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The film collaborations of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory were so successful that “Merchant Ivory” became synonymous not just with the name of their production company but an entire style, if not genre, of filmmaking: Well-mounted period dramas of sophistication, taste, and erudition that come across today as light-years more refined than “Downton Abbey” or other costume dramas created in the wake of their popularity.

Stephen Soucy pays tribute to this remarkable collaboration and what made the films of Merchant Ivory so distinctive and unreplicatable in his new documentary of the same name, “Merchant Ivory,” the trailer for which IndieWire is exclusively debuting below. The documentary appeared at Doc NYC 2023 and was an official selection of the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Sarasota Film Festival earlier this year. It features commentary from Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, and others, including Ivory himself, now 96 years old, and the oldest Oscar winner ever,...

Stars: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, Matt Damon | Written by Ethan Coen, Tricia Clarke | Directed by Ethan Coen

Directed by Ethan Coen, who co-wrote the script with his wife, Tricia Clarke, Drive-Away Dolls is a queer road movie-slash-crime caper anchored by a pair of delightful performances by co-leads Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan. The plot is admittedly slight and the jokes will almost certainly prove too puerile for some tastes, but it has attitude to spare and the fun characters carry it through.

Set in 1999, on the eve of Y2K, the film begins in Philadelphia, where Texan good-time-girl Jamie (Qualley) has just broken up with her hot-tempered cop lover Sukie (Beanie Feldstein). Needing to get out of town, Jamie jumps at the chance to accompany her strait-laced lesbian best friend Marian (Viswanathan) on a road trip to Tallahassee, Florida, so...

This article contains major spoilers for "Drive-Away Dolls."

Genre movies have a well-earned reputation for being exploitative. Since the dawn of the "B" movie, genre films have been marketed with their exploitation elements up front, the better to entice people to stay in the theater or attend in the first place.

The more genre movies have been reappraised, studied, and eventually raised to the level of revered classics themselves, the more audiences and academics have realized that these films serve numerous important causes within the culture. They often provide the discussion of and investigation into thorny social and political issues that a straightforward drama would have trouble dealing with. They also can be utilized as a powerfully rich tool for normalization, where the marginalized can be the protagonists without having to justify or apologize for themselves, thereby bringing that group closer to the majority.

It's in that spirit that Tricia Cooke...

Authorship is a major point of contention in queer cinema, so let’s get one thing straight: Ethan Coen’s solo directorial debut is co-written and edited by Tricia Cooke, a lesbian who is also his spouse. Yes, that’s a present tense use of “spouse.” If Cooke and Coen’s unique personal arrangement shocks you, then good luck enjoying a single frame of the married filmmakers’ wildly endearing, decidedly shaggy, and gay as fuck comedy caper. It’s steeped in mismatched genre styles and dark red blood; not to mention, it’s chockful of dildo jokes sure to put a lovable new spin on contemporary audiences’ evolving definitions of found family… member.

Cooked up more than two decades ago with the title “Drive-Away Dykes” in mind, “Drive-Away Dolls” puts an overdue spotlight on Cooke’s indelible impact on the Coen brothers’ filmography. This misadventure in girl-on-girl odd coupling was...

“20,000 Species of Bees,” (Estibaliz Urresola)

One of the big winners at Berlin, taking Leading Performance, and now racking up healthy sales, the story of a family off for a village summer holiday which builds to a moving ode to women’s freedoms. Sales: Luxbox

“21 Paraíso,” (Nestor Ruiz Medina)

Living in an idyllic Andalusia, a couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Screened at Seville and Tallinn. Sales: Begin Again Films.

“All the Names of God,” (Daniel Calparsoro)

One of the big Spanish action-thrillers hitting this Cannes market, from a specialist (“Sky High”). Pre-sold to France (Kinovista), Germany and Italy (Koch Media) with Tripictures releasing in Spain. Sales: Latido

“Un amor,” (Isabel Coixet)

The multi-prized Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”).

directs Goya winner Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) in a village-set study of an isolated woman’s succumbing to devouring passion. Sales: Film Constellation.

“Ashes in the Sky,...

