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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 3 February 2018
James Ivory, 89, may set an

Oscar record. He’d rather work

By JAKE COYLE most long-running and il- it’s absurd to imagine that
AP Film Writer lustrious independent film- I would actually get to
NEW YORK (AP) — James making duo in film history. direct it at my age. But I
Ivory didn’t see “Call Me With Ismail Merchant, his don’t know why. I’m much
By Your Name” with an au- partner and producer, healthier than other peo-
dience until the week be- they made up Merchant ple who are doing movies.
fore he was nominated for Ivory Productions, a name And I’m in great shape. It’s
its screenplay. He caught virtually synonymous with always a matter of con-
it at a New York theater literate, refined period dra- vincing the insurance peo-
In this Nov. 27, 2017 file photo, producer James Ivory accepts with a good audience, mas. ple. They seem to think that
the best feature award for “Call Me by Your Name” at the 27th he says, that applauded Together, with their regular after a certain age, you’re
annual Independent Film Project’s Gotham Awards at Cipriani
Wall Street in New York. at the end. It was his first screenwriter Ruth Prawer just going to fall over or
Associated Press tangible taste of the adu- Jhabvala, they more or something.”
lation for the film he wrote, less wrote the book on lit- For the past several years,
about first love in Northern erary adaptations with Ivory has been trying to
Italy, since it began its cel- films such as “Remains of mount a “Richard II” film,
ebrated run at last year’s the Day,” ‘’Howard’s End,” with a script penned by
Sundance Film Festival. ‘’Maurice,” ‘’A Room With Chris Terrio (“Argo,” ‘’Jus-
“I’ve just been thinking: a View” and “The Golden tice League”) and poten-
What is it about the film Bowl.” Though sometimes tially Tom Hiddleston and
that people respond to so superficially seen as stuffy Damian Lewis starring. “A
much?” Ivory says in a re- portraits of upper-class life, Shakespeare film does not
cent phone interview from the recent and ongoing 4K grab the hearts of finan-
his upstate New York home restorations of their work by ciers, I can tell you,” he
in Claverack. “And I think Cohen Media Group has says.
it’s a story about a happy only enhanced the films’ Concerns over Ivory’s age
love in a beautiful place. intimacy of character and also fed into his experi-
I think that just appeals to pristine economy of story- ence on “Call Me By Your
people. It ought to.” telling. Name.” The rights to Aci-
The pure and glittering “A lot of directors don’t man’s novel were acquired
romance of “Call Me By bother to go back and by Ivory’s neighbors, Peter
Your Name” has taken on look at their films, but I do,” Spears and Howard Rosen-
an almost escapist quality says Ivory. “If I hear that man. They asked Ivory to
in an awards season con- a film of mine is going to be an executive producer,
sumed with sexual harass- be shown on a big screen and Ivory accepted.
ment revelations through- somewhere and I haven’t After some difficulty finding
out Hollywood. But if “Call seen it in a while, I make a a director or financing, the
Me by Your Name,” about point to get to see it. I just producers met with Luca
the sun-dappled relation- want to see it up on the big Guadagnino, who sug-
ship between 17-year-old screen. My feelings don’t gested he co-direct with
Elio (Timothee Chalamet) usually change much Ivory. Ivory again accept-
and a visiting grad student about it. I happen to like all ed but he wanted to write
(Armie Hammer), radi- our movies.” the screenplay. Ivory spent
ates with the tumultuous For filmmakers known for a year on the script but the
emotions of youth, it’s also tales about British aristoc- co-directing framework
composed with the insight racy, they were an unusual was less appealing to in-
of age. trio: Ivory, the Oregon son vestors.
Ivory is 89, and should he of a sawmill owner; Mer- “We wanted to make it
win the Oscar for adapting chant, the son of a Bom- with him as the director,
Andre Aciman’s 2007 novel bay textile dealer whose but we were disappointed
— as Ivory is widely expect- family protested the 1947 by the market,” says Gua-
ed to — he’ll become the partitioning of India; and dagnino. “When we real-
oldest Oscar winner ever. Jhabvala, a German Jew ized that could have been
(That is, unless the 89-year- who fled Britain during made was a teenie, teenie
old French filmmaker Ag- World War II. Merchant tiny movie in a very small
nes Varda, born a week called them “a three- amount of time, and that
before Ivory, also wins at headed monster.” there was some interest in
the March 4 ceremony. Merchant died in 2015, me doing it, we said, ‘OK.’
Her “Faces Places” is up for Jhabvala in 2013 and Ivo- He was very generous. He
best documentary.) ry’s last film was 2009’s “The said, ‘I bless this project if
But regardless of the out- City of Your Final Destina- you do it.’”“James is as the
come, “Call Me By Your tion,” which he prepped peak of his career,” add-
Name” has proven an un- with Merchant and which ed Guadagnino. “I can’t
likely yet altogether fitting Jhabvala wrote from Peter explain how full of life is
encore for a master film- Cameron’s novel. The loss- James. It’s extraordinary.
maker whose films have al- es were profound, but Ivory His wonderment and love
ready pocketed 31 Oscar never wanted to retire. of discovery. I am 46 and
nominations and six wins. “No! I still don’t,” Ivory says. he’s almost 90, and the
For some 50 years, Ivory “In fact, I’m working on a energy in his body is really
was half of perhaps the new screenplay. Maybe more than mine.”q