Solid Ivory

September 20, 2021
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.