Cohen Media Group will give “Merchant Ivory,” a documentary about the professional and personal partnership of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant and their production company — Merchant Ivory Productions —a theatrical release on Aug. 30 in select markets, including New York and Los Angeles, before expanding to theaters nationwide in September. The film will will debut at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan at at various theaters in Los Angeles, including Laemmle’s Royal.
Directed by Stephen Soucy, “Merchant Ivory” chronicles the pair’s road to success and how their company became synonymous with nuanced literary adaptations in the 1980s and 1990s, making an indelible impact on film culture. The company’s output of more than 40 productions over nearly 50 years includes Academy Award-winning films “A Room With a View” and “Howards End,” as well “The Remains of the Day,” “Mr. & Mrs. Bridge” and “Maurice.”
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The doc is split into chapters with sections devoted to Merchant, Ivory, screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (“A Room With a View,” “Howards End”) and composer Richard Robbins (“Howards End,” “The Remains of the Day”). Crew members and frequent Merchant Ivory film collaborators including Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter and Hugh Grant are all featured in the doc, which combines talking heads with archival footage to tell the story of Ivory and Merchant’s 44-film partnership professionally and as a couple. (Ivory is 96 years-old. Merchant, Jhabvala and Robbins have all died.)
“The New York and Los Angeles release of Stephen Soucy’s ‘Merchant Ivory’ documentary next month is great news to me,” says Ivory. “His film has been a crowd-pleaser in all sorts of places, so if it results in the public’s introduction to some of Merchant Ivory’s films that haven’t been around lately … There are films of ours that ought to be as available as the familiar English ones like ‘A Room With a View,’ ‘Howards End,’ and ‘The Remains of the Day,’ but are rarely seen, and some are our best: ‘Quartet,’ ‘Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,’ ‘A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries,’ ‘In Custody,’ ‘The City of Your Final Destination.’ Long in coming maybe, but Stephen Soucy has made them live again.”
The docu, which the Cohen Media Group acquired worldwide rights to in November, made its world premiere at DOC NYC that same month.
“Coming off a fantastic‘Merchant Ivory’festival run, I’m excited for Cohen Media’s theatrical release of the documentary,” says Soucy. “Ismail Merchant and James Ivory’s contributions to independent filmmaking are unmatched. I’m gratified audiences will have the opportunity to re-experience the cinematic beauty of Merchant Ivory films on the big screen and be inspired by the on-camera stories from the many artists who made them.”
To mark the Aug. 30 release of “Merchant Ivory,” the Quad Cinema will host a weeklong Merchant Ivory retrospective from Aug. 23-29, which will feature restorations of iconic Merchant Ivory including “Howards End,” “Maurice” and “The Bostonians.”
