LOS ANGELES: It seems fitting that new movie The White Countess tells of the end of an era and a friendship because it also marks the final collaboration of filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant.
For 44 years, Merchant-Ivory brought widely acclaimed movies to theatres, including Oscar-nominated A Room with a View, Howards End and The Remains of the Day. But Merchant, the producer to Ivory’s director, died in May this year at age 68, ending their years together.
White Countess, a drama that begins playing in theatres on Friday, is set in 1936 Shanghai when China’s ruling nationalists were being challenged by communists and the Japanese were plotting to invade the country’s eastern region.
The story revolves around a former American diplomat named Jackson (Ralph Fiennes) who befriends a mysterious Japanese man Matsuda (Hiroyuki Sanada) and a former Russian countess (Natasha Richardson) working as a bar room dancer. Elaborate sets and colourful costumes help dress up a story of Jackson’s personal redemption.
“It’s an old, old theme. We made so many films about outsiders in some strange, alien environment who are trying to live their lives in some way and connect,” Ivory told Reuters in a recent interview.
He said he and Merchant made good partners from the time they formed Merchant Ivory in 1961. At that time, they had similar interests in film and Indian culture and the same goal: making movies they wanted to make and telling tales their way.
Ivory, 77, was born in Berkeley, California, and Merchant was a native of Bombay. They first made 1963s The Householder, about Indian newlyweds dealing with cultural changes and their impact on their marriage. It was based on a novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who would collaborate with the filmmaking team for years to come.
Ivory said his fondest memories are of their early years. With few financiers to back movies about Indian culture, they had to fight for every dollar. Yet the low budgets sparked both a creativity and fearlessness that caused critics to notice their work.
“People don’t even remember the films anymore, but those were our heroic days,” Ivory said. “Nobody was ever able to knock Ismail down and keep him from getting up again and going and raising money for the next film.”—Reuters
