1.
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and film producer. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema and his style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a subversive twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being anti-Hollywood and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style, actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen, critic Pauline Kael, writing about his directing style, said that Altman could make film fireworks out of next to nothing.
In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altmans body of work with an Academy Honorary Award and he never won a competitive Oscar despite five nominations. His films MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes. Altmans ancestry was German and Irish, his grandfather, Frank Altman. Altman had a Catholic upbringing, but he did not continue to follow or practice the religion as an adult, although he has referred to as a sort of Catholic. He was educated at Jesuit schools, including Rockhurst High School and he graduated from Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri in 1943. In 1943 Altman joined the United States Army Air Forces at the age of 18, during World War II, Altman flew more than 50 bombing missions as a crewman on a B-24 Liberator with the 307th Bomb Group in Borneo and the Dutch East Indies.
Upon his discharge in 1946, Altman moved to California and he worked in publicity for a company that had invented a tattooing machine to identify dogs. He entered filmmaking on a whim, selling a script to RKO for the 1948 picture Bodyguard, Altmans immediate success encouraged him to move to New York City, where he attempted to forge a career as a writer. Having enjoyed little success, in 1949 he returned to Kansas City, in February 2012, an early Calvin film directed by Altman, Modern Football, was found by filmmaker Gary Huggins. Altman directed some 65 industrial films and documentaries before being hired by a businessman in 1956 to write. The film, titled The Delinquents, made for $60,000, was purchased by United Artists for $150,000, while primitive, this teen exploitation film contained the foundations of Altmans work in its use of casual, naturalistic dialogue
2.
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He has a prolific and controversial career spanning almost four decades and his work is known for its genre and technical innovation, confrontational examination of existential and political issues, and treatment of subjects like mercy and mental health. His political and humanitarian work was honored in 2004 with the Cinema for Peace awareness award. Among more than 100 awards and over 200 nominations in festivals worldwide, he has received the Palme dOr, the Grand Prix, the Prix du Jury, in March 2017, Trier began filming The House that Jack Built, an English-language serial killer thriller. Trier was born in Kongens Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, the son of Inger Høst and he received his surname from Høsts husband Ulf Trier, whom he considered his biological father until 1989. The director would become famous for his honesty to journalists about his family and upbringing, as well as the impact it had on his identity, beliefs. Trier studied film theory at the University of Copenhagen and film direction at the National Film School of Denmark.
In 1984, The Element of Crime, Triers breakthrough film, received awards in seven international festivals including the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes. His next film, was shown at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section. Trier has occasionally referred to his films as falling into thematic and stylistic trilogies and this pattern began with The Element of Crime, the first of the Europa trilogy, which illuminated the traumas of Europe both in the past and the future. It includes The Element of Crime and Europa, Von Trier directed Medea for television, which won him the Jean dArcy prize in France. It is based on a screenplay by Carl Th. Dreyer, Trier completed the Europa trilogy in 1991 with Europa, which won the Prix du Jury at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival and picked up awards at other major festivals. In 1990 he directed the video for Bakerman by Laid Back. This video was reused in 2006 by the English DJ and artist Shaun Baker in a remake of Bakerman, seeking both financial independence and total creative control over their projects, von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen founded the film production company Zentropa Entertainment in 1992.
Named after a railway company in Europa, their most recent film at the time, Zentropa has produced many movies other than Triers own. It has produced hardcore sex films, Pink Prison, HotMen CoolBoyz, in 1995, von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg presented their manifesto for a new cinematic movement, which they called Dogme 95. The Dogme 95 concept, which led to international interest in Danish film, in 2008, together with their fellow Dogme directors Kristian Levring and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg received the European Film Award European Achievement in World Cinema. In 1996, von Trier conducted an unusual experiment in Copenhagen involving 53 actors
3.
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris,1900, The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky, Stealing Beauty and The Dreamers. In recognition of his work, he was presented with the inaugural Honorary Palme dOr Award at the ceremony of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Since 1979, he has married to screenwriter Clare Peploe. Bertolucci was born in the Italian city of Parma, in the region of Emilia-Romagna and he is the elder son of Ninetta, a teacher, and Attilio Bertolucci, who was a poet, a reputed art historian and film critic. His mother was born in Australia, to an Italian father, Bertolucci had one brother, the theatre director and playwright Giuseppe. His cousin was the film producer Giovanni Bertolucci, with whom he has worked on a number of films, Bertolucci initially wished to become a poet like his father. With this goal in mind, he attended the Faculty of Modern Literature of the University of Rome from 1958 to 1961, shortly after, Bertolucci left the University without graduating.
