Last month in this space, we talked about the benefits that recurring collaborations – primarily between actors and their directors – have enjoyed in Hollywood. It’s simple logic: If you’ve got a good thing going, why change it?
In my haste to provide a few popular examples of such profitable partnerships, I overlooked perhaps the most successful creative team in motion picture history, that of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. These gentlemen – together with their longtime screenwriter, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala – enjoyed an unprecedented 42-year filmmaking partnership, stretching from their collaboration on “The Householder” in 1963 until Merchant’s death in 2005, just months before the release of “The White Countess.”
As luck would have it, my omission last month lends itself to fortunate circumstance this month, as the Saint Louis Art Museum is in the middle of a two-month film series celebrating the visionary work of Merchant Ivory Productions. Titled “Waking Desire: The Films of Merchant Ivory,” the series provides a cinematic counterpart to the visiting exhibition “Waking Dreams: Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum.”
The first two films were screened in February: the breezy Continental rom-com “A Room With a View” and the more tragic gay romance “Maurice,” both adapted from E.M. Forster novels.
The next film in the series, screening on March 16, is also an adaptation of a Forster novel and is acclaimed as perhaps Merchant Ivory’s greatest film, “Howards End.” It was a powerhouse in both the Academy Awards and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1993, earning a total of 20 nominations and five awards.
“Howards End” is perhaps the quintessential tale of class struggles toward the end of the Edwardian era in England, one of the most common settings for Merchant Ivory films. The idealistic Schlegel sisters (Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter) are caught between their relationships with the wealthy, elitist Wilcoxes and their earnest desire to help the downtrodden Bast family. The interplay among the three castes leads to romance and tragedy, scandal and redemption. Anthony Hopkins is cruelly cool as the arrogant Henry Wilcox, one of his greatest performances.
The last film featured, on March 23, is “The Golden Bowl,” a Henry James tale of seduction and betrayal spanning Europe and America. Kate Beckinsale stars as Maggie Verver, a naive American who falls in love with the handsome (but nearly destitute) Italian nobleman, Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam). But Amerigo has eyes only for her dowry, as she is the daughter of a wealthy robber baron (Nick Nolte).
As preparations are made for their wedding, Maggie is overjoyed to have her friend Charlotte Stant (Uma Thurman) arrive. Eager to cheer her widower father, Maggie nudges him toward a relationship with Charlotte, unaware that Charlotte and Amerigo are already lovers. How long will they cuckold Maggie and her father before the truth is revealed?
Merchant, in addition to being a prolific producer, was a noted foodie, chef and author. It became something of a tradition on the set for Merchant to prepare a large feast of dishes from his native India as a way of bringing the cast and crew together. In interviews over the years, Merchant would slyly confess to “persuading” certain stars into appearing in his films by cooking for them at his home.
As Merchant well knew, good food – like a good film – can be a work of art. The added benefit of these two films screening on successive Friday nights is that Friday is the only night of the week that Puck’s – the art museum’s restaurant – is open for dinner. Simplify your night out and take in a delicious (and artfully plated) dinner at Puck’s before descending into the auditorium to be transported back a century by one of these excellent films.
This article appears in Feb 1-28, 2007.