The cinematic creative collaboration of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (along with composer Richard Robbins on a vast number of titles) marks what is arguably the longest running and most successful associations in film history, spanning 6 decades and 44 films that received 35 Oscar nominations. Most of the work was produced by Merchant and directed by Ivory; 23 were scripted or co-scripted by Jhabvala. Robbins wrote every score from 1979 onward and the majority of the motion pictures were based on classic and celebrated novels (Henry James, E.M. Forster, Kazuo Ishiguro, etc.).
Ivory was born in Oregon and attended USC studying Cinematic Arts where he directed his first short, Four in the Morning, in 1953. For his master’s thesis he made the doc short, Venice: Theme and Variation, which the New York Times called one of the ten best non-theatrical films of 1957. Ivory met Merchant at a screening of Ivory’s short, The Sword and the Flute, in 1959 and by 1961 the two had become collaborators as well as long-term romantic partners, a fact that no one ever hid but was also never publicly discussed until recently.
The first few Merchant Ivory films were set in India beginning with The Householder in 1963, written by Jhabvala, based on her novel. The film was a hit and set the stage for a continuous output of quality films that would only grow in popularity including, Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Bombay Talkie (1970), Savages (1972), The Wild Party (1975), Roseland (1977), The Europeans (1979), Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980), Quartet (1981), Heat and Dust (1983) and The Bostonians (1984). The latter film brought the company their first major Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category for Vanessa Redgrave’s outstanding work.
1986 would mark the beginning of a rich golden period for Merchant Ivory beginning with A Room with a View, based on the E.M. Forster novel, and starring Julian Sands, Helena Bonham Carter, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Denholm Elliott and Maggie Smith (the latter two both Oscar nominated). The film would become a surprise box office smash and reap 8 Academy Award nominations including Ivory’s first for Best Director (It won 3 Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Jhabvala).
The follow-up film, also based on Forster, was Maurice (1987), a bold (for the ‘80s) look at homosexuality in Edwardian England. The film starred James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves and Ben Kingsley and is seen today as a milestone in queer cinema.
Both highly underrated, Slaves of New York and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge followed and were not as well received although Joanne Woodward received an Oscar nomination playing Mrs. Bridge, opposite Paul Newman as Mr. Bridge.
Howards End and The Remains of the Day in 1992 and 1993, respectively, would prove the zenith of success, both critically and commercially, for the team. Each starred Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins and would rack up a total of 17 Oscar nominations, including 2 more for Ivory as Best Director.
Merchant & Ivory would continue making period films like Jefferson in Paris (1995), Surviving Picasso (1996), A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (1998), The Golden Bowl (2000), Le Divorce (2003) and The White Countess (2005). Ivory’s final directorial credit to date, The City of Your Final Destination, made after Merchant died, was released in 2010.
In the late aughts, Ivory began penning the screenplay to André Aciman’s celebrated gay coming-of age romance, Call Me By Your Name, which he was supposed to co-direct with Luca Guadagnino, however somewhere during development Guadagnino took over as sole director, purging much of the sexual content in the screenplay (much to Ivory’s public and justified dismay). The film was released in 2017, starred two non-queer actors and garnered 4 Oscar nominations; its sole win went to Ivory for Best Adapted Screenplay. CMBYN is the only narrative feature he wrote but did not direct.
The 95-year-old filmmaker continues to write and develop scripts. A bio-doc portrait of Ivory is currently in the works, directed by Christopher Manning.
Stephen Soucy’s fascinating and revealing documentary feature, Merchant Ivory, will be released by Cohen Media Group this year and features new interviews with many of the major MI artists including Hugh Grant, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave and Ivory himself, as well as archival interviews. Visit: https://www.merchantivoryfilm.com
AD had the honor of zoom-chatting with Ivory about his truly remarkable career. (Soucy pops in near the end to speak a bit about his doc.)
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