Merchant Ivory

A fabulous look at the faces behind one of the longest-running and most fruitful cinematic collaborations, a pair who elevated the staid costume drama to bracing entertainment.

Thank you, Suzie Izzard, for the best description of "A Merchant/Ivory Film" as "A Room With a View With a Staircase and a Pond."

Fine acting with subdued conflicts (I will not transcribe Izzard's whole comedic routine). Very smart writing about the class systems. Films where you wonder IF Sebastian will ever finish arranging his matches. Was the interruption an understated call for love? Or is he arranging the matches in a wrong manner?

Films like "A Room With a View," "Howard's End," "The Remains of the Day," "The Bostonians, "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge," "Maurice," and "Heat and Dust" have been arthouse cinema darlings in the United States since the early 1980s. Beautiful sets and locations, costumes, music and usually low-key screenplays and performances from some of the best actors on the planet. Imagine "Masterpiece Theatre" with a shot of black tea.

My former film show producer would call costume dramas like these and "Downton Abbey" as "Lord and Lady Bullshit." Or as Suzie Izzard puts it, "you can't eat popcorn to that."

The documentary "Merchant Ivory" peeks behind the curtain of one of the longest running independent film collaborations in history. Merchant and Ivory collaborated on 44 films together from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. Ivory was the quiet artistic collaborator, Merchant was the boisterous business hustler.

I'm happy to say that I've experienced the majority of the M/I films output. As #ThatGuy who watches all the special features on DVDs and Blu-Rays, I realized watching this documentary that I knew very little about the lives of American director James Ivory (96 years old and still with us), Indian producer Ismail Merchant (died in 2005), British-American writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (she wrote 23 of those films, died in 2013) and American composer Richard Robbins (over two dozen M/I films, died in 2012).

Director Stephen Soucy gets to peek into the creative parlor of these four artists, including a very open James Ivory or as open as Ivory will allow himself. The relationships with these four creatives could be a Merchant Ivory film all of its own. Not to give away much, but you might want to listen to some 1970s Fleetwood Mac after watching this documentary. The quartet's relationship is best described as, to borrow a line from "Hail Caesar!," "Would that it 'twere so simple." There are the big name talking heads who share their experiences working on these films. Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Felicity Kendall and a wonderfully combative Vanessa Redgrave all tell similar tales of despite the looks of these films, the budget was always tight.

You knew a production had money problems if Merchant cooked meals for the cast and crew. Granted, the meals were great...

James Ivory, now an Academy Award winner (for the adaptation of "Call Me By Your Name" and the oldest winner of a competitive Oscar at age 89) is also the lone survivor of this intimate, creative quartet. He opens up a little, but is also more than capable of saying “it's nobody's business.”

"Merchant Ivory" the documentary is a lovely example of art imitating life. Ismael Merchant and James Ivory lived the lives of a Merchant Ivory film. Behind the camera, it was really nobody's business. In front of the camera, cinema is all the better for it. Hopefully film fans will revisit their work.

Yes, I revisited "A Room With a View" as soon as I finished the documentary and I need to revisit "Maurice," "The Bostonians," "The Wild Party," "Heat and Dust," "Quartet" and one of my favorites "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge." They gave the costume dramas a much-needed jolt that still resonates in films and series today — and you can eat popcorn to that.

Matthew Socey is host of the Film Soceyology podcast for WFYI 90.1 FM in Indianapolis.