During their peak in the 1980s and 1990s, James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, director and producer, were famously known as Merchant Ivory, the driving forces behind stunning period pieces like A Room with a View, Howard’s End, and The Remains of the Day. But to those who knew them closely, they were James and Ismail, partners of five decades whose love story endured both business challenges and personal heartaches. The couple’s romance was more intimate than people knew until the passing of Merchant in 2005 and James Ivory, now 95, is sharing the details in his 2021 memoir, Solid Ivory. Stories about their unique relationship come once again to light in Merchant Ivory, a new documentary by Stephen Soucy, recounting the legacy shared with their third collaboration, novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
The film features interviews with Merchant Ivory’s casts and crew, in which they touch on the duo’s tumultuous relationship, including a love triangle that occurred in the mid-1980s. This dynamic is explored further as Ivory responds to Soucy’s curiosities on their romantic history in the film, revealing the complexity of the Merchant Ivory story. Despite this, Ivory does not regret their privacy during Merchant’s lifetime, noting Ismail’s conservative background in India. Their personal journey began in 1959 when they first met near the Indian consulate in New York, a conversation leading to the formation of Merchant Ivory Productions and launching their feature film, The Householder, in 1963.
In his retrospective documentary, Soucy emphasizes that Ivory couldn’t have achieved his success without the remarkable partnership of Merchant and Prawer Jhabvala. Set aside the prestige and satire often associated with the Merchant Ivory movies, according to Ivory, they had the creative control they aspired, which led to their incredible collaborations like A Room with a View. However, with triumph came other challenges as they steered clear of simplicity, hoping to make other works like a Shakespeare film that never took flight. While the trajectory of their professional careers took a unique path, their partnership remains a subject worth pondering.
