The popularity of our recent "Tea with Dame Maggie" series and the enjoyment the audience felt in seeing again the well-loved Merchant Ivory film "A Room with a View," prompted a new luncheon film series. On five Tuesdays during February and March, Harbor Theater will offer a light lunch and a film from the impressive Merchant Ivory catalogue. Merchant Ivory was famed for their gloriously lush historical literary dramas, especially in the 1980s and 90s. The series kicks off with a documentary about this remarkable independent production company.

"Merchant Ivory" - Tuesday, Feb. 4 - (2024, 1 hour, 52 minutes) - 1 p.m. - "Merchant Ivory" is the first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins. Footage from more than 50 interviews, clips, and archival material gives voice to the family of actors and technicians who helped define Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning work of consummate quality and intelligence. With six Oscar winners among the notable artists participating, these close and often long-term collaborators intimately detail the transformational cinematic creativity and personal and professional drama of the wandering company that left an indelible impact on film culture.

“...Attention must be paid, and good work celebrated...Not every documentary about filmmaking successfully dives beneath the surface as this one does. But then, few subjects are as rich, or as deep, as that of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory. In short, they were one-of-a-kind. Make it a priority to catch this one.” – Leonard Maltin, LeonardMaltin.com

"The Remains of the Day" - Tuesday, Feb. 18 - (1993; PG: 2 hours, 14 minutes) - 1 p.m. - The perfect marriage of aesthetics and feeling, this is Merchant Ivory at their absolute best. Adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, it is a period drama, but far from the petticoats and crinolines people associated with the duo (as if that’s a bad thing anyway). This is sharp look at human foibles, with unforgettable performances from the gold-plated duo, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. During the 1930s, James Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) serves as a proper English butler to the doltish Lord Darlington (James Fox). Stevens is so dedicated that he forgoes visiting his father on his deathbed in order to serve, and overlooks Darlington's Nazi sympathies and growing anti-Semitism. Twenty years after his employer's death, Stevens tries to reconnect with Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson), Darlington's head housekeeper, and begins to regret his loyalty to his former master.

“Beautiful to look at and deeply moving in many scenes.”- David Hunter, The Hollywood Reporter

"The Bostonians" -  Tuesday, Feb. 25 -  (1984; NR: 2 hours, 2 minutes) - Based on Henry James' novel, this is the story of Olive Chancellor, a 19th-century Boston woman dedicated to the suffrage movement who takes Verena Tarrant, a radical young woman, under her wing. But her cousin is a male chauvinist who wants to marry and domesticate the young woman and a battle of wills ensues over her future. Stars Christopher Reeve and Vanessa Redgrave.

“The Bostonians (1984) is one of their most overlooked films, transforming James’s original into a wrenching melodrama, as a paranoid feminist and a charming chauvinist battle for the soul of a young woman.” – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

"Heat and Dust" - Tuesday, March 4 - (1983 - R; 2 hours, 13 mintues) - When Anne (Julie Christie) discovers a long-forgotten family scandal involving her deceased grandmother, Olivia (Greta Scacchi), she decides to investigate further by traveling to the scene of the crime: India. In the 1920s, Olivia had been married to an official in the colonial government, but had an affair with an Indian man that resulted in an abortion and disgrace. By coincidence, Anne also finds herself conducting an affair with an Indian man, and faces similar social prejudice.

“Heat and Dust contains wonderful sights and sounds and textures. It is seductive, treating both of its love stories with seriousness; these are not romances, but decisions to dissent.” - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"Howard's End" - Tuesday, March 25 - (1992; PG, 2 hours, 20 minutes) - A superbly-mounted adaptation of E.M. Forster's tale of British class tension, with exceptional performances all round, "Howard's End" ranks among the best of Merchant-Ivory's work. Set in the early 20th century, class distinctions and troubled relations affect the relationship between two families and the ownership of a cherished British estate. Helen Schlegel falls for Paul Wilcox, but is rebuffed. Her sister Margaret becomes friends with his mother, who promises her the family house, "Howards End." Unfortunately, after her death, the will disappears, and it seems the inheritance will disappear. Until the widower, Henry Wilcox, becomes attracted to Margaret.

“Deeply romantic, political, emotion-led, respectful of music and literature, impeccably dressed and, in one of the characters' own words, "overexpressive." - Simran Hans, Observer (UK)

Join us this winter to warm yourself with passionate film and toasty lunches! Food service: 12:30 p.m. Film: 1 p.m. Box office opens at noon. Tickets for the film series, including a light buffet lunch, are $13 for members, $17 for non-members. Tickets for the film only are $8 / members, $12 / non-members. No reservations required. The Harbor Theater is at 185 Townsend Ave., Boothbay Harbor.