HERE IS WHERE THE SKY IS BLUE
Films By Merchant Ivory
The Chiswick Cinema will host an exclusive retrospective of the works of Academy Award-winner James Ivory from Autumn 2024 to Summer 2025 programmed with Ivory’s kind participation.
The season charts the course of his trailblazing career revealing the breadth of his emotionally elegant and meticulously lyrical filmography. Each screening will be introduced with a specially recorded interview shot at the cinema, with Ivory.
The season explores the breadth of the Academy Award winners’ staggering career and showcases not only the beloved Merchant Ivory literary adaptations, but also the more diverse, transnational films the trio of Ivory, Merchant and Jhabvala made across the world.
The season follows previous exclusive Q&A retrospectives at the cinema after those on Lord Richard Attenborough, Karel Reisz and Harold Pinter which attracted appearances from Sir Ben Kingsley, Dame Penelope Wilton, Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Rupert Everett, Jeremy Irons and others.
The season charts the course of his trailblazing career revealing the breadth of his emotionally elegant and meticulously lyrical filmography. Each screening will be introduced with a specially recorded interview shot at the cinema, with Ivory.
The season explores the breadth of the Academy Award winners’ staggering career and showcases not only the beloved Merchant Ivory literary adaptations, but also the more diverse, transnational films the trio of Ivory, Merchant and Jhabvala made across the world.
The season follows previous exclusive Q&A retrospectives at the cinema after those on Lord Richard Attenborough, Karel Reisz and Harold Pinter which attracted appearances from Sir Ben Kingsley, Dame Penelope Wilton, Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Rupert Everett, Jeremy Irons and others.
About the Retrospective
With our eternal thanks to Melissa Chung, Luca Lucenari, Bridget Osborne, Andrea Carnevali
and Chris Harris. The season is produced by Chris Parker and Bridget Osborne with artwork by Aguado Polo Design.
The recorded Q&As are directed and produced by Chris Parker and hosted by Bridget Osborne. Video Production is by Back to Front Productions and Andrea Carnevali.
Members’ Preview:
Merchant/Ivory + Intro [2024]
An exclusively preview of a new all-access documentary, executively produced by Ivory himself. A heartwarming, insightful and copiously witty take on a cinematic life well lived and a valuable coda to an inspiring and accomplished career.
Featuring interviews with James Ivory, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, and Hugh Grant.
Featuring interviews with James Ivory, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, and Hugh Grant.
A Room With a View + Intro [1985]
Shifting values, conflicts of culture and the battle between head and heart swell in this gorgeous tale of the lovelorn.
Breathtaking design and cinematography invites you to basque in the nostalgic and romantic air of it all.
Featuring Julian Sands, Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis and Denholm Elliott.
Breathtaking design and cinematography invites you to basque in the nostalgic and romantic air of it all.
Featuring Julian Sands, Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis and Denholm Elliott.
Maurice + Intro [1987]
A deftly told, and notably candid, tale of the repression and restriction of homosexual feelings against a backdrop of a stifling Edwardian England.
As raw and quietly moving as you’d expect, with a surprising progressive edge for its day. A pinnacle film for LGBTQ+ representation in cinema with outstanding performances and values well ahead of its time.
Featuring James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Ben Kingsley and Simon Callow.
As raw and quietly moving as you’d expect, with a surprising progressive edge for its day. A pinnacle film for LGBTQ+ representation in cinema with outstanding performances and values well ahead of its time.
Featuring James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Ben Kingsley and Simon Callow.
Quartet + Intro [1981]
A searing and sinister story sees an impoverished young chorus girl whose husband is in prison, staying with an affluent couple with a chequered history.
Against the backdrop of a decadent 1920s Paris, the fluctuating and sordid love triangle is an unnerving account of desire and gender roles. With sumptuous production design and awash with a cool, elegant colour palette.
Featuring Isabelle Adjani, Alan Bates, Maggie Smith and Anthony Higgins.
Against the backdrop of a decadent 1920s Paris, the fluctuating and sordid love triangle is an unnerving account of desire and gender roles. With sumptuous production design and awash with a cool, elegant colour palette.
Featuring Isabelle Adjani, Alan Bates, Maggie Smith and Anthony Higgins.
