1.
Steve Tesich
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Stojan Steve Tesich was a Serbian American screenwriter, playwright and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1979 for the movie Breaking Away. Steve Tesich was born as Stojan Tešić in Užice, in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia on September 29,1942 and his family settled in East Chicago, Indiana. Tesich graduated from Indiana University in 1965 with a BA in Russian and he went on to do graduate work at Columbia University, receiving an MA in Russian Literature in 1967. He also wrote his first plays while at Columbia University, after graduation, he worked as a Department of Welfare caseworker in Brooklyn, New York in 1968. He had been a rider in 1962 for the Phi Kappa Psi team in the Little 500 bicycle race. His teammate was Dave Blase, who rode 139 of 200 laps and was the rider crossing the finish line for his team. Dave Blase was the model for the character in Tesichs award-winning screenplay Breaking Away in 1979. His play Division Street opened on Broadway in 1980 starring John Lithgow, the 1980 production of Division Street played at the Ambassador Theatre in New York City. The production opened on October 8,1980 and closed after 21 performances and his novel Karoo was published posthumously in 1998. Arthur Miller described the novel, Fascinating—a real satiric invention full of wise outrage. ”The novel was a New York Times Notable Book for 1998, the movie Breaking Away won the 1980 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture-Musical/Comedy. The screenplay to the movie was published in book form as Breaking Away,1979. As a movie tie-in, a novelization of the screenplay was published in 1979 by Warner Books in New York written by Joseph Howard based on the screenplay by Steve Tesich. In 1973, Tesich won the Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright for the play Baba Goya, in 2005, the Serbian Ministry for diaspora established the annual Stojan—Steve Tešić Award, to be awarded to the writers of Serbian origin that write in other languages. L. Doctorow, German-language version entitled Abspann and a French-language version Karoo same as original, New York, Performing Arts Journal Publications,1981. Contents, Division Street -- Baba Goya -- Lake of the Woods -- Passing Game, Steve Tesich at the Internet Movie Database The American Place Theatre Presents Touching Bottom by Steve Tesich. Srpska-mreza. com A Few Moments with Steve Tesich by Dejan Stojanović
2.
Breaking Away
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Breaking Away is a 1979 American coming of age comedy-drama film produced and directed by Peter Yates and written by Steve Tesich. It follows a group of four teenagers in Bloomington, Indiana. The film stars Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley, Barbara Barrie, Paul Dooley, Breaking Away won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Tesich, and received nominations in four other categories, including Best Picture. It also won the 1979 Golden Globe Award for Best Film, the film is ranked eighth on the List of Americas 100 Most Inspiring Movies compiled by the American Film Institute in 2006. In June 2008, AFI announced its Ten top Ten—the best ten films in ten classic American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community, Breaking Away ranked as the eighth best film in the sports genre. Tesich was an alumnus of Indiana University Bloomington, the film was shot in and around Bloomington and on the universitys campus. Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are working-class friends living in the town of Bloomington. Now turning 19, they all graduated from school the year before and are not sure what to do with their lives. Dave is obsessed with competitive bicycle racing, and Italian racers in particular, however, his mother Evelyn is more understanding. Dave develops a crush on a university student named Katherine and masquerades as an Italian exchange student in order to romance her, One evening, he serenades Katerina outside her sorority house, with Cyril providing guitar accompaniment. When her boyfriend Rod finds out, he and some of his fraternity brothers beat Cyril up, though Cyril wants no trouble, Mike insists on tracking down Rod and starting a brawl. The university president reprimands the students for their arrogance toward the cutters and, over their objections, when a professional Italian cycling team comes to town for a race, Dave is thrilled to be competing with them. However, the Italians become irked when Dave is able to keep up with them and he subsequently confesses his deception to Katherine, who tearfully slaps him before storming off. Daves friends persuade him to them in forming a cycling team for the Little 500. Daves parents provide T-shirts with the name Cutters on them, ray privately tells his son how, when he was a young stonecutter, he was proud to help provide the material to construct the university, yet he never felt comfortable on campus. Later, Dave runs into Katherine, whos going to be leaving for a job in Chicago, they patch things up, and she wishes him luck in the race. Dave is so much better than the competitors in the Little 500 that while the college teams switch cyclists every few laps, he rides without a break. However, he is injured in a crash and has to stop, after some hesitation, Moocher, Cyril, and Mike take turns pedaling, but soon the Cutters lead vanishes
3.
Chariots of Fire
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Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British historical drama film. The film was conceived and produced by David Puttnam, written by Colin Welland, ben Cross and Ian Charleson starred as Abrahams and Liddell, alongside Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers, Ian Holm, Lindsay Anderson, John Gielgud, Cheryl Campbell, and Alice Krige in supporting roles. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, including Best Picture and it is ranked 19th in the British Film Institutes list of Top 100 British films. The film is notable for its memorable electronic theme tune by Vangelis. The films title was inspired by the line, Bring me my chariot of fire, from the William Blake poem adapted into the popular British hymn Jerusalem, the original phrase chariot of fire is from 2 Kings 2,11 and 6,17 in the Bible. In 1919, Harold Abrahams enters the University of Cambridge, where he experiences anti-Semitism from the staff and he becomes the first person to ever complete the Trinity Great Court Run – running around the college courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12. Abrahams achieves an undefeated string of victories in national running competitions. Although focused on his running, he falls in love with a leading Gilbert and Sullivan soprano, Eric Liddell, born in China of Scottish missionary parents, is in Scotland. His devout sister Jennie disapproves of Liddells plans to pursue competitive running, but Liddell sees running as a way of glorifying God before returning to China to work as a missionary. When they first race against each other, Liddell beats Abrahams, Abrahams takes it poorly, but Sam Mussabini, a professional trainer whom he had approached earlier, offers to take him on to improve his technique. This attracts criticism from the Cambridge college masters, who allege it is not gentlemanly for an amateur to play the tradesman by employing a professional coach, Abrahams dismisses this concern, interpreting it as cover for anti-Semitic and class-based prejudice. When Eric Liddell accidentally misses a prayer meeting because of his running, his sister Jennie upbraids him. But He also made me fast, and when I run, the two athletes, after years of training and racing, are accepted to represent Great Britain in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Also accepted are Abrahams Cambridge friends, Lord Andrew Lindsay, Aubrey Montague, while boarding the boat to Paris for the Olympics, Liddell learns the news that the heat for his 100-metre race will be on a Sunday. He refuses to run the race – despite strong pressure from the Prince of Wales and his religious convictions in the face of national athletic pride make headlines around the world. Abrahams is badly beaten by the heavily favoured United States runners in the 200 metre race and he knows his last chance for a medal will be the 100 metres. He competes in the race, and wins and his coach Sam Mussabini is overcome that the years of dedication and training have paid off with an Olympic gold medal. Now Abrahams can get on with his life and reunite with his girlfriend Sybil, before Liddells race, the American coach remarks dismissively to his runners that Liddell has little chance of doing well in his now far longer 400 metre race
4.
