Oregon Movies, A to Z

James Ivory listens to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, above/James Blue listens to Robert Rossellini, below.

Two Oscar nominated Oregonians share the same first name. To help readers keep them apart, Oregon Movies, A to Z has compiled a handy checklist of distinguishing characteristics.

1. James Ivory was born in 1928 in Berkeley. James Blue was born in 1930 in Tulsa.

2. Ivory grew up in Klamath Falls. Blue grew up in Portland.

3. Ivory studied architecture and fine arts. Blue studied theater. Both at University of Oregon.

4. Ivory graduated from film school at USC in 1957. Blue graduated from film school at L’IDHEC in Paris in 1958.

5. Both men served in the military between undergraduate school and film school.

6. Ivory made his first feature, The Householder, in India in 1963. Blue made  his first feature, The Olive Trees Of Justice, in Algiers in 1962.

7. Ivory received Oscar nominations in 1987, 1993 and 1994. He was nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1992, 1995 and 2000. Blue beat him to this particular punch. He was Oscar nominated in 1969. He won the Critic’s Prize at Cannes in 1962.

8. More support for the hypothesis that all Oregonians are secretly French? I would say so, since four of Ivory’s films were made in France, while Blue went to film school in Paris, and his breakthrough film was in French.

9. Both men became New Yorkers. Ivory lives in New York City. James Blue lived in Buffalo, where he taught at SUNY. He died in 1980.