Merchant Ivory, a documentary at the British Film Festival, honours the long, storied career of Oscar-winner James Ivory

By Stephen A Russell

James Ivory helmed 30 movies between 1961 and 2007 from the esteemed production company, Merchant Ivory. (Supplied)

Despite winning his only Oscar at the age of 89 for his adapted screenplay of queer love story Call Me by Your Name (2018), many would know James Ivory best as a gifted director.

Between 1961 and 2007, he helmed 30 of the most adored movies from esteemed production company Merchant Ivory, including sweeping literary adaptations of E. M. Forster's A Room with a View, Maurice and Howards End, plus Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day.

Indeed, the term 'Merchant Ivory' is often used as shorthand for lavish period pieces. But as Stephen Soucy's rollicking British Film Festival (BFF) documentary of the same name reveals, they were often chaotic behind their prestigious façade.

Heat and Dust, the 1983 drama adapted by "extraordinary" author-turned-Merchant-Ivory screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from her novel, is a prime example. Starring Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor and Julie Christie and screening at BFF as a retrospective highlight, it was quite the scene, a dapper Ivory, now 96, informs me via Zoom from his New York apartment.

"We ran out of money in the middle of the shoot," he chuckles. "All the actors had arrived to do the first part of the film that takes place in the 20s and we were all set up and ready, so we shot what we could and had to give up after a certain point."

Merchant and Ivory shared a 40-year romance. (Supplied: BFF)

Thankfully, enough money was raised to complete the sequence set in 1982, largely due to the efforts of the late Ismail Merchant, Ivory's partner — in life and cinema.

The talented producer is characterised, at one stage in the documentary, as something of a charismatic pirate who could charm the pants off anyone while relentlessly emptying their pockets.

"I just knew that he would always somehow manage to pull us through," Ivory says. "I just believed in him so completely."

Excerpt first published at ABC News, November 14, 2024

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