The Proprietor

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.