Regular readers of Real Clear Arts know that I am a fan of history and archives and libraries, so I am always happy to share some news about them. Here’s one item:
The George Eastman House has just acquired the entire collection of Merchant Ivory Productions — some 2,600 elements from more than 40 films, including the Oscar-winning A Room With a View (1986) and Howards End (1992), plus great films like The Remains of the Day (1993), Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990), and The Bostonians (1984), which garnered Oscar nominations (and should have won).
The Eastman House called it “one of the most important acquisitions in its 61-year history,” and said it was honoring James Ivory with the title Honorary Eastman Scholar at a benefit in May. The press release describes this as a gift from Ivory, and quotes him saying:
Ismail Merchant’s worry for years was that all those films of ours, made in so many places, stored in so many labs around the world, would never be brought safely home and might be lost. Now the George Eastman House motion picture archive is that home, safeguarding the continuing life of Merchant Ivory’s work for the next generations.
Ivory’s film, City of Your Final Destination, starring Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney, opened this week. That’s Ivory with Linney on the set, above.
The gift includes the pair’s correspondence and shared records of Merchant-Ivory Productions and film labs and film archives all over the world.
Read more in the press release here. Scholars, start your engines.
Did you know, btw, that Hopkins is a sometime painter? He has been at it since 2002, and in February, Hopkins showed some of his work at Gallery 27 on Cork Street in London, and then at The Dome, in Edinburgh, in March. “When I paint, I just paint freely without anxiety regarding outside opinions as criticisms,” Hopkins said at the time. “I do it for sheer pleasure. It’s done wonders for my for my subconscious…I dream now in colours.”
The Guardian printed several and said they ranged “from calm pastoral scenes to nightmarish figurations.” Here’s one, above, plus a link to the story with a slide show.
Photo Credit: Photograph by Juan Quirno. Copyright 2009 Merchant Ivory Productions (top); Anthony Hopkins/The Guardian (bottom)