“Merchant Ivory” Director Stephen Soucy on His Must-See Doc for Film Lovers

The name Merchant Ivory is so synonymous with lustrous period films, particularly literary adaptations of the works of E. M. Forster and Henry James, that even some astute filmgoers assumed it was a studio or a brand. It was both those things, but it was foremost the names of two men—US-born director James Ivory and India-born producer Ismail Merchant—who together formed a partnership that changed modern moviemaking.

That’s the major takeaway from Stephen Soucy’s illuminating and entertaining documentary Merchant Ivory.