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Solid Ivory : memoirs

by Ivory, James,

Format: Print Book 2021
Availability: Available at 4 Libraries 4 of 4 copies

Available (4)
Location Collection Call #
CLP - Main Library Second Floor - Non-fiction PN1998.3.I89 A3 2021
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  Second Floor - Non-fiction
 
Call Number  PN1998.3.I89 A3 2021
 
 
Northland Public Library Nonfiction 791.4302 IV7
Location  Northland Public Library
 
Collection  Nonfiction
 
Call Number  791.4302 IV7
 
 
Sewickley Public Library Biography B IVORY 2021
Location  Sewickley Public Library
 
Collection  Biography
 
Call Number  B IVORY 2021
 
 
South Park Library Biographies 791.4302 IVO 2021
Location  South Park Library
 
Collection  Biographies
 
Call Number  791.4302 IVO 2021
 
 

Summary

The irreverent, brilliant memoirs of the legendary filmmaker James Ivory

In Solid Ivory , a carefully crafted mosaic of memories, portraits, and reflections, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Ivory, a partner in the legendary Merchant Ivory Productions and the director of A Room with a View, Howards End, Maurice , and The Remains of the Day , tells stories from his remarkable life and career as one of the most influential directors of his time. At times, he touches on his love affairs, looking back coolly and with unexpected frankness.

From first meeting his collaborator and life partner, Ismail Merchant, at the Indian Consulate in New York to winning an Academy Award at age eighty-nine for Call Me by Your Name ; from seeing his first film at age five in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to memories of Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir, The New Yorker magazine's film critic Pauline Kael (his longtime enemy), Vanessa Redgrave, J. D. Salinger, George Cukor, Kenneth Clark, Bruce Chatwin, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Merchant--Ivory writes with invariable fluency, wit, and perception about what made him who he is and how he made the movies for which he is known and loved.

Solid Ivory, edited by Peter Cameron, is an utterly winning portrait of an extraordinary life told by an unmatched storyteller.

Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "That famous filmmaker James Ivory has led a charmed life is evidenced by this fascinating memoir that takes him from a comfortable childhood in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to adult adventures in India, Afghanistan, Europe, and, finally to his present home in upstate New York. Along the way, he shares incidents and insights into a life that has been anything but ordinary. He begins his story chronologically, moving easily from childhood to age 20. Thereafter he proceeds more episodically and anecdotally, gathering his material in such chapters as "Queer as Jack's Hatband" (yes, he's gay), "Making Movies," "Portraits," and more. He seems to have known everybody. Here are such eminences as George Cukor, Vanessa Redgrave, Stephen Tennant. Some of these encounters are more sketches than portraits, but others are full-dress accounts with such notables as author Bruce Chatwin (with whom he had a cheerful on-again off-again sexual relationship), actress Raquel Welch (difficult to work with) and, of course, his Merchant Ivory colleagues: partner and producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The highly readable text is enriched with a generous collection of black-and-white photos. Ivory is always good company, kind hearted, generous, and thoughtful. His memoir will delight film buffs, of course, but it will also appeal to general readers who value intelligent writing and insights into the lives of accomplished people."
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "The director of A Room with a View and other glossy Edwardian costume dramas looks back on his craft, interactions with showbiz personalities, and a slew of sexual encounters in this urbane memoir. The first third of Ivory's episodic ramble is a lush remembrance of his youth in Klamath, Ore., in the 1930s and of trysts with other boys and men from age six to his time in film school and the military, rendered with no shortage of descriptive prose. He moves on to his experiences learning the filmmaking trade--mainly from Indian director Satyajit Ray--and his insights into the technicalities of scene construction, shot-making, and the like. Later sections consist of vivid thumbnail sketches of lovers, colleagues, and acquaintances, including his Merchant-Ivory producing partner (and life partner) Ismail Merchant, screenwriting partner Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and various celebrities ("The very first person I see is Prince Charles, who runs past me, mopping his brow and looking desperate"). Throughout, Ivory relates this often bawdy, gossipy narrative with a dry, catty wit: "As she lay there, Kael pronounced caustically, in her... girl-of-good-family, shaking voice, to whomever would listen, on this and that current film she'd seen, and this and that director, omitting for once her usual four-letter words." Cineastes will find it a tasty, engrossing browse. (Nov.)"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Ivory, James.
Motion picture producers and directors -- United States -- Biography.
Gay motion picture producers and directors -- United States -- Biography.
Autobiographies.
Publisher New York :Farrar, Straus and Giroux,2021
Edition First edition.
Contributors Cameron, Peter, 1959- editor.
Language English
Description x, 399 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography Notes Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 9780374601591
0374601593
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