Is it just me or has Merchant Ivory become a bit superficial and gimmicky of late? I thought these guys brought art-house to the main stream in the early 80's by creating these kind of grande sweeping movies bu that also has aggressive social and political undercurrents? A Room with a View! Its not like Helen Bonham Carter was frivolous in it. Look here's the history:
The White Countess (To Be Announced)
Heights (2004)
Le Divorce (2003)
The Mystic Masseur (2002)
The Golden Bowl (2001)
Cotton Mary (2000)
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998)
Surviving Picasso (1996)
The Proprietor (1996)
Jefferson in Paris (1995)
Feast of July (1995)
In Custody (1994)
The Remains of the Day (1993)
Howards End (1992)
Street Musicians of Bombay (1991)
The Perfect Murder (1990)
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990)
The Ballad of the Sad Café (1990)
Slaves of New York (1989)
The Deceivers (1988)
Maurice (1987)
A Room With a View (1985)
The Bostonians (1984)
Heat and Dust (1983)
The Courtesans of Bombay (1983)
Quartet (1981)
Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980)
The Europeans (1979)
The Five Forty-Eight (1979)
Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1976)
Roseland (1977)
Sweet Sounds (1976)
The Wild Party (1975)
Autobiography of a Princess (1975)
Mahatma and the Mad Boy (1974)
Helen: Queen of the Nautch Girls (1973)
Savages (1973)
Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization (1972)
Bombay Talkie (1970)
The Guru (1969)
Shakespeare Wallah (1965)
The Delhi Way (1964)
The Householder (1963)
The Creation of Woman (1960)
The Sword and the Flute (1959)
Venice: Theme and Variations (1957)
I'm referring to these three. Golden Bowl was very stylized, and decent to look at, but it lacked subtlty. Its like everything that could have been an undertone became an actual plot line. Mystic I didn't see, but wasn't it very poorly received? And Divorce was terrible. Its like when they tried to call the spice-girls femenists, even though I'd be more likely to believe that than Kate Hudson cuteness and coy looks (but not too coy...that would be aggressive, so their was always an accompanying perky smile and an explanation talk b/w the sisters). Meh, I miss the element of austerity and formality that was contrived but alowed for things to go unsaid. There was a much heavier queer/political element, and its as though their productions no longer straddle the fence of arts-house and mainstream, and have rather just become sort of frivolous tidbits that still try to act as though they have more to say.
My favorite, clearly, is:
What's your favorite Merchant-Ivory? Do you like their recent work at all?
I couldn't stand it.