Letter from James Ivory, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1969 February 10 : typescript signed.

Passing on the happy news that Walter Reade and Ed Shuman have decided to exhibit "The Guru" in one of their theaters, possibly the Festival or the Little Carnegie; telling her he has written a Talk of the Town piece on French director Jacques Demy, whose new film was produced by Columbia-- "and they hate [underlined] it"; saying Demy is "very nice" and that Ivory has revised his assessment of Demy's wife, director Agnes Varda, deciding "she isn't a toad, I think she was just very aggressive that night at Lincoln Center, and defensive, knowing her film was so bad"; describing the changes he has made, at Merchant's behest, to the "Shashi-Jennifer treatment" ["Bombay Talkie"], and to "Passion"; considering possible actors for "Passion"-- Lynn Redgrave, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith; telling her the "Guru" soundtrack will be coming out on RCA Victor, as Fox "see no commercial possibilities in it"; describing the party Merchant threw in honor of the visiting Michael and Pat York, with Judith Crist and V.S. Naipaul, among others; describng how Pat York cornered a critic who hadn't liked "The Guru" and asked asked what he thought; describing a drunken argument between Peter Reilly, Ivory, and Nazrul Rahman about art and life; imagining Pat York now being able to drop Naipaul's name-- "Unfortunately she never got his first name and neither did Edna O'Brien; saying he "liked that story about Pogie's friend writing Jesus on her hand."