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TRIBUTES TO MERCHANT

Stars of British film have paid tribute to Merchant Ivory producer Ismail Merchant, who has died aged 68.

Together with director James Ivory, Merchant made such acclaimed period films as Howards End, A Room With A View and Remains of the Day.

He died in a London hospital on Wednesday afternoon, his office said.

The cause of death was unclear, but a spokesman said the Indian-born producer had suffered from stomach problems over the past year.

Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins was among those paying tribute to Merchant.

"I'm deeply saddened. He was the one and truly great maverick producer, a law to himself.

"He was a great man and a true pioneer in his own field as a producer. He will be greatly missed."

Film-maker Lord Puttnam said: "It's very sad and unexpected news.

"He was an extraordinary man. He was the one true independent film producer in Britain."

Actor Ralph Fiennes, who worked with Mr Merchant on his final film The White Countess, said:: "I am devastated.

"He was a brave and individual producer - there was no-one like him.

Merchant and Ivory met in 1961 and together made more than 40 films.

Their first to make an impression was Heat and Dust in 1983, starring Greta Scacchi.

Two years later they scored a huge hit with A Room With A View, adapted from the novel by EM Forster, which won three Oscars.

Other successes included triple Oscar-winner Howards End in 1992 and The Remains of the Day in 1993..

Filmmaker Ismail Merchant Dies at 68

Filmmaker Ismail Merchant, who with partner James Ivory became synonymous with classy costume drama in films such as "A Room With A View" and "Howards End," died Wednesday. He was 68. Merchant died surrounded by family and friends at a hospital in London, Merchant Ivory Productions said.

"It is with great sadness that Merchant Ivory Productions announces that Ismail Merchant, our company founder and beloved producer for more than 44 years, has passed away after a brief illness in a London hospital," the production company said in a statement on its Web site.

Merchant, who was born in Bombay but spent most of his life in the West, had been ill for some time and recently underwent surgery for abdominal ulcers, according to Indian television reports.

Merchant and Ivory, an American, made some 40 films together and won six Oscars since forming their famous partnership in 1961 with German-born screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Their hits - especially E.M. Forster adaptations like "A Room With a View" (1985) and "Howards End" (1992) that won three Oscars apiece - helped revive the public's taste for well-made, emotional period drama.

In an interview with The Associated Press last year, Merchant said Merchant-Ivory films worked because they captured great stories.

"It should be a good story - speak about a time and place that is permanent," he said. "It should capture something wonderful with some great characters whether it's set in the past or in the future."

Merchant generally served as producer, the business mind behind the collaboration, while Ivory directed.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala said his relentlessness was crucial to their success.

"Without (Ismail), we couldn't even get the things off the ground," she said in 1992. "Once he's made up his mind to make a film, he makes it. Nothing can get in his way."

Merchant first traveled to the United States in 1958 to study for a business degree at New York University but soon became involved in the film world.

He met Ivory in a New York City coffee shop in 1961. Their first film together, "The Householder," was based on a novel by Prawer Jhabvala, and its 1963 premiere was held at the residence of then-U.S. Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith.

"When we first began, Ruth told us she had never written a screenplay," Merchant told AP. "That was not a problem since I had never produced a feature film and Jim had never directed one."

The movies - known for their high quality and low budgets - were filled with lush panoramas of English and Indian countrysides and told powerful stories of class, manners, desire and love. Prawer Jhabvala's scripts spilled over with civilized drawing-room dialogue.

Among Merchant-Ivory's other success were "Shakespeare Wallah,""The Europeans,""Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,""The Bostonians,""Maurice" and "Quartet." They made one bomb, "Slaves of New York," in 1989.

Merchant and Ivory departed in recent years from the flawlessly appointed period films for which they were famous.

They offered their take on French farce in 2003 with "Le Divorce," starring Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts.

