Ismail Merchant

Production

Ismail Merchant

Born 1936-12-25 · Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India

Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman; 25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005) was an Indian-born film producer and director. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director (and Merchant's longtime professional and domestic partner) James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards.

Acting credits

Jefferson in Paris poster
5.1

His wife having recently died, Thomas Jefferson accepts the post of United States ambassador to pre-revolutionary France, though he finds it difficult to adjust to life in a country where the aristocracy subjugates an increasingly restless peasantry. In Paris, he becomes smitten with cultured artist Maria Cosway, but, when his daughter visits from Virginia accompanied by her attractive slave, Sally Hemings, Jefferson's attentions are diverted.

Jefferson in Paris

1995

Blind Loyalty, Hollow Honor: England's Fatal Flaw poster
7.0

Historical context for The Remains of the Day.

Blind Loyalty, Hollow Honor: England's Fatal Flaw

2001

Merchant Ivory poster
7.7

The first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins. Footage from more than fifty interviews, clips, and archival material gives voice to the family of actors and technicians who helped define Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning work of consummate quality and intelligence. With six Oscar winners among the notable artists participating, these close and often long-term collaborators intimately detail the transformational cinematic creativity and personal and professional drama of the wandering company that left an indelible impact on film culture.

Merchant Ivory

2024

Heat and Dust poster
6.0

Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life.

Heat and Dust

1983

A Cooler Climate poster
8.0

In 1960, acclaimed filmmaker James Ivory traveled to Afghanistan to shoot scenes for a documentary that was never completed. In 2022, he decided to revisit this unique footage, which takes him back to his adventurous youth.

A Cooler Climate

2022

Love & Loyalty: The Making of 'The Remains of the Day' poster
6.5

The filmmakers and lead actors of The Remains of the Day (1993) discuss how they came to make the film, and the subtle power of its execution.

Love & Loyalty: The Making of 'The Remains of the Day'

2001

Slaves of New York poster
5.4

Meet the denizens of New York City: artists, prostitutes, saints, and seers. All are aspiring toward either fame or oblivion while hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rent, faithless partners, and dead-end careers.

Slaves of New York

1989

Shakespeare-Wallah poster
6.5

The story of a family troupe of English actors who travel around the towns and villages in India giving performances of Shakespearean plays. Through their travels we see the changing face of India as the old is replaced by the new, Maharajas become hotel owners, sports become more important than culture and the theater is replaced by Bollywood movies. Based on the travels of Geoffrey Kendal with his daughter Felicity Kendal.

Shakespeare-Wallah

1965

A Tribute To Ismail Merchant poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

A Tribute To Ismail Merchant

2005

Bombay Talkie poster
5.6

An English novelist travels to Bombay to watch one of her novels translated to film. She chases after the movie's leading man while the screenwriter chases after her.

Bombay Talkie

1970

The Remains of the Day: The Filmmaker's Journey poster
6.5

A documentary about making The Remains of the Day.

The Remains of the Day: The Filmmaker's Journey

2001

The Wandering Company poster
8.0

Documentary about Merchant Ivory Productions, including interviews with the principals of the film production company and actors which have appeared in their films.

The Wandering Company

1984

The Householder poster
6.2

Prem, a young school teacher, is arranged married and begins the journey of learning the roles and responsibilities required of him.

The Householder

1963

James Ivory Remembers Ismail Merchant poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

James Ivory Remembers Ismail Merchant

The Song of the Little Road poster
10.0

Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece the Apu Trilogy is widely considered one of the most important works in cinema history. In 1992, Ray was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Oscar. But when film-preservationist David Sheppard volunteered to go to Bengal, he found the original negatives in a terrible state. “It’s hard to think of another world-class filmmaker”, says Sheppard, “whose oeuvre hangs by such a thin thread!” The Song of the Little Road tells the story of how a master’s body of work came so close to disintegration, and why Ray’s films move audiences so deeply across time and cultural boundaries. Three icons – director Martin Scorsese, producer Ismail Merchant, and music composer Ravi Shankar – illustrate stirringly what makes a masterpiece.

The Song of the Little Road

2003

Behind the camera

The Remains of the Day poster
7.4

A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

The Remains of the Day

1993

Howards End poster
7.0

A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.

Howards End

1992

The White Countess poster
6.2

In 1930s Shanghai, 'The White Countess' is both Sofia, a fallen member of the exiled Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.