In 1962, at the age of 22, he directed his first feature film, produced by Tonino Cervi with a screenplay by Pasolini, the film is a murder mystery, following a prostitutes homicide. Bertolucci uses flashbacks to piece together the crime and the person who committed it, the film which shortly followed was his acclaimed Before the Revolution. Bertolucci caused controversy in 1972 with the film Last Tango in Paris, starring Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Massimo Girotti. The film presents Brandos character, Paul, as he uses an affair to cope with the violent death of his wife by emotionally and physically dominating a young woman. The depictions of Schneider, 19 years old, were regarded as exploitative, in one scene, Paul anally rapes Jeane using butter as a lubricant. The use of butter was not in the script and Brando had discussed it and she said in 2007 that she had cried real tears during the scene and had felt humiliated and a little raped. In 2013 Bertolucci said he had withheld the information from her to generate a reaction of frustration.
Brando alleged that Bertolucci had wanted the characters to have real sex, because of the scandal surrounding the films release, Schneider became a drug addict and suicidal. She became a rights advocate, in particular fighting for more female film directors, more respect for female actors. Criminal proceedings were brought against Bertolucci in Italy for the anal-sex scene, an Italian court revoked Bertoluccis civil rights for five years and gave him a four-month suspended prison sentence. Bertolucci appeared on the Radio Four programme Front Row on April 29,2013, during the making of Last Tango in Paris, Bertolucci toyed with the idea of adapting Dashiell Hammetts book Red Harvest into a feature film
4.
Greta Scacchi
Greta Scacchi is an Italian-Australian actress known for her roles in the films White Mischief, Presumed Innocent, The Player and Looking for Alibrandi. She won an Emmy Award in 1996 for her portrayal of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia in the film, Rasputin. Scacchi was born in Milan, Italy, on 18 February 1960, the daughter of Luca Scacchi, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela, an English dancer and antiques dealer. Scacchis parents divorced when she was four, and her returned to her native England with Greta. In 1977, Scacchi returned to England to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and she turned down the role of Catherine Trammell in Basic Instinct. In 1999, she had a role as an Italian-Australian single mother in the Australian film Looking for Alibrandi, in 2007, she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for Broken Trail. Scacchi is fluent in English, French and Italian and she has performed in a wide range of parts in theatre.
She appeared In Times Like These and Cider With Rosie before her career took off. After making four films in 15 months, in 1985 she appeared with Mark Rylance, in Uncle Vanya at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, in 1987, she played opposite Michael Gambon and Jonathan Pryce. In 1991 she played Nora in Chekhovs A Dolls House in the Festival of Perth, a year she played the lead role in Strindbergs Miss Julie for the Sydney Theatre Company. She returned to Sydney in 1996 to play Cecilia in Sam Shepards Simpatico In 1999 she took the lead in Easy Virtue in Chichester, in 2001 she returned to Sydney for Harold Pinters Old Times, directed by Aarne Neeme, playing Kate. In 2004 she toured Italy with an Italian production Vecchi Tempi of the same play, in 2005, she performed at the Theatre Royal, Bath, in Thea Sharrocks production of Noël Cowards Private Lives. Back in Australia in 2008, she was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Best Actress Award for playing Queen Elizabeth in Schillers Mary Stuart in Sydney.
In that year she performed in Terence Rattigans The Deep Blue Sea at the Theatre Royal, Bath, on tour. In 2010, she replaced an injured Kristin Scott Thomas in the Chatelet Theatre, as Desiree she sang Send In The Clowns. In September 2013 Sir Jonathan Miller directed a performance of William Shakespeares King Lear at The Old Vic in London. In 2014 she played Arkadina in Chekovs The Seagull in Perth, in 2015 she joined the Headlong theatre company to star on a UK tour in Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie as Amanda. Between 20 August and 12 November 2016 she played Phoebe Rice opposite Kenneth Branaghs Archie Rice in a revival of John Osbornes The Entertainer at the Garrick Theatre in Londons West End, the play received mixed reviews but hers were uniformly positive
5.
