James Ivory in Conversation: How Merchant Ivory Makes Its Movies

America

AMERICA Robert Emmet Long: Savages is an unusual film for you; the four Indian feature films that precede it are realistic works, whileSavages seems like pure fantasy. Also,insteadofhavingasingleprotagonistorpairofprotagonists,youdivide your attention among a group of Mud People who then become civilized people, no one of which dominates the work. I can’t think of any other film in which you have done this. JamesIvory: That’s true. Perhaps only Roseland is in a waylikethat.That,too,showssomesortof“enchanted” world,wheretimeissupposedtostandstill;inSavages, on the other hand, time is compressed. Thousands of years pass in an afternoon. Long: What is touching about this group of characters is that they have such a tenuous life. They become civilized people only briefly, during a single day, and theyaregoneagain,backintoprehistory.YetIdon’tremember any reviewer commenting on this quality of group poignancy. I find it more touching than the decline and fall of Jolly Grimm in TheWildParty. Ivory:Youcanbetouchedbythedeclineofanygroup,orpeople,inhistory; youhavetopossesssomekindofhistoricalconsciousnessforthattohappen. Not everybody is interested in history. In fact, very few are. Long: I just said that Savages seems like pure fantasy, but within the fantasy youdosketchthemannersoftheupper-middle-classorupper-classsociallife 117 s a v a g e s AStone Agetribestumbles uponanabandoned Americanmansion .Theriseand fallofcivilizationasseen inthecourseofaweekend houseparty.WithThayer David,LouisStadlen, Anne Francine,SalomeJens,and SamWaterston.1972. Feature.35millimeter; colorandblack-and-white; 106minutes. in the American Northeast between the world wars. And in your own neighborhood , since you have a house near the Hudson, a large house with white pillars in front, not too far north of Beechwood, the mansion where you shot Savages. Have you ever taken much interest in the architecture and social history of this region? Ivory:BeyondforaysintoWestchester,andthentoBeechwoodtomakeour film, I never ventured into the upper Hudson Valley until 1974 or so. I don’t know why. Talk about the decline of a group being poignant! The old Hudson Valley gentry are the epitome of Rise and Fall. It’s George Trow who first made me aware of all that. Long: Perhaps the most important “character” in the movie is Beechwood itself,theneo-GeorgianmansionontheHudsonthatyoucameacrossoneday. InyourIndianfilms,deterioratedbutarchitecturallymagnificentpalaceswere soevocativethattheywerealsovirtual“characters.”WhatwasitaboutBeechwood and its grounds that attracted you? Ivory: It really was one of those enclosed worlds “frozen in time,” as they say—a large, deserted mansion, still filled with fine things, into which vines were creeping through doors and windows, where the closets were still filled withtheclothesoflong-deadowners,anddeskdrawerswiththeirabandoned checkbooks. Much, much food for thought for someone like me! Long: Beechwood seems to have a life of its own. Its lights flicker on and oª atadramaticmomentlikethelightsofGatsby’sbighousewhenheisaboutto be reunited with Daisy Fay. One thinks of F. Scott Fitzgerald a bit because of the evocations of the 1920s in the film and the life of the very rich in America. Did you ever think of Fitzgerald while you were planning or making the film? Ivory: There wasn’t a day when we didn’t. Long: How did you decide what the Mud People would look like when they are encountered at the opening? Ivory:IsawadsforCanadianClubwhiskeyinmagazines,inwhichexplorers dressedinpithhelmetsandsmartkhakioutfitsmetupwithNewGuineaStone Age “mudmen” in the jungle. These primitive people were smeared with mud and wore the kind of masks we made for the movie. After they put their spears down and shook hands with the curious intruders, the latter were seen back at 118 f e a t u r e f i l m s : a m e r i c a theircamprelaxingwithhighballsofCanadianClub,reminiscingovertheirinteresting day. All this was presented in the ads completely straight-faced. Long:TheMudPeopleattheopeningseemabitlikefarcicalfiguresinasilent movie. Isn’t there humor here? Ivory:Thehumoristhere.Howcanyouask?Itcomespartlyfromthedeadpan title cards explaining what was going on, like “In the forest, where perfect spheres are unknown, the arrival of a croquet ball causes astonishment,” or“Tribaleldersareoftendistinguishedbypebblesintheirteethalthoughsuch is not the case here.” Audiences did laugh when they saw things like that on the screen—maybe nervously. Long: The dense forest in which they live tends to be dark, and it is shot in f e a t u r e f i l m s : a m e r i c a 119 Margaret Brewster, as a Mudwoman, before her transformation into the tart-tongued Lady Cora in Savages (1972). sepia tones, as if it were a souvenir from the past; but Beechwood appears in clear,brightdaylight.IfIamnotmistaken,youareinterestedinobservingthe qualitiesoflightinwhichtheestateisseenatdiªerenttimesandfromdiªerent angles. It is more complicated than the forest world and maybe seems to stand for civilization; it has been constructed from the human eye...