Costa-Gavras
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Costa-Gavras is a Greek-French film director and producer, who lives and works in France. He is known for films with political themes, most famously the fast-paced thriller Z. Most of his movies have made in French, however, six were made in English, Missing, Hanna K. Betrayed, Music Box, Mad City. He produces most of his films himself, through his production company K. G. Productions, Costa-Gavras was born in Loutra Iraias, Arcadia. His family spent the Second World War in a village in the Peloponnese and his father had been a member of the Pro-Soviet branch of the Greek Resistance, and was imprisoned during the Greek Civil War. In 1956, he left his university studies to film at the French national film school. After film school, he apprenticed under Yves Allégret, and became an assistant director for Jean Giono, after several further positions as first assistant director, he directed his first feature film, Compartiment Tueurs, in 1965. His 1967 film Shock Troops was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival, the film is a fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. It had additional resonance because, at the time of its release, Z won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Costa-Gavras and co-writer Jorge Semprún won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Film Screenplay, LAveu follows the path of Artur London, a Czechoslovakian communist minister falsely arrested and tried for treason and espionage in the Slánský show trial in 1952. State of Siege takes place in Uruguay under a government in the early 1970s. Hormans father, played by Jack Lemmon, and wife, played by Sissy Spacek, search in vain to determine his fate. Nathaniel Davis, US ambassador to Chile from 1971–1973, a version of character had been portrayed in the movie, filed a US$150 million libel suit. 1372, against the studio and the director, which was eventually dismissed, the film won an Oscar for Best Screenplay Adaptation and the Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival. Betrayed, roughly based upon the terrorist activities of American neo-Nazi and white supremacist Robert Mathews, in Music Box, a respected Hungarian immigrant is accused of having commanded an Anti-Semitic death squad during World War II. His daughter, a Chicago defense attorney played by Jessica Lange, the film is inspired by the arrest and trial of Ukrainian immigrant John Demjanjuk and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas realization that his father had been a member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party. The film won the Golden Bear at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival, La Petite Apocalypse was entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival. Amen. was based in part on the highly controversial 1963 play, ein christliches Trauerspiel, by Rolf Hochhuth
5.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
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Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, CBE was a German-born British and American Booker prize-winning novelist, short story writer and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter. She is perhaps best known for her collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, made up of director James Ivory. After moving to India in 1951, she married Cyrus S. H. Jhabvala, the couple lived in New Delhi, and had three daughters. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala began then to elaborate her experiences in India and wrote novels, Jhabvala wrote a dozen novels,23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories and was made a CBE in 1998 and granted a joint fellowship by BAFTA in 2002 with Ivory and Merchant. She is the person to have won both a Booker Prize and an Oscar. Ruth Prawer was born in Cologne, Germany to Jewish parents Marcus, Marcus was a lawyer who moved to Germany from Poland to escape conscription and Eleanoras father was cantor of Colognes largest synagogue. Her father was accused of communist links, arrested and released, the family was among the last group of refugees to flee the Nazi regime in 1939, emigrating to Britain. Her elder brother, Siegbert Salomon, an expert on Heinrich Heine and horror films, was fellow of The Queens College and Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. During World War II, Prawer lived in Hendon in London, experienced the Blitz and she became a British citizen in 1948. The following year, her father committed suicide after discovering that 40 members of his family had died during the Holocaust, Prawer attended Hendon County School and then Queen Mary College, where she received an MA in English literature in 1951. Jhabvala lived in India for 24 years from 1951 and her first novel, To Whom She Will, was published in 1955. It was followed by Esmond in India, The Householder and Get Ready for the Battle, the Householder, with a screenplay by Jhabvala, was filmed in 1963 by Merchant and Ivory. During her years in India she wrote scripts for the Merchant-Ivory duo for The Guru and she collaborated with Ivory for the screenplays for Bombay Talkie and ABC After-school Specials, William - The Life and Times of William Shakespeare. In 1975, she won the Booker Prize for her novel Heat and that year, she moved to New York where she wrote The Place of Peace. Jhabvala remained ill at ease with India and all that it brought into her life and her early works in India dwell on the themes of romantic love and arranged marriages and are portraits of the social mores, idealism and chaos of the early decades of independent India. Jhabvala moved to New York in 1975 and lived there until her death in 2013, many of these works feature India as a setting where her characters go to in search of spiritual enlightenment only to emerge defrauded and exposed to the materialistic pursuits of the East. The New York Times Review of Books chose her Out of India as one of the best reads for that year. In 2005 she published My Nine Lives, Chapters of a Possible Past with illustrations by her husband, salman Rushdie described her as a rootless intellectual when he anthologised her in the Vintage Book of Indian Writing while John Updike described her an initiated outsider
6.
Heat and Dust (film)
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Heat and Dust is a 1983 romantic drama film with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based upon her novel, Heat and Dust. It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant and it stars Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor and Julie Christie. The plot of Heat and Dust follows two intertwined stories, the first is set in the 1920s and deals with an illicit affair between Olivia, the beautiful young wife of a British colonial official, and an Indian Nawab. The second, set in 1982, deals with Anne, Olivias great-niece, who travels to India hoping to find out about her great-aunts life, and while there also has an affair with an Indian man. Heat and Dust forms part of a cycle of film and television productions which emerged during the first half of the 1980s, in addition to Heat and Dust, this cycle included Gandhi, The Jewel in the Crown, The Far Pavilions and A Passage to India. In 1982, an Englishwoman named Ann begins an investigation into the fate of her great-aunt Olivia, whose letters and she interviews the elderly Harry Hamilton-Paul, who in his youth was Olivias close friend when they were both living in India. Anne’s search brings her to India, where the story of Olivias life is told in flashbacks. In 1923, during the British Raj, Olivia, recently married to Douglas Rivers, Douglas is an attentive husband and the couple seems to be very much in love. When he insists that Olivia spend the summer in Simla to avoid the extreme heat, however, the conventional narrow society of the English memsahibs bores her. Mrs Saunders, the wife of the local doctor, warns Olivia that all Indian men are potential rapists. Mrs Crawford, the Burra Memsahib, is kindly but equally conservative, the racist Doctor Saunders takes an instant dislike to Olivia. While the Anglo-Indian society seems to have little to offer Olivia, the British suspect him of being in league with a gang of bandits, allowing them to operate with impunity in exchange for a share of their booty. At the dinner, Olivia attracts the attention of the Nawab, Harry Hamilton-Paul enjoys a close intimacy with the Nawab and is a permanent guest at the palace. With his good humor and charm, Harry serves a sort of court jester and he is well liked even by the smoking and proud Begum Mussarat Jahan. In the midst of the summer heat, Harry falls ill. The Nawab easily seduces Olivia and they engage in an illicit affair, following in Olivia’s footsteps, Anne comes to Satipur to live in the same surroundings that framed Olivia’s story more than fifty years earlier. She stays as the guest of an Indian family, the head of the household, Inder Lal, is a polite civil servant who serves as her guide while she tries to get connected with the world that Olivia lived. Inder Lal is worried that their innocent relationship will be perceived as sexual
7.
