James Ivory

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Ivory (1991)

James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928 in Berkeley , California ) is an American film director , film producer and screenwriter . He became known as the director of award-winning literary adaptations such as Room with a View , Howards End Again and What Was Left of the Day . Ivory received an Oscar in 2018 for his screenplay for the film Call Me by Your Name .

life and career

The son of a wealthy lumberjack family grew up in Oregon . He attended USC Film School , where he also made his first documentary, which he was able to finance thanks to donations from his father. While showing a documentary about Indian miniature painting at the Indian Consulate in New York , Ivory met the more experienced filmmaker Ismail Merchant . In addition to a professional partnership, this also resulted in a private community . In total, over 20 films were made with Merchant as producer and Ivory as director. This private and professional relationship lasted until Merchant's death in 2005. Except for the role of Olive Chancellor ( Vanessa Redgrave ) in The Ladies from Boston and the film Maurice , homosexual characters or themes do not play a special role in the joint productions.

In 1961 they founded the production company Merchant Ivory Productions , which still exists today. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote the screenplay for the first joint project, The Householder (1963), who worked as a writer for almost all joint productions. Jhabvala wrote the script for Heat and Dust (1983), starring Julie Christie, based on her own novel, which had previously won the Booker Prize in 1975 . After The Europeans (1979), a film adaptation of the novel by Henry James , Ivory practically only worked with the American composer Richard Robbins in his films .

Ivory became known to a broader cinema audience from the 1980s onwards with elaborate and stylish film adaptations of literary originals, especially from England. The first worldwide success of Merchant Ivory Productions was Zimmer mit Aussicht (1985), a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by EM Forster , which became an unexpected box-office hit and brought Helena Bonham Carter the acting breakthrough. Room with a View was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three of the awards. In 1987 Ivory directed another EM Forster novel with Maurice , which focuses on a gay love affair. The film was not very successful with the audience at the time, but is now regarded as one of their best films. The comedy Big City Slaves (1988), which was set in New York's artistic milieu, was not very successful either . In Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990), the actor couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward played the leading role. Ivory reached the peak of his career with the films Reunion in Howards End (1992), which won four Academy Awards and was the third Forster film, and What Was Left of the Day (1993) based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro . In both films played Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson leading roles, the latter by the two films her acting breakthrough had. He was nominated for an Oscar for best director for Zimmer mit Aussicht , Bye in Howards End and What Was Left Of The Day .

After Jefferson in Paris in 1995, in which Nick Nolte played the leading role as Thomas Jefferson , the success of Merchant Ivory Productions and the boom in historical film adaptations in general slowly waned. Nevertheless, Ivory remained connected to the staging of such materials, for example with the Henry James film The Golden Bowl (2000) and the drama The White Countess (2005), for which Ishiguro wrote the script. After Merchant's death in 2005, Ivory only directed the less publicized drama The City of Your Final Destination with Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney , which is largely set in Uruguay .

His script for the romantic drama Call Me by Your Name (2017), which he also co-produced, earned him an Oscar , the British Film Award , the Critics' Choice Movie Award and an award from the Writers Guild of America . At the age of 89, Ivory became the oldest person to ever win an Oscar in a competition through his award at the 2018 Academy Awards .

style

In the English-speaking world, the term Merchant Ivory film stands in film circles for a certain genre, namely costume films with famous British actors as well as literary and historical references. The mostly finely nuanced literary adaptations were unmistakable and very similar, but they had "high standards", and Ivory had directed "more good films than bad ones".

Many of the films by Merchant Ivory Productions play with intelligent figures of the middle and upper classes in an elegant setting and are often set historically in the early 20th century. Although many of the films appear well-produced, the budgets were mostly low, and Ivory was therefore able to direct film projects with great artistic freedom. He was particularly interested in intercultural conflicts (e.g. between Indians and British or British and Americans), the oppression of individuals (especially women) and social class differences (e.g. in reunion in Howards End and Was vom Tage, where characters with different Status and different political views clash). Houses and furniture are often the focus of the film plot and take on a symbolic role, which is also attributable to Ivory's personal interest in architecture.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

British Academy Film Award

Critics' Choice Movie Award

David di Donatello

  • 1987: Award for Best Film and Best Director for Rooms with a View

Directors Guild of America Award

  • 1995: Lifetime achievement award

Golden Globe Award

  • 1987: Nomination for Best Director for Rooms with a View
  • 1993: Nomination for Best Director, Howards End Again
  • 1994: Nomination for Best Director for Was vom Tage Left

Berlin International Film Festival

  • 1965: Nomination for the Golden Bear for Shakespeare-Wallah

Cannes International Film Festival

Venice International Film Festival

  • 1987: Awarded the Silver Lion for Maurice (together with the film Lunga vita alla signora)

National Board of Review

  • 1992: Award for Best Director, Howards End Again

Oscar

Writers Guild of America Award

  • 2018: Award for the best adapted screenplay for Call Me by Your Name

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Axel Schock & Karen-Susan Fessel: OUT! - 800 famous lesbians, gays and bisexuals , Querverlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89656-111-1
  2. ^ Merchant Ivory Productions (website). Accessed March 8, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Guy Lodge: Maurice at 30: the gay period drama the world wasn't ready for . In: The Guardian . May 19, 2017, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  4. ↑ Jake Nevins: James Ivory is oldest Oscar winner ever with screenplay award for Call Me by Your Name. March 5, 2018, accessed March 5, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Mick LaSalle: Merchant-Ivory's final film a refined delight. Naturally. January 13, 2006, accessed October 16, 2019 .
  6. ^ Roger Ebert: Ismail Merchant: In Memory | Interviews | Roger Ebert. Accessed March 8, 2018 .
  7. ↑ James Ivory | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos | AllMovie. Retrieved March 8, 2018 .
  8. ^ Roger Ebert: Howards End movie review & film summary (1992) | Roger Ebert. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  9. ^ Condé Nast: How James Ivory's Love of Architecture Impacts Cinema History. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Ivory, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ivory, James Francis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film director
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Berkeley (California) , California