James Ivory

Their body of work is celebrated for its elegance, sophistication, literary fidelity, strong performances, complex themes, and rich characters. Merchant–Ivory was established in 1961 in India where they made modestly budgeted films including The Householder (1963), Shakespeare Wallah (1965), and Bombay Talkie (1970). Ivory began adapting films from classic novels such as The Europeans (1979), Quartet (1981), Heat and Dust (1983), The Bostonians (1984), Maurice (1987), and Mr. & Mrs. During this period he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for A Room with a View (1985), Howards End (1992), and The Remains of the Day (1993). At the age of 89, Ivory won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name (2017), becoming the oldest competitive Academy Award winner. Ivory's accolades also include three BAFTAs, and a Writers Guild of America Award as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards. He received the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. Ivory released his autobiography Solid Ivory: Memoirs (2021) and directed the documentary A Cooler Climate (2022).

• Name — James Ivory • Birth Name — Richard Jerome Hazen • Born — 7 June 1928 • Birthplace — Berkeley, California, U.S. • Years Active — 1953–present • Education — * University of Oregon • University of Southern California • Occupation — * Film director • screenwriter • producer • Partner — Ismail Merchant (1961–2005; Merchant's death) • Awards — Full list

James Ivory was born Richard Jerome Hazen on June 7, 1928, 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. He grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon. 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. He was UO's 2019-2020 honorary degree recipient. 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. 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.

Ivory met producer Ismail Merchant at a screening of Ivory's documentary The Sword and the Flute in New York City in 1959. In May 1961, Merchant and Ivory formed the film production company Merchant Ivory Productions. Merchant and Ivory became long-term life partners. Their professional and romantic relationship commenced in 1961 and continued until Merchant's death in 2005. Ivory's professional partnership with Merchant has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema history. Before Merchant's death in 2005, they produced 40 films, including a number of films that received Academy, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards. 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. 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!"

In 1986, Ivory directed a film adaptation of the classic E. M. Forster novel A Room with a View. The film starred Helena Bonham Carter who was 18 years old at the time, in her first major film role. The film also co-starred Julian Sands, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Denholm Elliott, Simon Callow, and Daniel Day-Lewis. The film received universal praise with The Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, writing: "It is an intellectual film, but intellectual about emotions: It encourages us to think about how we feel, instead of simply acting on our feelings." The film received eight Academy Award nominations including Best Director for Ivory. He also received Best Director nominations from the British Academy Film Awards, the Golden Globes Awards, and the Directors Guild of America. 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". 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.'" Ivory won the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for Best Director. 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." 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. In 1992, Merchant-Ivory tackled their third Forster adaptation, Howards End, based on the acclaimed novel and starring Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins, and Vanessa Redgrave. The film premiered at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival where it competed for the Palme d'Or and went on to critical acclaim. Ivory received his second Academy Award for Best Director nomination. The film also received three Academy Awards for Best Actress (Emma Thompson), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Production Design. The film also received eleven British Academy Film Award nominations, and four Golden Globe Award nominations. In 2016, the film was selected for screening as part of the Cannes Classics section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and was released theatrically after restoration on August 26, 2016. The following year, Merchant-Ivory directed the period drama The Remains of the Day (1993), adapted from the acclaimed novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. American filmmaker Mike Nichols served as one of the film's producers, and the film reunited Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. Supporting performances included James Fox, Christopher Reeve, Hugh Grant, and Lena Headey. The film revolved around a dedicated butler who serves an English landlord in the years leading up to the second World War. The film was a commercial and critical success with Vincent Canby of The New York Times said, in another favorable review, "Here's a film for adults. It's also about time to recognize that Mr. Ivory is one of our finest directors, something that critics tend to overlook because most of his films have been literary adaptations." The film received eight Academy Award nominations with Ivory receiving his third nomination for Best Director. He also received nominations from the British Academy Film Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Directors Guild of America. In 1999, the British Film Institute ranked The Remains of the Day the 64th-greatest British film of the 20th century.

In 1995 he directed the film Jefferson in Paris starring Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson, Thandiwe Newton as Sally Hemings, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Patsy Jefferson. The following year he directed the film Surviving Picasso starring Anthony Hopkins as the painter Pablo Picasso. In 1998 he directed and co-wrote the film A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, a film divided into three segments each named after a different protagonist. In 2000 he directed the romantic period drama The Golden Bowl which was adapted from the Henry James novel of the same name. He directed the romantic comedy Le Divorce starring Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts. In 2005 he directed the film The White Countess written by Kazuo Ishiguro starring Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, and Vanessa Redgrave. In 2009, Ivory reunited with Anthony Hopkins for the romantic drama The City of Your Final Destination co-starring Laura Linney. The film is the first Merchant Ivory film production without the participation of producer Ismail Merchant due to his death in 2005.

