Producer Ismail Merchant, who partnered with James Ivory to produce some really wonderful movies, passed away at the age of 68.

Some of the highlights of his career: A Room With a View, Howard's End, The Remains of the Day, Maurice and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge among others.

While I am a fan of Action and Science Fiction films, I love Merchant and Ivory films. A M%A film, a bottle of red wine, on a rainy day at the cottage is a wonderful way to pass the time. I'll miss them

here's a link:

Called him Ismael

"Merchant was unmarried and had no children"

Hello? weren't he and Ivory a couple? wasn't it not exactly a secret?

How sad. I love those Merchant-Ivory films, particularly A Room With a View.

Ismail Merchant and James Ivory (usually with wonderful adaptations by Ruth Prawher Jhabvala) made a series of wonderful films. They deserve extra praise for bringing the novel "Maurice" to the screen.

Sadly, no one else seems to be bringing such literate adaptations of novels to the screen.

~Adam

If I had to today pick a favorite film of theirs it would be "The Bostonians," with Vanessa Regrave and Christopher Reeve. Truly one of their best.

On the other hand, "The Wild Party" easily qualifies as their worst. I bet Raquel Welch and Perry King don't list it on their resumes.

They most certainly were, and made absolutely no bones about it. Weird that there was no mention of it.

I was very sad to see the obit leave out any mention of their partnership. How awful.

For what it's worth, the LA Times obit includes the following paragraphs:

"In a business where professional marriages last hardly any longer than personal ones, Merchant's association with the German-born Jhabvala and the American Ivory, who was also Merchant's life partner, spanned more than 40 years and yielded as many films....In addition to Ivory, Merchant is survived by by sisters Saherbanu Kabadia, Sahida Retiwala, Ruksana Khan, and Rashida Bootwala."

If you've never seen some of his films about India--especially "Shakespeare Wallah"--try to find them.

~Adam

A nice piece by Roger Ebert on Ismail Merchant, including news that, before his death, Merchant had "supervised the restoration of the complete Merchant-Ivory catalogue for release on DVD, a project that is currently underway and has provided many filmgoers with their first opportunity to see not only their better-known films (also including "Quartet," "Heat and Dust," and "Jefferson in Paris") but more obscure documentaries and made-for-TV features."