The Europeans

James Ivory

The lives and routines of the puritanical Wentworth family are upended by the not-so-welcome arrival of their European cousins to New England one particularly golden autumn. Lee Remnick shines as the snooty and calculating Eugenia, a Baroness whose marriage to a German prince is on the fritz—meanwhile her dapper brother Felix has his eye on one of the Wentworth daughters. Exploring the social and moral clashes between The New World and the Continent, the first of Merchant Ivory’s Henry James triptych features a witty screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, while the BAFTA-nominated production design and Oscar-nominated costumes solidified the lavish (and impeccably researched) period trappings Merchant Ivory became famous for. Cohen Film Collection is proud to present a new restoration of this classic adaptation.


The Bostonians

James Ivory

Academy Award-winning actresses Jessica Tandy, Vanessa Redgrave and Linda Hunt headline an all-star cast alongside Christopher Reeve in this Merchant Ivory adaptation of Henry James's novel of political intrigue and forbidden romance in post-Civil War Boston. Olive Chancellor finds her infatuation with young activist Verena Tarrant challenged by a Southern lawyer who also loves her. An intricately drawn study of the impact of women's suffrage on society, The Bostonians is also a lush evocation of the late 19th century, with dazzling cinematography by Walter Lassally and a memorable score by Richard Robbins.


Shakespeare Wallah

James Ivory

The true story of Geoffrey Kendal and his family of traveling theatrical players is used as a fascinating lens into the ever-evolving colonial relationship between Great Britain and India.


Maurice

James Ivory

Set against the stifling conformity of pre-World War I English society, E.M. Forster’s Maurice is a story of coming to terms with one’s sexuality and identity in the face of disapproval and misunderstanding.


Howards End

James Ivory

One of Merchant Ivory’s undisputed masterpieces, this adaptation of E.M. Forster’s classic 1910 novel is a saga of class relations and changing times in Edwardian England. Margaret Schlegel (Emma Thompson) and her sister Helen (Helena Bonham Carter) become involved with two couples: a wealthy, conservative industrialist (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife (Vanessa Redgrave), and a working-class man (Samuel West) and his mistress (Niccola Duffet).


Heat and Dust

James Ivory

Cross-cutting between two generations, James Ivory's sprawling epic of self-discovery is also a lush evocation of the prismatic and sensuous beauty of India.


Only in Theaters

Raphael Sbarge

There has been a Laemmle in the movie business since there’s been a movie business. Only in Theaters is the story of a beloved Arthouse Cinema chain, their Hollywood legacy, and a family business determined to survive.


Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project

Barry Avrich

An uncensored look at the life and work of film producer Harvey Weinstein.


Call Me By Your Name

Luca Guadagnino

It’s the summer of 1983 in Italy, and Elio (Chalamet), a precocious 17-year-old, spends his days in his family’s villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading and flirting with his friend Marzia. One day, Oliver (Hammer), a charming American scholar arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father, an eminent professor. Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.


A Room with a View

James Ivory

Merchant Ivory Productions, led by director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, became a household name with A Room with a View, the first of their extraordinary adaptations of E. M. Forster novels. A cherubic nineteen-year-old Helena Bonham Carter plays Lucy Honeychurch, a young, independent-minded, upper-class Edwardian woman who is trying to sort out her burgeoning romantic feelings, divided between an enigmatic free spirit (Julian Sands) she meets on vacation in Florence and the priggish bookworm (Daniel Day-Lewis) to whom she becomes engaged back in the more corseted Surrey. Funny, sexy, and sophisticated, this gargantuan art-house hit features a sublime supporting cast—including Simon Callow, Judi Dench, Denholm Elliott, Maggie Smith—and remains a touchstone of intelligent romantic cinema.


The Remains of the Day

James Ivory

Oscar®-winners Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) and Emma Thompson (Howards End) reunite with the acclaimed Merchant Ivory filmmaking team for this extraordinary and moving story of blind devotion and repressed love. Hopkins stars as Stevens, the perfect English butler - an ideal carried by him to fanatical lengths - as he serves his master, Lord Darlington, beautifully played by James Fox (The Servant). Darlington, like many other members of the British establishment in the 1930s, is duped by the Nazis into trying to establish a rapport between themselves and the British government. Thompson stars as the estate's housekeeper, a high-spirited, strong-minded young woman who watches the goings-on upstairs with horror. Despite her apprehensions, she and Stevens gradually fall in love, though neither will admit it, and only give vent to their charged feelings via fierce arguments. Marvelously acted by a supporting cast that includes Christopher Reeve and Hugh Grant.


