Skip to main content
A Cooler Climate film image

A Cooler Climate

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

Veteran filmmaker James Ivory takes a look back at his life in this warm, engrossing documentary. Co-directed with Giles Gardner, A Cooler Climate recalls Ivory’s unfinished film about Afghanistan; those reminiscences are paired with a wider biographical summary, which takes us from his childhood in Klamath, Oregon through his beginnings as a director and his partnerships with producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Shot in and around Kabul, the Afghanistan footage is notable for its air of mystery as much as for its beauty. Ivory had planned to make a documentary that followed the city’s long, winding river, and there are beautiful shots of sun reflecting off its waters mixed in with what is now a fascinating time capsule. No less engrossing are the reminiscences of small-town life, Hollywood dreams, and beginnings as a documentarian of Venice and India. Ever discreet and tasteful, Ivory discusses his sexuality honestly but without salaciousness. Ultimately, the film is a record of triumph—a moving valediction to a great career.

 

Series Media Partner

Directors
Cast

James Ivory

Credits
Country of Origin

France

Year

2022

Series

Portraits

Language

English

Film Contact
18+
72 min
Documentary LGBTQIA2S+

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Producer

Bertrand Faivre

Screenwriter

James Ivory

Editor

Giles Gardner

Original Music

Alexandre Desplat

Directors

James Ivory headshot

James Ivory

James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. For many years, he worked extensively with film producer Ismail Merchant, his domestic as well as professional partner, and with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. All three were principals in Merchant Ivory Productions. Ivory won awards for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Academy Awards, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and many others. Upon winning the Oscar and BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me By Your Name at the age of 89, Ivory became the oldest-ever winner in any category for both awards.

Filmography: Shakespeare Wallah (1965); A Room with A View (1985); Howard’s End (1992); The Remains of the Day (1993); The White Countess (2005)

Giles Gardner headshot

Giles Gardner

Giles Gardner has been working with James Ivory for over twenty years. He lives in Paris where he has edited numerous award winning documentaries that regularly appear on the International Festival Circuit.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Frankenstein

Dir. Guillermo del Toro
149 min

Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Ballad of a Small Player

Dir. Edward Berger
105 min

Colin Farrell stars in this noir film about a gambler running out of luck in Macau, from the director of Conclave and All Quiet on the Western Front. Tilda Swinton, Fala Chen and Deannie Yip costar.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Dir. Göran Hugo Olsson
240 min

Drawing on 30 years of television archives, Göran Hugo Olsson relates the early history of the state of Israel, as reported by Swedish filmmakers, politicians and journalists. "An astonishing, invaluable document." William Mullally, The National

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Woman in the Dunes

Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
147 min

Teshigahara's collaboration with novelist Kōbō Abe's is vividly strange, erotic and unsettling allegory about an amateur entymologist who is himself ensnared in a trap he only dimly understands. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Checkpoint Zoo

Dir. Joshua Zeman
107 min

The amazing true story of the rescue of thousands of animals trapped on the frontline at an Ecopark when Russia invades Ukraine in 2022.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Predators

Dir. David Osit
96 min

"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre