Ismail Merchant

摘要

For a devout Muslim, it was ironic that Ismail Merchant was born on Christmas Day, 1936. Not that religion played any conspicuous part in the films he made with his American partner, James Ivory, for Merchant Ivory Productions. Merchant Ivory pictures were entirely secular, concerned at first with the impact of the British Raj on India and later with the way non-conformists (in the literal sense) were affected by class distinction and prejudice in English and American literature.