WILTON — Saratoga Springs and Ballston Lake native Stephen Soucy rounded up A-list, international talent to appear in his latest film.
Appearing on screen at Scene One in Wilton were some of the most celebrated names in British cinema: Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh Grant, and Vanessa Redgrave, to name a few. All of them spoke, often candidly and cheekily, about their experiences with the famed Merchant Ivory film production company responsible for classics like “The Remains of the Day,” “A Room with a View,” and “Howards End” (all three of which received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture).
More than just acquiring access to these talented thespians for his feature documentary on Merchant Ivory, Soucy managed to coax insightful comments from them about their work, lives, and the occasional tumultuous experience working on a Merchant Ivory production. Despite the company’s reputation for gorgeous, lush images and soaring orchestral scores, Merchant Ivory did things cheaply and quickly, turning cutting corners into something of an art form.
“One funny thing that didn’t make it into the film,” said Soucy at a post-screening Q&A, “someone said that [Merchant Ivory producer Ismail Merchant] would not get insurance. He would not get insurance when they were shooting some of their films… Cutting corners, finding a way to save however many thousands of dollars that was, that’s risky stuff.”
For Soucy, the risks and logistics of producing are not just themes in his latest film, they’re part of his life. In addition to making the Merchant Ivory documentary, Soucy is also a theater producer, and his latest venture, “Romy and Michele: The Musical,” opens for previews next month at Stage 42 in New York City. Although he doesn’t necessarily subscribe to Ismail’s ways of doing things, he said he saw bits of himself in the determined, do-what-it-takes-to-get-the-job-done producer.
“Producing is hard,” Soucy said. “I was the one who embarked on these interviews and [I] had so many amazing collaborators, but at the very beginning…I was like, I want to do this. I’m going to do this. So that producer mentality is definitely a piece of Ismail.”
Of course, fundraising and planning and insuring (or not insuring) a film production is all in service of a larger goal: to create a piece of art that resonates with the public. Merchant Ivory Productions succeeded in that task many times, and so, too, did Soucy with his documentary about them. The film is lengthy but zips along at a rapid pace, taking the viewer from India to the U.K. to Upstate New York, where the 97-year-old director James Ivory currently lives. Ivory both participated in and approved of Soucy’s film. He was also willing to explore aspects of his personal life that may have previously been off limits.
Ivory and Ismail were partners in both business and life, maintaining a romantic relationship that spanned more than four decades. Although not necessarily “out” in the contemporary sense of the word, their relationship wasn’t much of a secret either. After the success of their 1985 film “A Room With a View,” which earned eight Academy Award noms and was a box office hit, the duo capitalized on their triumph by making “Maurice,” a film about gay love in Edwardian England. “Maurice” is a prime example of how Merchant Ivory combined their affinity for literary adaptations with stories that questioned societal norms.
That combination also seems to appeal to Soucy, who said he’s working on acquiring the film rights to “Grief,” a novel by Andrew Holleran about the journey of a middle-aged gay man dealing with the death of his mother. Soucy also said he’s written an original screenplay that he hopes to shoot next year in Upstate New York. Ivory appears to be involved, either in official or unofficial capacities, with both films. His involvement could prove invaluable to the projects, especially considering he won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2017 romantic drama “Call Me by Your Name.”
The screening of “Merchant Ivory: The Documentary” was presented by the Saratoga Book Festival in collaboration with Saratoga Arts and the 518 Film Network. The film’s score was composed by Ryan Homsey, who lives in Saratoga Springs and works at Skidmore College.
