James Ivory (director)

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James Ivory

Born

James Francis Ivory
June 7, 1928 (age 80)
Berkeley, California

Awards won
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Director 1985 A Room with a View 1992 Howards End 1993 The Remains of the Day
BAFTA Awards
Best Film 1985 A Room with a View 1992 Howards End

James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an award-winning American film director, best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included both Indian-born producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards.

James Ivory and Ismail Merchant were long-time life partners.

1 Background
2 Merchant Ivory Productions
3 Accolades
4 Filmography
- 4.1 As Director
- 4.2 Other credits
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Background

Ivory was born in Berkeley, California to Edward Patrick Ivory (Irish) and Hallie Millicent DeLoney (French-American) and grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon.^[1] He was educated at the University of Oregon, majoring in Architecture and Fine Arts and then at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, where he directed the short film "Four in the Morning" (1953).

Then he wrote, photographed, and produced "Venice: Theme and Variations" a half-hour documentary submitted as a thesis film for his degree in cinema at USC. 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.^[2]

[edit] Merchant Ivory Productions

In 1961, Ivory created the film production company, Merchant Ivory Productions, with Indian-born producer Ismail Merchant and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala who served as the screenwriter for many of their productions. Until Merchant's death in 2005, the company produced a number of award winning films. 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!" [1].

Merchant was also Ivory's long-term life partner. Their professional and romantic partnership lasted from the early 1960s until Merchant's death in 2005[2].

[edit] Accolades

In 1985 A Room with a View, based on the E. M. Forster novel, was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three, for Jhabvala's adaptation of Forster's novel as well as for Best Costume and Best Production Design. A Room With a View was also voted Best Film of the year by the Critic's Circle Film Section of Great Britain, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the National Board of Review in the United States and in Italy, where the film won the Donatello Prize for Best Foreign Language Picture and Best Director. In 1987, Maurice received a Silver Lion Award for Best director at the Venice Film Festival as well as Best Film Score for Richard Robbins and Best Actor Awards for co-stars James Wilby and Hugh Grant.

This was followed in 1990 by Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, which was adapted by Ruth Jhabvala from the novels by Evan S. Connell. This film received an Oscar nomination for best Actress (Joanne Woodward), as well as Best Actress and Best Screenplay from the New York Film Critics Circle.

In 1992 Ivory directed another Forster-adapted film, 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.

Howards End was immediately followed by The Remains of the Day, which in turn was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] As Director

Four in the Morning (1953) (Short)
Venice: Theme and Variations (1957) (Short)
The Sword and the Flute (1959) (Short)
The Householder (1963) starring Shashi Kapoor
The Delhi Way (Documentary) narrated by Leo Genn(1964)
Shakespeare Wallah (1965) starring Felicity Kendal, Shashi Kapoor * also co-writer
The Guru (1969) starring Michael York, Rita Tushingham *also co-writer
Bombay Talkie (1970) starring Jennifer Kendal, Shashi Kapoor * also co-writer
Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization (1972) (BBC-TV Documentary)
Savages (1973) starring Sam Waterston, Asha Puthli
Autobiography of a Princess (1975) starring Madhur Jaffrey, James Mason
The Wild Party (1975) starring James Coco, Raquel Welch
Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1976) starring Peggy Ashcroft, Larry Pine
Roseland (1977) starring Christopher Walken, Geraldine Chaplin, Lilia Skala
The Europeans (1979) starring Lee Remick, Lisa Eichhorn
The Five Forty-Eight (1979/TV) starring Laurence Luckinbill, Mary Beth Hurt
Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980) starring Anne Baxter, Robert Powell, Sean Young
Quartet (1981) starring Isabelle Adjani, Alan Bates, Maggie Smith
Heat and Dust (1983) starring Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor, Zakir Hussein
The Bostonians (1984) starring Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve, Madeleine Potter, Jessica Tandy
A Room with a View (1985) starring Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day Lewis, Judi Dench
Maurice (1987) starring James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Rupert Graves, Billie Whitelaw * also co-writer
Slaves of New York (1989) starring Bernadette Peters, Mary Beth Hurt, Mercedes Ruehl, Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990) starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Robert Sean Leonard
Howards End (1991) starring Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave
The Remains of the Day (1993) starring Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Christopher Reeve, Hugh Grant
Jefferson in Paris (1995) starring Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi, Thandie Newton, Gwyneth Paltrow
Lumière and Company (1995, segment)
Surviving Picasso (1996) starring Anthony Hopkins, Natascha McElhone, Joan Plowright
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998) starring Leelee Sobieski, Kris Kristofferson, Barbara Hershey, Jane Birkin *also co-writer
The Golden Bowl (2001) staring Jeremy Northam, Uma Thurman, Kate Beckinsale, Nick Nolte, Anjelica Huston
Le Divorce (2003) starring Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Leslie Caron, Stockard Channing, Melvil Poupaud *also co-writer
The White Countess (2005) starring Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Lynne Redgrave, Hiroyuki Sanada
The City of Your Final Destination (2008, based on Peter Cameron novel) starring Anthony Hopkins, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Laura Linney, Omar Metwally and Hiroyuki Sanada

[edit] Other credits

Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls (1973, short, directed by Anthony Korner) - screenplay
The Courtesans of Bombay (1983, documentary, directed by Ismail Merchant) - devised