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Ismail Merchant

Highest Rated: 100% A Room With a View (1986)

Lowest Rated: 0% Merci Docteur Rey (2002)

Birthday: Dec 25, 1936

Birthplace: Bombay, Maharashtra, India

Bombay-born producer Ismail Merchant was one half of the prolific Merchant/Ivory team, responsible for an oeuvre of handsome and thoughtful independent films reflecting an eye for the beautiful and an ear for the carefully wrought line of dialogue. Along with Oregon-raised director James Ivory and the German-raised screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (a Polish Jew educated in Britain and married to an Indian), he is actually part of a triumvirate, perhaps best described by the Hindi word "sangam," meaning "meeting of three rivers," in this case Asia, Europe and North America. Merchant was introduced to Ivory in 1961 when the producer was 24 and the director was 32. The pair shared a common collaborator, Saeed Jaffrey, who had narrated both Merchant's Oscar-nominated 1960 short "The Creation of Woman" and Ivory's short film "The Sword and the Flute" (1961). Meeting at a screening for the latter, the two eventually formed Merchant-Ivory Productions (MIP) to make English-language features in India for the international market. Their first film, "The Householder" (1963) was adapted by Jhabvala from her novel.

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Highest-Rated Movies

100% 85% A Room With a View
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96% 90% The Remains of the Day
Watchlist 94% 81% Howards End Watchlist
89% 66% Shakespeare Wallah
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82% 45% Mr. & Mrs. Bridge
Watchlist 82% 87% Maurice Watchlist
80% 72% A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries
Watchlist 79% 58% Heat and Dust Watchlist
67% 62% In Custody
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63% 74% Heights
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Ismail Merchant

Ismail Merchant IN CUSTODY, director Ismail Merchant, on-set, 1993, © Sony Pictures Classics COTTON MARY, James Wilby (left), director Ismail Merchant (center) on-set, 1999, © Artistic License A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES, producer Ismail Merchand, director James Ivory, on set, 1998. (c) October Films. LE DIVORCE, Producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory on the set, 2003, (c) Fox Searchlight MYSTIC MASSEUR, director Ismail Merchant, 2001, photo: Mikki Ansin / © ThinkFilm / View more photos

Filmography

Movies TV Shows
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The White Countess 51% 50% 2005 Producer Heights 63% 74% 2005 Producer Le Divorce 35% 26% 2003 Producer Merci Docteur Rey 0% 65% 2002 Executive Producer The Mystic Masseur 51% 29% 2001 Director The Golden Bowl 54% 39% 2000 Producer Cotton Mary 36% 43% 1999 Director, Producer Side Streets 1998 Executive Producer A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries 80% 72% 1998 Producer The Tree 1997 Executive Producer Surviving Picasso 32% 60% 1996 Producer The Proprietor 1996 Director Feast of July 60% 50% 1995 Executive Producer Jefferson in Paris 31% 35% 1995 Producer In Custody 67% 62% 1993 Director The Remains of the Day 96% 90% 1993 Producer Howards End 94% 81% 1992 Producer Mr. & Mrs. Bridge 82% 45% 1990 Producer Slaves of New York 22% 69% 1989 Producer Maurice 82% 87% 1987 Producer A Room With a View 100% 85% 1986 Producer My Little Girl 64% 1986 Executive Producer Heat and Dust 79% 58% 1983 Producer The Courtesans of Bombay 1983 Director, Screenwriter Quartet 44% 32% 1981 Producer
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