Lasting Impressions by Day Hills
Director Dazzles Audience at Inaugural ‘Hyde Hall Talks’ Event
Bone chilling cold and rain did not keep a sold-out crowd away from Hyde Hall to hear famed film director James Ivory kick off the “Hyde Hall Talks” lecture and film series on Saturday, May 23.
Ivory, 98, a lion of the cinema, charmed attendees in an extended chat with a question and answer session prior to the screening of his 1993 film, “The Remains of the Day,” which took place in Hyde Hall’s Wood Barn.
Ivory was asked how his films get their particular look.
“I like old houses,” Ivory replied.
He trained as an architect, but “never intended to design buildings.”
Ivory wanted to recreate architectural design within a form that inspired him more—movies—which he adored from an early age.
Ivory and his production partner, Ismail Merchant, strove to recreate lost worlds. To get each scene right in “The Remains of the Day,” shots from multiple English estates were actually used, he explained, though Dyrham Park, in South Gloucestershire—“Darlington Hall” in the film—was the ostensible single location.
Ivory’s enthusiasm for “old houses” even brought him to Hyde Hall decades ago. He expressed amazement at the restoration currently in progress. He eventually bought a Hudson Valley Greek Revival home which he and Merchant restored over the years and that he still occupies.
How does Ivory feel about recent gilded age TV series such as “Downton Abbey” and “The Gilded Age?”
“The fellow who wrote those, Julian Fellows, watched us make ‘Remains.’ I didn’t have work for him at the time, so he just came on set and watched,” Ivory said.
What gives his films their “secret sauce”?
“Good writing,” Ivory instantly replied.
He praised his long time collaborating screenwriter, British novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who died in 2013, as “extraordinary.”
Ivory described his film production and life partner Merchant, who died in 2005, as an “unstoppable machine” for getting things done.
His advice to aspiring filmmakers? “Keep at it.” What inspires him now? “Everything.”
Over four decades, Merchant, Ivory and Jhabvala produced dozens of critically acclaimed feature films and documentaries. With “The Bostonians,” “A Room with A View,” “Howard’s End,” “Maurice,” “Heat and Dust,” and “The Remains of the Day,” Merchant Ivory Productions became synonymous with meticulous, gorgeously crafted period drama and celebrated acting performances.
Ivory was nominated for Academy, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards multiple times, received the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995, and in 2017, at age 89, won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “Call Me by Your Name.”
Hyde Hall’s Film Series continues with “The Heiress”—based on Henry James’ Gilded Era novel “Washington Square,” on Saturday, June 20. The series, which also includes “Great Expectations” (July 25), “My Man Godfrey” (August 22), and closes with Orson Welles’ “The Magnificent Ambersons” (September 13), explores themes of extremes of economic disparity.
Visit hydehall.org for more information and to purchase tickets.
Day Hills grew up in northern New York and is a retired physician living in Cooperstown.
