The best Ismail Merchant’s movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Ismail Merchant’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Ismail Merchant.
Slaves of New York
5.7/10
Meet the denizens of New York City: artists, prostitutes, saints, and seers. All are aspiring toward either fame or oblivion, and hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rents, faithless partners, and dead-end careers.
Shakespeare-Wallah
6.8/10
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.
Bombay Talkie
5.6/10
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.
Love & Loyalty: The Making of 'The Remains of the Day'
7.1/10
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.
The Wandering Company
8.5/10
Documentary about Merchant Ivory Productions, including interviews with the principals of the film production company and actors which have appeared in their films.
The Song of the Little Road
7.4/10
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.
