James Francis Ivory (born Richard Jerome Hazen[1] on June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Ivory along with Indian film producer Ismail Merchant, his domestic as well as professional partner, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, were the principals in Merchant Ivory Productions. Together they made acclaimed film adaptations from the novels of E.M. Forster and Henry James. Their body of work is celebrated for its elegance, sophistication, literary fidelity, strong performances, as well as its complex themes and rich characters.[2]
Ivory was born Richard Jerome Hazen in Berkeley, California, and adopted shortly after birth by Hallie Millicent (née de Loney) and Edward Patrick Ivory, a sawmill operator; they renamed him James Francis Ivory.[1] He grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon.[4] He attended the University of Oregon, where he received a degree in fine arts in 1951. Ivory is a recipient of the Lawrence Medal, UO's College of Design's highest honor for its graduates. His papers are held by UO Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives.[5] He was UO's 2019-2020 honorary degree recipient.[6]
Ivory then attended the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he directed the short film Four in the Morning (1953). He wrote, photographed, and produced Venice: Theme and Variations, a half-hour documentary submitted as his thesis film for his master's degree in cinema.[7] The film was named by The New York Times in 1957 as one of the ten best non-theatrical films of the year. He graduated from USC in 1957.[8][citation needed]
Their partnership has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema history. Until Merchant's death in 2005, they produced 40 films, including a number of films that received Academy, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards among many others. Ivory directed 17 theatrical films for Merchant Ivory, and novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was the screenwriter for 22 of their productions in addition to another film produced by Merchant Ivory after Merchant's death.[citation needed]
Of this collaboration, Ismail Merchant once commented: "It is a strange marriage we have at Merchant Ivory ... I am an Indian Muslim, Ruth is a German Jew, and Jim is a Protestant American. Someone once described us as a three-headed god. Maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster!"[13]
The following year Ivory directed another Forster adaptation, the romantic drama Maurice (1987). The film is a gay love story in the restrictive and repressed culture of Edwardian England. The story follows its main character, Maurice Hall, through university, a tumultuous relationship, struggling to fit into society, and ultimately being united with his life partner. The film stars James Wilby and Hugh Grant in their first major film appearances, and also features Rupert Graves, Simon Callow, Denholm Elliott, Mark Tandy, Billie Whitelaw, Judy Parfitt, Phoebe Nicholls, and Ben Kingsley. In a 2017 retrospective in The New Yorker, Sarah Larson wrote, "...For many gay men coming of age in the eighties and nineties, Maurice was revelatory: a first glimpse, onscreen or anywhere, of what love between men could look like".[15] Director James Ivory has added to the legacy on the film saying, "So many people have come up to me since Maurice and pulled me aside and said, 'I just want you to know you changed my life.'"[15] Ivory won the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for Best Director.[citation needed]
This was followed in 1990 by Mr. & Mrs. Bridge, which was adapted by Jhabvala from the novels by Evan S. Connell. According to Ivory, "the world of Mr. and Mrs. Bridge is the world I grew up in...It's the only film I've ever made that was about my own childhood and adolescence."[16] The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (Joanne Woodward), as well as two New York Film Critics Circle awards. Ivory would later call Mr. & Mrs. Bridge a personal favorite, adding that it was the one film he would most like to see reappraised.[17]
Ivory originally was to co-direct the film based on Guadagnino's suggestion; however, there was no contract to that effect.[31][32] Ivory accepted the offer to co-direct on the condition that he would also write the film;[32] he spent "about nine months" on the screenplay.[33][34] Ivory stepped down from a directorial role in 2016, leaving Guadagnino to direct the film alone.[35][31] According to Ivory, financiers from Memento Films International did not want two directors involved with the project because they "thought it would be awkward ... It might take longer, it would look terrible if we got in fights on the set, and so on."[33][34] Guadagnino said Ivory's version would have likely been "a much more costly [and] different film" that would have been too expensive to make.[36][37] Ivory retained the sole credit as screenwriter[38] The film was the only narrative feature he has written but not directed.[38] Despite stepping aside as director, he continued to remain involved with other aspects of the production.[38]
In 2018, Ivory took part in the film Dance Again with Me Heywood! directed by Michele Diomà.[41] At 94 he directed the documentary film, A Cooler Climate (2022), about boxes of film footage he shot during a life-changing trip to Afghanistan in 1960, which had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival in 2022.[42] Raymond Ang of GQ wrote that the project "might be the most personal" film of his career.[43] In May 2023, an upcoming biographical documentary portrait titled, James Ivory: In Search of Love and Beauty, directed by Christopher Manning was announced. The film chronicles the life and work of Ivory and features Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Wes Anderson and others.[44]
Personal life
Ivory is gay, as he detailed in his memoir, Solid Ivory, which gives details of his relationships with his business partner Ismail Merchant, their composer Richard Robbins, and others such as Bruce Chatwin.[45]
In 1992 Ivory directed another film adapted from Forster, Howards End. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Actress (Emma Thompson), Best Screenplay – Adaptation (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala), and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (Luciana Arrighi/Ian Whittaker). The film also won Best Picture at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards, as well as awards for Best Picture, Best Actress for Emma Thompson and Best Director for Ivory from the National Board of Review. The Directors Guild of America awarded the D.W. Griffith award, its highest honor, to Ivory for his work. At the 1992 Cannes Film Festival the film won the 45th Anniversary Prize.[46]Howards End was immediately followed by The Remains of the Day, which was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.[citation needed]
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Ivory, James. Solid Ivory: Memoirs. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. ISBN978-0374601591[1]
--do.-- Autobiography of a Princess: also being the adventures of an American film director in the land of the maharajahs; screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. London: John Murray, 1975 ISBN 0-7195-3289-2
^ abMcKittrick, Christopher (May 15, 2017). "James Ivory on Screenwriting". Creative Screenwriting. CS Publications. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2017.