James Ivory Shares His World With Yale Film Archive

Friday night’s installment of Yale Film Archive’s The World of James Ivory series offered another type of double feature: a viewing of the 1965 film Shakespeare Wallah, followed by a Q&A with the series’ namesake, James Ivory. Fans of the legendary director, who gifted the Archive with selections from his personal film collection in 2023, were treated to the 35mm version of Shakespeare in all of its black and white glory, in the presence of Ivory himself. Afterward, they had the opportunity to hear Ivory discuss the film with managing archivist Brian Meacham, and ask him questions of their own.

Meacham introduced the film and the director to the crowd seated in the lower-level screening room of the Humanities Quadrangle on York Street with joy and reverence, calling the night’s proceedings a ​“special occasion.” It would be the second of five films shown for the series, the first being Mr. and Mrs. Bridge and the next being The Remains of the Day.

“Merchant and Ivory presented insightful and impeccably designed features,” said Meacham, who later added that the films originally ​“captured his imagination” in the ​’90s, starting with the film Howards End. He remembered the exact date he saw it: Sept. 7, 1992. 

“Little did I know I’d have the privilege of hosting Jim here years later,” he said with a smile.

Shakespeare Wallah is the story of the Buckinghams, a family of actors who have made a life’s work of traveling through India performing Shakespeare with their small theater troupe. The film takes place in postcolonial India, as the troupe begins to find audiences less interested in their work, and more interested in Bollywood productions. The three members of the Buckingham family are played by a real-life family of actors: Geoffrey Kendal plays the father Tony, Laura Liddell plays the wife Carla, and Felicity Kendal plays daughter Lizzie. Even their other daughter, Jennifer Kendal, has a role in the film as innkeeper Mrs. Bowen; she married Shashi Kapoor, who plays Sanju, the man that Lizzie falls in love with.

The many real-life connections among the cast may have made the film a much more intimate event, but even without that knowledge (which this reporter did not have until the discussion afterward), the film has affinity at the heart of its majestic vision. Ivory’s camera captures the faces of the actors, the lovers, the hopes and the disappointments equal in their beauty, while also capturing the landscapes and lush settings, as if they too were their own characters. One sumptuous shot of Lizzie and Sanju kissing in the fog that made me sigh out loud. 

That relationship between Lizzie and Sanju has its complications, since Sanju is already involved with famous film actress Manjula, played by Madhur Jaffrey in a role that Ivory later said won her a Best Actress award in Berlin. Jaffrey plays the role with much relish, and we get to see her dancing and singing as she films one of her movies. Her disdain for the theater and the actors — especially Lizzie, who is capturing Sanju’s attention and heart — amplifies much of what the troupe has begun to experience in smaller doses, and they start to question whether they should continue or not, and whether they should return to England. 

I won’t spoil the film for you, but if you are a fan of Ivory’s other films, such as the lusciously regal A Room with a View, the elegant Howards End, or the simmering romance in Remains of the Day, you will find this film a natural and new favorite. One of the audience members commented to Ivory afterward that the film ​“feels so alive.” I felt similarly, as if what we were watching was life happening naturally, a vibrant record of a time long past.

In the Q&A that followed, when asked how it felt to see the film again, and if he sees anything differently now, Ivory smiled and said, ​“I’m so used to every little thing I see there.” He noted that there were things he now wishes he could change, like how one of the cups in the dining room scene had been used as an ashtray and they had forgot to take it away during filming. 

“I’ve been seeing that for 50 years now,” he said with a laugh. 

Ivory also discussed his work with Satyajit Ray — who Meacham called a ​“master of Indian cinema” — on the music for this film as well as their first film, The Householder, and joked about his ​“flops,” saying his film City of Your Final Destination ​“had a short life in New York but a good life in Italy.”

Audience questions included one about if anything that happened on set ended up in the film, to which Ivory answered: ​“Probably, always things happen on set. It’s a modern story in a modern world. You take what is there and use it. Life just gives you things you find useful.

“Every shot you take in a modern film, you have to show what is there,” he continued. ​“We very rarely prepared. With period films you have to prepare. With modern you have to use what is given to you.”

Ivory also of course talked about his longtime partners, producer Ismail Merchant and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, noting how a film could become a ​“monster” and how Ruth would help him ​“reduce the monster.”

Finally, one attendee asked him if he ever came to a point where he said ​“that’s it” regarding making more films, and Ivory answered ​“yes, maybe a year or two ago,” which garnered laughs from him and the audience. He noted that he didn’t think he had the strength for a feature film, but then added with a smile, ​“I don’t know, maybe I could.” 

The Q&A ended to much applause and many coming forward to thank the director and take a photo with him, hoping to remain in his world for a few more moments. For those of you who long to be a part of James Ivory’s world for short time, you have three more chances via film at Yale this semester. 

The film schedule for The World of James Ivory series as well as the other two film series can be found at the Yale Film Archive website. All films in the series are free and open to the public.