Ismail Merchant Movies

A handful of New Yorkers find their paths crossing in ways that force them to examine their lives in this contemporary drama produced by Ismail Merchant. Isabel (Elizabeth Banks) is a twentysomething photographer who is supposed to marry her boyfriend, Jonathan (James Marsden), in a month. But Isabel has found herself wondering if marriage is the right thing for her. Meanwhile, her mother, Diana (Glenn Close), a well-known film actress, has learned her husband has been seeing another woman, and while they have an open relationship, Diana finds this hurtful. Over the course of the day, Diana meets Alec (Jesse Bradford), a handsome young actor, and Isabel is introduced to Peter (John Light), a journalist, and both women begin to question their current relationships. The first feature for director Chris Terrio, Heights also stars Michael Murphy, Eric Bogosian, Thomas Lennon, and Rufus Wainwright. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

After making a living by providing English subtitle translation to numerous French films, American filmmaker Andrew Litvack makes his debut as a writer/director with the Merchant Ivory production Merci Docteur Rey. Set in Paris, this farcical comedy involves the troubles of young gay man Thomas (Stanislas Merhar). First his opera diva mother, Elisabeth (Dianne Wiest), comes for a visit and she doesn't know he's gay. When he accepts a blind date with someone from an online chat room, he ends up witnessing a murder and possibly discovering the identity of his real father. Eventually he ends up telling his story to a therapist, who is instead replaced by unstable voice-over actress Penelope (Jane Birkin). Also includes cameo appearances by Vanessa Redgrave, Simon Callow, Bulle Ogier, and Jerry Hall. Merci Docteur Rey was shown at the 2002 Mill Valley Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

The distinguished director/producer/writer team of James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala returns to the works of 19th century novelist Henry James in this adaptation of his tale of love and treachery. Wealthy American art collector Adam Verver (Nick Nolte) is traveling Europe with his daughter Maggie (Kate Beckinsale) following the death of his wife. In their travels, Adam and Maggie encounter Mrs. Assingham (Anjelica Huston), an American socialite who enjoys playing matchmaker, whether or not her subjects are interested. She introduces Maggie to Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam), a handsome but penniless member of Italian royalty, and after a bit of prodding, they announce their intention to marry. Mrs. Assingham also pushes Adam into a relationship with Charlotte (Uma Thurman), a close friend of Maggie, and they too decide to wed. However, no one else knows that Amerigo and Charlotte were once lovers, who broke off their relationship because he couldn't marry a commoner with no money. Their passion is eventually too strong to resist, and they embark on an adulterous affair, which becomes even more dangerous when Mrs. Assingham learns of it. The Golden Bowl was Merchant/Ivory/Jhabvala's third film based on a James novel, following The Europeans (1979) and The Bostonians (1984). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

James Ivory directed this drama adapted from Kaylie Jones's 1990 autobiographical novel in which the character Bill Willis is based on her father, James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity and A Thin Red Line. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay about expatriate Americans in Paris during the 1960s/1970s offers a portrait of a normal family (as opposed to the dysfunctional families of The Ice Storm and many other 1990s films), seen from the point of view of daughter Channe. Her father is Bill Willis (Kris Kristofferson), a successful novelist and WWII veteran who's married to enthusiastic poker-player Marcella (Barbara Hershey). Divided like the sections of a novel, the story's first chapter is titled, "Billy," in which French orphan Benoit (Samuel Gruen) is brought to the Willis household for adoption, while his unmarried biological mother (Virginie Ledoyen) writes about him in her diary. Six-year-old Benoit has been shipped through so many orphanages and foster homes that he doesn't unpack his suitcase. Benoit's presence prompts the young Channe (Luisa Conlon) to turn to her protective Portuguese nanny Candida (Dominique Blanc). After Benoit becomes acclimated to his new family, he asks that his name be changed to Billy. In the second segment "Francis" a strong friendship develops between Channe (Leelee Sobieski) and fatherless Francis Fortescue (Anthony Roth Costanzo). Obsessed with opera, Francis lives with his expatriate British mother (Jane Birkin). The family's French idyll is disrupted when Bill Willis plans a return to the United States because he wants American doctors to treat his bad heart. The closing act "Daddy" takes place in North Carolina during the 1970s as Bill's health worsens, Billy (Jesse Bradford) grows up, and an alienated Channe seeks acceptance through sex. A bedridden Bill dictates his fiction to Channe, who transcribes tapes and types his manuscript pages. During intimate conversations about boys and sex, Willis helps his daughter find her footing on the path of life. This movie arrived only 14 weeks prior to the release of Terrence Malick's 1998 adaptation of the elder Jones' The Thin Red Line. Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This French-British documentary (in English and Bengali) traces the career of Indian actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who is best known in the West for his frequent work with director Satyajit Ray. Gaach (English title, The Tree) profiles the reminiscences of Chatterjee's fellow performers and other associates. Chatterjee's first major role was in Ray's landmark 1959 film The World of Apu. Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This unusual biography of the renowned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso is a Merchant-Ivory film. The team of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has been responsible for many period dramas, including A Room with a View and Howard's End. The story of Picasso's remarkable misanthropy is told as experienced by his mistress Francoise Gilot (Natasha McElhone). Francoise was Picasso's lover from 1944 to 1954, and they had two children together, Claude and Paloma. The film shows Picasso (Anthony Hopkins) as a notorious womanizer, with flashbacks revealing his relationships with his wife Olga (Jane Lapotaire), the artist Dora Marr (Julianne Moore), and Marie-Therese Walter (Susannah Harker), an earthy type who sees the artist only on Sundays. Hopkins powerfully portrays Picasso as an artistic genius with an appalling habit of using and abusing women. He not only cheats on his wife but two-times his mistresses. Francoise has survived an abusive relationship with her father (Bob Peck), and she is 40 years younger than Picasso when they become lovers. The film was supposed to be based on Gilot's book Life with Picasso, but the filmmakers were unable to get the rights to it, so they settled for basing the film on Arianna Huffington's Picasso: Creator and Destroyer. The movie also uses imitations rather than Picasso's real paintings. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Based on the novel by H.E. Bates, this period drama stars Embeth Davidtz as Bella Ford, a woman living in rural England during the Victorian era. Bella fell victim to Arch Wilson (Greg Wise), a unprincipled man who claimed to be from the nearby village. He seduced her only to vanish without a trace when she became pregnant. When she is outcast after her child is stillborn, a kindly villager named Ben Wainwright (Tom Bell) allows her to stay with his family in exchange for helping with the chores. However, the presence of a young and beautiful woman in the house creates a certain amount of tension between Ben, his wife (Gemma Jones), and sons Jedd (James Purefoy), a soldier; Matty (Kent Anderson), a shoemaker; and Con (Ben Chaplin), a homebody and social misfit. Con takes a shine to Bella and eventually proposes marriage; Bella accepts, but matters become complicated when she discovers that the dastardly Arch has returned to the village. Ismail Merchant served as executive producer. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Anita Desai and Shahrukh Husain adapted Desai's novel for this comedy-drama about an Indian university teacher who encounters numerous hassles in his attempts to document the final writings of an ailing, alcoholic poet whom he idolizes. Score by Zakir Hussain and Ustad Sultan Khan. ~ Nicole Gagne, Rovi