Antonio Tabucchi
Antonio Tabucchi was an Italian writer and academic who taught Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena, Italy. Deeply in love with Portugal, he was an expert and translator of the works of Fernando Pessoa from whom he drew the conceptions of saudade, of fiction, Tabucchi was first introduced to Pessoas works in the 1960s when attending the Sorbonne. He was so charmed that, back in Italy, he attended a course of Portuguese language for a better comprehension of the poet and his books and essays have been translated in 18 countries, including Japan. Together with his wife, María José de Lancastre, he translated works by Pessoa into Italian and has written a book of essays. Tabucchi was awarded the French prize Médicis étranger for Indian Nocturne and the premio Campiello, in life he was mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, a feat he never achieved. Antonio Tabucchi was born in Pisa but grew up at his grandparents home in Vecchiano. During his years at university, he travelled widely around Europe on the trail of the authors he had encountered in his uncles library.
During one of these journeys, he found the poem Tabacaria in a bookstall near the Gare de Lyon in Paris, signed by Alvaro de Campos and it was in the French translation by Pierre Hourcade. From the pages of this volume he extracted the intuition of his interest in his life for at least twenty years. A visit to Lisbon sparked his love of the city of the fado, as a result, he graduated in 1969 with a thesis on Surrealism in Portugal. He specialized at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in the seventies and in 1973 he was appointed as teacher of Portuguese Language and Literature in Bologna. In 1978, he was appointed to the University of Genoa, and published Il piccolo naviglio, followed by Il gioco del rovescio e altri racconti in 1981, and Donna di porto Pim. His first important novel, Indian Nocturne, was published in 1984, the protagonist tries to trace a friend who has disappeared in India but is actually searching for his own identity. He published Piccoli equivoci senza importanza in 1985 and, the next year and this novel features another protagonist on a quest to discover something but who is looking for his own identity—which was to become a common mission for Tabucchi protagonists.
Whether these characters succeed in the attempt is uncertain, but they are compelled to face their image as mirrored by others, a film was drawn from this book in 1993, directed by the Portuguese Fernando Lopes. In 1987, when I volatili del Beato Angelico and Pessoana Minima were published, the next year he wrote the comedy I dialoghi mancati. The President of Portugal appointed him the title Do Infante Dom Henrique in 1989, Tabucchi published Un baule pieno di gente. Scritti su Fernando Pessoa in 1990, and the next year, in 1991 he wrote in Portuguese Requiem, A Hallucination, a novel translated into Italian and he published Sogni di sogni
6.
Flirting with Disaster (film)
Flirting with Disaster is a 1996 American black comedy film written and directed by David O. Russell about a young fathers search for his biological parents. The film stars Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Téa Leoni, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal, Glenn Fitzgerald, Alan Alda and it was screened out of competition in the Special Screenings section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Mel Coplin and his wife, live in New York, near Mels neurotic, adoptive parents, Ed and Pearl Coplin. Mel and Nancy have just had their first child, and Mel wont decide on a name for their son until he can discover the identity of his biological parents, after an adoption agency employee locates his biological mothers name in a database, Mel decides to meet her personally. Tina, the sexy but highly incompetent adoption agency employee, decides to accompany Mel, the trip, of course, does not go as planned, and ends up becoming a tour of the United States. First, Mel is introduced to Valerie, a blond Scandinavian woman with Confederate roots whose twin daughters are at least six inches taller than Mel and they quickly realize that Valerie is not Mels biological mother, and Tina scrambles to get the correct information from the agency database.
Meanwhile, Nancy becomes jealous as Tina and Mel begin to flirt, the group heads to Battle Creek, Michigan with the hope of meeting the man whose name appears as the person who delivered infant Mel to the adoption agency. The man, Fritz Boudreau, turns out to be a trucker with a violent streak, when he discovers that Mel might be his son, he becomes instantly friendly and lets Mel drive his semi-trailer truck, which Mel immediately crashes into a Post Office building. This leads to a run-in with two ATF agents and Paul, who are gay and in a relationship with each other and it is discovered that Tony and Nancy went to high school together. Charges are dismissed, and Fritz Boudreau tells Mel that he is not Mels father, Tina locates the current address of Mels biological parents, which turns out to be in rural New Mexico. Tony and Paul surprise everyone by deciding to tag along on the trip, while Mel and Tina become close, Nancy finds herself flirting with Tony, who returns the compliment, causing friction.
The trip through rural New Mexico is fraught with more problems, at last the whole crowd descends on the front porch of Mels true biological parents and Mary Schlichting. They are asked to stay the night, while Richard and Mary are more than welcoming, Mels biological brother Lonnie is overly rude and jealous. It is during dinner that Mel discovers that Richard and Mary had to let Mel be adopted because they were in jail for making and distributing LSD in the late 1960s. Not only that, but Richard and Mary continue to manufacture LSD, as apparent when Lonnie, in an attempt to dose Mel with acid at dinner, accidentally doses Paul. In his drugged state Paul tries to arrest Richard and Mary and they attempt to escape and decide to take Mels car, hiding their supply of acid in the trunk. Mels adoptive parents arrive but change their minds and decide to leave, when they change their minds again and make a blind U-turn, the two families crash. Mels adoptive parents are arrested while his biological parents escape to Mexico, not realizing what has happened Mel recounts the stories from dinner to Nancy and they agree to name the baby Garcia
7.
Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Krzysztof Marek Piesiewicz is a Polish lawyer and politician, who is currently a member of the Polish Parliament and head of the Ruch Społeczny or Social Movement Party. Piesiewicz studied law at Warsaw University and began practicing in 1973, in 1982 he met the film director Krzysztof Kieślowski, who was planning to direct a documentary on political show trials in Poland under martial law. Kieślowski decided to explore the issue through fiction instead, and the two collaborated for the first time as writers on the feature film No End, released in 1984. Piesewicz returned to his law career, but remained in touch with Kieślowski and this series, explored the filmmakers mutual interest in moral and ethical dilemmas in contemporary social and political life, and achieved critical acclaim around the world. Piesiewicz was credited as co-writer on all of Kieślowskis projects after No End and he has begun writing a new series of films, The Stigmatised, the first of these, was directed by Michał Rosa and released in 2002.
In 1991 he was elected to the Polish Senate, served for two years, returned in 1997, in 2002, RS AWS changed its name to RS and elected Piesiewicz as its leader. Krzysztof Piesiewicz at the Internet Movie Database Official home page
8.
Jaco Van Dormael
Jaco Van Dormael is a Belgian film director and playwright. His complex and critically acclaimed films are noted for their respectful. Van Dormaels feature debut, Toto le héros, was an immediate hit and his third feature film, Mr. Nobody, received further critical acclaim and many accolades, winning six Magritte Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. Jaco Van Dormael was born in Ixelles, Belgium, on 9 February 1957 to a Belgian couple. Van Dormael was raised in Germany until age seven, when his family returned to Belgium, at his birth, he had nearly been strangled by the umbilical cord and received an insufficient supply of oxygen. It was feared that he may end up mentally impaired and this trauma accounts for the recurring themes in his films, which explore the worlds of people with mental and physical disabilities. He delighted in working with children and for a while pursued a career as a circus clown and he became a producer of childrens entertainment with the Theatre de Galafronie, Theatre Isocele and Theatre de la Guimbarde.
After developing an interest in filmmaking, he enrolled at the INSAS in Brussels, as a childrens entertainer and innocence would become strong themes throughout his work. In the 1980s, Van Dormael produced a number of films that aroused considerable critical interest. While he was a student at the INSAS, he wrote, the short film was praised by critics and received the Honorary Foreign Film Award at the 1981 Student Academy Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The following year Van Dormael directed Stade 81, a short film about the Paralympic Games. He directed the short films Les voisins, Sortie de secours. His most famous short of the period is È pericoloso sporgersi which won the Grand Prix in international competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Toto le héros was ten years in the making as Van Dormael rewrote the script at least eight times. Van Dormael premiered Toto le héros at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, the film was released to the public that year to critical acclaim and was a financial success.
It won five Joseph Plateau Awards, the César Award for Best Foreign Film, four European Film Awards, the André Cavens Award, and received a BAFTA nomination. Pierre Van Dormaels soundtrack for the film was well-regarded, and since their first collaboration in 1980, Toto le héros propelled Van Dormael into the international spotlight as both a writer and director. In the wake of success, Van Dormael participated in the 1995 critically acclaimed project Lumière et compagnie. This work is actually an anthology of short works contributed by international film directors in which each used the original Auguste
9.
Drifting Clouds (film)
Drifting Clouds is a 1996 Finnish film directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring Kati Outinen, Kari Väänänen and Markku Peltola. The film is the first in Kaurismäkis Finland trilogy, the other 2 films being The Man Without a Past, the film was selected as the Finnish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 69th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. Ilona Koponen, a waitress at Dubrovnik restaurant, is married to Lauri. The couple live in a small, modestly furnished apartment in Helsinki, as they both come home from work late one night, Lauri surprises Ilona with a new television which he purchased on store credit. There is a discussion between the two regarding their ability to meet their financial obligations but they agree that the TV payments are manageable. Both of them set out looking for work immediately but with discouraging results, Lauri gets offered a job as a bus driver but is unable to pass the medical exam and subsequently loses his professional drivers licence.
