Ivory's initial effort as a filmmaker was Venice: Theme and Variations, a documentary made as his master's thesis at the USC film school that, although only 28 minutes long, is rich in composition and aesthetic texture.
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life.
Young forester Sixt is wounded one night. Smuggling in the mountains is the reason. By day, the brothers Benno and Simon Schaidler are respectable citizens - by night, they are smugglers and poachers.
Chronicling the comedic escapades of Bombay-based alcoholic Murli Manohar as he uses a forged document to secure employment; falls in love with, Chandra Kripalani, the Manager's Secretary; then fools her into believing that he is an abstainer, and the real alcoholic is his elder brother.