"From sensitive enfant terrible to playful elder statesman, James Ivory has carried a delicate candle of pure hedonism through the violent decades, sheltering it from every hostile wind which sought to extinguish it. One of the few to whom one can unhesitatingly apply the phrase "citizen of the world," he has spent a lifetime scattering beautiful moments across the continents."--Wallace Shawn "James Ivory is one of our greatest living directors, and these pages, deliciously poised between diplomacy and indiscretion, brim ...
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"From sensitive enfant terrible to playful elder statesman, James Ivory has carried a delicate candle of pure hedonism through the violent decades, sheltering it from every hostile wind which sought to extinguish it. One of the few to whom one can unhesitatingly apply the phrase "citizen of the world," he has spent a lifetime scattering beautiful moments across the continents."--Wallace Shawn "James Ivory is one of our greatest living directors, and these pages, deliciously poised between diplomacy and indiscretion, brim with his vast experience of every nook and cranny of the film world. Offering precious insights into how the cinematic cultures of Europe, Asia and America, of Arthouse and Hollywood, came to be blended into a ravishingly beautiful body of work, Ivory also draws for us a vivid picture of what it really feels like to put together an independent movie. But perhaps most striking is the way this book illuminates the human face of film-making, and becomes a touching testament to the deep friendships - the bonds of trust, affection, professional respect - that have made possible the unique triumph that is Merchant Ivory."--Kazuo Ishiguro "Robert Emmet Long's "James Ivory in Conversation" transforms what might have been a routine Q & A into a lucid film history told from the unostentatious matter-of-fact viewpoint of that least narcissistic of productive and creative directors, James Ivory, with 25 films to his credit in a career that has spanned more than 40 years. He has become almost inseparably linked with producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Jhabvala to form the most famous collaborative troika in film history. As Mr. Ivory's perceptively assiduous Boswell, Mr. Long deserves much of the credit for the felicitous outcome of the project. This is a must-read for all venturesome cineastes, particularly as a counterweight to all the reverse snobbery heaped upon the troika for succeeding commercially with serious and tasteful literary adaptations into film."--Andrew Sarris
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