Adapting Henry James’s tragicomic novel with precision and style, this lavish, Oscar®-nominated Merchant Ivory production revolves around a fiery battle of wills. Tinged with sapphic desire, the central love triangle delicately hints at the complexities of women’s suffrage in 19th-century America.
Another winning collaboration with writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, this Merchant-Ivory gem marvels at the beauty of India while remaining critical of the Western gaze. Time-traveling between two intercultural romances starring Shashi Kapoor and Julie Christie, Heat and Dust simmers with feminine rage.
Next to the always excellent James Mason, Madhur Jaffrey is exquisitely regal as an exiled princess clinging on to a golden past. Fashioned with luxurious objects whose faded glamor aches with nostalgia, this Merchant Ivory chamber piece flickers with memories of an India that no longer exists.