Follows the history of the Merchant Ivory partnership, featuring interviews with James Ivory and close collaborators detailing and celebrating their experiences of being a part of the company.
Boasting top-rated casting throughout its extensive tenure, Merchant Ivory represents a blue-chip art house operation, though its success masked a host of behind-the-scenes travails. Producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory teamed up in 1961 as life and business partners to create a highly memorable body of work. Before Merchant died in 2005, the two men made 44 films, often in collaboration with writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
The prominent actors filling out the various roles include Hugh Grant, Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Laura Linney. The formidable ensembles demonstrate the power of well-crafted narratives to attract talent.
While impressive from an outsider’s perspective, things inside the vortex were not so sanguine. The sets of Merchant Ivory productions were filled with acrimonious confrontation and rigorous toil, as is often the case with the shoestring budgets of independent filmmaking. At the same time, the conflict and demanding schedules almost certainly contributed to the high level of craftsmanship associated with the well-known brand.
Specifically, Vanessa Redgrave’s controversial politics and mercurial nature made financing for the films harder to come by. Nonetheless, fueled by Ismail Merchant’s effusive charm, the company invariably won the day for whatever challenges it faced. Somehow, and against all odds, at least some portion of the budget funding had been secured by the time shooting began.
Further endearing to the cast and crew was Merchant’s penchant for preparing meals once a week, creating a family atmosphere of sorts. It was part of his long-honed ability to bargain and cajole since childhood to get his movies made. Merchant was the first of the great independent producers, albeit a bit of a con man as well.
Many of Merchant Ivory’s best-known films, such as “A Room With A View,” “Howard’s End,” and “The Remains of the Day,” were referred to as costume dramas. Virtually all their Academy Award nominations and wins fell into that category, though the team produced other types along the journey. The costumes, or “coss props” as they are called, were stored in an impressively expansive warehouse by the designers.
The story elements of Merchant Ivory projects are often intertwined with the two men’s lives and how society imposes certain roles on people. Themes such as loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and unsanctioned love permeate many of their films.
The untimely death of Merchant devastated Ivory, who notes in the documentary that it wasn’t until four years later, with the release of “The City of Your Final Destination,” that he felt happy. Ivory finally won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2017 for “Call Me By Your Name” after three previous nominations for Best Director. Of particular note is the way Ivory granted extensive access for candid interviews, revealing personal thoughts and details that otherwise might have been lost to posterity.
Directed and co-written by Stephen Soucy and Jon Hart, the documentary’s level of detail in “Merchant Ivory” is admirable, though it sometimes feels like a bit of a slog. Regardless, a fine re-telling of this legendary working relationship makes for a compelling account of an essential part of film industry history that fully stands the test of time.
Now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video
