The author of A Room with a View and What Remains of the Day reaches 94 years of age today. We offer you five of his best titles in streaming, literary works of unique elegance.
James Ivory , a Californian director who since the early 1980s has given the public superlative adaptations of classics of English literature, turns 94 today . Thanks to the fruitful collaboration with producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Ivory has been able to develop her own idea of literary and personal cinema, making at least one film that has become one of our favorites. Nominated many times for an Oscar, Ivory won it for the sweet film adaptation of Call Me By Your Name , a cult film directed by Luca Guadagnino . These are the five films in streaming with which we want to retrace a career of enormous prestige. As always, happy reading.
The great streaming movies directed by James Ivory
Room with a view
Maurice
Mr. and mrs. Bridge
Howard House
What remains of the day
Room with a View (1986)
After a couple of important feature films including Bostonians , Camera con vista definitively affirms Ivory’s refined talent. Gorgeous in staging and magnificently starring Helena Bonham Carter , Julian Sands , Daniel Day-Lewis and Denholm Elliott , the film received multiple Oscar nominations including Best Feature Film and Best Director, a first solo show for Ivory. Three figurines arrive, including one for adaptation. A classic from the 1980s. Available on CHILI , Google Play , Amazon Prime Video .
A smaller film than previous and future major shows, but perhaps for this very reason more intimate and heartfelt. Played beautifully by a still not (too) famous Hugh Grant and James Wilby , Maurice tells an impossible love story between two young men suffocated by social conventions. Magnificent scenes full of sentiment, refined and subtle dialogue. Coppa Volpi in Venice for the two sumptuous actors. To see, review and love unconditionally. Available on Rakuten TV , CHILI, Amazon Prime Video.
Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990)
A slightly different feature film for Ivory, which tells a wedding with crystal-clear precision, its strength that resists time and the little big compromises to make it still a source of happiness and great feelings. Mr. & Mrs. Bridge has as extraordinary protagonists Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman , a couple in great style who play their respective characters with great surprise: she is passionate, he is posed. Oscar nomination for best actress for a sumptuous performance. Among the best films made by Ivory. Available on Rakuten TV.
Another adaptation from EM Foster, this time more based on aesthetics than on real feeling. It does not matter, the critics and the public adore Howard House which gets to get several Oscar nominations, winning as best actress thanks to the magnificent performance of Emma Thompson . Second nomination as director for Ivory, very good at capturing the decadent aspect of the original text. For many his best film, for us the best is yet to come… Available on CHILI, Google Play, Amazon Prime Video, NOW .
What remains of the day (1993)
Last but not least what we consider James Ivory’s masterpiece and the best career interpretation of Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. As if to say, the best of the best. Taken from the homonymous text by Kazuo ishiguro, What remains of the day becomes a painful and quiet love story, hidden behind the facade of a man who has made his work a reason for living. Too much. Very fine feelings, dormant and exciting passions, moments of intimist cinema of the highest level. Spending the term masterpiece once again doesn’t have to be difficult at all. Indeed … Third and final Oscar nomination for director Ivory. Available on Rakuten TV, CHILI, Google Play, Apple Itunes , Amazon Prime Video.
