'Merchant Ivory' - James Ivory on the documentary about his decades-long film career

Not slowing down
The Bay Area Reporter interviewed Ivory, who at age 96 is vigorous, ornery, and shows no sign of slowing down. He's the sole survivor of the quartet. Two years ago, his memoir, "Solid Ivory" was published. The director of the documentary, Stephen Soucy, also weighed in at times.

Having made 43 films in his career, Ivory was asked what was the characteristics that made them unique.

"We made the films exactly the way we wanted to make them," said Ivory. "And we were well funded for it. We were never told how to make films, even when we worked for Hollywood studios. They left us alone, not even telling us how to recut the film. 'Remains of the Day,' (perhaps their best realized film with everyone involved at the top of their game) didn't have a happy ending and one of the studio executives said, 'There goes $50 million,' but they never forced us to change it. We just did what we wanted to do.

"Often Ruth had been reading a novel or recommended one which I would then read. This is what happened with 'Quartet' by Jean Rhys, whom I'd never heard of. But once I read it, I wanted to make this film as I'd always been fascinated by Paris in the 1920s. It was completely haphazard what we made, but it was always our decision."

What does Ivory see as his legacy to cinema 50 years from now?

"I would hope our films would hold up for 50 years," he said. "I would feel happy people still see something alive and of interest to them. This is of course the subject of many of our films, people who lived a long time ago. I never wanted to make a period film before the age of photography. My cutoff period was the 1840s, 1850s, with 'Jefferson in Paris,' being the one exception. I always made something of which there was a photographic record."

Cinematic contemporaries
As for anyone following in his tradition of filmmaking, he sees only his friend director Wes Anderson ("Darjeeling Limited," "Grand Budapest Hotel") as a possible successor. When I suggested "Downton Abbey" or "Bridgerton" as candidates, he hadn't watched either series. However, when I pointed out the explicitness of the latter, he answered, "I'm the first person to show naked men in 'A Room with A View,' and 'Maurice,' a tradition they are continuing."

In the documentary and in interviews in the last five years, Ivory has been much more open talking about his experiences as a gay man, in his personal and professional partnership with Merchant. However, he's still maintains a kind of reticence about the subject.

"People want to talk about it now, so when I'm being interviewed, I tell them to read my book because that's where I spill the beans."

He never came out to his family, though he suspects his (adopted) father knew but never said so directly.

Said Ivory, "He loved Ismail."

The documentary mentions a crisis that occurred when Merchant and Robbins fell in love. In his memoir, Ivory stated they had an open relationship, each having affairs with other men. Ivory had a torrid romance with the late travel writer Bruce Chatwin in the 1980s before he died of AIDS. But when Merchant and Robbins talked about living together, Ivory said no. Robbins, sensing an impasse, fell in love with a younger man which devastated Merchant. Ivory notes even with their flings they always came back together.

"I'm like a powerful French matriarch who knows she's at the center of her husband's world, despite the mistresses and the one to whom he always returns because she's the center of his world."

Clearly a complex relationship, they owned several homes together.

Movie meet-cute
In the documentary, Ivory notes that Merchant came from a very conservative Indian Muslim family who never knew about their relationship. Ivory felt he had to protect Merchant so didn't discuss their relationship publicly to avoid any anger or shock from his relatives, almost all of whom have now died.

The film details how it was Ivory's love of India expressed in his short documentary, "The Sword and the Flute," about Indian miniature painting, that led to meeting Merchant, who attended a screening in New York. Merchant was amazed that an American could make such a perceptive film about India.

They went on a date and two years later they had formed Merchant Ivory Productions. Their first film was "The Householder" (1963), based on Jhabvala's novel about Indian newlyweds.

"But I've never written a screenplay," she remarked.

"Well, I've never produced a movie and Jim has never directed one," Merchant replied.

Ivory claimed there was no need to talk about their relationship 30 or 40 years ago or to put himself forward as a gay person.

"Everyone knew we were gay and that was that," he said. "On film sets, we were referred to as Jack and Jill. It wasn't like we had to explain ourselves, justify our very existence, or how we loved. That was not done then. We never encountered any prejudice. Unless you had prejudice against Indians or Muslims, Ismail would never have tolerated it, as he rode over everything and everyone to raise money for our films."

Soucy comments that Paul Bradley, Merchant Ivory's other long-time associate producer, says after the company's huge success with "A Room with A View," film people would come up to him and say, "You could make anything you want, so why on earth would you do 'Maurice,' (about a gay relationship in Edwardian England with a happy ending)?"

Ivory says "Maurice" was the film we wanted to make because "'A Room with a View' and 'Maurice' are the reverse sides of a coin, dealing with the same subject."

Ivory is proud when younger men come up to him on the streets of New York or at film festivals or retrospectives, hold his hand and, referring to "Maurice" say, "You changed my life."

Other stories
Soucy had made a short animated film, "Rich Atmospherics: The Music of Merchant Ivory Films," with Ivory being the narrator.