Surviving Picasso

James Ivory

Canvas, color, metal, ceramics. The century's leading artist commanded them all. But what about the legendary Pablo Picasso's other great passion? Was romance also dominated by his genius? Academy Award® winner* Anthony Hopkins gives a full-throttle performance as the acclaimed artist in this masterful movie told from the viewpoint of Picasso's longtime mistress (Natascha McElhone in a luminous film debut) and mother of his children Claude and Paloma. Director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala reteam with Hopkins for the first time since The Remains of the Day in this lusty, sweeping saga. Joined by producer David L. Wolper (Roots), they draw from a vivid filmmaking palette to create an intimate, insightful tale of genius, beauty and obsession.


The City of Your Final Destination

James Ivory

After winning a grant to write a biography of the Hispanic author Jules Gund, Iranian-American student Omar (Omar Metwally) must travel to Uruguay and convince the family to give him permission. Omar finds more than expected as he tries to persuade the late writer’s brother (Anthony Hopkins), wife (Laura Linney), and mistress (Charlotte Gainsbourg). A complex look at loss, The City of Your Destination is a moving drama from director James Ivory.


Jefferson In Paris

James Ivory

Chronicles the time that Thomas Jefferson spent as the American Ambassador to France (1784-1789). These were significant years for him in his public and personal life, and fateful ones for France, where the revolution was about to break out.


Slaves of New York

James Ivory

An aspiring artist negotiates the cruel, concrete world of New York's bohemian art scene.


The Guru (1969)

James Ivory

A fictionalized version of George Harrison's first visit to India, The Guru is the story of a British rock star who makes a sojourn to India to learn the sitar from the master guru Ustad Zafar Khan. The spiritual serenity of the guru's home is then wrecked by a siege of female would-be students who want more of the rock star than the sitar.


Heights

Chris Terrio

Diana (Glenn Close) is a legendary superstar who's attracted to Alec (Jesse Bradford, Swimfan), a struggling young actor who lives in the same building as her daughter Isabel (Elizabeth Banks, Spider-Man 2), a self-absorbed photographer who's about to marry Jonathan (James Marsden, The Notebook), atemperamental attorney who's trying to avoid Peter (John Light, TV's "Band of Brothers"), a Britishjournalist assigned to interview his famous lover's ex-flames. These five very different people meet, connect and resolve their relationships in this "wonderfully-acted, intelligently-written and directed drama. One of the best films of the season" (Jeffrey Lyons, NBC)!


The White Countess

James Ivory

In this final film by Oscar-nominated producer Ismail Merchant (1994, Best Picture, Remains of the Day), and Oscar-nominee James Ivory (1993, Best Director, Howard's End), 1930s Shanghai provides the backdrop for this exceptional drama starring two-time Oscar-nominee Ralph Fiennes (1997, Best Actor, The English Patient; 1994, Best Supporting Actor, Shindler's List) as Todd Jackson, a diplomat blinded in a bombing. An encounter with Sophia (Natasha Richardson, Maid in Manhattan), an exiled Countess employed as a bar girl, inspires him to open his own club, but only if she will work for him. Sophia's in-laws (two-time Oscar-nominee Lynn Redgrave) and Sarah (Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave), greedily pocket her income, but denounce her as a bad influence on her daughter. When Japanese troops invade the city, a mass exodus ensues! Alone and afraid, Sophia clings to the only hope left to her - finding her missing daughter!


Le Divorce

James Ivory

When two American sisters become caught up in the intimate intrigue of Paris, cultures and human passions collide. Le Divorce follows the journey of Isabel Walker (Kate Hudson), a quintessential young Californian newly arrived in the City of Light to visit her pregnant sister, Roxanne (Naomi Watts). A darkly romantic poet, Roxy has just been jilted by her scoundrel husband, Charles-Henri de Persand, and it appears they are headed for "le divorce." Meanwhile, Isabel finds herself falling for a married French diplomat who just happens to be the uncle of Roxy's soon-to-be-ex! Based on the best-selling novel by Diane Johnson, Le Divorce is a new twist on the classic American-in-Paris theme.