Philip Kaufman
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Philip Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter who has directed fifteen films over a career spanning more than five decades. He has been described as a maverick and an iconoclast, notable for his versatility and he is considered an auteur, whose films have always expressed his personal vision. His choice of topics has been eclectic and sometimes controversial, having adapted novels with diverse themes and stories, Kaufmans works have included genres such as realism, horror, fantasy, erotic, Westerns, underworld crime, and inner city gangs. Examples are Milan Kunderas The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Michael Crichtons Rising Sun, a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and his film The Wanderers has achieved cult status. But his greatest success was Tom Wolfes true-life The Right Stuff, other critics note that Kaufmans films are strong on mood and atmosphere, with powerful cinematography and a lyrical, poetic style to portray different historic periods. His later films have a somewhat European style, but the stories always stress individualism and integrity, Kaufman was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1936, the only son of Elizabeth, a housewife, and Nathan Kaufman, a produce businessman. He was the grandson of German-Jewish immigrants, one of his grammar and high school friends was William Friedkin, who also became a director. He developed a love of movies and during his youth he would often go to double features. He attended the University of Chicago where he received a degree in history and he returned to Chicago for a postgraduate degree, hoping to become a professor of history. In 1958 Kaufman married Rose Fisher, a year after they met as undergraduates and they later had a son, Peter. Before graduating Kaufman became involved in the movement and in 1960 moved to San Francisco. He took various jobs there, including worker, and befriended a number of influential people. He and his wife decided to travel and live in Europe for a while where he would teach. After spending time working on a kibbutz in Israel, he taught English, during his travels he also met author Anaïs Nin, whose relationship with her lover, Henry Miller, later became the inspiration and subject for Kaufmans film Henry and June. Goldstein Kaufman returned to Chicago, ready to make his first feature film and he went around town looking for funding for his directorial debut, Goldstein, co-written and co-directed with Benjamin Manaster. Kaufman initially conceived of the story in a novel. It was inspired by a story from Martin Bubers Tales of the Hasidim, the film won the Prix de la Nouvelle Critique at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, with French director Jean Renoir calling it the best American film he had seen in 20 years. François Truffaut, another leading French director, was visiting Chicago when the film premiered, Kaufman recalled that Truffaut leaped to his feet in the middle of the screening and began applauding
8.
The Right Stuff (film)
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The Right Stuff stars Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, Dennis Quaid and Barbara Hershey. Levon Helm is the narrator in the introduction and elsewhere in the film, in 2013 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. In 1947, the Muroc Army Air Field in California has test pilots fly high-speed aircraft such as the rocket-powered Bell X-1, but they die as a result. After another pilot, Slick Goodlin, demands $150,000 to attempt to break the sound barrier, war hero Captain Chuck Yeager receives the chance to fly the X-1. While on a ride with his wife Glennis, Yeager collides with a tree branch and breaks his ribs. Worried that he not fly the mission, Yeager confides in friend. Six years later, Muroc, now Edwards Air Force Base, Yeager and friendly rival Scott Crossfield repeatedly break the others speed records. They often visit the Happy Bottom Riding Club run by Pancho Barnes, gordon Gordo Cooper, Virgil Gus Grissom and Donald Deke Slayton, captains of the United States Air Force, are among the pudknockers who hope to also prove that they have the Right Stuff. The tests are no secret, as the military soon recognizes that it needs good publicity for funding. Coopers wife, Trudy, and other wives are afraid of becoming widows, in 1957, the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite alarms the United States government. Politicians such as Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and military leaders demand that NASA help America defeat the Russians in the new Space Race, the search for the first Americans in space excludes Yeager because he lacks a college degree. Although many early NASA rockets explode during launch, the ambitious astronauts all hope to be the first in space as part of Project Mercury. Although engineers see the men as passengers, the pilots insist that the Mercury spacecraft have a window, a hatch with explosive bolts, however, Russia beats them on April 12,1961 with the launch of Vostok 1 carrying Yuri Gagarin into space. The seven astronauts immediately decide to start the Mercury program, Shepard is the first American to reach space on the 15-minute sub-orbital flight of Mercury-Redstone 3 on May 5. After Grissoms similar flight of Mercury-Redstone 4 on July 21, the capsules hatch blows open, Grissom escapes, but the spacecraft, overweight with seawater, sinks. Many criticize Grissom for possibly panicking and opening the hatch prematurely, Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth on Mercury-Atlas 6 on February 20,1962, surviving a possibly loose heat shield, and receives a ticker-tape parade. While testing the new Lockheed NF-104A, Yeager attempts to set a new record at the edge of space but is nearly killed in a high-speed ejection when his engine fails. Though seriously burned, after reaching the ground Yeager gathers up his parachute and walks to the ambulance, on May 15,1963, Cooper has a successful launch on Mercury-Atlas 9, ending the Mercury program
9.
Alan Bennett
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Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. He was born in Leeds and attended Oxford University where he studied history and he stayed to teach and research medieval history at the university for several years. His collaboration as writer and performer with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame. He gave up academia, and turned to writing full-time, his first stage play Forty Years On being produced in 1968, Bennett was born in Armley in Leeds. The youngest son of a butcher, Walter, and his wife Lilian Mary, Bennett attended Christ Church, Upper Armley, Church of England School. He learned Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists during his service before applying for a scholarship at Oxford University. He was accepted by Exeter College, Oxford, from which he graduated with a degree in history. While at Oxford he performed comedy with a number of successful actors in the Oxford Revue. He was to remain at the university for several years, where he researched and taught Medieval History, in August 1960 Bennett, along with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook, achieved instant fame by appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe. After the festival, the show continued in London and New York and he also appeared in My Father Knew Lloyd George. His highly regarded television comedy sketch series On the Margin was unfortunately erased, however, in 2014 it was announced that copies of the entire series had been found. Bennetts first stage play Forty Years On, directed by Patrick Garland, was produced in 1968, many television, stage and radio plays followed, with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose, and broadcasting and many appearances as an actor. Bennetts distinctive, expressive voice and the humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his work very popular. Bennetts readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are widely enjoyed. Many of Bennetts characters are unfortunate and downtrodden, life has brought them to an impasse or else passed them by. In many cases they have met with disappointment in the realm of sex and intimate relationships, largely through tentativeness and a failure to connect with others. Despite a long history both the National Theatre and the BBC - Bennett never writes on commission, declaring I dont work on commission. If people dont want it then its too bad, Bennett is both unsparing and compassionate in laying bare his characters frailties
10.
A Private Function
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A Private Function is a 1984 British comedy film starring Michael Palin and Maggie Smith. The film was filmed in Ilkley, Ben Rhydding. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, in a small Northern English town in 1947 the citizens endure continuing food rationing. Some local businessmen want to hold a party to celebrate the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip. However, the pig gets stolen by Gilbert Chilvers, who was encouraged to do so by his wife Joyce, meanwhile a food inspector is determined to stop activities circumventing the food rationing. Henry Allardyce the Accountant Tony Haygarth, leonard Sutcliff the Farmer John Normington. Frank Lockwood the Solicitor Bill Paterson, morris Wormold the Meat Inspector Liz Smith. Douglas J. Nuttol the Butcher Rachel Davies, mrs Forbes, Mr Wormolds landlady Three pigs were used in the filming of A Private Function, all named Betty. Producer Mark Shivas was advised by Intellectual Animals UK that the pigs used should be female, however, the pigs were unpredictable and often quite dangerous. During filming of one of the scenes, Maggie Smith was hemmed in by one of the pigs. The film won three BAFTA Film Awards, best actress for Maggie Smith, best supporting actress for Liz Smith and it was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film. A musical based on the film opened in the West End in April 2011 and it was produced by Cameron Mackintosh and ran for several months at the Novello Theatre. It starred Reece Shearsmith as Gilbert, and actress Sarah Lancashire as Joyce, a Private Function at the Internet Movie Database A Private Function at AllMovie A Private Function at the British Film Institutes Screenonline
11.