They also were at work on "The Goddess," a musical about the Hindu goddess Shakti, starring a singing, dancing Tina Turner. Also to be released is "The White Countess," a period drama set in China and starring Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson.

Merchant was unmarried and had no children.

James Ivory's THE WHITE COUNTESS Wrapped Up Shanghai Production

According to Chinese media, the Shanghai production of James Ivory's latest period film The White Countess just wrapped up. Set in Shanghai from 1936 to 1937. Ralph Fiennes plays a blind former American diplomat, who dreams of opening a nightclub called The White Countess. Natasha Richardson portrays an exiled White Russian countess, who worked hard to support her late husband's aristocratic family, through various jobs, including prostituting. The story starts at the dawn of the great world war and ends with the full scale Japanese invasion. According to an earlier report, shooting will restart in Rome for the remaining interior scenes.

White Countess - SYNOPSIS

Title: THE WHITE COUNTESS
Release Date: Fall 2005
Producer: Merchant Ivory Productions
Director: James Ivory
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave

Set in Shanghai in the late 1930s, this is the story of the relationship between a disillusioned former US diplomat and a refugee White Russian countess reduced to a sordid life in the city's bars.

Todd Jackson (mid-40s), once an American diplomat filled with idealism, has lost his sight several years earlier, and is now languishing in Shanghai's grand hotels and elite gentlemen's clubs, a burnt-out case, He has become bitterly disillusioned by realpolitik and the seemingly unavoidable nature of war and conflict. He is, moreover, deeply bereaved by the deaths of his wife and children - victims of violent events in the political turmoil of 1930s China that also robbed him of his sight.

As our film begins, we find him trying to retreat into a smaller, more controllable world by way of an ambition he has always secretly nurtured: to create here, in perhaps the world's most licentious, glittering and sordid port, the perfect bar. After countless hours spent critically examining dive after dive in the city's pleasure districts, Jackson has become a connoisseur of decadence. And one day, after a chance meeting with Matsuda - a mysterious Japanese who appears to share Jackson's refined eye for the beauty of low-life establishments - Jackson gambles his savings on a horse, wins, and sets about realizing his masterpiece: a bar that will achieve the exquisite balance of romance, tragedy, and political tension.

He is assisted in his project by Matsuda. The fact that Matsuda is a decidedly shadowy figure fails to worry Jackson. And when rumors circulate that Matsuda has come to Shanghai to oversee a Japanese invasion of the city, Jackson still willfully refuses to listen. He absorbs himself in perfecting his bar, determined to keep the larger world - and his deeper emotions - locked firmly outside.

Sofia is a White Russian countess in her thirties who fled the Bolshevik Revolution as a child. Her immediate family have perished. She now lives in a Shanghai slum with members of her late husband's aristocratic family and her ten-year-old daughter, Katya. Sofia is the household's sole breadwinner, working as a taxi-dancer in dingy night spots, resorting to prostitution when times are hard. The rest of the household show their gratitude by endlessly ostracizing her for bringing disgrace to the family.

Jackson encounters Sofia one night working at her taxi-dance hall, decides she is the perfect blend of tragedy and sensuality and asks her to become the centerpiece of his perfect bar. Thus begins a relationship that will see Jackson - despite his best efforts - slowly coaxed out of his enclosed world. He gradually comes to concede that Sofia may be more than a beautiful picture, becomes drawn to the spirited young Katya, and ultimately, into the intrigues within the family to separate Sofia from her child.

The story ends as the Japanese invade Shanghai, with the entire world on the brink of World War II. Ironically, it is at this point that Jackson, in acknowledging his love for Sofia and her daughter, finds reawakened his own idealism for a world free from war.

Guess who’s coming to dinner?

