Merchant and Ivory

▪ director–producer team

 producer–director team known for their richly textured cinematography and ability to evoke brilliant performances from some of the world's finest actors. Producer Ismail (Noormohamed) Merchant (b. Dec. 25, 1936, Bombay [now Mumbai], India—d. May 25, 2005, London, Eng.) and director James (Francis) Ivory (b. June 7, 1928, Berkeley, Calif., U.S.) produced a string of impressive low-budget adaptations of complex novels by such authors as Henry James (James, Henry), E.M. Forster (Forster, E M), and Kazuo Ishiguro (Ishiguro, Kazuo). Merchant and Ivory usually worked with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer), who wrote the majority of their films.

      Born and raised in India, Merchant immigrated to the United States in 1958 and soon began producing films. He formed a partnership with Ivory in 1961. Merchant's first feature-length motion picture, The Householder (1963), marked the beginning of his collaboration with both Jhabvala and Ivory. By that time, Ivory had already graduated with an M.A. in cinema from the University of Southern California and had directed two films. Recognizing that they possessed a mutual respect for one another's work and common creative sensibilities, Ivory and Merchant produced seven films in the first 10 years of their partnership, including Shakespeare Wallah (1965) and Bombay Talkie (1970).

      Fueled by Jhabvala's sensual screenplays, Merchant and Ivory then embarked on a pair of James adaptations, The Europeans (1979) and The Bostonians (1984), which were followed by three Forster adaptations: Maurice (1987), A Room with a View (1986), and Howards End (1992)—all of which won awards. For the latter two films, Ivory received Academy Award nominations for best director. By the time The Remains of the Day was released in 1993, the filmmaking team was well established, and Ivory was nominated a third time for a best-directing Oscar. Their 1996 film, Surviving Picasso, continued their preoccupation with sensuality by recounting a 10-year tryst between the flamboyant painter and one of his many mistresses.

      At the beginning of the 21st century, Merchant and Ivory continued to work as a producing-directing team, creating such films as Le Divorce (2003) and The White Countess (2005). Two years after Merchant's death in 2005, Ivory directed The City of Your Final Destination.

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