Back in the conversation
James Ivory returns to frenzy of awards season with ‘Call Me by Your Name’
James Ivory has never won an Oscar.
That seems insane considering that he is something of a legend in Hollywood. With a career spanning more than six decades, he has done more than direct, and sometimes write, great films; he helped shape American cinema. From the mid-’80s until the mid-’90s, the films of Merchant Ivory Productions, which he led with his late life partner, Ismail Merchant, and their late longtime writing collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, were such a dominant force at the box office and during awards season that “Merchant Ivory” became a genre unto itself.
Ivory directed almost all of them, and although “A Room With a View,” “Maurice,” “Howards End” and “Remains of the Day,” among others, nabbed countless Oscar nominations (including three for Ivory) and at least six wins, Ivory has yet to take home a golden statue for his contributions.
That could change next year. Ivory, as screenwriter of the gay love story “Call Me by Your Name,” is the leading contender for best adapted screenplay at the Oscars.
“It’s nice, sure,” the 89-year-old says with a smile about being back in the conversation for the industry’s most coveted prizes during awards season. “I’m not complaining.”
“Call Me by Your Name,” adapted from Andre Aciman’s 2007 novel of the same name, stars Timothee Chalamet as a teen named Elio who falls in love with Oliver (Armie Hammer), a graduate student staying at his family’s home for the summer.
Since the picture’s Sundance Film Festival debut earlier this year, it’s become a critics’ darling. Audiences seem equally enamored.
The following is an edited transcript.
A: The people who optioned the book rights are neighbors of mine. I believe they gave me the book to read. I liked it, and they asked me to be an executive producer on it because they thought they needed some sort of name of experience (attached to the project to get it financed).
There was an existing script that someone else had written, but they couldn’t locate someone to do it. Eventually they found (director) Luca (Guadagnino) through Tilda Swinton, I think, who had just done “A Bigger Splash” with him. He said “yes” but wanted me to co-direct. I said “yes,” but I wanted to write my own screenplay.
It was a two-year process, a year of actual writing. (Once the film got funded) they thought (having co-directors) could slow the shooting process, which they were right, it could.
A: One thing about it is the story was set in Italy. I love Italy and go there all the time. The idea of working in Italy was very attractive to me, and I liked the story. I had done another film a bit like that, which was “Maurice,” which I had also written.
I pretty much wanted to follow the story, but up to a point. There were two things I didn’t want to do. The entire (third part) has to do with a trip the two boys take to Rome before Oliver is about to leave to go back to America. They go to a big book party and meet people and have a wonderful last fling. That took up like a fourth of the book. I thought, well, we can’t really have a sequence like this coming at the end of a film; no one’s going to sit through all of that. So the boys need to take a trip and go off together but not to this whole thing.
In the book, it’s told from the point of view of a young man now age 40 looking back and remembering the whole thing. He’s telling his story in a narrative. At the end of it, they meet up again in Italy, and Elio thinks that they could get back together, but they can’t. I didn’t think that was a way to end the film. I thought it would be a downer to do that.
A: With “A Room With a View,” in the book and film, three young Englishmen go to have a swim in the pond. They take off all their clothes and jump in the water — one of them is a reverend. They’re splashing in the water and wrestling and whooping like Englishmen like to do, and who should come down the path but two proper English ladies, and they are ambushed by these three nudes. It’s a comical scene. … It had to be like that, and I wasn’t going to change that. My attitude about that was whatever is seen is seen and what is not seen is not seen, so let’s shoot.
I’m sure (Chalamet and Hammer) have it in their contracts that they didn’t have to (do fully nude scenes). That’s common in this country; so many American actors don’t like to get undressed in front of the camera. In Europe and in England, they like to. I guess we’re just so puritanical here or something.
A: Well, tell them to read the contracts. (Laughs.)
I think every adult who sees the film or reads the book has gone through the splendors and terrors of first love, what that brings with it, the good and the bad. Everybody can identify with that. For some people, looking back, it’s a marvelous experience. For others, it’s a terrifying one.
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