Bring Your Squad to the St. Louis advance screening of The Suicde Squad!!

But first check out the brand-new featurette for the film!

Screening: Tuesday, August 3rd @ The AMC Esquire

Time: 7pm

Enter your name and email address in the comments section below. No purchase necessary.

Tickets on Sale Now: https://www.thesuicidesquad.com/

From writer/director James Gunn comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ superhero action adventure “The Suicide Squad,” featuring a collection of the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup.

Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn.

One of the most wildly anticipated films of the summer hits theaters and on HBO Max on August 6, director James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.

Gunn, along with actors Margot Robbie and John Cena, joined Jimmy Kimmel’s guest host Anthony Anderson about their new movie and Cena “stealing” his costume. Gunn also talked about working with Sylvester Stallone, why he put “Ratcatcher” in the movie, the craziest stunts that he had Robbie and Cena do on set, Anderson’s former co-worker Steve Agee playing the Shark in a motion capture suit for the film, and the upcoming Peacemaker show on HBO Max.

Gunn says of his latest film, “I wanted to do the ultimate all-time comic book movie!”

The best part of the visit was Robbie’s story of sleeping with a cardboard cutout of John in the room for two years, followed by the surprise for Cena with...

Check out the newest trailer for The Suicide Squad and watch writer-director James Gunn breaks down the latest trailer for his Dceu movie.

From writer/director James Gunn comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ superhero action adventure “The Suicide Squad,” featuring a collection of the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup.

Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn,...

"They're dying to save the world." Ahead of its August 6th release in theaters, IMAX, and HBO Max via Warner Bros., a new trailer has been revealed for James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, offering another look at the film's superpowered mayhem.

"From writer/director James Gunn comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ superhero action adventure “The Suicide Squad,” featuring a collection of the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup.

Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote,...

Jaione Camborda’s “The Rye Horn,” Enrique Buleo’s “Still Life with Ghosts” and Eva Saiz’s “Casa de fieras” feature among a bevy of new Spanish film projects to be offered at the 4th Madrid-based Incubator.

A mentorship program hosted by Madrid’s Ecam Film School, the Incubator has fast consolidated as one of the foremost development labs in Spain targeting producers of first and second features.

The 4th Incubator runs from April through October.

Projects were chosen from a preselection made from over 200 submitted projects led by The Screen program manager Gemma Vidal. All Incubator’s projects receive €10,000 for development. As valuable, however, will be the tutorship led, among directors, by Arantxa Echevarría (“Carmen & Lola”), Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“May God Save Us”), Juan Cavestany (“Spanish Shame”) and director-producer Alberto Marini (“Summer Camp”).

Producer mentors, packing a large experience and multiple hits, take in Simón de Santiago (“While at War...

Along with the enthusiastically received R-rated trailer for James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad that debuted on Friday, Warner Bros. Pictures have also released 12 colorful character posters for the highly anticipated movie.

Bravo to the director with his preview poster in the same vein as The Dirty Dozen.

A work of art pic.twitter.com/KrtlRQ2WAz

— BoosterMax (@BoosterMaxCeo) March 25, 2021

I sent that exact poster to the marketing guys before we even started shooting.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) March 25, 2021

The film stars Margot Robbie, Idris Elba (“Avengers: Infinity War”), John Cena, Joel Kinnaman (“Suicide Squad”), Jai Courtney (the “Divergent” franchise), Peter Capaldi, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior (“Parque Mayer”), Michael Rooker (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films), Alice Braga (“Elysium”), Pete Davidson, Joaquín Cosio, Juan Diego Botto (“The Europeans”), Storm Reid, Nathan Fillion, Steve Agee, Sean Gunn, Mayling Ng (“Wonder Woman”), Flula Borg (“Ralph Breaks the Internet”), Jennifer Holland and Tinashe Kajese,...

Ahead of its August 6th release in theaters, IMAX, and HBO Max via Warner Bros., James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is teased in a new trailer packed with superpowered mayhem.

"From writer/director James Gunn comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ superhero action adventure “The Suicide Squad,” featuring a collection of the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup.

Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with...

