Merchant and Ivory

Merchant and Ivory, 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. December 25, 1936, Bombay [now Mumbai], India—d. May 25, 2005, London, England) and director James (Francis) Ivory (b. June 7, 1928, Berkeley, California, U.S.) produced a string of impressive low-budget adaptations of complex novels by such authors as Henry James, E.M. Forster, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Merchant and Ivory usually worked with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, 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 production company with Ivory in 1961; the pair also became life partners. In 1963 they released their first feature-length motion picture, The Householder, which also marked the beginning of the duo’s collaboration with Jhabvala. By that time, Ivory had already graduated with an M.A. in cinema from the University of Southern California and had directed two short documentary films. Recognizing that they possessed a mutual respect for each other’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).

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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, and both were nominated for best picture. By the time The Remains of the Day was released in 1993, the filmmaking team was well established. The movie, an adaptation of Ishiguro’s novel, received an Oscar nomination for best picture, and Ivory was nominated a third time for his directing. Their 1996 film, Surviving Picasso, continued their preoccupation with sensuality, this time 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). After Merchant’s death, Ivory directed The City of Your Final Destination (2009). He later wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Call Me by Your Name (2017), which he adapted from a novel by André Aciman. In 2021 he published the memoir Solid Ivory.