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The Householder

James Ivory
1963 • 101 minutes • 1.33:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

The Householder, the first collaboration between Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, is the story of a young, underpaid Delhi schoolteacher (Shashi Kapoor) who marries and then, little by little, gets to know his young wife, Indu (Leela Naidu), during their first year together.

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Shakespeare Wallah

James Ivory
1965 • 120 minutes • 1.78:1 • India
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Elegiac and atmospheric, Shakespeare Wallah put Merchant Ivory Productions on the international movie map. The film was inspired by in the real-life adventures of a traveling family theater group in India during the final days of English colonial rule.

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Paddle to the Sea

William Mason
1966 • 28 minutes • 1.33:1 • Canada
Editions: DVD, Collector’s Sets

Based on Holling C. Holling’s beloved, Caldecott-awarded children’s book, William Mason’s stunning film follows the adventures of a tiny, wood-carved canoe as it forges its own path from Lake Superior through the Great Lakes and down to the Atlantic Ocean.

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Bombay Talkie

James Ivory
1970 • 112 minutes • 1.78:1 • United States
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Starring Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kendal, Bombay Talkie is Merchant Ivory’s affectionate, bemused view of Bollywood—India’s huge dream factory. Cameraman Subrata Mitra’s ravishing photography has never been surpassed in any other of James Ivory’s films.

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Savages

James Ivory
1972 • 106 minutes • 1.77:1 • United States
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

The first American film from Merchant Ivory Productions is a fascinating meditation on the rise and fall of civilizations, with a witty screenplay by George Swift Trow and Michael O’Donoghue. Savages is a dark, biting satire that will turn viewer expectations upside-down.

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Roseland

James Ivory
1977 • 104 minutes • 1.77:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus, iTunes

Three interlocking stories set in the legendary New York City dance palace Roseland make up this charming film, the third shot by Merchant Ivory Productions in America, and featuring Teresa Wright, Christopher Walken, and Lilia Skala.

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Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures

James Ivory
1978 • 83 minutes • 1.33:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Peggy Ashcroft and Larry Pine play rapacious art collectors who come to the decaying Art Deco palace of a young Maharaja (Victor Banerjee) to examine a legendary collection of Indian miniature paintings.

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The Europeans

James Ivory
1979 • 91 minutes • 1.78:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

This entertaining film, from a delicious early novel by Henry James, takes place in a New England Arcadia that stands for everything beautiful, pure, and good. Into this Eden come a sophisticated European brother and sister who turn up unexpectedly on the doorstep of their staid American cousins.

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Jane Austen in Manhattan

James Ivory
1980 • 111 minutes • 1.33:1 • United States
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Rival theater companies compete to produce their own unique versions of Jane Austen’s childhood play Sir Charles Grandison in this delightful film from Merchant Ivory, featuring a brilliant ensemble cast, a witty screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and an inventive score by Richard Robbins.

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Quartet

James Ivory
1981 • 101 minutes • 1.78:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Dazzlingly acted by Alan Bates, Maggie Smith, Anthony Higgins, and Isabelle Adjani, Quartet is the story of a girl who, adrift with her feckless husband amidst the literati of glittering Paris in the 1920s, becomes entrapped by a rich and sybaritic English couple.

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Heat and Dust

James Ivory
1983 • 130 minutes • 1.78:1 • United Kingdom
Edition: DVD

Blending east with west, and moving effortlessly between vibrant modern-day India and the splendors of the Raj, Heat and Dust concerns Anne, a young woman drawn to India by her desire to unravel the scandal surrounding her great-aunt’s seduction in the 1920s by a handsome Indian prince.

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The Courtesans of Bombay

Ismail Merchant
1983 • 73 minutes • 1.33:1 • India
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus
The Courtesans of Bombay is Merchant Ivory’s intriguing docudrama about Pavan Pool, the enclosed area where the city’s singing and dancing courtesans ply their trade. It’s a portrait of a unique location both exotic and tawdry.

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The Bostonians

James Ivory
1984 • 122 minutes • 1.78:1 • United States
Edition: DVD

In Boston in the aftermath of the Civil War, gifted young orator Verena Tarrant has attracted the attention of Olive Chancellor (Vanessa Redgrave), who wishes to nurture Verena for the Women’s Movement. But Basil Ransom (Christopher Reeve), a handsome male chauvinist, wants Verena as his wife.

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Maurice

James Ivory
1987 • 140 minutes • 1.66:1 • United Kingdom
Edition: DVD

Set against the stifling conformity of pre–World War I English society, Maurice is a story of coming to terms with one’s sexuality and identity in the face of disapproval and misunderstanding. Maurice Hall (James Wilby) and Clive Durham (Hugh Grant) find themselves falling in love at Cambridge.

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The Deceivers

Nicholas Meyer
1988 • 102 minutes • 1.77:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

India, 1825: The country is being ravaged by the Thugees, cult members also known as the “Deceivers,” who commit robbery and ritualistic murder. Appalled by their activities, English officer William Savage (Pierce Brosnan) disguises himself and infiltrates their ranks.

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The Perfect Murder

Zafar Hai
1988 • 93 minutes • 1.77:1 • India
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Inspector Ghote of the Bombay police has just been assigned his most perplexing case: a savage attack on a rich industrialist’s private secretary. Based on the award-winning novel by H.R.F. Keating, Merchant Ivory Productions’ The Perfect Murder is an entertaining, exotic detective thriller.

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The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

Simon Callow
1991 • 100 minutes • 1.77:1 • United Kingdom
Editions: DVD, Hulu Plus

Merchant Ivory’s The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, based on the novella by Carson McCullers and the play by Edward Albee, is both a grotesque black comedy and a prime slice of Southern Gothic set in a poverty-stricken rural community dominated by the curious, androgynous Miss Amelia.

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In Custody

Ismail Merchant
1993 • 125 minutes • 1.77:1 • United Kingdom
Edition: DVD

Based on the Booker Prize–nominated novel by Anita Desai, In Custody, the debut of Ismail Merchant as a director, is a wry, lyrical, comic drama about contemporary Indian culture, society, and domestic life.

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