One of the most beloved Ismail Merchant/James Ivory films, this adaptation of E. M. Forster’s classic 1910 novel shows in careful detail the rigid British class consciousness of the early 20th century. The film’s catalyst is “poor relation” Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson), who inherits part of the estate of Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave), an upper-class woman whom she has befriended. The film’s principal characters are divided by caste: aristocratic industrial Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins), middle-echelon Margaret, and her sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter). The film’s wider theme remains the need, in the words of the novel’s famous epigram, to “only connect” with other people, despite boundaries of gender, class, or petty grievance. Nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, the film took home awards for Thompson as Best Actress, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s adapted screenplay, and Luciana Arrighi’s art direction. Remastered in a gorgeous new 4k DCP and distributed through the Cohen Media Group, Howards End is the kind of film the term “art house cinema” was created for.