Woody Allen
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Heywood Woody Allen is an American actor, writer, director, comedian, playwright, and musician whose career spans more than six decades. He worked as a writer in the 1950s, writing jokes and scripts for television. In the early 1960s, Allen began performing as a stand-up comedian, as a comedian, he developed the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish, which he maintains is quite different from his real-life personality. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen in fourth place on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians and he is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late 1970s. Allen often stars in his films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup, some of the best-known of his over 40 films are Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters. In 2007 he said Stardust Memories, The Purple Rose of Cairo, critic Roger Ebert described Allen as a treasure of the cinema. Allen won four Academy Awards, three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director and he also won nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. His screenplay for Annie Hall was named the funniest screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays, in 2011, PBS televised the film biography Woody Allen, A Documentary on the American Masters TV series. Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York and he and his sister, Letty, were raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. He is the son of Nettie, a bookkeeper at her familys delicatessen, and Martin Konigsberg and his family was Jewish, his grandparents immigrated from Russia and Austria, and spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, and German. His parents were born and raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His childhood was not particularly happy, his parents did not get along, Allen spoke German quite a bit in his early years. He would later joke that when he was young he was sent to inter-faith summer camps. While attending Hebrew school for eight years, he went to Public School 99 and to Midwood High School, at that time, he lived in an apartment at 968 East 14th Street. Unlike his comic persona, he was interested in baseball than school. He impressed students with his talent at card and magic tricks. To raise money, he wrote jokes for agent David O. Alber, at the age of 17, he legally changed his name to Heywood Allen and later began to call himself Woody Allen. According to Allen, his first published joke read, Woody Allen says he ate at a restaurant that had O. P. S and he was then earning more than both parents combined
12.
Hannah and Her Sisters
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Hannah and Her Sisters is a 1986 American comedy-drama film which tells the intertwined stories of an extended family over two years that begins and ends with a family Thanksgiving dinner. The film was written and directed by Woody Allen, who stars along with Mia Farrow as Hannah, Michael Caine as her husband, the films ensemble cast also includes Carrie Fisher, Farrows mother Maureen OSullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Max von Sydow and Julie Kavner. Several of Farrows children, including a pre-adolescent Soon-Yi Previn, have credited and uncredited roles, Hannah and Her Sisters was for a long time Allens biggest box office hit, with a North American gross of US$40 million. The film won Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and it is often considered one of Allens major works, with critics continuing to praise its writing and ensemble cast. The story is told in three arcs, with most of it occurring during a 24-month period beginning and ending at Thanksgiving parties hosted by Hannah and her husband. Hannah serves as the hub of the narrative, most of the events of the film connect to her. Elliot becomes infatuated with one of Hannahs sisters, Lee, Elliot attributes his behavior to his discontent with his wifes self-sufficiency and resentment of her emotional strength. Lee has lived for five years with a reclusive artist, Frederick and she finds her relationship with Frederick no longer intellectually or sexually stimulating, in spite of Fredericks professed interest in continuing to teach her. She leaves Frederick after he discovers her affair with Elliot, for the remainder of the year between the first and second Thanksgiving gatherings, Elliot and Lee carry on their affair despite Elliots inability to end his marriage to Hannah. Lee finally ends the affair during the second Thanksgiving, explaining that she is finished waiting for him to commit, Hannahs ex-husband Mickey, a television writer, is present mostly in scenes outside of the primary story. Flashbacks reveal that his marriage to Hannah fell apart after they were unable to have children because of his infertility, however, they had twins who are not biologically his, before divorcing. He also went on a date with Hannahs sister Holly when they were set up after the divorce. A hypochondriac, he goes to his doctor complaining of hearing loss, when tests prove that he is perfectly healthy, he is initially overjoyed, but then despairs that his life is meaningless. His existential crisis leads to unsatisfying experiments with religious conversion to Catholicism, ultimately, an unsuccessful suicide attempt leads him to find meaning in his life after unexpectedly viewing the Marx Brothers Duck Soup in a movie theater. The revelation that life should be enjoyed, rather than understood, helps to prepare him for a date with Holly. Hollys story is the third main arc. A former cocaine addict, she is an actress who cannot settle on a career. After borrowing money from Hannah, she starts a business with April
13.
Prick Up Your Ears
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Prick Up Your Ears is a 1987 film, directed by Stephen Frears, about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based on the biography by John Lahr, the film stars Gary Oldman as Orton, Alfred Molina as Halliwell, Wallace Shawn as Lahr and Vanessa Redgrave as Peggy Ramsay. The film tells the story of Orton and Halliwell in flashback, framed by sequences of Lahr researching the book upon which the film is based with Ortons literary agent, Orton and Halliwells relationship is traced from its beginnings at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Orton starts out as the youth to Halliwells older faux-sophisticate. As the relationship progresses, however, Orton grows increasingly confident in his talent while Halliwells writing stagnates and they fall into a parody of a traditional married couple, with Orton as the husband and Halliwell as the long-suffering and increasingly ignored wife. Orton is commissioned to write a screenplay for the Beatles and Halliwell gets carried away in preparing for a meeting with the Fab Four, finally, in August 1967, a despondent Halliwell kills Orton and commits suicide. On the basis of Oldmans work in the film and the previous years Sid and Nancy, ken Hanke of the Mountain Xpress was less impressed, describing the film as a good, but never quite great biopic, while still awarding it four stars out of five. Oldman earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor, Redgrave received BAFTA-, Alan Bennett earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, the film has a 92% fresh rating at review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Prick Up Your Ears at the Internet Movie Database
14.
David Mamet
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David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director. As a playwright, Mamet has won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross, Mamet first gained acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976, The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. His play Race opened on Broadway on December 6,2009, Mamets 2017 play The Penitent previewed off-Broadway on February 8,2017. Feature films that Mamet both wrote and directed include Redbelt, The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games, Spartan, Heist, State and Main, The Winslow Boy, and Oleanna. This was accompanied by Homicide, Things Change, and most recently the 2013 HBO film Phil Spector, starring Al Pacino as Spector with Helen Mirren and Jeffrey Tambor. His drama Glengarry Glen Ross, in 1992, was adapted by Mamet into a version which also received an Academy Award nomination. Mamet was also the producer and frequent writer for the TV show The Unit. As a screenplay writer, Mamet received Oscar nominations for The Verdict, Mamet was born in 1947 in Chicago to Jewish parents, Lenore June, a teacher, and Bernard Morris Mamet, an attorney. One of his first jobs was as a busboy at Chicagos The Second City and he was educated at the progressive Francis W. Parker School and at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. At the Chicago Public Library Foundation 20th anniversary fundraiser in 2006, though, I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign. Mamet is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company, he first gained acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976, The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross and his play Race, which opened on Broadway on December 6,2009 and featured James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington, and Richard Thomas in the cast, received mixed reviews. His play The Anarchist, starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger, in her Broadway debut and his 2017 play The Penitent previewed off-Broadway on February 8,2017. In 2002, Mamet was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, Mamet later received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for Grand Master of American Theater in 2010. His latest feature-length film, a thriller titled Blackbird, is slated for release in 2015, Mamets first produced screenplay was the 1981 production of The Postman Always Rings Twice, based upon James M. Cains novel. He received an Academy Award nomination one year later for his first script, The Verdict and he also wrote the screenplay for The Untouchables. In 1987, Mamet made his directing debut with House of Games, starring his then-wife, Lindsay Crouse. He uses friends as actors, especially in one scene in the movie
15.
