A miscellaneous

Ophelia 2022-01-13 08:02:16

When watching the movie Howards End, I did not pay attention to class, customs and gender at all, but focused on the following questions:
What are we afraid of?
What are
we avoiding and what are we looking for?

These three questions can be said to be variants of the three questions in ancient philosophy.
who are we?
Where do we come from?
Where are we going?

The beginning of the film is moving, and the elderly Mrs. Wilkes walks in the field, walking slowly, dignified, but not heavy. She walks easily and comfortably, walks in beauty. The skirt may be too verbose, but it shows the power in the body more and more. The camera follows Mrs. Wilkes, walks across the field, and returns to the manor. The camera passes over her and enters the whole family through the window. The tone of the film may have been set: is it a field or a social one? Is it an individual or a community? Is it romantic or realistic?

The next episode went on cleanly, and Helen, who was passionate and sensual, failed to fall in love, causing embarrassment for the two families, and the farce ended hurriedly. The same absent-minded Helen took Lenoard's umbrella by mistake, and the latter's relentless pursuit of the former did not reveal the reason until the moment of separation-he was so poor that he could not afford to lose an umbrella.

Lenoard has a noble and determined face, with a stiff nose and a simple jaw like a German, and he is by no means an inferior appearance. In the scene where he had a conversation with his future wife after returning home, he could not forget the scene of the encounter with the sisters. This encounter was again due to a lecture called "Music and Meaning". The origin of romance brought romance. But this is not an age suitable for the growth of romantic feelings.

The next two parallel lines are the two friendships that have grown stronger, one is between the eldest sister Meg and Mrs. Wilkes, and the other is between the two sisters Schlegel and Leoard. The friendship of the former made Mrs. Wilcoxes bequeath the Howard Manor to Margaret before his death, and the friendship of the latter made Leoard lose his job because of the two sisters Schlegel caring about Leoard and misbelieving Mr. Wilcoxes.

Since then, the contradiction has officially begun to intensify. Is it necessary to transfer the property of the deceased wife in accordance with the wishes of Mrs. Wilcoxes? What does losing a job mean to a young person at the bottom of society? The contradiction between the two lines continued. Mr. Wilcoxes cautiously approached Margaret and proposed to her, but Helen broke with the entire upper class because of his sympathy for Lenoard’s situation, and he took Lenoard and his wife to the wedding of Mr. Wilcoxes’ daughter. This exposes a deeper contradiction. Lenoard's sensual and indecent wife was Mr. Wilcoxes' mistress ten years ago. So far, the three classes have met in this way, the three classes have been entangled in this way, and the desires and fears of the three classes have been presented. The revelation of their respective desires and fears will define their respective personalities.

At the moment of meeting, Mr. Wilcoxes showed greater fear than Lenaord's wife, and he drew his legs away without daring to look back. In the next scene, he kept confessing this love history with Margaret. The director used three clips to express his babble very concisely. Every time Margaret said "I forgive you", one shot ended and the other shot. At the beginning, he began to tell again. Mr. Wilcoxes is afraid of facing his mistress who was abandoned by him ten years ago, or more abstractly, he is afraid of facing that period of history that is not accepted by the mainstream society, and what he is afraid of is the dark side of personality he does not want to face. . Mr. Wilcoxes' response to fear is to act like a child, talk and ask for forgiveness, even if Margaret has said "I forgive you" several times, he still can't stop confessing. What he desires is what he does. He desires to be heard, accepted, and forgiven. After that, he can make a statement to this period of history, treating it as a personality that has been cleaned up.

On the spot, the other person who showed great fear was Helen. She seemed to be madly taking Lenoard and his wife to the wedding scene to seek justice for them. In Lenoard’s unemployment, Mr. Wilcoxes gave wrong information, but it was Helen who chose to pass this information to Lenoard and forced him to accept it. Helen's desire has always been reflected in her actions. In the beginning, she had a heroine-like desire to save Lenoard, who had a personality similar to her, from a life of poverty. Once she realized that her dream had become a nightmare, she began to blame others, taking Wilcoxes and Margaret as the source of the error. Next, she proved her further desire to change Lenoard's life with her own actions.