One of the year’s biggest entertainment X factors is James Gunn’s take on Suicide Squad. Of course, the first film, from David Ayer, was met with a tepid at best reaction, but Gunn coming aboard to the follow-up piqued most folks’ curiosity. Titled The Suicide Squad, it’s a funnier and gorier take on the villains. Today, Warner Bros. released a Red-Band Trailer for the flick, and it more than lives up to that speculation. In fact, this movie looks like a blast. When it hits theaters and HBO Max in August, it could be real solid bit of fun. You can see the Trailer at the end of this post… This is the official synopsis from Warner Bros.: From writer/director James Gunn comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ superhero action adventure “The Suicide Squad,” featuring a collection of the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup. Welcome to hell—a.

Photo Credit: Jessica Miglio/ & © DC Comics

Caption: (L-r) Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Pete Davidson as Blackguard, Sean Gunn as Weasel, Michael Rooker as Savant, Joel Kinnaman as Rich Flag, Jai Courtney as Boomerang, Flula Borg as Javelin, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Mayling Ng as Mongal in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “The Suicide Squad,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Copyright: © 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

From writer/director James Gunn comes Warner Bros. Pictures’ superhero action adventure “The Suicide Squad,” featuring a collection of the most degenerate delinquents in the DC lineup.

Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport,...

Salvador Calvo’s “Adú” leads the way at Spain’s annual Goya Awards nominations with 14 nods, including for best film and best director.

“Las niñas” and “Akelarre” followed with nine nominations each, while “Rosa’s Wedding” has eight.

In the running for the best film Goya are “Adú,” a Netflix acquisition; “Ane” by David Perez Sanudo; “La boda de Rosa” by Iciar Bollain; “Las niñas” by Pilar Palomero; and “Sentimental” by Cesc Gay.

Competing for the best direction Goya will be Salvador Calvo for “Adú”; Juanma Bajo Ulloa for “Baby”; Iciar Bollain for “La boda de Rosa”; and Isabel Coixet for “Nieva en Benidorm.”

In the running for best European film are Jan Komasa’s “Corpus Christi”; Florian Zeller’s “The Father”; Viggo Mortensen’s “Falling”; and Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy.”

Mortensen was the big draw at the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival where “Falling” played, and where he received the Donostia Award.

"I want you to make me a promise: not to get excited." Cohen Media Group & Cohen Film Collection have debuted an official trailer for a 2K restoration re-release of the classic 1979 film The Europeans, the first in James Ivory's Henry James triptych. Set in the fall of 1850, a few miles outside Boston. The household of the dour Mr. Wentworth receives two unannounced visitors from Europe, Eugenia and Felix, the daughter and son of his half sister. The film deals with "the social and moral clashes between the New World and the Continent." This first premiered at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, and went on to earn one Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. The costume design and its production design "solidified the 'state-of-the-art' (and impeccably researched) period trappings that have since become synonymous with Merchant Ivory." Starring Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Wesley Addy, and Tim Choate. Enjoy the new trailer below.

Starting next week, one can bask in the glory of another restored Merchant Ivory production in theaters. Timed with its 40th anniversary this year, the 1979 drama The Europeans is returning to theaters, opening next Friday at the Quad in NYC and the Laemmle Royal in La. Courtesy of Cohen Media Group, we’re pleased to unveil the new trailer and beautiful watercolor poster.

Starring the Oscar-nominated actress Lee Remick (the subject of a concurrent retrospective at the Quad), the film set a benchmark for Merchant Ivory, marking their first European “prestige” period piece and the first of three Henry James adaptations they produced. Directed by James Ivory (who will appear for Q&A at the Quad on December 20) and scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the Cannes premiere follows the puritanical Wentworth family in New England and how their lives change when their more worldly European cousins arrive in town.

Check...

Composer who scored nearly every Merchant Ivory film from The Europeans onwards and was an integral part of the brand

The Guinness Book of Records notes that the 44-year collaboration between the Indian producer Ismail Merchant and the American director James Ivory was the longest in the history of cinema. They might equally have added the screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who joined the duo from the start. And a member of Merchant Ivory Productions for almost as long was the composer Richard Robbins, who has died after suffering from Parkinson's disease, aged 71.

