Merchant Ivory films slated for DVD Release

The filmmaking collaboration of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory has spanned three continents over four decades, and now The Merchant Ivory Collection is being released on DVD. The series, produced in association with Criterion and distributed by Home Vision Cinema, will debut in August with two adaptations of Henry James directed by James Ivory—The Europeans (1979), starring Lee Remick, and The Bostonians (1984), starring Christopher Reeveand Vanessa Redgrave. Bombay Talkie (1970), Heat and Dust (1983), Maurice (1987), and Quartet (1981) will follow later in the year, and the series will continue into 2004.

Thanks for the info. Does this seem odd? Home Vision has released several titles that used to be on Criterion LD, but I've never heard this "produced in association with Criterion" wording before.

Any news on SLAVES OF NEW YORK ? Also too bad A SOLDIERS DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES is not letterboxed.

Excellent news about the release of Maurice. One of my favorite Merchant-Ivory films.

Not sure if this is right, but I was always under the impression that HVE was Criterion's parent company.

Not true. Explanation of history of Criterion from Mobius board.

HVE functions as a distributor for Criterion films (and VHS tapes from the Janus Collection) and has evolved into a sort of minor league franchise (whereas Criterion is obviously the Majors). Why are the upcoming Merchant-Ivory releases being "produced in conjunction with Criterion," but being released by HVE? I suspect that it was written into the contract with Merchant & Ivory that Criterion would be actively involved in the production, but perhaps the first three films in the series (The Bostonians, The Europeans, Heat and Dust) weren't felt to be Criterion-calibre. I expect that at least one film from the package (probably Maurice) will be released on the Criterion label. (The Other two films in the 6-film package are Shakespeare-Wallah and Quartet.)

Other examples of directors' works which have been released on both Criterion & HVE: Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North was released by Criterion, but his Man of Aran and Louisiana Story were released on HVE; Shohei Imamura's The Pornographers is forthcoming on Criterion, but his Warm Water Under a Red Bridge will be an HVE title. HVE also releases many arts-related films.

Any fans of ME and/or Henry James who haven't seen this should definitely check it out. It's absolutely beautifully filmed (New England in the Fall... ) and features several note-perfect performances, notably the late, great Lee Remick and the then up-and-coming Lisa Eichorn, who I always really liked.