James Ivory

Directing

James Ivory

Born

1928-06-07 (98)

Place of birth

Berkeley, California, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

59 titles

James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an American film director, best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included both Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards. Ivory has been nominated three times for the Best Director Oscar, and won his first Academy Award at the age of 89 in 2018, Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me by Your Name. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Ivory, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 5 titles

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony poster
4.7

Hopkins’ career has spanned several decades, which is why we will also use many interviews that he gave throughout his life, allowing us to put him back into the context of each period and will be helpful in understanding his role in the history of cinema, because he was far from following the trends. He never belonged to any film movement; he is a chameleon that has always preferred natural acting, ‘non-acting’ when method acting was the fashion.

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony

2021

Merchant Ivory poster
7.7

The first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins. Footage from more than fifty interviews, clips, and archival material gives voice to the family of actors and technicians who helped define Merchant Ivory’s Academy Award-winning work of consummate quality and intelligence. With six Oscar winners among the notable artists participating, these close and often long-term collaborators intimately detail the transformational cinematic creativity and personal and professional drama of the wandering company that left an indelible impact on film culture.

Merchant Ivory

2024

Only in Theaters poster
4.2

ONLY IN THEATERS, a film by actor/director Raphael Sbarge, is an intimate and moving journey taken with the Laemmle family, spanning nearly three years of challenges, losses, and personal triumphs. Laemmle Theatres, the beloved 84-year-old arthouse cinema chain 3rd generation family business in Los Angeles, is facing seismic change and financial pressure. Yet the family behind this multigenerational business – whose sole mission has been to support the art of film – is determined to survive.

Only in Theaters

2022

A Cooler Climate poster
8.0

In 1960, acclaimed filmmaker James Ivory traveled to Afghanistan to shoot scenes for a documentary that was never completed. In 2022, he decided to revisit this unique footage, which takes him back to his adventurous youth.

A Cooler Climate

2022

No artwork available
NR

Meeting with James Ivory at the Cinémathèque Française on January 18, 2020, presented by Frédéric Bonnaud and Wafa Ghermani.

Leçon de cinéma avec James Ivory

2020

Series credits

Behind the camera

Call Me by Your Name poster
8.1

In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.

Call Me by Your Name

2017

Call Me by Your Name poster
8.1

In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.

Call Me by Your Name

2017

A Room with a View poster
6.9

When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?

A Room with a View

1986

Howards End poster
7.0

A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.

Howards End

1992

Maurice poster
7.6

After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.

Maurice

1987

Maurice poster
7.6

After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.

Maurice

1987

The City of Your Final Destination poster
5.6

28-year-old Kansas University doctoral student Omar Razaghi wins a grant to write a biography of Latin American writer Jules Gund. Omar must get through to three people who were close to Gund – his brother, widow, and younger mistress – so he can get authorization to write the biography.

The City of Your Final Destination

2009

The Remains of the Day poster
7.4

In interwar Britain, a rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a new housekeeper. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

The Remains of the Day

1993

Le Divorce poster
4.9

While visiting her sister in Paris, a young woman finds romance and learns her brother-in-law is a philanderer.

Le Divorce

2003

Le Divorce poster
4.9

While visiting her sister in Paris, a young woman finds romance and learns her brother-in-law is a philanderer.

Le Divorce

2003

The Golden Bowl poster
6.0

Wealthy American widower Adam Verver and his daughter Maggie live a refined life in Europe, surrounded by art. Maggie marries impoverished Italian Prince Amerigo, while Adam marries Maggie's friend Charlotte Stant. The Prince and Charlotte are having an affair, which Maggie discovers and navigates through a silent, psychological battle of wills, ultimately using her cunning to preserve her marriage and protect her father.

The Golden Bowl

2000

The White Countess poster
6.2

In 1930s Shanghai, 'The White Countess' is both Sofia, a fallen member of the exiled Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.

The White Countess

2005

Lumière & Company poster
6.4

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

Lumière & Company

1995

Surviving Picasso poster
5.8

The passionate Merchant-Ivory drama tells the story of Francoise Gilot, the only lover of Pablo Picasso who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty and move on with her life.

Surviving Picasso

1996

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge poster
6.1

Set during World War II, an upper-class family begins to fall apart due to the conservative nature of the patriarch and the progressive values of his children.

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

1990

Heat and Dust poster
6.0

Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life.

Heat and Dust

1983

Slaves of New York poster
5.4

Meet the denizens of New York City: artists, prostitutes, saints, and seers. All are aspiring toward either fame or oblivion while hoping for love and acceptance. Instead they find high rent, faithless partners, and dead-end careers.

Slaves of New York

1989

The Bostonians poster
5.5

A bored lawyer and a suffragette vie for the attention of a faith healer's charismatic daughter.

The Bostonians

1984

A Cooler Climate poster
8.0

In 1960, acclaimed filmmaker James Ivory traveled to Afghanistan to shoot scenes for a documentary that was never completed. In 2022, he decided to revisit this unique footage, which takes him back to his adventurous youth.

A Cooler Climate

2022

A Cooler Climate poster
8.0

In 1960, acclaimed filmmaker James Ivory traveled to Afghanistan to shoot scenes for a documentary that was never completed. In 2022, he decided to revisit this unique footage, which takes him back to his adventurous youth.

A Cooler Climate

2022

Jefferson in Paris poster
5.1

His wife having recently died, Thomas Jefferson accepts the post of United States ambassador to pre-revolutionary France, though he finds it difficult to adjust to life in a country where the aristocracy subjugates an increasingly restless peasantry. In Paris, he becomes smitten with cultured artist Maria Cosway, but, when his daughter visits from Virginia accompanied by her attractive slave, Sally Hemings, Jefferson's attentions are diverted.

