A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.
Acting
Thompson's Oscar-winning performance — warmth, wit, and steel
Production
Merchant Ivory at peak opulence; every room tells a story
Writing
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala adapts Forster with surgical precision
Director
James Ivory
Emma Thompson
Margaret Schlegel
Helena Bonham Carter
Helen Schlegel
Anthony Hopkins
Henry J. Wilcox
Samuel West
Leonard Bast
Vanessa Redgrave
Ruth Wilcox
Adrian Ross Magenty
Tibby Schlegel
Prunella Scales
Aunt Juley
James Wilby
Charles Wilcox
Jemma Redgrave
Evie Wilcox
Crispin Bonham-Carter
Albert Fussell
Susie Lindeman
Dolly Wilcox
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Emma Thompson won Best Actress for this while also nominated for The Remains of the Same Year — rare double nomination flex.
The house itself, Peppard Cottage in Oxfordshire, became so iconic that 'Merchant Ivory' briefly meant 'painfully beautiful class anxiety' as a genre.
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