This is Ismail Merchant's account of the making of the film, "The Proprietor". It was his first feature film as a director in the English language. The well-crafted screenplay was developed from a number of circumstances - a meeting with Jeanne Moreau, an apartment in Paris, the french property auction tradition, amongst others - which are all detailed in this story. There are humorous details, such as how Ismail Merchant impersonated the Maharaja of Jodhpur to inveigle his way into a hotel, and how he used the Cannes Film Festival to shoot gratis a one-million-dollar scene. This insight into how a film is created, both imaginatively and literally, reveals some of the secrets of how Merchant Ivory manage to produce their films on such modest budgets, as well as illuminating Merchant's thoughts on movie-making and life.
- ISBN10 0747529051
- ISBN13 9780747529057
- Publish Date 15 August 1996
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 18 January 2010
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Format Paperback
- Pages 256
- Language English