WATCH: For 44 years, these filmmakers kept their love secret—& made some of the most romantic movies ever

From A Room With A View to Howards End, most of the films from Merchant Ivory—a production studio founded by namesake writer-director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant—fall into a specific milieu: Handsomely made costume dramas adapted from works of literature.

Because of that “a Merchant Ivory production” gradually—and unfairly—became synonymous with “boring” in the public eye. Even when their films were financially successful or won Oscars, they weren’t necessarily thought of as cool.

Sure, they weren’t action-packed blockbusters, but together Merchant and Ivory made some of the most achingly romantic movies ever. And, hey, we’re never going to call a movie that features three unclothed men playfully wrestling in a pond boring (shout-out to A Room With A View).

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And that’s to say nothing of Maurice, their controversial 1987 gay romance which arrived during the surge of the AIDS epidemic and a new wave of homophobia, boldly pushing the conversation forward for LGBTQ+ representation on screen.

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Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, ‘Maurice’ was groundbreaking for daring to depict gay romance without the tragedy.

Reputation aside, James Ivory and Ishmail Merchant were, in many ways, trailblazers. And what’s more: They were in love.

The pair first met at a screening of one of Ivory’s documentaries in 1959 and quickly hit it off. Within two years, they would launch their production company, thus beginning a professional and romantic partnership that would last 45 years, until Merchant’s death in 2005.

Though their relationship was something of an open secret among their many frequent collaborators, neither of the men spoke publicly about it, or their sexuality (which of course became especially difficult while making and promoting Maurice).

More than a decade after Merchant’s death, Ivory opened up about the reasons for their secrecy in an interview with The Guardian: “You have to remember that Ismail was an Indian citizen living in Bombay, with a deeply conservative Muslim family there. It’s not the sort of thing he was going to broadcast. Since we were so close and lived most of our lives together, I wasn’t about to undermine him.”

Two people from different worlds, coming together to make beautiful art, all while hiding their love affair from the world? Why, that almost sounds like the plot of a Merchant Ivory movie itself!

Documentarian Stephen Soucy certainly saw their story as one worth telling, thus inspiring Merchant Ivory, a new film looking back at the history of their partnership, on screen and off, and the legacy they’ll leave behind.

Told through clips of their gorgeous features, archival footage, and interviews with the stars whose lives they changed (everyone from Emma Thompson to Hugh Grant to Helena Bonham Carter), the doc received a warm reception at its U.K. premiere at the BFI Flare LGBTQ+ Film Festival earlier this month.

Next, Merchant Ivory will take a bow at the Miami Film Festival on April 13, and has be acquired by Cohen Media Group for a planned theatrical release in the U.S. later this year (dates TBA).

You can watch the trailer for the film below:

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