Heat and Dust + Intro [1985]
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala adapts her own Booker prize winning novel, in this romantic and revealing production. Spanning two time periods, its exploration of love, colonialism and gender make for revelatory viewing with as much heart as it has a desire for dissent.
Featuring Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor and Christopher Casanove.
Featuring Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor and Christopher Casanove.
Shakespeare Wallah + Intro [1965]
A family theatre troupe find their travels around India to perform Shakespeare are increasingly irrelevant in a post-colonial landscape favouring national identity and the rise of cinema. A love triangle soon emerges, and some rich cinematography and music from cinema-legend Satyajit Ray adds a riveting edge.
The Kendals play fictionalised versions of themselves in this true story and the dynamic of an on the road family creative group closely mirrors what Merchant Ivory productions themselves became after this early hit.
Featuring Felicity Kendal, Shashi Kapoor, Madhur Jaffrey and Geoffrey Kendal.
The Kendals play fictionalised versions of themselves in this true story and the dynamic of an on the road family creative group closely mirrors what Merchant Ivory productions themselves became after this early hit.
Featuring Felicity Kendal, Shashi Kapoor, Madhur Jaffrey and Geoffrey Kendal.
The Golden Bowl + Intro [2000]
The last of their acclaimed Henry James adaptations, this sweeping and romantic costume drama spans the years to produce another aching saga of longing and personal identity.
With scenes staged in Chiswick, it’s bold production is as engaging as ever, with a story that explores intention through an intricate plotting.
Featuring Uma Therman, Nick Nolte, Kate Beckinsale and Jeremy Northam.
With scenes staged in Chiswick, it’s bold production is as engaging as ever, with a story that explores intention through an intricate plotting.
Featuring Uma Therman, Nick Nolte, Kate Beckinsale and Jeremy Northam.
Slaves of New York + Intro [1989]
A witty and often darkly comedic adaptation of Tama Janowitz’ short story collection about fledging artists struggling to scratch a living in 80s New York. Its turbulent creatives in a landscape of high rent and directionless wider society seems prescient and as sharp as ever.
Originally opted by Andy Warhol, its contemporary production and fashion shows might seem at odds with the grandeur of the period dramas, yet it finds subtle and wry ways to unpick its characters personal traps and predicaments in much the same way.
Featuring Bernadette Peters, Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci and Chris Sarandon.
Originally opted by Andy Warhol, its contemporary production and fashion shows might seem at odds with the grandeur of the period dramas, yet it finds subtle and wry ways to unpick its characters personal traps and predicaments in much the same way.
Featuring Bernadette Peters, Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci and Chris Sarandon.
The Remains of the Day + Intro [1993]
A stoic butler who sacrifices his life in the pursuit of being the perfect servant, represses his troubled feelings about his employer’s true beliefs, and later his overwhelming desires for a fellow servant.
Veneers of servitude, personality and relationship are unpicked in this extraordinary, sweeping epic that packs a hefty and devastating heart. As thorough and as impactful as any Merchant Ivory film, and a deeply empathetic take on how one spends ones life. Is the evening truly the best part of the day?
Featuring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in stand out career performances.
Veneers of servitude, personality and relationship are unpicked in this extraordinary, sweeping epic that packs a hefty and devastating heart. As thorough and as impactful as any Merchant Ivory film, and a deeply empathetic take on how one spends ones life. Is the evening truly the best part of the day?
Featuring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in stand out career performances.
Call Me By Your Name + Intro [2017]
Written by Ivory, who claimed an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay to cap his career, this gorgeous, Summer-set drama features a breathtaking Italian backdrop and fizzles with sexual desire and burgeoning feelings.
Timothée Chalamet’s breakout role, under Luca Guadagnino’s direction, is the centre piece in a drama as typically luscious and revelatory as we’ve come to expect from Ivory’s writing. It feels at times as though Michael Stuhlbarg’s final speech, which brings down the house, on love and identity is the ultimate statement, and transformative summary of Ivory’s entire career in cinema.
Featuring Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg.
Timothée Chalamet’s breakout role, under Luca Guadagnino’s direction, is the centre piece in a drama as typically luscious and revelatory as we’ve come to expect from Ivory’s writing. It feels at times as though Michael Stuhlbarg’s final speech, which brings down the house, on love and identity is the ultimate statement, and transformative summary of Ivory’s entire career in cinema.
Featuring Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg.