One of the best Ismail Merchant/James Ivory films, this adaptation of E. M. Forster's classic 1910 novel shows in careful detail the injuriously rigid British class consciousness of the early 20th century. The film's catalyst is "poor relation" Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson), who inherits part of the estate of Ruth Wilcox (Vanessa Redgrave), an upper-class woman whom she had befriended. The film's principal characters are divided by caste: aristocratic industrial Henry Wilcox (Anthony Hopkins); middle-echelon Margaret and her sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter); and working-class clerk Leonard Bast (Sam West) and his wife (Nicola Duffett). The personal and social conflicts among these characters ultimately result in tragedy for Bast and disgrace for Wilcox, but the film's wider theme remains the need, in the words of the novel's famous epigram, to "only connect" with other people, despite boundaries of gender, class, or petty grievance. Filmed on a proudly modest budget, Howards End offers sets, spectacles, and costumes as lavish as in any historical epic. Nominated for 9 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, the film took home awards for Thompson as Best Actress, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's adapted screenplay, and Luciana Arrighi's art direction. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (played by real-life "Mr. and Mrs." Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward) are well-to-do residents of Kansas City in the 1940s. So far as the Bridges are concerned, however, it's the 1920s, with Mr. Bridge treating his wife like property, regarding his grown children as if they're still adolescents, and habitually voting against that upstart Roosevelt. Though the underlying painfulness of such an archaic arrangement is never ignored, Mr. Bridges' obstinancy is for the most part amusing. The scene that seemed to please the audience most was the one in which Mr. Bridge orders Mrs. Bridge not to leave their table at their country club despite tornado warnings (they sit quietly in the deserted dining room while the building shakes and shudders). As for Mrs. Bridge, her "life" is totally defined by those around her--which in any other film would be a tragedy, but which here seems a logical extension of all that's gone before. Based on two separate novels by Evan S. Connell, Mr. & Mrs. Bridge is a rare excursion into Americana by the Ismail Merchant-James Ivory team. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Someone has tried to murder Mr. Perfect (Dinshaw Daji) and now the beleaguered Inspector Ghote (Krishna Shah) must figure out who tried to do it. Set in Bombay, India, this rollicking crime drama centers on Ghote's search for the would-be killer. Mr. Perfect was knocked out with a candlestick in the home of the jovial Dilap Lal, his employer. As there was no sign that the assassin forced his or her way into the home, Ghote assumes the prime suspect is Lal or one of his family members. Unfortunately, the pressures from his other cases that include a ring of jewel smugglers and a bureaucrat's purloined piece of costume jewelry prevent Ghote from giving his full attention to Perfect's assailant. That Ghote must also entertain the meddlesome Axel Svensson (Stellan Skarsgård), a renowned Swedish crime scientist, does nothing to help matters. To make matters worse, Lal's clan belongs to the upper caste, making it nearly impossible for him to get answers to his questions. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The elderly owner of an aging but still beloved Catskill's landmark inn must decide whether to make necessary repairs to the hotel or to sell the land to developers. Meanwhile the owner's granddaughter toils in the hotel kitchen for the summer and the other staff members do their jobs. Essentially Sweet Lorraine is a plain-spoken but heartwarming slice-of-life drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi