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SUBJECTS

India -- History -- 20th century -- Drama, India -- Kings and rulers -- Drama, India -- Social life and customs -- Drama

Autobiography of a Princess

James Ivory
United Kingdom, 1975

In Conversation

  • Headshot of James Ivory
    James Ivory
  • Headshot of Ajay Gehlawat
    Ajay Gehlawat

    Ajay Gehlawat is a professor of theater and film at Sonoma State University and author of several studies on Indian cinema, including Twenty-First Century Bollywood. He will join James Ivory in conversation following the screening.

featuring

Madhur Jaffrey, James Mason,

Madhur Jaffrey stars as the titular princess, flawlessly inhabiting the role written with her in mind. Living modestly in London, the daughter of a once-powerful maharajah invites her father’s tutor, Cyril Sahib (James Mason), for tea and 16mm movies to celebrate her late father’s birthday and to reminisce about the glorious time of his rule. As the princess projects archival footage and documentary interviews with other former royals, she regales her guest with tales of the maharajah’s many attributes and urges the former tutor to write a book about her father’s legacy, but Cyril Sahib’s polite reticence tells another story altogether.

FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • James Ivory
  • Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Cinematographer
  • Walter Lassally
Language
  • English
Print Info
  • B&W/Color
  • DCP
  • 60 mins
Source
  • Cohen Media Group
CINEFILES

CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.

View Autobiography of a Princess documents  

Tribute to James Mason at the Nuart (review), Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas, 1982

Autobiography of a princess (program note), Toronto Film Society, Barry Chapman, 1978

Autobiography of a princess (review), Variety, Addison Verrill, 1975

Some are born political...and some have politics thrust upon them (review), Soho Weekly News, Nancy Schwartz, 1975

The autobiography of a princess (booklet), Merchant Ivory Productions, James Ivory, 1975

Autobiography of a princess (review), Sight and Sound, John Gillett, 1975

Displaying 6 of 6 publicly available documents.


View all Autobiography of a Princess documentation on CineFiles.

Preceded By

The Sword and the Flute

James Ivory, United States, 1959

An exquisite ode to art, scholarship, and tolerance expressed through miniature paintings realized in both the Moghul (Muslim) and Rajput (Hindu) styles during the fifteenth-century reign of Emperor Akbar.

FILM DETAILS 
Narrator
  • Saheed Jaffrey
Screenwriter
  • James Ivory
Cinematographer
  • Mindaugas Bagdon
Print Info
  • Color
  • 16mm
  • 24 mins
source
  • New York Public Library
permission
  • Cohen Media Group

The Creation of Woman

Charles Schwep, United States, 1960

FEATURING
Bhaskar Roy Chaudhuri
Dinu
Anjali Devi

In Ismail Merchant’s Academy Award–nominated first production, the Hindu god Brahma—magnificently danced by Bhaskar Roy Chaudhuri—creates man and woman, and trouble ensues.

FILM DETAILS 
Narrator
  • Saheed Jaffrey
Screenwriter
  • Charles Schwep
Cinematographer
  • Wheaton Galentine
Print Info
  • Color
  • DCP
  • 14 mins
source
  • Cohen Media Group