• Illustration — Ivory at a film presentation in 2024 In 2017, Ivory wrote and co-produced the film adaptation of Call Me by Your Name, a 2007 coming-of-age novel by André Aciman. The film, a romantic drama, was directed by Luca Guadagnino and is the final installment in his thematic "Desire" trilogy, following I Am Love (2009), and A Bigger Splash (2015). Set in 1983 in northern Italy, the story chronicles the romantic relationship between a 17-year-old, Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), and Oliver (Armie Hammer), a 24-year-old graduate-student assistant to Elio's father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an archaeology professor. Ivory originally was to co-direct the film based on Guadagnino's suggestion; however, there was no contract to that effect. Ivory accepted the offer to co-direct on the condition that he would also write the film; he spent "about nine months" on the screenplay. Ivory stepped down from a directorial role in 2016, leaving Guadagnino to direct the film alone. 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." Guadagnino said Ivory's version would have likely been "a much more costly [and] different film" that would have been too expensive to make. Ivory retained the sole credit as screenwriter. The film was the only narrative feature he has written but not directed. Despite stepping aside as director, he continued to remain involved with other aspects of the production. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered huge critical success. Ivory's screenplay brought him numerous awards and nominations. Ivory won awards for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Academy Awards, British Academy Film Awards, Writers Guild of America, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the Scripter Awards, among others. Upon winning the Oscar and BAFTA at the age of 89, Ivory became the oldest-ever winner in any category for both awards. In 2018, Ivory took part in the film Dance Again with Me Heywood! directed by Michele Diomà. 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. Raymond Ang of GQ wrote that the project "might be the most personal" film of his career. 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.

Ivory is gay. His memoir, Solid Ivory, gives details of his relationships with his business partner, Ismail Merchant; their composer, Richard Robbins; and others such as Bruce Chatwin. Merchant was Ivory's long-term life partner. Their professional and romantic partnership lasted 44 years, from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. Ivory has owned several homes, including the Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer House and Mill Complex in Claverack, New York.

• Year — Title — Director — Writer — Producer — Notes • 1953 — Four in the Morning — Short film • 1957 — Venice: Theme and Variations — Short film • 1959 — The Sword and the Flute — Short film • 1963 — The Householder — Feature directorial debut Co-screenwriter (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) • 1964 — The Delhi Way — Documentary Also cinematographer and editor • 1965 — Shakespeare Wallah — Co-writer (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) • 1969 — The Guru — Co-writer (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) • 1970 — Bombay Talkie — Co-writer (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) • 1972 — Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization — BBC TV documentary • 1972 — Savages — Idea — Screenplay based on an original idea by Ivory • 1973 — Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls — Short film • 1975 — Autobiography of a Princess • 1975 — The Wild Party • 1977 — Roseland • 1978 — Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures • 1979 — The Europeans • 1979 — The Five Forty-Eight — TV film • 1980 — Jane Austen in Manhattan • 1981 — Quartet — Uncredited — Co-screenwriter (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) (uncredited) • 1983 — Heat and Dust • 1984 — The Bostonians • 1985 — A Room with a View • 1985 — American Playhouse — Executive — Episode: "Noon Wine" Co-executive producer (with Ismail Merchant) • 1987 — Maurice — Co-screenwriter (with Kit Hesketh-Harvey) • 1989 — Slaves of New York • 1990 — Mr. & Mrs. Bridge • 1992 — Howards End • 1993 — The Remains of the Day • 1995 — Jefferson in Paris • 1995 — Lumière and Company — Anthology film: co-director of Segment #31: Merchant Ivory/Paris (with Ismail Merchant) • 1996 — Surviving Picasso • 1998 — A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries — Co-screenwriter (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) • 2000 — The Golden Bowl • 2003 — Le Divorce — Co-screenwriter (with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) • 2005 — The White Countess • 2005 — Heights — Uncredited — Co-producer (with Ismail Merchant and Richard Hawley) (uncredited) • 2009 — The City of Your Final Destination • 2010 — Arcadia Lost — Executive • 2017 — Call Me by Your Name — Co-producer (with Émilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, Marco Morabito, Howard Rosenman, Peter Spears and Rodrigo Teixeira) • 2019 — American Marriage — Collaboration — Executive — Short film Written in collaboration with Giorgio Arcelli Fontana • 2022 — A Cooler Climate — Documentary Co-director (with Giles Gardner) Co-writer (with Giles Gardner) • 2022 — Chinese Laundry — Short film • 2023 — The Way It Was: Paris Restaurants in the 1970s — Executive • 2024 — Merchant Ivory — Executive — Documentary Also appears in the film as a subject as well as an interviewee