MORELEA, Mexico (AP) — More than 60 years and dozens of films later, Oscar-winning director and screenwriter James Ivory returns with his film “A Cooler Climate.” Cooler Climate, a documentary originally shot in 1960 that intersperses the filmmaker’s recollections with the work of the 16th-century Mughal emperor Babur. sixteen.
As a young graduate of the University of Southern California, Ivory took his first cinematic steps when he received $20,000 from the Asia Society to make two films about the African continent, one to be shot in India and the other The tusks that will be photographed in Afghanistan were chosen in part because of its less hot climate.
In the film, Ivory shares his impressions of Afghanistan’s culture during its efforts to Westernize. Long veils for women were abolished (although they did not disappear entirely, as he managed to film), channels of communication improved, and filmmakers appeared among turbaned men and laden donkeys.
However, he did not finish editing the film, as a year later he began working with producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabwala Jhabvala) and shot films with them in India for many years. Ivory showed his Afghanistan films to his friends from time to time, which is how Giles Gardner, co-director and co-writer of “Cooler Weather,” met him and thought the film had potential.
“I feel a little bit guilty that I started making this film and then put it in a box,” Ivory said Tuesday as she introduced her film at the Morelia International Film Festival. Her first film since 2019 This is the second time to participate in this film festival.
After the film premiered at the New York Film Festival late last year and played international film festivals including Thessaloniki, Glasgow, Rome and, of course, Morelia, Ivory, 95, said he felt “relieved” . guilty.
The filmmakers found letters he sent to his parents from Afghanistan and decided to include them in the documentary’s voiceover. She just released her memoir Solid Ivory , so she’s not shy about sharing her past feelings, including her reflections on her attraction to men.
It also shows his life today, from his birth in 1928 to a logging family in Oregon until that summer in Afghanistan. Côte d’Ivoire remembered the books he had read at the time, Proust’s “Swann’s Road” and EM Forster, who in turn recommended Barbour’s memoirs to him.
Babur was the conqueror of Afghanistan and founder of the Mughal Empire, which ruled India for 300 years. We hear snippets from his memoirs that have much in common with Ivory’s life, such as the fact that he preferred the near-perfect climate in Afghanistan but ended up spending most of his life in India. Babur also discovered his desire for men.
In 1960, Avery photographed Babur’s tomb and its beautiful gardens. He said he tried to read him, but with so many battles and conquests he didn’t get very far, even though he seemed to be one of the most interesting figures in history, along with Cleopatra, Elizabeth I and Abraham ·The same name as Lincoln. Gardner was responsible for putting a magnifying glass through the memoirs and looking for suitable film material.
This documentary is a double artistic rescue. In addition to exposing Ivory’s images, it also published an unreleased score by Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat.
“We weren’t really sure how to make music, and then something very lucky happened,” Ivory said. “We met Alexandre Desplat, who had composed music for another director, Terrence Malick, but Terrence didn’t want it, so the music was already there and we Arrangements were made with a production company and the rights were purchased.”
In 2009, Ivory collaborated with musician Richard Robbins and Uruguayan Jorge Drexler to create The City of Your Final Destination. Your Final Destination) for many years. “I’ve always felt very close to my composer,” he said.
In “Cooler Weather,” you can see a thousand-year-old Buddha that was destroyed by the Taliban decades later. There are no images of war, but the conflict feels like an approaching storm. Many contemporary young people know Afghanistan only because of the war, but in the 1960s, Tusk showed a very different country.
“Afghanistan is a terrible thing to be occupied by the Taliban, the power and the mindset of the rulers, and everyone has to change their lives and do other things they don’t want to do, or do nothing at all,” “If you are a woman , other than having a baby, which is a scary thing,” Ivory said.
“It was a popular place for tourists at the time. Afghanistan was a hotspot for young European travelers and people who wanted to go to India, and I was halfway there when I went…” A nickname for all the kids in Kabul There is a hotel place for hepatitis, where they all stay. “
Hepatitis B can be spread through sexual intercourse.
On October 24, 2023, at the Morelia International Film Festival in Morelia, Mexico, American director and screenwriter James Ivory spoke in his documentary “A Cooler Climate” posing on the red carpet. (AP Photo/Berenice Bautista)