Merchant Ivory (8/10)

by Tony Medley

110 minutes.

From 1961-2007, Merchant Ivory made 43 films, Ismail Merchant produced 42; James Ivory directed 12. They met in New York City in 1961; Jim was 32 and Ismael was 24.

This film is an interesting story told by the late Merchant and Ivory themselves, along with a plethora of actors and crew who worked with them. It’s divided into six “chapters,” the last three of which deal a lot with their gay relationship.

Directed by Stephen Soucy, it is an interesting look at what goes into and along with the production of the movies. Among those telling are Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh Grant, Vanessa Redgrave and many, many more. I think the best way to get a flavor of this is to give some of the quotes. So, here goes:

Emma Thompson, “It required an immense amount of stamina to work for Merchant Ivory. At the end of every movie, everyone says ‘Never again!’ Not because they’re not wonderful people who make great movies or because it’s low budget. It’s just tough.”

Kit Hesketh-Harvey, actor “Their personal relationship was very, very volatile. When you’ve got your producer and director who are actually a couple; I wasn’t aware of that; it was not alluded to; you could never quite work it out.

Narrator: “With the addition of composer Richard Robbins, the Merchant Ivory style was fully formed, beautiful music, worldly sensibility. plush settings, and complex characters.”

Journalist/ghostwriter for Ismail, Anna Kythreotis: “He could be in a hovel in India or a Maharaja's palace, and he'd be equally comfortable, and he makes the people there equally comfortable. He wasn't smug at all. He was always surprising, totally unpredictable, never dull, and you never went to bed without trying to dream up ways of killing him. But you couldn't. He had that very aristocratic quality of making everyone feel at ease. “

Katherine Wenning, editor, “(a friend said to me) ‘Oh, Kathy. Don't pay him any mind. He's just like he's a bazaar mentality. You know he's a bargainer.’ And it always offended me. Now Ismail made those movies happen. He wheedled and cajoled and dealt, and so on. It wasn't pleasant for a lot of people.”

James Ivory, replying to a criticism that Ismail was a con man, “He was a con man. You have to be a com man to be a successful movie producer anyway.”

Emma Thompson on Ivory’s directing: “There was one particular scene of me getting into a carriage and Jim sticking his head in, going, ‘oh, it was really boring. Let’s do it again, and make it more interesting. It was boring.’ OK, it's marvelous that there was no comforting. There was no ‘oh, that was so fantastic!’  I can't bear that. ‘I didn't like it. I was bored. Let's do it again’…Fantastic!”

These are just a small taste of this informative doc.

Here are the chapters:

Chapter One: The Wandering Company

Chapter Two: The Mystic Masseuse

Chapter III THE UNSPEAKABLE VICE OF THE GREEKS

About homosexuality and “Maurice.”

Chapter IV ONLY CONNECT

Chapter V YOU MEAN A GREAT DEAL TO THIS HOUSE

Chapter VI HEAD AND HEART

Narrators: Jacqui Rossi, Stephen Soucy