House of Games
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House of Games is a 1987 heist-thriller film directed by David Mamet, his directorial debut. He also wrote the screenplay, based on a story he co-wrote with Jonathan Katz, the films cast includes Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, and J. T. Walsh. Margaret Ford is a psychiatrist who has achieved success with her recently published book, but who feels unfulfilled. During a session one day, Billy Hahn, a patient, informs her that his life is in danger because he owes money to a figure named Mike and brandishes a gun. Margaret persuades him to surrender the weapon to her and promises that she will help and that night, Margaret visits a pool hall owned by Mike and confronts him. Mike says that he is willing to forgive Billys debt if Margaret accompanies him to a back room poker game and identifies the tell of George and she agrees, and spots George playing with his ring when he bluffs. She discloses this to Mike, who calls the bluff, however, George wins the hand and demands that Mike pay the $6,000 bet, which he is unable to do. George pulls a gun but Margaret intervenes and offers to pay the debt with a personal check and she then notices that the gun is actually a water pistol, and realizes that the entire game is a set-up to trick her out of her money. She is excited, however, and returns the next night to request that Mike teach her about cons so that she can write a book about the experience, Mike begins to enchant Margaret by showing her several small tricks. Eventually, the two steal a hotel room and make love, while in the room, he instructs her that all con artists take a small token from every mark to signify their dominance. While Mike is in the bathroom, she takes a small knife from the table. Afterwards, Mike says that he is late for another, large con with his associates at the same hotel, Margaret is eager to tag along and, reluctantly Mike allows it. The con involves Mike, his partner Joey and the mark, a businessman discovering a briefcase full of money, there they will discuss whether to turn it in or split it among themselves. In the hotel room, Margaret discovers that the businessman is actually a policeman. She tells Mike and they attempt to escape, but the policeman blocks their way, there is a struggle that ends with Mike accidentally shooting the officer dead. The three leave via the stairwell and end up in the garage, where they force Margaret to steal a car, while abandoning the car, they realize that the briefcase, containing $80,000 borrowed from the Mafia for the con, has been lost. Margaret finally offers to pay Mike $80,000 of her own money so he can pay back the mob, Mike tells Margaret that they must split up so as not to draw any attention from the police, and says that he is flying away to hide. Margaret is riddled with guilt but, by chance, spots Billy driving the red convertible
16.
Dangerous Liaisons
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The film was directed by Stephen Frears. Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick and Peter Capaldi appeared in supporting roles, as did the young, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it won those for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Art Direction. In 1781 pre-Revolution Paris, the Marquise de Merteuil plots revenge against her ex-lover, the Comte de Gercourt, Merteuil calls on the similarly unprincipled Vicomte de Valmont to do the deed, offering him her own sexual favors as a reward. Merteuil is amused and incredulous, how can Valmont ever hope to bed the virtuous Madame Tourvel, never one to refuse a challenge, Valmont modifies the proposal, If he succeeds in sleeping with Tourvel, Merteuil must sleep with him as well. Merteuil accepts, on the condition that he furnish written proof of the liaison, Tourvel rebuffs all of Valmonts advances. Searching for leverage, he instructs his page Azolan to seduce Tourvels maid Julie to gain access to Tourvels private correspondence, one of the letters he intercepts is from Madame de Volanges, Céciles mother and Merteuils cousin, warning Tourvel that Valmont is a nefarious and untrustworthy individual. On reading this, Valmont resolves to seduce Cécile after all, meanwhile in Paris, Cécile meets the charming Chevalier Raphael Danceny. Danceny becomes Céciles music teacher and slowly, with a little coaxing from Merteuil, after gaining access to Céciles bedchamber on a false pretense, Valmont forces himself upon her as she pleads with him to leave. On the pretext of illness Cécile remains locked in her chambers, a concerned Madame de Volanges calls upon Merteuil to speak to her. Cécile, naively assuming that Merteuil has her best interests at heart, Merteuil advises Cécile to welcome Valmonts advances, young women should take advantage of all the lovers they can acquire, she says, in a society so repressive and contemptuous of women. The result is a perverse relationship, by day, Cécile is courted by Danceny. In the meantime, Merteuil begins an affair with Danceny, meanwhile, Valmont somehow manages to win Tourvels heart — but at a cost, the lifelong bachelor playboy falls in love. In a fit of jealousy, Merteuil mocks Valmont and threatens to trash his reputation as a carefree gigolo and she also refuses to honor her end of their agreement, since Valmont has no written proof that the relationship has been consummated. Valmont abruptly dismisses Tourvel with an excuse, It is beyond my control. Cécile, meanwhile, after a rough night in Valmonts bed. Tourvel, overwhelmed with grief and shame, retreats to a monastery where her health deteriorates rapidly, Valmont warns Danceny of Merteuil’s ulterior motives in seducing him, Merteuil retaliates by informing Danceny that Valmont has been sleeping with Cécile. Danceny challenges Valmont to a duel with swords, and mortally wounds him, with his dying breath, Valmont asks Danceny to communicate to Tourvel—by now at deaths door—his genuine love for her. He then gives Danceny his collection of letters from Merteuil, all of Paris learns the entire, grisly range of her schemes
17.
Crimes and Misdemeanors
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In several publications, Crimes and Misdemeanors has been ranked as one of Allens greatest films. The story follows two characters, Judah Rosenthal, a successful ophthalmologist, and Clifford Stern, a small-time documentary filmmaker. Judah, a family man, is having an affair with flight attendant Dolores Paley. After it becomes clear to her that Judah will not end his marriage, Dolores, scorned, doloress letter to Miriam is intercepted and destroyed by Judah, but she sustains the pressure on him with threats of revelation. She is also aware of some questionable financial deals Judah has made and he confides in a patient, Ben, a rabbi who is rapidly losing his eyesight. Ben advises openness and honesty between Judah and his wife, but Judah does not wish to imperil his marriage, desperate, Judah turns to his brother, Jack, who hires a hitman to kill Dolores. Before her corpse is discovered, Judah retrieves letters and other items from her apartment in order to cover his tracks, stricken with guilt, Judah turns to the religious teachings he had rejected, believing for the first time that a just God is watching him and passing judgment. Cliff, meanwhile, has been hired by his pompous brother-in-law, Lester, while filming and mocking the subject, Cliff falls in love with Lesters associate producer, Halley Reed. Despondent over his marriage to Lesters sister Wendy, he woos Halley, showing her footage from his ongoing documentary about Prof. Louis Levy. He makes sure Halley is aware that he is shooting Lesters documentary merely for the money so he can finish his more meaningful project with Levy, Cliffs dislike for Lester becomes evident during the first screening of the film. It juxtaposes footage of Lester with clownish poses of Benito Mussolini addressing a throng of supporters from a balcony and it also shows Lester yelling at his employees and clumsily making a pass at an attractive young actress. Cliff learns that Professor Levy, whom he had been profiling on the strength of his celebration of life, has committed suicide, leaving a curt note, Ive gone out the window. When Halley visits to him, he makes a pass at her. Hearing that Lester sent Halley white roses round the clock, for days while they were in London and his last romantic gesture to Halley had been a love letter which, he admits with humor, he had mostly plagiarized from James Joyce. In the final scene, Judah and Cliff meet by happenstance at the wedding of the daughter of rabbi Ben, who is Cliffs brother-in-law and Judahs patient. Once deeply anguished by the murder he arranged, Judah has worked through his guilt and is enjoying life once more and he draws Cliff into a supposedly hypothetical discussion that draws upon his moral quandary. Judah says that time, any crisis will pass, but Cliff morosely claims instead that one is forever fated to bear ones burdens for crimes. Judah cheerfully leaves the party with his wife, and Cliff is left sitting alone
18.
