MovieChat Forums > Howards End (1993) Discussion > Nitpicking

Nitpicking

posted 16 years ago by brucedgo
9 replies | jump to latest

In the opening credits, it says,

__Merchant Ivory Productions__
__________Present__________
_______Howard's End_______

I can hardly believe they made such as basic grammatical error in a high-end movie of this nature: It should be "Presents," not "Present."

"Merchant Ivory Productions" is singular, not plural. For example, see the following quote from Wikipedia:

Merchant Ivory Productions (1961- ) is a film company founded by director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant.

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ...well, I have others.
-Groucho Marx

[–] saltandpepper66 16 years ago

Kind of like how you just made a mistake and called the film Howard's End when it's really Howards End....

[–] brucedgo 16 years ago

You're right

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ...well, I have others.
-Groucho Marx

[–] Hardyboy09 16 years ago

LOL!

[–] murph24 16 years ago

The version I saw of Howards End in various movie theaters began with the following credit scroll -

SUMITOMO CORPORATION * IMAGICA CORPORATION * CINEMA TEN CORPORATION

JSB JAPAN SATELLITE BROADCASTING, INC * IDE PRODUCTIONS * IN ASSOCIATION WITH

MERCHANT IVORY PRODUCTIONS

PRESENT

HOWARDS END

It also appears that way on both my DVD and VHS copies.

Merchant Ivory Productions is indeed singular, but when you factor in all the other corporations/organizations involved in the presentation of Howards End, "Present" is absolutely correct.

If you didn't see the opening credits as they appear in the link below, you must have seen an incomplete version -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suLX8n_cTd4&feature=related

[–] brucedgo 16 years ago

Merchant Ivory Productions is indeed singular, but when you factor in all the other corporations/organizations involved in the presentation of Howards End, "Present" is absolutely correct.

Thanks, Murph! That explains it. I probably wasn't paying close attention to the credits and didn't see the other entities involved.

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ...well, I have others.
-Groucho Marx

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] brucedgo 16 years ago

You must be boomers.

You're funny! And you're right.

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ...well, I have others.
-Groucho Marx

[–] brucedgo 16 years ago

That's an example of constructio ad sensum or notional agreement.

Thanks for the link. I read most of that and found it very interesting. In this case though, based on an earlier post, it seems that there were, in fact, multiple "presenters."

Thanks,
Bruce

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ...well, I have others.
-Groucho Marx

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]