SAVOIR FAIRE By Mayenne Carmona

Darling girl, look your prettiest for tonight’s dinner, I have a surprise for you!" China’s porcelain beauty, TV icon and cosmetic queen Yue Sai Kan, excitedly told me, as she welcomed me to her brand new tastefully appointed palatial home located in the heart of Shanghai. Clueless as to who the surprise mystery person was, I nevertheless took extra effort in the looks department and made sure I was given an A+ grade by my hostess. We relaxed over a glass of champagne before the mystery guests arrived. Yue Sai would not as much give me a clue who the special guests were but promised that I would be seated next to the man of honor.

My heart skipped a beat when the doorbell rang and a tall, blue eyed, dreamboat of a man walked in, followed by a few other people who did not seem to matter to me. The introductions were done, and Ralph Fiennes, yes, the Ralph Fiennes of The English Patient, The End of the Affair and Maid in Manhattan fame, (am rattling off my favorite movies of his) sat next to me during the pre-dinner drinks and during dinner.

The dinner party consisted of the cast of The White Countess, a movie currently being filmed in Shanghai in its entirety. James Ivory is the director, Ishmail Merchant is the producer, Natasha Richardson plays the a Russian refugee who Ralph falls in love with, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha’s real life mother, and Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa’s younger sister, both are in the cast as Russian immigrants, and Ralph Fiennes himself plays an American diplomat. They are a bunch of heavyweights in the film industry. James Ivory have made 47 films in 42 years. He received an Oscar for his movie The Remains of the Day. Ishmail Merchant made about 40something movies, like Howard’s End, which won several awards, A Room with a View and recently Le Divorce. Natasha Richardson won the Tony Award as best leading actress for her role in Cabaret. She is married to the actor Liam Neeson. Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave need no introduction. They are veteran thespians and movie stars. Ralph Fiennes was last seen in Maid in Manhattan, but he is best known for his role in The English Patient. I liked him best as Julianne Moore’s passionate lover in The End of the Affair.

Ralph enthusiastically explained to me the story line of the movie The White Countess. He plays an American diplomat who tragically met an accident in one of the uprisings in Shanghai and goes blind.

For his role as a blind man, he told me he went to the Britain’s Royal Society for the Blind and studied the actions of one blind man. It was very interesting when he said that this blind man would even look at the person he is talking with giving the illusion that he is not blind.

He also had to get rid of his English accent and had to speak with an American accent. This was not difficult for him at all as in Maid in Manhattan, he played the role of an American senator and had to speak in American English.

There is a coach for accents in this movie, in the person of Allen Brooks. Mr. Brooks mastered in accents in a special course in Harvard and for this film he made sure that every actor spoke with the accent of their roles.

I will not preempt the readers joy by giving the story of this movie. But it is romantic, a bit tragic, with a lot of history because the setting is Shanghai circa 1930. During the dinner, I was seated between Natasha Richardson and Ralph. Natasha was wearing a sexy white cheongsam with red flowers, which complimented her tall, slim figure. She was enjoying the shopping in Shanghai. She is a natural, not pretentious and very down to earth. She enjoyed telling me about the various bargains she had bought. She was looking forward to the visit of her husband, Liam Neeson in mid-November.

I noticed that she and Ralph had very good appetites and ate most of the Chinese dishes that were served them. They were not finicky at all and even tried all the spicy sauces that went well with the dishes. I managed to sneak in a text to my sister Marisa and asked her what I could ask Ralph as I was at a loss for words. She answered back, "Just look at his deep blue eyes and don’t bother to talk." Indeed, his eyes were like pools of clear blue waters, with a lot of kindness in them.

I mastered enough guts to ask him some personal questions and he answered them good-naturedly. One of the quotable quotes from him was "I am a nonbeliever of marriage. I was married once and it was a catastrophe. I enjoy a close relationship with a woman, but it does not have to lead to marriage."

He also told me that he admired J. Lo, his leading lady in Maid in Manhattan, as an actress and she was very professional. But he did not have much chemistry with her off the set. He had great chemistry with Juliette Binoche, the leading lady in The English Patient, and Julianne Moore, his leading lady in The End of the Affair. Until now, he is enjoying a great friendship with the both of them.

