BIB_ID
453588
Accession number
MA 23840.930
Creator
Ivory, James, sender.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 28 x 21.7 cm
Notes
Year from postmark on original letter.
Carbon copy of MA 23840.846. Missing a few lines of text from the original at the bottom of page [2].
Ivory's reference to "my interview" concerns an imaginary interview with himself that he wrote to answer his Indian critics; the interview finally appeared in the Hindustan Times as "An Interview with James Ivory" on April 25, 1971.
"[T]he film Waris made here in New York with Shirley MacLaine [sic]" is "The Possession of Joel Delaney" (1972). The "Nirad Chaudhuri film" is "Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization" (1971).
The flutist Ivory refers to in this letter-- "Suman"-- is probably Shankar-Jaikishan regular Sumant Raj.
Carbon copy of MA 23840.846. Missing a few lines of text from the original at the bottom of page [2].
Ivory's reference to "my interview" concerns an imaginary interview with himself that he wrote to answer his Indian critics; the interview finally appeared in the Hindustan Times as "An Interview with James Ivory" on April 25, 1971.
"[T]he film Waris made here in New York with Shirley MacLaine [sic]" is "The Possession of Joel Delaney" (1972). The "Nirad Chaudhuri film" is "Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization" (1971).
The flutist Ivory refers to in this letter-- "Suman"-- is probably Shankar-Jaikishan regular Sumant Raj.
Provenance
James Ivory.
Summary
Acknowledging receipt of Jhabvala's letter inquiring about university admissions [see MA 23840.926] and saying he will speak to Cary Welch soon; picking up "[m]uch, much later" to tell her he has spoken to Welch but not about schools, but will speak to him again tomorrow and ask him then; pronouncing "Both my super stars turned up"-- i.e. Holly Woodlawn and Catherine Deneuve-- the latter being interested in playing a role in "The American"; describing meeting Deneuve and her current boyfriend Marcello Mastroianni at the Sherry Netherland Hotel, first waiting in the bar with the piano player-- both favorites of Nazrul Rahman-- and then being called up to their suite; describing Deneuve ("She is terribly [underlined] nice") and Mastroianni ("[a] very sympathetic man, very friendly and nice"), and the obvious signs of their romance-- "I guess Truffaut is over"; contrasting Deneuve's effect on him with that of Rita Tushingham; commenting on the couple's duplex hotel suite-- "My dying wish will be to see that somehow Shashi and Jennifer get into one as nice"; asking if she thinks they might be able to get the Illustrated Weekly to publish Ivory's interview "anyway," since it was meant for an Indian audience; noting that "Bombay Talkie" is opening in Delhi-- "or Calcutta?"-- and perhaps they could re-approach Kushwant Singh about it; listing the pieces he is writing for various periodicals, including "a Talk of the Town piece about the shooting of the film Waris made here in New York with Shirley MacLaine [sic]"; telling her the editing of "the Nirad Chaudhuri film" is basically complete, but that he plans to shorten it slightly; asking her to send him copies of Chaudhuri's books "To Live or Not to Live" and "The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian"; telling her how Merchant, before leaving India, "managed to record me 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' on Indian flutes in various keys and tempos" by "rush[ing] to one of Jaikishan's recording sessions amd collar[ing] Suman [sic] the flute player"; telling her he has to show the documentary to the BBC before he can safely cut the negative, and David [Gladwell] has promised to help with that; also noting that there will be "a kind of MIP retrospective at the National Film Theatre" in London in June, and that "Bombay Talkie" will "have its premiere on the 16th, then open commercially at the Paris Pullman the next night"; mentioning that he will also be delivering a talk-- "something called the John Player lecture"-- at the NFT and noting Merchant and "Foo" [Felicity Kendal] will be attending; noting that Michel Delahaye "has seen B. Talkie and is swooning."
Catalog link
Department