Ilona gets a job at a rundown bar/restaurant which doesnt even have a name and is owned by a tax evading crook, after 6 weeks of working there, the restaurant gets shut down by the state and Ilona does not get paid by the dishonest owner. During their search for employment, both Lauri and Ilona enter bouts of heavy-drinking, all the while running into their former co-workers who are dealing with similar difficulties. At one point, the two even sell their car and take the money to a casino in hopes of doubling the money but they, most of their furniture as well as the new TV that Lauri bought is repossessed by the creditors. One day, Ilona accidentally runs into Mrs Sjöholm, her former boss, Sjöholm suggests that Ilona should open up a restaurant. Ilona, humbled by her recent experiences, is reluctant to accept the offer for fear of the restaurant failing. Ilona names the restaurant Work and hires some of the staff from Dubrovnik, including the troubled chef Lajunen, filled with anxiety during a slow lunch hour on opening day, Ilonas worries quickly disappear as she watches the restaurant fill to capacity the same afternoon.
As of 5 February 2008, the review website Rotten Tomatoes only registered 9 reviews for the film, all of which were positive
10.
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan, CC is a Canadian director, writer and former actor. Egoyan made his breakthrough with Exotica, a film set primarily in. Egoyans most critically acclaimed film is the drama The Sweet Hereafter and his work often explores themes of alienation and isolation, featuring characters whose interactions are mediated through technology, bureaucracy or other power structures. Egoyans films often follow non-linear plot structures, in events are placed out of sequence in order to elicit specific emotional reactions from the audience by withholding key information. In 2008, Egoyan received the Dan David Prize for Creative Rendering of the Past, Egoyan received the Governor Generals Performing Arts Award, Canadas highest royal honour in the performing arts, in 2015. Egoyan was born Atom Yeghoyan in Cairo, the son of Shushan and Joseph Yeghoyan and his parents were Armenian-Egyptians, and he was named Atom to mark the completion of Egypts first nuclear reactor. In 1962, his parents left Egypt for Canada and his sister, now a concert pianist based in Toronto, were raised by their parents in British Columbia.
As a boy, Egoyan wished for assimilation into Canadian society, years later, when he attended the University of Toronto, he began to study Armenian history. As a teenager, he interested in reading and writing plays. Significant influences included Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, in that interview, he said, It gave me an incredible respect for the medium and its possibilities. To me, Persona marries a pure form and a profound vision with absolute conviction. I felt that it was able to open a door that wasn’t there before and he graduated from Trinity College at the University of Toronto. It was at Trinity College that Egoyan came into contact with Harold Nahabedian, in interviews Egoyan credited Nahabedian for introducing him to the language and history of his ethnic heritage. Egoyan wrote for the University of Torontos independent weekly, The Newspaper, Egoyan has directed 15 full-length films, several television episodes, and a few shorter pieces. His early work was based on his own material, in 1984, his debut film Next of Kin world-premiered at the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg and won a major prize.
His commercial breakthrough came with the film Exotica and he received the Grand Prix in Brussels. The film Ararat generated much publicity for Egoyan, after Henri Verneuils French-language film Mayrig, it was the first major motion picture to deal directly with the Armenian Genocide. Ararat won the Best Picture prize at the Genie Awards, in 2004, Egoyan opened Camera Bar, a 50-seat cinema-lounge on Queen Street West in Toronto
11.
Nathalie Baye
Nathalie Marie Andrée Baye is a French film and stage actress. She began her career in 1970 and has appeared in more than 80 films, a ten-time César Award nominee, her four wins were for Every Man for Himself, Strange Affair, La Balance, and The Young Lieutenant. In 2009, she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and her other films include Day for Night, Catch Me If You Can, Tell No One and The Assistant. Baye was born in Mainneville, Normandy to Claude Baye and Denise Coustet, at 14 she joined a school of dance in Monaco. Three years she went to the United States and her second cinema appearance was in Two People directed by Robert Wise. She became more known as the script girl in La Nuit américaine by François Truffaut. Throughout the 1970s she played the girlfriend or nice provincial girl in film. In 1981, she won her first César, for best supporting artist in Sauve qui peut by Jean-Luc Godard, there followed Le Retour de Martin Guerre and La Balance. Her four-year relationship with Johnny Hallyday made them a celebrity couple, after changing her image by playing a streetwalker in La Balance, she widened her scope with more obscure characters in Jai épousé une ombre and En toute innocence.
In 1986, she returned to the theatre with an interpretation of Adriana Monti, Nathalie Baye at the Internet Movie Database Nathalie Baye at AllMovie Nathalie Baye at AlloCiné
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