Presented in a linear, reserved way, not unlike the vibe of the beloved duo’s greatest hits, this doc is definitely for the completists of their work and is, in fact, the first detailed, full-length film of their partnership.
Right off the bat—something I never knew: director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant weren’t just business partners; they were domestic partners for more than forty years. So, there’s one revelation right out of the box, at least for me.
But director Stephen Soucy is mildly admonished by Ivory himself to not get too bogged down in the personal, when there’s so much more to show the viewers, so many backstage stories to tell.
Like Currier and Ives, just the names Ivory-Merchant conjure a specific brand of images.
Costume period pieces will always be their calling card – films like Howard’s End, A Room with a View, and The Remains of the Day to name a few. But another new fact for me was that they had started off making Indian films and other offerings that gave no hint of their trademark style that was yet to come.
Soucy has assembled a heap of famous and less-famous actors from, well, I guess you could say their company (actors, not IBM) to talk about, almost uniformly, low budgets and Merchant’s notorious wheeling and dealing. Soucy probably goes to the budget well a few too many times, but the way the lack of big bucks did affect different actors in different ways.
The film is constructed with the set- up of telling the tales behind most of their biggest films in order of release, intermittently cutting to biographical information, separately, of the two men and the third leg of the stool, screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala,
Let’s face it, their films got more industry admiration than butts in theater seats. After all, the opulent settings and sumptuous wardrobe are no match for superheroes and sequels. For that reason, I’m not sure this film will be of interest to people coming to the movie cold (though I personally love all showbiz docs, even if I am not familiar with the subjects).
But fans could not ask for a more thorough and comprehensive journey through the life of a partnership that will elicit those golden images for decades to come.
Merchant Ivory Opens in Theaters Friday August 30th