"I wanted to make a film on the definitive look at Merchant Ivory and what Jim, Ismail, Ruth, and Dick had accomplished in their career, looking at the whole arc and trajectory of Merchant Ivory," Soucy recalls. "Jim said 'Yes,' and the doors opened, enabling me to gather all my interviews (including Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Vanessa Redgrave among many others) and footage, all the people you see in the film."

Ivory is not self-reflective either about himself or his films. When asked what advice he might give to a young gay film director just starting out, Ivory replied, "I wouldn't say anything about his sexuality or how he should behave in any way, shape, or form. I would tell him always get your own way. That's why you are interviewing me now. We always got our own way. But Ismail was around to say, 'No, Jim you are not going to get your own way because we can't do it, it's impossible, forget it. Think of doing it another way.' He couldn't raise the money or something I was asking to do, well for finance's sake, we could do well do without it."

Soucy chimes in that he might give the advice "to find their own Ismail Merchant, a producer you partner with and who believes in you. Jim gives Ismail the lion's share of the credit for Merchant Ivory ('I was the president, Ismail Congress, and Ruth the Supreme Court') for securing the budget and allowing him to make the films he wanted to make. As a filmmaker, I wish in earlier days I had an Ismail, who would say, 'Stephen, make want you want to make. Find great collaborators and bring them in project after project, to use their strengths again and again.'"

Creative freedom & constraints
While being independent filmmakers gave them creative freedom, the limitation was small budgets. In the documentary, past actors and crew mused if they would ever get paid (they did eventually). Sometimes when Merchant didn't have all the finances, to prevent actors from leaving, he would cook legendary Indian meals, especially chicken curry, to entice them to stay.

Jhabvala was afraid Merchant might be sent to prison since the sources of his budget were dicey and not always above board.

In an interview, she said, "I never wanted him to tell me where the money came from."

People called him a con man, but Ivory remarks, "In order to be a successful producer, you have to be a con man."

When Merchant died unexpectedly in 2005 during abdominal surgery, despite being grief-stricken ("I was prepared for the emotional component but not the physical toll" says Ivory in the film), Ivory made another film ("The City of Your Final Destination") but it wasn't the same without Merchant. The financing was such a disaster, star Anthony Hopkins sued to get his salary. It's the last film Ivory has directed.

Despite these constraints, Merchant Ivory never had a problem securing actors who all wanted to perform in their prestige films. A good number were nominated for Oscars, though only Emma Thompson won as Best Actress for "Howard's End." Ivory's approach was to hire the best actors and let them do their work with minimal interference, and only making suggestions when necessary.

"I know a great performance when I see it," Ivory said.

Ivory dismissed criticism that his movies came from the "Laura Ashley school of filmmaking," were too literate or "post-cardy." He thinks little of critics (he particularly despised Pauline Kael), but grudgingly admits, "Critics have to make a living too." Ivory is a masterful visual director able to frame scenes beautifully like paintings.

Character struggles
I suggested to Ivory that the theme of many of his films was repression in the sense of characters struggling to escape the confines of their upbringing or culture. I told him that the first Merchant Ivory film I ever saw was "The Europeans" and I discerned a gay sensibility, even though the story had nothing to do with homosexuality.

I felt that one of the main characters, Gertrude, after having met her European cousins, was exploring her nonconformity and questioning her puritanical upbringing. This willingness to go against convention or the status quo is a perennial gay theme and subconsciously that may have been the reason why Ivory was attracted to much of the material on which they worked.

For example, their two major literary sources, Henry James (who wrote "The Europeans") and E.M. Forster, were gay.

Ivory immediately quipped, "I don't think it has anything to do with gayness," missing the point I was attempting to formulate.

Ivory won an Oscar for the best adapted screenplay of "Call Me by Your Name." At age 89, he was the oldest person to win in a competitive race. In his acceptance speech, he observed that by giving him an Oscar they were also honoring the contributions of Merchant and Jhabvala, his life's partners.

When I commented that Ivory was deserving of an honorary Oscar for his direction, he replied, "Well, they better hurry up. I'm 96. But if it's offered to me, I'll be there."

Academy of Arts and Sciences, please take note.

Sadly, two recent screenplays he wrote, the Americanized version of the gay French novel, Edouard Louis's "The End of Eddy," and a Jhabvala short story, "The Judge's Will" he did for director Alexander Payne, were not picked up.

He continues to write, penning an article for an English arts magazine on being thirteen in Palm Springs for a year, escaping the winters in Oregon for a warmer climate with his mother. He's also putting on an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Indian miniature paintings and drawings he collected through the decades.

Soucy is bringing his London production of "Romy and Michele: The Musical" to Off-Broadway.

As we parted, Ivory wanted to make clear that as he was growing up, for him San Francisco was the sophisticated city.

"I went there as a child and until I moved to New York, San Francisco was the place for me, not in a sexual sense," he said. "It was the city I felt at home. I still have friends there, but I don't know if the city is still like that. It was there that I saw Indian miniature paintings for the first time. That's what started my fascination with India. I then made a documentary on them which is how I met Ismail. It's in San Francisco where it all started for us."

"Merchant Ivory" screens at Opera Plaza Cinemas beginning Friday, September 6.
www.merchantivoryfilm.com
www.merchantivory.com

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