Born On This Day- June 7th... James Francis Ivory

I have mentioned in other posts that my favorite film of all time is A Room With A View. My choice could change by my mood, the weather & what is happening in my life at the time, but I always come back to this 1985 movie. I have a first hand understanding of the transforming, life changing experience that being in Tuscany can bring. A Room With A View is a brilliant adaptation of an E.M. Forster, published in 1908, set in Florence, Italy & the English countryside. The movie is a coming of age story of breaking free from the repression of rigid British upper class manners. It is a hysterically humorous life affirming film filled with very funny & original performances, from the pompous Cecil (Daniel Day Lewis), to the awkward Charlotte (Maggie Smith). Initially the blossoming love affair between Lucy (Helena Bonham Carter) & George (Julian Sands) takes a back seat to the joyous expression of life conveyed by all the other characters.

The Homo quotient is quite high, from the source material’s author, to the director, producer, & gay actors Rupert Graves, Simon Callow & Denholm Elliot. When 3 of the male characters men jump naked into a pond & splash around, it seems as if Julian Sand’s George could just as easily have a relationship with either of the other men. George loves life, & his attraction to Lucy seems as if it's only a reflection of his love for life & Italy. Lucy has something boiling deep inside her too, & her love of Beethoven's music reflects this, but it takes some time before this intensity rises to the surface. Italy & the Italian way of life show her how to come into her own. All this plus Judi Dench & views of the Tuscan countryside!


Perhaps the most enduring and influential gay partnership in film history, James Ivory & Ismail Merchant are known for their visually sumptuous period pieces based on familiar literary works. So closely intertwined was this team that many assume that "Merchant Ivory" is the name of an individual. But while associated in many minds with literary & cultural traditions, their professional & personal relationship actually brought together diverse elements of American & Indian culture.

James Ivory was born in Berkeley& grew yup in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Pursuing a career in film set design, he studied architecture & fine arts at the University of Oregon. In 1957 he took a graduate degree in filmmaking at the USC, where he made a documentary about Venice. Later, he made a short film about Indian art miniatures that was screened in New York in 1961.


At that screening he met Ismail Merchant, who was impressed by Ivory's interest in India. They became instant friends & lovers. They agreed to form an Indo-American production company to make English language films in India. By year's end the partners were in Delhi trying to convince Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, a German author married to an Indian, that they were just the team to make a film of her novel The Householder. Taken with their enthusiasm, she agreed to do the screenplay. A 3 way partnership was born.


After critical & commercial missteps like The Wild Party (1975), Merchant & Ivory found what would become their characteristic mode with The Europeans (1979), an adaptation of Henry James's novel. Most of their films have been based on important literary works, usually by gay or lesbian authors & with significant gay or lesbian subplots.

In The Bostonians (1984), Vanessa Redgrave sympathetically portrays James's protagonist Olive Chancellor, a woman caught in a rivalry with a man for the love of another woman, while Maurice (1987) created a new audience for E. M. Forster's long suppressed novel of love between men. Other works based on gay literary sources include their adaptations of Forster's Howards End (1992), Carson McCullers's The Ballad of the Sad Café (1991), & James's The Golden Bowl (2001).


By making controversial issues of sexuality accessible to a mainstream audience, Merchant/Ivory made advances in film’s representations of gayness. Although made on modest budgets, their films are visually stunning & feature the very best of stage & film actors.


The 2 men shared a home in NYC for 4 decades, as well as residences on the 3 continents that shaped their work.


They collaborated in life, art, & love for more than 45 years, the Merchant/Ivory partnership ended on May 25, 2005, when Ismail Merchant died in London of complications from stomach surgery. Among the more than 40 films:


1. Ismail Merchant: Memorial Concert (2011)


2. The City of Your Final Destination (2009)


3. The White Countess (2005)


4. Le divorce (2003)


5. The Golden Bowl (2000)


6. A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998)7. Surviving Picasso (1996)


8. Lumière et compagnie (1995) (segment "Merchant Ivory/Paris")


9. Jefferson in Paris (1995)


10. The Remains of the Day (1993)


11. Howards End (1992)


12. Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990)


13. Slaves of New York (1989)


14. Maurice (1987)


15. A Room with a View (1985)


16. The Bostonians (1984)


17. Heat& Dust (1983)


18. Quartet (1981)


19. Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980)


20. The Europeans (1979)


21. 3 by Cheever: The 5:48 (1979) (TV)


22. Hullabaloo Over Georgie & Bonnie's Pictures (1978) (TV)


23. Roseland (1977)


24. Autobiography of a Princess (1975)


25. The Wild Party (1975)


26. Savages (1972)


27. Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization (1972)


28. Bombay Talkie (1970)


29. The Guru (1969)


30. Shakespeare-Wallah (1965)


31. The Delhi Way (1964)


32. The Householder (1963)


33. The Sword & the Flute (1959)


34. Venice: Themes & Variations (1957)