Collectively, they released 43 films over four decades, reinvigorated an infatuation with costume dramas, and became high-water marks of independent productions. Why they aren’t household names or the titles on the tips of future filmmakers’ tongues is a bit of a mystery.

But that’s a familiar story, isn’t it? Earlier this year, Cohen Media Group released the documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, Martin Scorsese and David Hinton’s rapturous reconstruction of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s careers in cinema. Now comes Merchant Ivory, also released through Cohen Media Group and also covering two collaborators who were successful in their heyday but have slipped off the cinematic radar since. Cinema lovers have such short attention spans.

Directed by Stephen Soucy—who interjects himself either too much or not enough—Merchant Ivory is the story of James Ivory, an Oregonian who started making documentaries in his 30s, and Ismail Merchant, a Muslim Indian producer. Together, they teamed with author Ruth Prawer Jhabvala to form Merchant Ivory Productions, an independent company known for Howard’s End, Maurice, The Remains of the Day, A Room With a View, and many, many more.

Ivory, who is the only one still alive, describes their relationship as a government. “I’m the president. Ismail is the Congress. And Ruth is the Supreme Court. If she said what we were doing broke the law, we didn’t do it.”

And by law breaking, Ivory means the law of narrative. As film critic Roger Ebert once said, Merchant Ivory might be the most literate movie company, and not just because they treated the works of Henry James and E.M. Forster with reverence, but because their characters were richly constructed and handsomely photographed. There isn’t anything lewd or tawdry about a Merchant Ivory Production. That might explain why some aren’t interested. That’s their loss.

Merchant Ivory is a fairly nuts-and-bolts look at the titular men behind the camera and their life-long relationship bolstered by many talking heads (Simon Callow, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh Grant, Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson, etc.) to bring additional perspectives. They’re all very proud to have worked on the movies—as they should be—and they’re all having a good time telling tales out of class.

And while Soucy seems to want to steer his doc toward gossip, Ivory seems less inclined to do so. Not that he’s ashamed and secretive about his sexual identity; he just doesn’t want his sexual identity to be the identity people take away from this project. Ivory is much more interested in talking about making the movies than he is about the critical responses to them or what was happening behind the camera—particularly regarding funding, which they often didn’t have.

But the movies got made, and the movies last. Merchant Ivory overstays its welcome—the last act flags a bit—but it remains a solid primer for those who have yet to explore the sumptuous works of James Ivory and Ismail Merchant.

Merchant Ivory (2024)
Directed by Stephen Soucy
Produced and written by Jon Hart, Stephen Soucy
Cohen Media Group, Not rated, Running time 112 minutes, Premiered March 16, 2024, at the BFI Flare London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.

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