Homicide (1991 film)
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Homicide is a crime-drama film written and directed by David Mamet, and released in 1991. The films cast includes Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy and it was entered in the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Bobby Gold is an inner-city homicide detective on the trail of Robert Randolph, the deceased womans son, a doctor, uses his clout to have Gold assigned to the case in the belief that Gold, himself Jewish, might be empathetic to his plight. Gold, however, seems to disregard his ethnicity, and beyond that, ultimately, though, this is offset by interactions with members of the Jewish community that play on Golds feelings of inadequacy and inability to fit in. The apparent power and sense of pride these people have is appealing to Gold, as the film reaches its climax, Gold is thrust into a series of circumstances that test not only his loyalty to the badge, but also his newfound Jewish consciousness. Green Robin Spielberg - Records Officer Lawrence Kopp - Officer Threatened by Dog Roger Ebert praised it, the film was released on VHS in 1992. On September 8,2009, the film was given a DVD release by The Criterion Collection and this director-approved release included an audio commentary with Mamet and Macy, as well as cast interviews and a gag reel. Homicide at the Internet Movie Database Homicide at AllMovie
19.
The Player (film)
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The Player is a 1992 American satirical black comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Michael Tolkin, based on his own 1988 novel of the same name. The Player has many references and Hollywood insider jokes, with 65 celebrities making cameo appearances in the film. Altman stated that the film is a mild satire, offending no one. The film received three nominations at the 66th Academy Awards, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing, the film also won two Golden Globes, Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical and Best Actor – Comedy or Musical for Robbins. Griffin Mill is a Hollywood studio executive dating story editor Bonnie Sherow and he hears story pitches from screenwriters and decides which have the potential to be made into films, green-lighting only 12 out of 50,000 submissions every year. His job is threatened when up-and-coming story executive Larry Levy begins working at the studio, Mill has also been receiving death threat postcards, assumed to be from a screenwriter whose pitch he rejected. Mill surmises that the writer is David Kahane. Mill is told by Kahanes girlfriend, June Gudmundsdottir that Kahane is at a theater in Pasadena, Mill pretends to recognize Kahane in the lobby, and offers him a scriptwriting deal, hoping this will stop the threats. The two go to a bar where Kahane gets intoxicated and rebuffs Mills offer, he calls Mill a liar. In the bars parking lot, the two men fight, Mill goes too far and accidentally drowns Kahane in a shallow pool of water, then stages the crime to make it look like a botched robbery. At the end of their conversation Mill receives a fax from his stalker, thus, Mill has killed the wrong man, and the stalker apparently knows this. Mill attends Kahanes funeral and gets into conversation with June, detectives Avery and DeLongpre suspect Mill is guilty of murder. Mill receives a postcard from the writer suggesting they meet at a hotel bar, while Mill is waiting, he is cornered by two screenwriters, Tom Oakley and Andy Sivella, who pitch Habeas Corpus, a legal drama featuring no major stars and with a depressing ending. Because Mill is not alone, his stalker does not appear, after leaving the club, Mill receives a fax in his car, advising him to look under his raincoat. He discovers a live rattlesnake in a box, which a terrified Mill bludgeons with his umbrella, Mill tells June that his near-death experience made him realize he has feelings for her. Apprehensive that Larry Levy continues encroaching on his job, Mill invites the two writers to pitch Habeas Corpus to him, convincing Levy that the movie will be an Oscar contender, Mills plan is to let Levy shepherd the film through production and have it flop. Mill will step in at the last moment, suggesting changes to salvage the films box office. Having persuaded Bonnie to leave for New York on studio business, Mill takes June to a Hollywood awards banquet, after Bonnie confronts Mill about his relationship with June, Mill coldly severs their relationship in front of two writers
20.
Harold Ramis
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Harold Allen Ramis was an American actor, director, writer, and comedian. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II and Russell Ziskey in Stripes, as a director, his films include the comedies Caddyshack, National Lampoons Vacation, Groundhog Day, and Analyze This. Ramis was the head writer of the television series SCTV, on which he also performed, as well as a co-writer of Groundhog Day. His final film that he wrote, produced, directed and acted in was the critical and commercial failure Year One, Ramis films influenced subsequent generations of comedians and comedy writers. Filmmakers including Jay Roach, Jake Kasdan, Adam Sandler, and Peter and he won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for Groundhog Day. Ramis was born on November 21,1944, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Ruth and Nathan Ramis, in his adult life, he did not practice any religion. Afterward, Ramis worked in an institution in St. Louis for seven months. He later said of his time working there that it. prepared me well for when I went out to Hollywood to work with actors, people laugh when I say that, but it was actually very good training. And not just with actors, it was training for just living in the world. Its knowing how to deal with people who might be reacting in a way connected to anxiety or grief or fear or rage. As a director, you’re dealing with that constantly with actors, but if I were a businessman, I’d probably be applying those same principles to that line of work. He avoided the Vietnam War military draft by taking methamphetamine to fail his draft physical, following his work in St. Louis, Ramis returned to Chicago, where by 1968, he was a substitute teacher at schools serving the inner-city Robert Taylor Homes. He also became associated with the guerrilla television collective TVTV, headed by his college friend Michael Shamberg, and wrote freelance for the Chicago Daily News. Michael Shamberg, right out of college, had started freelancing for newspapers and got on as a stringer for a local paper, and I thought, Well, if Michael can do that, I can do that. I wrote a piece and submitted it to the Chicago Daily News, the Arts & Leisure section. Additionally, Ramis had begun studying and performing with Chicagos Second City improvisational comedy troupe, Ramis newspaper writing led to his becoming joke editor at Playboy magazine. Just cold and said I had written several pieces freelance and did they have any openings, and they happened to have their entry-level job, party jokes editor, open. He liked my stuff and he gave me a stack of jokes that readers had sent in, I had been in Second City in the workshops already and Michael Shamberg and I had written comedy shows in college
21.
Groundhog Day (film)
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Groundhog Day is a 1993 American fantasy-comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Chris Elliott. It was written by Ramis and Danny Rubin, based on a story by Rubin, after indulging in hedonism and committing suicide numerous times, he begins to re-examine his life and priorities. On its release, Groundhog Day was a modest success and garnered positive reviews. It gained stronger appreciation among critics and film historians over time, in 2006, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. A stage musical version of the premiered in 2016. During his nightly TV weather forecast on February 1, weatherman Phil Connors confidently reassures Pittsburgh viewers that a winter storm will miss western Pennsylvania completely. He then sets off with news producer Rita Hanson and cameraman Larry for Punxsutawney, Phil makes no secret of his contempt for the assignment, the small town, and the hicks who live there. On February 2, Phil awakens at his Punxsutawney bed and breakfast to Sonny & Chers I Got You Babe on the clock radio and he tapes a half-hearted report on Punxsutawney Phil and the towns festivities. Rita wants to stay and cover some of the other events, the blizzard—the one that Phil predicted would miss the area—resolves the issue by blanketing the region in snow, stranding them in Punxsutawney. Phil shuns the celebrations and retires to bed early, Phil wakes to I Got You Babe and the same announcement from the radio, and soon discovers the days events repeating exactly as before. Thinking it is a bad dream, Phil relives the day and returns to bed, only to discover when he wakes and he finds he is trapped in a time loop that no one else is seemingly aware of. Phil realizes there are no consequences for his actions, and spends the first several loops in rambunctious behavior, such as drinking, one-night stands. Even with his apparent deaths, he wakes up to I Got You Babe on February 2. Phil tries to explain his situation to Rita, for whom he has feelings, to demonstrate his plight to Rita, he points out all the trivial actions of the various townsfolk he has memorized due to being stuck in the loop. Rita takes sympathy and they spend the entirety of one loop together, however, Phil still wakes up alone at the start of February 2. He decides to use his knowledge of the events to try to better himself. Over many loops, he learns how to play the piano, sculpt ice, Ultimately, on one loop, Phil eagerly attends the Groundhog Day festivities, and gives a very eloquent report that causes all of the other news-stations to turn their cameras to him, amazing Rita. Phil and Rita spend the rest of the day together, with Phil impressing her with his apparent overnight transformation through his contributions to the festivities and that evening at the towns Groundhog Day dinner-dance, she wins Phil with the high bid at the charity bachelor auction
22.
