusiasm for Howards End. And he is not yet famous, so the salary is also very suitable, 2333.....
4. "Emma Thompson" enthusiastically offered to Ivory to play Margaret Schlegel in this film. She also won an Oscar for Howards End and went from a small British actor to an international star.
5. There are two big acting families in Howards End: Redgraves and West. Although funding was extremely tight at the time, Merchant agreed to pay Vanessa Redgraves a hefty sum for the role of first Mrs Wilcox. Merchant said, for Redgraves, I would pluck the moon from the sky...
6. The costume design and photography of the film are all old partners of Merchant/Ivory. The photographer used the latest Fuji film at that time, and the effect was more vivid and moving. The location of Howard End is also quite magical. The crew found a mansion with a height similar to the original, including the garage, the big tree in front of the door, and so on. The mansion is actually bigger than the movie actually shows. During the filming of the crew, the owner of the mansion also lived in it, and often watched the crew's rehearsal.
7. When filming "A Room with a View", Ivory flew from the US to the UK, he was surprised why the UK didn't do these things (referring to the filming of Foster's adaptation) Ivory was not confident at the time, because He doesn't know England that well. Before that, Ivory was only making movies around the UK, such as: movies about India.... When it came to filming Howards End, he already knew the UK very well because of the accumulation of the past few years, and because of Forster's many novels , let him stand on a special new height to look down on all beings in this country... (so be sure to read Forster's original book!!)
8. Ivory is a director who gives actors a lot of room to express themselves. He believes that actors are artists who have their own cognition and deeper understanding of their roles, which the director does not have the energy and time to achieve. Therefore, it is necessary to give the actors a lot of performance space, which will bring more unexpected inspirations to the film. But if Ivory feels that the actor's performance is quite different from the role, he also tells the actor. Aunt Hai recalled that Ivory would usually point out the actors' performances like this: Don't act like this, it's not beautiful... Not only that, Ivory will give everyone in the crew (costumes, props, photography, etc.) a lot of space to let Everyone can bring out the best of themselves, but at the same time, he pays great attention to the little details...
9. Ismail has always been careful to spend his budget carefully in order to complete the film within the budget. During the filming process, Ismail would cook for the actors and enjoy it like a big family. Ismail is also a foodie who owns an Indian restaurant in London.
10. Orion went bankrupt after the filming of Howards End. Fortunately, the later Sony Classic company liked Howards End very much, so they bought the copyright of the film from Orion and was responsible for the subsequent distribution.
11. Merchant/Ivory's films are basically less about commercial profitability, they are more about their own taste. Ismail concluded that the great success of Merchant/Ivory marks the personal success of the actors, the playwrights, the directors, all the crew, because it is the result of everyone's passion, faith and dedication, especially in today's increasingly The times when it was difficult to raise money for low-budget films were even more rare.
12. Finally, Mr. Ivory said the finishing touch: "When Howards End was finished, Ruth and I were not particularly satisfied with the result, but she said 'Well, What ever it is, it is!'"
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