The White Countess

2005

A Room with a View poster
7.0

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

A Room with a View

1986

Maurice poster
7.6

After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.

Maurice

1987

Le Divorce poster
5.0

While visiting her sister in Paris, a young woman finds romance and learns her brother-in-law is a philanderer.

Le Divorce

2003

The Bostonians poster
5.5

A bored lawyer and a suffragette vie for the attention of a faith healer's charismatic daughter.

The Bostonians

1984

Lumière & Company poster
6.3

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

Lumière & Company

1995

The Golden Bowl poster
6.0

Wealthy American widower Adam Verver and his daughter Maggie live a refined life in Europe, surrounded by art. Maggie marries impoverished Italian Prince Amerigo, while Adam marries Maggie's friend Charlotte Stant. The Prince and Charlotte are having an affair, which Maggie discovers and navigates through a silent, psychological battle of wills, ultimately using her cunning to preserve her marriage and protect her father.

The Golden Bowl

2000

The Proprietor poster
7.0

An expatriated French novelist returns to Paris when she learns that her childhood home is being placed on the auction block.

The Proprietor

1996

Jefferson in Paris poster
5.1

His wife having recently died, Thomas Jefferson accepts the post of United States ambassador to pre-revolutionary France, though he finds it difficult to adjust to life in a country where the aristocracy subjugates an increasingly restless peasantry. In Paris, he becomes smitten with cultured artist Maria Cosway, but, when his daughter visits from Virginia accompanied by her attractive slave, Sally Hemings, Jefferson's attentions are diverted.

Jefferson in Paris

1995

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge poster
6.1

Set during World War II, an upper-class family begins to fall apart due to the conservative nature of the patriarch and the progressive values of his children.

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

1990

The Deceivers poster
5.2

India, 1825: the country lives in mortal fear of cult members known as the “Deceivers." They commit robbery and ritualistic murder. Appalled by their activities, an English military man, Captain William Savage, conceives a hazardous plot to stop them. In disguise, he plans to himself become a “Deceiver” and infiltrate their numbers. Ever present in Savage’s adventures is a sense of dread; he is in constant fear of betrayal and vengeance and also undergoes a disturbing psychological transformation as he experiences the cult’s blood lust firsthand.

The Deceivers

1988

Surviving Picasso poster
5.8

The passionate Merchant-Ivory drama tells the story of Francoise Gilot, the only lover of Pablo Picasso who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty and move on with her life.

Surviving Picasso

1996

Heat and Dust poster
6.0

Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life.

Heat and Dust

1983

Heights poster
6.3

Spanning twenty-four hours, HEIGHTS follows five New Yorkers challenged to choose their destiny before the sun comes up the next day.

Heights

2005

Slaves of New York poster
5.4

Meet the denizens of New York City: artists, prostitutes, saints, and seers. All are aspiring toward either fame or oblivion while hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rent, faithless partners, and dead-end careers.

Slaves of New York

1989

The Wild Party poster
4.9

An aging silent movie comic star throws a lavish party to try and save his failing career.

The Wild Party

1975

Shakespeare-Wallah poster
6.5

The story of a family troupe of English actors who travel around the towns and villages in India giving performances of Shakespearean plays. Through their travels we see the changing face of India as the old is replaced by the new, Maharajas become hotel owners, sports become more important than culture and the theater is replaced by Bollywood movies. Based on the travels of Geoffrey Kendal with his daughter Felicity Kendal.

Shakespeare-Wallah

1965

Roseland poster
5.1

"Roseland" is made up of three stories, sometimes connecting, all set in the famed New York City dance palace, and all having the same theme: finding the right dance partner.

Roseland

1977

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe poster
5.8

A small-town eccentric opens a café in her decaying home.

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

1991

Quartet poster
5.8

When her husband's arrest leaves her penniless, a woman accepts an invitation to move in with a strange couple.

Quartet

1981

The Europeans poster
5.6

An adaptation of Henry James' novel about the Countess Eugenia Münster and her brother Robert, expatriate Americans who have grown up in Europe. Returning to prosperous relatives in New England, Eugenia hopes to make an advantageous marriage with a wealthy cousin. While Eugenia encounters obstacles, Robert finds his suit bearing fruit.

The Europeans

1979

Bombay Talkie poster
5.6

An English novelist travels to Bombay to watch one of her novels translated to film. She chases after the movie's leading man while the screenwriter chases after her.

Bombay Talkie

1970