Quentin Tarantino
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Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American director, writer, and actor. His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed My Best Friends Birthday and its popularity was boosted by his second film, Pulp Fiction, a black comedy crime film that was a major success both among critics and audiences. Judged the greatest film from 1983–2008 by Entertainment Weekly, many critics, for his next effort, Tarantino paid homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s with Jackie Brown, an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch. Tarantino directed Death Proof as part of a feature with friend Robert Rodriguez. His long-postponed Inglourious Basterds, which tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germanys political leadership, was released in 2009 to positive reviews, after that came 2012s critically acclaimed Django Unchained, a Western film set in the antebellum era of the Deep South. It became the film of his career so far, making over $425 million at the box office. Tarantinos films have garnered critical and commercial success. He has received industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and the Palme dOr, and has been nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time in 2005, Filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him the single most influential director of his generation. In December 2015, Tarantino received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry, Tarantino was born on March 27,1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Connie McHugh and Tony Tarantino. His father is of Italian descent, and his mother has English and Irish ancestry, Quentin was named after Quint Asper, Burt Reynolds character in the CBS series Gunsmoke. Quentins mother met his father during a trip to Los Angeles and she married him soon after, to gain independence from her parents, but the marriage did not last. Connie Tarantino left Los Angeles, and moved to Knoxville, where her parents lived, in 1966, Tarantinos mother, after finishing her nursing studies, moved back to Los Angeles with her then three-year-old son. They lived in the South Bay, in the part of the city. Tarantinos mother married musician Curtis Zastoupil soon after coming to Los Angeles, and the moved to Torrance. Zastoupil encouraged his love of movies, and accompanied him to film screenings. Tarantinos mother allowed him to see movies with adult content, such as Carnal Knowledge, after his mother divorced Zastoupil in 1973, and received a misdiagnosis of Hodgkins lymphoma, Tarantino was sent to live with his grandparents in Tennessee. He remained there for six months to a year, before returning to California
23.
Pulp Fiction
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Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American black comedy neo-noir crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, from a story by Tarantino and Roger Avary. Directed in a stylized manner, Pulp Fiction connects the intersecting storylines of Los Angeles mobsters, fringe players, small-time criminals. The films title refers to the magazines and hardboiled crime novels popular during the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence. The screenplay of Pulp Fiction was written in 1992 and 1993 and its plot, as in many of Tarantinos other works, is presented out of chronological order. The film is also self-referential from its opening moments, beginning with a card that gives two dictionary definitions of pulp. Its script was turned down by Columbia TriStar as too demented. Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein was instantly enthralled with it, however, Pulp Fiction won the Palme dOr at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and was a major critical and commercial success upon its U. S. release. It revitalized the careers of John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and it was also nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Tarantino and Avary won for Best Original Screenplay. The nature of its development, marketing, and distribution –, since its release, Pulp Fiction has been widely regarded as Tarantinos masterpiece, with particular praise singled out for its screenwriting. The films self-reflexivity, unconventional structure, and extensive use of homage and it is often considered a cultural watershed, with a strong influence felt not only in later movies that adopted various elements of its style, but in several other media as well. A2008 Entertainment Weekly poll named it the best film since 1983, in 2013, Pulp Fiction was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The stories intersect in various ways, the film begins with a diner hold-up staged by a couple, then picks up the stories of Vincent, Jules, and Butch. It finally returns to where it began, in the diner, sequences 1 and 7 partially overlap and are presented from different points of view, as do sequences 2 and 6. Other analysts describe the structure as a circular narrative, hitmen Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega arrive at the apartment of Brett to retrieve a briefcase for their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace. After Vincent checks the contents of the briefcase, Jules shoots one of Bretts associates, then declaims a passage from the Bible before he, some time later, champion boxer Butch Coolidge accepts a large sum from Marsellus to take a dive in his upcoming match. Vincent and Jules deliver the briefcase, the next day, Vincent purchases heroin from his drug dealer Lance. He shoots up to pass the day, then drives to meet Marselluss wife Mia and they head to a 1950s-themed restaurant and participate in a twist contest, then return to the Wallace house with the trophy. While Vincent is in the bathroom, Mia finds his heroin, mistakes it for cocaine, snorts it, Vincent rushes her to Lances house, where they revive her with an adrenaline shot to her heart
24.
Quiz Show (film)
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Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical film produced and directed by Robert Redford, and written by Paul Attanasio, based on Richard N. Goodwins memoir Remembering America, A Voice From the Sixties. It stars John Turturro, Rob Morrow, and Ralph Fiennes, with Paul Scofield, David Paymer, Hank Azaria, the film received generally positive reviews and was nominated for several awards, including a Best Picture Oscar nomination and several Golden Globes. It had a box office return. The evenings main attraction is Queens resident Herb Stempel, the reigning champion, Enright and Freedman are surprised when Columbia University instructor Charles Van Doren, son of a prominent literary family, visits their office to audition. Realizing that they have found a challenger for Stempel, they subtly offer to rig the game in Van Dorens favor. Enright later informs Stempel that he must lose in order to boost the shows ratings, Stempel begrudgingly agrees, on the condition that he can remain on television. He threatens to reveal the reason for his success, he had been given the answers in advance. Stempel and Van Doren face each other on Twenty One, where the match comes down to a question regarding Marty. Despite knowing the film, Stempel gives the wrong answer of On the Waterfront. In the weeks that follow, Van Dorens winning streak makes him a national celebrity, meanwhile, Stempel, having lost his prize money to an unscrupulous bookie, begins threatening legal action against NBC after weeks go by without his return to television. He visits New York County District Attorney Frank Hogan, who convenes a grand jury to look into his allegations, Richard Goodwin, a young Congressional lawyer, learns that the grand jury findings have been sealed and travels to New York City to investigate rumors of rigged quiz shows. Visiting a number of contestants, including Stempel and Van Doren, however, Stempels volatile personality damages his credibility, and nobody else seems willing at first to confirm that the show is rigged. Stempel desperately confesses to Goodwin that he was in on the fix, as Goodwin collects more evidence, Van Doren deliberately loses. He is rewarded by NBC with a contract to appear as a special correspondent on the morning Today show. The House Committee for Legislative Oversight convenes a hearing, at which Goodwin presents his evidence of the quiz shows corruption, during the hearing, Stempels testimony fails to convince the committee. Both NBC network head Robert Kintner and Geritol executive Martin Rittenhome deny any knowledge of Twenty One being rigged, after being subpoenaed by Goodwin, Van Doren testifies before the committee and admits his role in the deception. After the hearing adjourns, he learns from reporters that he has fired from Today. Goodwin believes he is on the verge of a victory against Geritol and NBC and he silently watches the producers testimony, vindicating the sponsors and the network from any wrongdoing, and taking full responsibility for rigging the show
25.
