“Merchant Ivory” premiered to rave reviews at the recent Sedona International Film Festival. James Ivory was presented with the festival’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Merchant Ivory” is the first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership — both professional and personal — of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins.
Footage from more than fifty interviews, clips, and archival material gives voice to the family of actors and technicians who helped define Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning work of consummate quality and intelligence.
Merchant Ivory became synonymous with quality filmmaking over a period of more than 40 years, earning particular acclaim for "A Room with a View" (1985), "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge" (1990), "Howards End" (1992), and "The Remains of the Day" (1993). They were life partners from 1961 until Merchant’s death in 2005.
With six Academy Award-winners among the notable artists participating — including Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, and Hugh Grant, among others — the documentary provides new and compelling perspectives on a unique partnership that produced seminal films over four decades.
These close and often long-term collaborators intimately detail the transformational cinematic creativity and personal and professional drama of the wandering company that left an indelible impact on film culture.