PG, 112 minutes
4 Stars
Review by © Jane Freebury
In its heyday a few decades ago, the Merchant Ivory film was a lavish cinema experience, a sumptuous period production with smarts. Less outrageous than the postmodern romps that are called period drama on streaming platforms these days, but still good fun. A Room with a View comes to mind.
The films were costume dramas set in a time and place, early last century England or Europe were favourite settings. The scripts that explored convoluted relationships between complex characters were thoughtful and intelligent. Hardly surprising, when they were adapted from the work of novelists with international standing like E. M. Forster, Henry James and Kazuo Ishiguro. Author Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the only writer to win both a Booker for fiction and an Oscar for screenwriting, was a frequent collaborator.
While A Room with a View set in Florence, Italy is remembered as one of their most popular films, The Remains of the Day was one of their best. With compelling performances from a terrific lead actors, the Merchant Ivory film was no mere period film. There was always so much more besides ‘the frocks’, as Emma Thompson who starred opposite Anthony Hopkins says in this doco in one of many interviews with Merchant Ivory collaborators.
So much more to their lavish, intelligent period dramas than just ‘the frocks’
Ismail Merchant and James Ivory met at an event in New York early in the 1960s and soon became ‘inseparable’, in life and in work. It was a partnership of opposites. A rascally Merchant charmed cast and crew and kept them on board, plying them with his cooking, while the funding teetered. His romantic relationship with the buttoned-down James Ivory was by most accounts volatile. But it prevailed over the long run, if occasionally interrupted by affairs with others, including Richard Robbins, who was often part of the filmmaker ‘family’, as composer.
What a fascinating pair. Merchant, a Muslim Indian who grew up the son of a merchant in Mumbai, experienced the seismic social shock of Partition, graduated from university and became a film industry showrunner. Ivory, an American with degrees in cinema, is still active in the movie business. His career has continued to flourish since Merchant’s death in 2005 marked a business partnership of nearly 50 years. In recent years, Ivory collected his first Oscar for the adapted screenplay for Call Me by Your Name.
This is a densely upholstered, fascinating documentary that will be of particular interest to Merchant Ivory fans. The archival footage that director Stephen Soucy has assembled amongst contemporary interviews is intercut with scenes from the films that made the team famous. A reminder of the visual and other sensory pleasures.
A highlight is an unforgettable moment from The Remains of the Day. Thompson and Hopkins may have never been finer in their portrayal of a couple, a housekeeper and a butler, barely able to acknowledge their mutual feelings.
An element of social critique, and subversion
Who did not feel crushed as they returned to their respective roles, duty-bound in lifelong service at an English mansion? The film was adapted from the source novel by Kazuo Ishiguro by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. As in many of the novels sourced by Merchant Ivory, there was an element of subversion, a critique of the establishment, unable to respond to social change.
There are lively snippets of interviews with the likes of Vanessa Redgrave, Wes Anderson and Simon Callow and others in the film world. Helena Bonham Carter and Hugh Grant who appeared as ingenues and have Merchant Ivory to thank for the film that got each of them started in their careers, also have a lot to say for themselves.
Given the importance of the writing, it is surprising that more isn’t made of the writing that contributed so much to the success of the Merchant Ivory films. After all, there was Merchant, there was Ivory and there was also Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
To construct this densely upholstered documentary, director Soucy may well have struggled with deciding what should stay in and what could be left out, as it is chockers with interesting material. It feels as though there is still more to say.
Jane’s reviews are also published at Rotten Tomatoes
Image of James Ivory with Ismail Merchant. Courtesy Limelight