The Ivory-Robbins working partnership, which lasted over three decades, outdid in longevity such celebrated director-composer unions as Federico Fellini-Nino Rota, Michelangelo Antonioni-Giovanni Fusco and Alfred Hitchcock-Bernard Herrmann. Robbins scored nearly every Merchant Ivory production from The Europeans (1979) onwards, and was an integral part of the film company's brand.

The reason for the...

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson captures 70s Britain superbly in his new film. National psyche is often best left to foreigners

Whether we like it or not, it often takes a foreigner to make us see who we are. As I watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the quintessentially British spy story directed by Swedish film-maker Tomas Alfredson, at the Venice film festival, how fascinating it was to see how well a Swede had captured Britain and (a certain fringe of) British society in the early 1970s. Espionage may be a French word; it is nonetheless a British forte.

Gary Oldman's Smiley and John Hurt's Control are superbly cast and so are their MI6 colleagues and foes Ciaràn Hinds, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Strong. Together, and directed by Alfredson, they lead the audience not only into the maze of a masterful plot by John Le Carré but,...

This weekend, the stormy, deluxe new version of Jane Eyre opens, and in just about every way the rituals that have long attended the mounting and marketing of a lofty romantic period piece have been duly observed. The film’s star, Mia Wasikowska, is a ravishing and talented up-and-coming classy It Girl of the moment — just as Gwyneth Paltrow was 15 years ago when she first set hearts aflutter in Emma (1996), and Helena Bonham Carter a quarter of a century ago when her stately carriage and wistful dark eyebrows anchored in A Room with a View (1985). Audiences, I have no doubt,...

Producer Ismail Merchant, who, along with James Ivory, brought such acclaimed literary adaptations as A Room with a View and Howards End to the screen, died Wednesday in London; he was 68. Reports on Merchant's death cited that he had been ill for some time and had undergone surgery for abdominal ulcers, and passed away at a London hospital surrounded by family and friends. Born in Bombay and educated both there and in New York, Merchant studied film at USC and early in his career produced and directed a number of acclaimed shorts. His film work brought him to the attention of New York's Asia Society, which commissioned him to make a documentary about Delhi. In India, he met American director James Ivory, and in 1961 the two embarked on a career together (both personally and professionally) that would result in more than 40 films; the first was The Householder (1963), based on the novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who, as their longtime screenwriter, was effectively the third "partner" in Merchant-Ivory Films. Initially, Merchant-Ivory was formed with the charter of making English-language films in India for international release, and their films reflected the conflicts between Indian and British culture. In the early '70s, they tentatively explored new territory . specifically 1920s Hollywood . with The Wild Party, but wouldn't find success outside of India-based films until 1979's The Europeans, based on the Henry James novel, which marked their first major literary adaptation. Small but acclaimed films followed, including Jane Austen in Manhattan and Heat and Dust, but Merchant-Ivory made a name for itself in the mid-'80s with two Oscar-nominated films: 1984's The Bostonians, featuring an Academy Award-nominated performance by Vanessa Redgrave, and their breakout hit, 1985's A Room With a View, the sublime adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel. The film made a star of a young ingénue named Helena Bonham Carter, established Merchant-Ivory as the highbrow literary filmmakers, and received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture (it won three). Taking on Forster again, Merchant-Ivory made the groundbreaking gay-themed drama Maurice in 1987 before unsuccessfully trying on modern-day Manhattan in Slaves of New York. After that film, Merchant-Ivory returned to classic literary adaptations including Mr. and Mrs. Bridge and two back-to-back Best Picture nominees, Howards End (eight Oscar nominations and three wins, including Best Actress for Emma Thompson) and The Remains of the Day (also eight nominations). Merchant's remaining films, from Jefferson in Paris (1995) to Le Divorce (2003) were relatively well-received, but never achieved the heights of his previous films. No further details regarding Merchant's death were forthcoming, and a statement was expected to be released later in the day. --Prepared by IMDb staff...