103. Heat And Dust; movie review

HEAT AND DUST
Cert 12A
124 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate sex references, nudity, discrimination, sexual threat, violence

Do you remember the 1980s - when movie-makers seemed to be obsessed with British colonialism, particularly in India.
Yes, stiff-upper-lipped types in dinner jackets paraded across the big screen, whining about the locals who they regarded as sub-human.
Inevitably, there would be a whiter-than-white-skinned damsel who, bored with a blustering husband, would find solace in the arms of someone she deemed to be more exotic.
That's a summary of James Ivory's Heat And Dust in just two sentences.
The glamorous 1920s memsahib with the cut-glass tones is played by Greta Scacchi and her older, duller husband is Christopher Cazenove, a very family face on British TV in the 1970s and 80s.
Shashi Kapoor is the dashing nawab who spends evenings at formal dinners standing to the national anthem while stirring up uprisings during the day.
The story of the love triangle is told via 1980s research carried out by the memsahib's great-niece (Julie Christie).
She follows in her relative's footsteps, talks to her only surviving friend (Nickolas Grace) and also find the heat kindles romance.
Merchant-Ivory films have remained almost unique in cinema.
Ismail Merchant's writing came from being brought up in an Indian family at the time of Partition.
During Heat And Dust, he captures the simmering resentment of the native people against the colonialists who are portrayed as arrogant and tactless - except Grace's character who expediently (and dangerously) tries to play both sides.
Some will say that the language is too affected and the players are too exaggerated but, from what I have seen and read, they are probably nearer the mark than we would appreciate.
Anyway, physical action is low but Heat And Dust conveys an intoxicating atmosphere with considerable skill.
And, while Downton Abbey has shown how popular period dramas can be, I doubt that there will ever be a combination to match the consistentcy Merchant Ivory's particular style of movies.
For that reason alone, if you haven't caught up with their work before, this is an opportunity worth taking.
It is almost a cinema genre in itself.

Reasons to watch: Merchant Ivory had a special place in cinema
Reasons to avoid: Light on action, heavy on pomposity

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? Merchant Ivory productions have spanned 55 years from 1963 with The Householder to 2018's Make The Wiseguys Weep.

The final word. James Ivory: "It was a very under-financed movie and we got into all kinds of problems with it later on that were later resolved, happily. It was a big undertaking because of the scale of the story and what we had to do."

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