STORYLINE: Follows the history of the Merchant Ivory partnership, featuring interviews with James Ivory and close collaborators detailing and celebrating their experiences of being a part of the company.  (IMDb)

  When making a documentary about a subject you admire, I imagine it is difficult to remove your fandom, to create an unbiased motion picture.  I am sure crafting an unbiased film also depends on the subject matter itself.   Recently I went to a screening of the documentary MERCHANT IVORY, which focuses its lense of the life, career, and studio created by the legendary filmmakers. 

    Like many documentaries that is about people, instead of events, I found this to be primarily a fluff piece. I do find this is true for the majority of the these documentaries.  Janis Ian: Breaking Sikebce was the exception for me. Merchant Ivory was not as big as a fluff film as the recent Liza Minelli documentary though.  

    Still Merchant Ivory held my attention. I enjoyed the behind the scenes on the duos movies. The film went into detail on a select few of their films while giving bulletin points on others. The film also focused on the production company that the two set up, not just their films. This seems natural since there is a symbiotic relationship between the films and the production company. 

   The documentary does look at the personal life of the two filmmakers but does so on a limited bases. I am wondering if this would be different if both filmmakers would still be alive to tell the story instead of one. So instead the audience is treated to more of the creative process. 

    There was a lot for me to enjoy with this film, despite it being pretty much a fluff piece.

   Until next time I will see you at the movies!