Helen's desire corresponds to her fear. She cannot see Leoard's disappointment or failure, which is more unbearable than her own disappointment or failure. In the days when she broke with her sister, she went to Russia and Germany alone. Compared with the United Kingdom, they were both savage places and able to maintain her romantic feelings. Helen projected herself on Lenoard-a passionate young man who pursues beauty and love must be treated well. This is an absolute command of Helen's spiritual world. Anyone who disobeys must be punished. This kind of good treatment is reflected in her own actions as having sex with her and asking her brother to send a check for five thousand yuan. Matching Lenoard's behavior, L did not need pity or sympathy, and returned the check. Helen didn't need sympathy either, she refused to return to London to visit her relatives. This is a Byronian heroic image. His desire has led to self-destruction from the beginning, and his fear is that self-destruction cannot be achieved-anyone who conflicts with self-destruction is an enemy.

Helen and her lover Lenoard, both sensitive and romantic artistic youths, have the same characteristics in the choice of partners. They couldn't help choosing to save those who were in distress, even if they were destroyed with it. Lenoard had never really communicated with his wife; neither did Helen and Lenoard. As L said: You don't understand our life at all. For us, failure means failure. Between Lenoard and his wife is the gap between art and beauty, and between Lenoard and Helen is the experience and understanding of life's misery.

In the film, another character who expresses a strong desire, or a combination of characters, is the children of the Wilcoxes family, represented by his eldest son Charles. Charles, his wife, and sisters actively opposed contact with Sister Schlegel from the beginning. In character, Charles is a rude and uneducated person. He repeatedly objected to his father's contact with Margret, and M moved his furniture into Howard Manor after the marriage. After learning that L was the father of Helen's child, he actually slashed at him with a sword in a rage. Where did this extremely violent action come from? Spinoza defines this kind of extreme action caused by emotion as "hot passion." What kind of passion is caused by what? Where does this hatred come from? Is it just because of care for property? Charles' previous contempt for Margret's brother Tipi shows that he looks down on these college students. But true contempt should be a kind of contempt, and his aggressiveness shows that he just sees the other party as a serious enemy. And Helen actually associates with a person who has no money but is educated. Is this the cause of his anger?

"Howard Manor" presents a young couple of Byronian heroes, Helen and Lenoard. Young people who are full of passion and pursuing beauty and love must be treated well. This is the absolute command of Helen's spiritual world. Anyone who disobeys must be punished. But this kind of kindness never allows alms and sympathy to be mixed, because it despises and overturns what the world can give as he wants, so he never accepts any help from the world, either a secular death or a literary death. Byronian literary youth must face up to self-destruction, which is the secret happiness they have been pursuing but never admit.

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Extended Reading
  • Albertha 2022-03-26 09:01:11

    Ivory's really poor pacing almost drags down a perfect melodrama. But other than that, there's nothing wrong with the film. Especially in the depiction of women's psychology is very prominent. Aunt ET and Grandma Vanessa are so perfect. In addition, the photography of this film is really beautiful, especially the lighting.

  • Newell 2022-03-26 09:01:11

    The images of the British Masters Exhibition @大光Ivory are as beautiful as ever: fresh, moist and nostalgic British idyllic scenery, dreamlike bluebells. Although I haven't read the original work, I still feel the difficulty of adapting words into images: the sense of separation between the poetic and beautiful clips and the almost bloody plot is probably limited by the length of the movie, so it can't be shown more inconspicuously. The screening version of the film festival seems to have been cut too much, and the front and back are not coherent, so you need to watch it again.

Howards End quotes

  • Helen Schlegel: We're not odd, we're just over-expressive.

  • Margaret Schlegel: I deny it's madness.

    Henry Wilcox: But you said yourself...

    Margaret Schlegel: It's madness when I say it, but not when you say it.