After the dinner, everyone went back to their respective hotels except Ralph Fiennes. He opted to go to a party with me and Yue Sai.

At the party, the real Ralph Fiennes surfaced. It was a character study of a big star in communication with a world outside the realm of Hollywood. He was very gentlemanly, he had no airs, he was accommodating to all the fans who wanted to pose with him. And he did not snub the paparazzi. He did not run away from them and allowed them to take his photo.

The treat of the evening was watching him dance. He was a good dancer and he danced to his heart’s delight, not declining anybody who wanted to dance with him. He did not discriminate and danced with the young and the young at heart. He definitely captured everyone’s heart with his inimitable charm.

In the wee hours of the morning, we brought him back to his hotel. He kissed both me and Yue Sai good night and thanked us for a very enjoyable evening. His good night words to me were so memorable and are still ringing in my ears: "Good night my darling, thank you for such a wonderful evening". And then he gave me two kisses on both cheeks. I told Yue Sai I was not washing my cheeks that night to keep the kisses intact. She found me so hilarious but I didn’t care. Frankly, I was up in the clouds and it was a wonderful feeling.

The next day, I was invited to the set of The White Countess. The casting director for the western cast, Patrick Kelly, met me and toured me around. It was a scene in the nightclub where Natasha R. worked and where she and Ralph met.

The set was opulent and the club girls were dressed to the nines. Circa 1930 was the age of opulence in Shanghai. The nightclub girls were dressed in long gowns and had plumes on their hair.

The owner of the nightclub played by Chinese actor Lin Dong Fu, was dressed in tuxedo to emphasize the ostentatious style of the era. Natasha had her hair in rollers when I arrived and as she was waiting for her hairdresser, she took time to explain her role to me. Ralph was also preparing for his scene but greeted me warmly with a resounding hug and kiss.

After two hours in the set talking to the major and minor players, I bid them adieu. They made me promise to bring all my friends to watch The White Countess when it comes out on the magic screen! You bet I would not miss it for the world, I said.

Ralph Fiennes brought me all the way to the car and as we waved goodbye to each other, I wondered if I would ever see him again outside of the silver screen. All of a sudden, the pervading idea that celebrities are snobs and unapproachable became a myth to me. These bunch of celebrities I just met were as down to earth as you and me! I boarded my flight for Manila that night with a song in my heart.

Merchant Ivory take on Shanghai for 47th film, "The White Countess"

Famed for their high-minded dramas in exotic locales, the producing-directing team of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory are taking on Shanghai for their 47th movie.

Set in the vibrant, cosmopolitan city of the 1930s, "The White Countess" portrays the relationship between a blind, disillusioned former American diplomat played by Ralph Fiennes and an exiled Russian noblewoman portrayed by Natasha Richardson.

"It's not strictly a realistic film. It's more an impression of the city," director Ivory told reporters on Friday.

Shooting began two weeks ago using Shanghai's row houses, art deco hotels and hulking stone banks of the riverside Bund that predate the 1949 communist takeover. The film is scheduled to be released late next year.

The movie marks a return to the pair's trademark period dramas after a detour into modern farce with last year's "Le Divorce." It's also a reunion with scriptwriter Kazuo Ishiguro, whose novel "The Remains of the Day," was made into a movie that won Merchant and Ivory one of their three Academy Awards.

"We have just seen some of the rushes and we feel very elated," said Merchant, wearing the traditional white tunic of his native India.

Fiennes said he prepared for his role by spending time observing a blind man's average day with the help of Britain's Royal Society for the Blind. He praised Merchant and Ivory for pursuing the location shoot when other filmmakers might have opted for a Hollywood set.

"To be making a film in Shanghai about Shanghai in the 1930s is a great chance to explore interaction between cultures," the two-time Academy Award nominee said.

Sounding a lighter note, one of film's Chinese stars said he'd long been a fan of the pair's movies but had a shock meeting them for the first time.