Jefferson in Paris

1995

The Wild Party poster
4.9

An aging silent movie comic star throws a lavish party to try and save his failing career.

The Wild Party

1975

Quartet poster
5.8

When her husband's arrest leaves her penniless, a woman accepts an invitation to move in with a strange couple.

Quartet

1981

Quartet poster
5.8

When her husband's arrest leaves her penniless, a woman accepts an invitation to move in with a strange couple.

Quartet

1981

Autobiography of a Princess poster
5.5

On the birthday of her late father, a deposed Maharaja, a displaced Indian princess living in London and his former private secretary watch home movies and reminisce about royal India.

Autobiography of a Princess

1975

Chinese Laundry poster
NR

Mong just moved to New York from China to take over the family laundry shop. Both her professional and social lives are affected when she finds out about an affair happening in the building where she works.

Chinese Laundry

2022

A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries poster
6.1

This fictionalized story, based on the family life of writer James Jones, is an emotional slice-of-life story. Jones is portrayed here as Bill Willis, a former war hero turned author who combats alcoholism and is starting to experience health problems. Living in France with his wife, daughter, and an adopted son, the family travels an unconventional road which casts them as outsiders to others. Preaching a sexual freedom, his daughter's sexual discovery begins at an early age and betrays her when the family moves to Hanover in America. Her overt sexuality clashes with the values of her teenage American peers and gives her a problematic reputation. Meanwhile, her brooding brother copes with his own interior pain regarding his past, only comfortable communicating within the domestic space.

A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

1998

A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries poster
6.1

This fictionalized story, based on the family life of writer James Jones, is an emotional slice-of-life story. Jones is portrayed here as Bill Willis, a former war hero turned author who combats alcoholism and is starting to experience health problems. Living in France with his wife, daughter, and an adopted son, the family travels an unconventional road which casts them as outsiders to others. Preaching a sexual freedom, his daughter's sexual discovery begins at an early age and betrays her when the family moves to Hanover in America. Her overt sexuality clashes with the values of her teenage American peers and gives her a problematic reputation. Meanwhile, her brooding brother copes with his own interior pain regarding his past, only comfortable communicating within the domestic space.

A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

1998

The Europeans poster
5.6

An adaptation of Henry James' novel about the Countess Eugenia Münster and her brother Robert, expatriate Americans who have grown up in Europe. Returning to prosperous relatives in New England, Eugenia hopes to make an advantageous marriage with a wealthy cousin. While Eugenia encounters obstacles, Robert finds his suit bearing fruit.

The Europeans

1979

Roseland poster
5.1

"Roseland" is made up of three stories, sometimes connecting, all set in the famed New York City dance palace, and all having the same theme: finding the right dance partner.

Roseland

1977

Shakespeare-Wallah poster
6.5

The story of a family troupe of English actors who travel around the towns and villages in India giving performances of Shakespearean plays. Through their travels we see the changing face of India as the old is replaced by the new, Maharajas become hotel owners, sports become more important than culture and the theater is replaced by Bollywood movies. Based on the travels of Geoffrey Kendal with his daughter Felicity Kendal.

Shakespeare-Wallah

1965

Shakespeare-Wallah poster
6.5

The story of a family troupe of English actors who travel around the towns and villages in India giving performances of Shakespearean plays. Through their travels we see the changing face of India as the old is replaced by the new, Maharajas become hotel owners, sports become more important than culture and the theater is replaced by Bollywood movies. Based on the travels of Geoffrey Kendal with his daughter Felicity Kendal.

Shakespeare-Wallah

1965

Jane Austen in Manhattan poster
5.9

Two teachers vie for the right to stage a play written by Jane Austen when she was twelve years old.

Jane Austen in Manhattan

1980

Savages poster
5.3

A tribe of primitive "mudpeople" encounter a croquet ball, rolling through their forest. Following it, they find themselves on a vast, deserted Long Island estate. Entering, they begin to become civilized and assume the stereotypical roles and dress of people at a weekend party. There follows an allegory of upper-class behavior. At last, they begin to devolve toward their original status, and after a battle at croquet, they disappear into the woods.

Savages

1972

Venice: Theme and Variations poster
5.5

Ivory's initial effort as a filmmaker was Venice: Theme and Variations, a documentary made as his master's thesis at the USC film school that, although only 28 minutes long, is rich in composition and aesthetic texture.

Venice: Theme and Variations

1957

Venice: Theme and Variations poster
5.5

Ivory's initial effort as a filmmaker was Venice: Theme and Variations, a documentary made as his master's thesis at the USC film school that, although only 28 minutes long, is rich in composition and aesthetic texture.

Venice: Theme and Variations

1957

Venice: Theme and Variations poster
5.5

Ivory's initial effort as a filmmaker was Venice: Theme and Variations, a documentary made as his master's thesis at the USC film school that, although only 28 minutes long, is rich in composition and aesthetic texture.

Venice: Theme and Variations

1957

Bombay Talkie poster
5.6

An English novelist travels to Bombay to watch one of her novels translated to film. She chases after the movie's leading man while the screenwriter chases after her.

Bombay Talkie

1970

Bombay Talkie poster
5.6

An English novelist travels to Bombay to watch one of her novels translated to film. She chases after the movie's leading man while the screenwriter chases after her.

Bombay Talkie

1970

Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls poster
6.8

Looks at the musical extravaganzas which constitute the main bulk of commercial cinema in India; in particular at the career of Helen, the undisputed Queen of such sagas, having appeared in some five hundred since 1957. Excerpts from some of her films are interspersed with an interview with the star in her dressing room.

Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls

1973