The following is an exclusive interview between film director James Ivory andThe Dartmouth . Ivory was honored last night with the Dartmouth Film Award at a ceremony which included the Upper Valley premiere of his film "Jefferson in Paris."
The Dartmouth: You began as a documentary filmmaker. How do you feelthat has affected your filmmaking, especially in making period/historical pieces?
James Ivory: I suppose that my work has always contained something that people might think of as a legacy of making documentary -- little bits and pieces of scenes which were interesting in themselves -- somehow came out of the surroundings, which was really not part of the story. So I think I've always had an interest in doing that.
The D: A lot of your work is literary adaptation. How do you choose to adapt a piece of literature -- when you read a good novel are you just seized with the idea of making it into a film?
Ivory: Yes, that's it. It's not that I go looking for anything -- that's why probably our output might seem strange to people, the books we've chosen -- but it's simply because they were novels that I liked -- that's all.
The D: Are you interested in writing screenplays of your own?
Ivory: I work on screenplays from time to time -- in fact, I collaborate on a lot of screenplays.
The D: But you don't subscribe to the auteur theory?
Ivory: Well as I said, I believe in that, and if you can do that it's the best -- but very few directors don't need a good writer and there are very few directors who are good writers -- most directors need a writer. If they're honest, they'll tell you that. It's very, very rare that a director is also a good writer.
The D: Many of your films have been adapted from novels with an ironic tone. Is that what attracted you to all of these works?
Ivory: That's part of it. First of all, they are good stories. [E.M.] Forster did not think that his stories were any good, but they are good. They are also filled with humor, terrific insight into character, good scenes and good characters.
The D: What are the principle methods with which you recreate the tone of the narrative of the novel you adapt -- for example, in "A Room With a View," you used title cards of the chapters of Forster's novel. In the novel, "Remains of the Day," the internal conflict of the character is expressed through his voice in the narrative -- what filmic methods do you use to capture this?
Ivory: I don't know.
The D: So it's innate?
Ivory: No ... each shot or moment has its own requirements and you just have to find some way to do it ... in "Maurice," Tchaikovsky unites the couple throughout the film, and it is their 'theme.'
The D: Forster's original manuscript of "Maurice" was, in my opinion, actually quite ambivalent towards homosexuality -- especially for a private manuscript.The happy ending is appropriate to your medium, if only because of the conventions. Did you toy with the idea of changing this?
Ivory: Well, it happened in the book.
The D: I mean, is that part of the reason why you chose the book?
Ivory: No, but that was the ending and I think that after all he'd gone through it was the only possible ending -- that was what people wanted to see -- I think you would have disappointed everyone if you didn't have that ending.
The D: Now, I myself did not know until recently that you were American and that Ismail Merchant was Indian, educated in American schools. Most of the public perceives Merchant-Ivory as an English team.
Ivory: Well most of the public hadn't seen my American films or whatever because most of the people who write these things were in grade school so they didn't see those movies.
The D: Why is it that you are drawn to English periods which involve a lot of repression?
Ivory: Oh come on now, what about repression? For instance, it is not what underlies "Howard's End" -- the conflicts of "Howard's End" has nothing to do with repression. It's people living their lives not in accord with their true feelings, but living a life according to some trumped up idea of society's. That's what's there "In a Room With a View" and "Maurice," and it's a good thing to bring out. People who do that today. There are lots of people who do not live an honest life, on all kinds of levels. Its not just who they have romantic feelings towards, it can be all kinds of things. For instance, what they want to do in life. So many people who know what they really want to do in life or they have a hankering to do something else and yet they allow themselves to please their parents, for some imagined economic reward or whatever it is -- to take a turn, an opposite turn, from where they really want to be, and go suffering through life. Or people will marry strangers sometimes for the wrong reasons. That's what both books are about, and "Maurice" is the flip side of the other one. It has nothing to do with English repression as such -- it has to do with people getting muddled and not following their true desires, particularly when they are young. They are cautionary books.
The D: I suppose that the period that these films are set in is a time of more.
Ivory: But it's the same today. I've repressed my true feelings about I want to be an archaeologist, and I want to be a lawyer -- so I won't think about digging in Egypt. So they go off and be a lawyer and die agonies of boredom and frustration for years and years until they throw it all over and go dig in Egypt. That's what it's all about. Do you see what I'm saying?
The D: Completely ...now I haven't seen "Jefferson in Paris," so I have no idea what it's about, but is it a departure from this theme?
Ivory: It has nothing to do with any of that.
The D: So what are some of the themes?
Ivory: It is about Jefferson in Paris -- what he encountered there, and his domestic life, his life with the slaves -- we don't really think very much about Jefferson as a slave owner and it was full of all sorts of conflicts for him -- and the French Revolution. I can't sum it up.
The D: What drew you -- how did you originally stumble across the idea?
Ivory: I've always been interested in the French Revolution, always been interested in the American south, read a book about Jefferson in Paris, and I was like, well this draws these two things together -- that was how it happened.
The D: So another novel was your source of inspiration?
Ivory: No, it was a book about urban life in the 18th century -- in Naples, Philadelphia and Paris -- and the Paris bit had a lot about how Jeff[erson] was the first American in Paris and how he got a lot out of living in Paris and took it all home with him like so many Americans have done.
The D: Your early films dealt with India a lot, although they were not part of the mainstream Indian film industry -- are your connections still strong with India and do you think you might work there again in the future?
Ivory: I may ... but I am so cut off from, you could say, contemporary life in India now, after so many years -- I was once very much in it, though always as a foreigner -- but not anymore - India has changed incredibly in the 25 years since we've worked there.
The D: Where do you live these days?
Ivory: New York. I've always lived in New York.
The D: So are you drawn to pieces where the characters are foreigners, or you yourself are one, or would you consider making films about contemporary American life?
Ivory: Well I have -- I've made many films about contemporary American life. The most recent was Jane Austen in Manhattan. New York influences my films a lot.