"I thought Merchant Ivory was one person," veteran Broadway actor Wang Luoyong said, laughing.

Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, John Wood, Madeleine Potter and Ying Da also appear in the film.

The movie is a co-production with the Shanghai Film Group, whose sets portray Shanghai's bars, shops and nightclubs just before the 1937 Japanese invasion when it was a haven for Western adventurers and refugees from Soviet Russia and European fascism.

The company has been a leader in promoting China as a production site for a growing number of Western feature films, most of them action pictures such as Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill." It also had a hand in Shanghai's previous Hollywood star turn in Steven Spielberg's 1987 "Empire of the Sun, for which 5,000 local extras were hired and dressed in 1940s costumes.

Group President Ren Zhonglun said he hoped the Merchant Ivory stamp of approval would open the way for more high quality productions in the city.

"It's wonderful to be working with some of the best directors and actors in the business, and we hope this will attract more varied types of film productions to Shanghai," said Ren, whose company will distribute the film within China and receive a share of box office profits in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Ivory praised the Shanghai crew and production facilities, but said he got a huge thrill out of just having the opportunity to film in the city.

"I never imagined in all these 40 years that we've been making movies I would come to Shanghai and make a film."

Camera Starts Rolling For James Ivory's THE WHITE COUNTESS In Shanghai

Actually the shooting has started for a week. The White Countess is set in Shanghai from 1936 to 1937. Ralph Fiennes plays a blind former American diplomat, who dreams of opening a nightclub called The White Countess. Natasha Richardson portrays an exiled White Russian countess, who worked hard to support her late husband's aristocratic family, through prostitution and driving a taxi. The story centers around the relationship between them. Ralph Fiennes is required to speak some Chinese in Shanghai accent, something he has to learn on the set. Wong Kar-Wai's Aussie buddy Christopher Doyle is on board as the director of cinematography. Budgeted at near US$30 million, the project is produced by Merchant Ivory Production and Shanghai Film Studios. The latter invested about US$1.2 million in exchange for the copyrights in China. John Lone, Jiang Wen, Zheng Hao, Kimura Takuya and Simon Yam were contacted for joining the cast and now the offer goes to veteran actor Sun Daolin and former Broadway actor Wang Luoyong. Another Chinese actor Xia Yu is also in negotiation for a role. To be qualified as a co-production, according to Chinese law, the cast must includes a few Chinese actors, with Chinese citizenship. The cast also includes Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, John Wood and Madeleine Potter.

Ralph on the route to China

Ralph Fiennes is off to China. The occasionally cantankerous actor will travel east this summer to make a Merchant Ivory film called The White Countess.

Joining him on set will be a host of senior luvvies - including Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave - and (if his next book is written in time) the film's author, Anglo-Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.

"It's great that Fiennes has signed, of course, because he's a fantastic actor and just right for the part," said "Ishi" at the launch of David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas.

"I'm a big fan of Merchant Ivory, too, because they made the adaptation of Remains of the Day. I had nothing to do with that, but I think it turned out well."

One potential cloud on the horizon, though: The White Countess is one of the films that could face the axe, owing to the Inland Revenue's ham-fisted recent change to tax laws.

The White Countess Heads to Sony Classics

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights for North America, Mexico and Australia to Merchant Ivory Prods.' Chinese period drama The White Countess, to star Natasha Richardson, Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave.

Based on an original screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, the project reunites director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant with the British author, whose Booker Prize-winning novel The Remains of the Day yielded one of Merchant Ivory's most successful releases.

Set in Shanghai in the late 1930s, the story chronicles the relationship between a disillusioned former U.S. diplomat who lost his sight several years earlier, and a young refugee White Russian countess reduced to a sordid life in the city's bars, working as a taxi driver and occasional prostitute to support members of her late husband's aristocratic family.

Shooting on the $16 million project will start in early August, with studio interiors to be done in Rome and location work in and around Shanghai.

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