Page 54 - Southern Oregon Magazine Winter 2019

neck of the woods | f ilm

collaborator and late friend Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, titled, “The Judge’s In the works is a guidebook for the Santa Croce Basilica in Florence,
Will.” It will be directed by Alexander Payne, who directed Sideways Italy, where scenes from Room with a View were shot. As part of the film-
and Downsizing. “It’s a little odd to be doing a screenplay of Ruth’s ing, he received permission from the Vatican, but it proved a challenge
story after she’s gone,” Ivory admits of working with the story by because the scene shot in the basilica’s spacious interior had to be done
Jhabvala, who won Oscars for two films he directed, Howard’s End and in a single day.
Room with a View.
If the opportunity arises Ivory would be open to directing another film.
Another possibility is a documentary based on his travels in Afghanistan Will he do so? “If I don’t get too old,” he answers with a smile, “sure.”
in 1960. While in Delhi on another film, his producers wanted him
to work on a second project. India was blisteringly hot so, “I thought Since taking home the Oscar, Ivory has been largely traveling
I’d go to Afghanistan because I knew it would be cool. Strangely, I felt between his New York City apartment and Europe. Before he
enough at home there because it reminded me of the American West. returned to New York from Lake of the Woods last summer, how-
I knew nothing about Afghanistan, nothing at all.” Ivory shot thousands ever, he held a showing of Call Me at the Pelican Cinemas in Klamath
of feet of film and will work with a British documentary filmmaker. Falls.
While he says it will focus on people living along the Kabul River, “I
think it will turn into something else, something more about me and “I was excited to be there, to be in that theater in Klamath Falls, and
my personal history.” seeing everybody enjoy the film,” he says of the screening arranged

52 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | winter 2019