Letter from James Ivory, Berlin, Germany, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, [1965 June 30?] : typescript signed.

Telling Ruth how much he loves her new book, "A Backward Place"; describing their situation at the Berlin Film Festival, how Shashi is disappointed he isn't at the Hilton, but they are all in the same hotel with Satyajit Ray and Jean-Luc Godard; describing the competition films they have seen so far, which he thinks are mostly awful; picking up later, having seen some more films, again mostly bad, except for "The Golem" from 1920, "which was superb ... It made up for everything else" and a color Buster Keaton short; describing the festival's translation earphones, which "hurt the ears and hurt the film"; relating how the official leader of the "Indian delegation" was about to lobby the judges until Shashi and "The Maestro" (Satyajit Ray) dissuaded him; pointing out "Of course, the Maestro is the real leader of the Indian delegation. We all go everywhere in a flying wedge (Madhur all a-twitter naturally)" and subject to his sometimes stern discipline; wishing Ruth and Jhab were there, saying Phoo (Felicity Kendal) is beautifully dressed, and that tonight they are screening Ray's film "Charulata," for which Merchant is doing "all the Maestro's legwork" because the actual producer "is useless"; describing a television interview he did, which he had to partially do over.