Howards End

How's your house? Ducie Street? Much the same. I don't mean Ducie Street, I meant Howards End, of course. E.M. Forster wrote this novel, and it's set in London. "Howards End" is basically the story of three different families from three different classes. There are the Wilcoxes, who are sort of upper middle class businessmen. And then there are the Schlegels. Yes, good afternoon. -

Colin

And they come from a sort of more Bohemian background. And then there's Leonard Bast, who is a poor clerk. And the story is the interweaving of these three families and how they all relate to each other. -

Margaret

It is a wonderful feeling, knowing a real man cares for you. It's a romance about unconventional relations, but also a tragedy about prejudice and the class system in England. What do you want to have me in there for? To help you, you silly boy. Why should you help me? Why should I not help you? The most important location of the story is Howards End. It becomes a representation of England. The effect that this place has on Margaret. There's some kind of mysterious, almost spiritual connection that she has with it that she can't quite explain. I like the combination of having a classic book, you know, a period drama, adapted by Kenny Lonergan, a contemporary writer, an American writer. Once I got into really writing it, one of the challenges was to take the most human elements of the book and translate that into dramatic action. There's always that double-sided thing of looking at another time period, where the fascination is both how different it is from the way you live and how similar it is. So I thought that was something that made the material so much more modern. It's a retelling of a classic. If you've got a wonderful script, and lovely actors and a wonderful director, hopefully it sort of plays itself. It's funny and it's sad. Ultimately, we want people to laugh and cry and have empathy for other people. (light music) (rain pattering)