Disclosure (film)
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Disclosure is a 1994 American semi-erotic thriller film directed by Barry Levinson, starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. It is based on Michael Crichtons novel of the same name, the cast also includes Donald Sutherland, Rosemary Forsyth and Dennis Miller. The film is a thriller and slight mystery in an office setting within the computer industry in the mid-1990s. The main focus of the story, from which the film and book take their titles, is the issue of sexual harassment, bob Garvin, a technology company founder, plans to retire when his company merges with a larger company. Production line manager Tom expects to be promoted to run the CD-ROM division, instead, Meredith, a former girlfriend, is promoted to the post. Meredith calls Tom into her office to discuss some operations, and he attempts to reciprocate, but then rebuffs her. Meredith screams a threat to make him pay for spurning her, the next day, Tom discovers that Meredith has filed a sexual harassment complaint against him with legal counsel Philip. To save the merger from a scandal, DigiCom officials demand that Tom accept reassignment to another location, if Tom does this, he will lose his stock options in the new company. His career will be ruined as the location is scheduled for sale after the merger which will leave Tom jobless. Tom receives an e-mail from someone identified only as A Friend and it directs him to Seattle attorney Catherine, who specializes in sexual harassment cases. Tom decides to sue DigiCom, alleging that Meredith is the one who harassed him, the initial mediation goes badly for Tom as Meredith blames him. Garvin proposes that if Tom drops the matter, he not have to transfer. This causes Tom to suspect that Merediths accusations have a vulnerability, Tom plays the recording at the next meeting and discredits Meredith. DigiCom agrees to a settlement calling for Meredith to be eased out after the merger closes. As Tom is celebrating his apparent victory, he receives another e-mail from A Friend warning that all is not what it seems, Tom overhears Meredith talking to Philip that even if they slipped him through the harassment accusation, theyll make him look incompetent at next mornings merger conference. If the problems with the CD-ROMs are shown as coming from the production line, Tom attempts look for clues in the company database regarding the talk he overheard. But his access privileges have been revoked and he remembers that the merging companys executives have a DigiCom virtual reality demonstration machine in a hotel room with access to company databases. He breaks in to use it, but as he gets into DigiComs files, not knowing what to do, Tom receives a call from a Malaysian colleague who gets Tom copies of incriminating memos and videos
26.
Coen brothers
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Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen, collectively referred to as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody and their best-reviewed works include Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, True Grit, and Inside Llewyn Davis. The brothers write, direct, and produce their films jointly, although until The Ladykillers, Joel received sole credit for directing and they often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias Roderick Jaynes. The duo also won the Palme dOr for Barton Fink, and were nominated for Fargo, the Coen brothers have written a number of films that neither of the two directed. Ethan is also a writer of stories, theater. Their films No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, Joel and Ethan Coen were born and raised in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. Their mother, Rena, was an art historian at St. Cloud State University, when they were children, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy a Vivitar Super 8 camera. Together, the brothers remade movies they saw on television, with a kid, Mark Zimering. Their first attempt was a romp entitled Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go, cornel Wildes The Naked Prey became their Zeimers in Zambia, which also featured Ethan as a native with a spear. Joel Coen has said, in regards to whether our background influences our film making, theres no doubt that our Jewish heritage affects how we see things. Joel and Ethan graduated from St. Louis Park High School in 1973 and 1976 and they both also graduated from Bard College at Simons Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Joel then spent four years in the film program at New York University. Ethan went on to Princeton University and earned a degree in philosophy in 1979. His senior thesis was a 41-page essay, Two Views of Wittgensteins Later Philosophy, Joel has been married to actress Frances McDormand since 1984. They adopted a son from Paraguay, named Pedro McDormand Coen and she also did a voice-over in Barton Fink. Ethan married film editor Tricia Cooke in 1990 and they have two children, daughter Dusty and son Buster Jacob, who goes to Vassar College. Both couples live in New York, after graduating from New York University, Joel worked as a production assistant on a variety of industrial films and music videos. He developed a talent for film editing and met Sam Raimi while assisting Enda Ruth Paul in editing Raimis first feature film, in 1984, the brothers wrote and directed Blood Simple, their first commercial film together
27.
Fargo (film)
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Fargo is a 1996 American black comedy crime thriller film written, produced, edited, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Fargo premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where Joel Coen won the festivals Prix de la mise en scène, a critical and commercial success, Fargo received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. McDormand received the Best Actress Oscar, and the Coens won in the Best Original Screenplay category, the American Film Institute named it one of the 100 greatest American movies of all time in 1998. A Coen-produced FX television series of the name, inspired by Fargo and taking place in the same universe. In the winter of 1987, Jerry Lundegaard, the manager at a Minneapolis Oldsmobile dealership, is desperate for money. He floated a $320,000 GMAC loan and collateralized it with nonexistent dealership vehicles, dealership mechanic and paroled ex-convict Shep Proudfoot refers Jerry to Gaear Grimsrud. Jerry pitches Gustafson a lucrative real estate deal, and he agrees to front $750,000, Jerry considers calling off the kidnapping, then learns that Gustafson plans to make the deal himself, giving Jerry a finders fee. At Jerrys home, Carl and Gaear carry out the kidnapping, as they transport Jean to their remote cabin on Moose Lake, a state trooper pulls them over outside Brainerd for driving without temporary tags. When the trooper hears a sound from the seat, Gaear kills him. The following morning, Brainerd police chief Marge Gunderson discovers that the trooper was ticketing a car with dealership plates. Later, two men driving a dealership vehicle checked into the nearby Blue Ox Motel with two girls, then placed a call to Proudfoot. After questioning the prostitutes, she drives to Gustafsons dealership, where Proudfoot feigns ignorance, while in Minneapolis, Marge reconnects with Mike Yanagita, an old classmate who tells her that his wife, another classmate, has died, and makes an awkward pass at her. Jerry informs Gustafson that the kidnappers have demanded $1 million, meanwhile, Carl, in light of the complication of three murders, demands that Jerry hand over the entire $80,000. GMAC gives Jerry 24 hours to prove the existence of the vehicles or return the loan, Carl is attacked and beaten by a furious Proudfoot for involving him in the murder investigation. Carl orders Jerry to deliver the ransom immediately, Gustafson insists on making the money drop himself. At the prearranged drop point in a Minneapolis parking garage, he tells Carl he will not hand over the money without seeing Jean, an enraged Carl shoots and kills Gustafson. After fleeing the scene, Carl is astounded to discover that the briefcase contains $1 million and he removes $80,000 to split with Gaear, then buries the rest alongside the highway. At the cabin, Gaear has killed Jean, Carl says they must split up and leave the state immediately, Marge learns that Yanagitas dead wife is not dead, nor his wife
28.
Curtis Hanson
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Curtis Lee Hanson was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Hanson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1998, Hanson was born in Reno, Nevada, and grew up in Los Angeles. He was the son of Beverly June, an estate agent, and Wilbur Hale Bill Hanson. Hanson dropped out of school, finding work as a freelance photographer. Hanson began screenwriting in 1970, when he co-wrote The Dunwich Horror, Hanson wrote and directed his next feature Sweet Kill in 1973, then in 1978 wrote and produced The Silent Partner, starring Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer. From the early 1980s into 1990s, Hanson directed a string of comedies and he did thrillers, too, many of them deal with people who lose their sense of control or security when facing danger or under threat of death. Some, like the executive in Bad Influence and the police officers in L. A. Confidential, unexpectedly walk into violence. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, hansons later works included In Her Shoes, Wonder Boys,8 Mile, and Lucky You. Hanson said that he was influenced by the directors Alfred Hitchcock. In an interview with the New York Times in 2000, Hanson stated that Rays film In a Lonely Place was among many that he watched in preparation for the filming of L. A. Confidential, in 8 Mile, Kim Basingers character watches Elia Kazans Pinky on television. In 2011, Hanson made Too Big to Fail, based on the 2009 Andrew Ross Sorkin book of the name about the beginnings of the financial crisis of 2007–2010. His last film was Chasing Mavericks in 2012, but he was unable to finish the film due to ill health, michael Apted replaced him as director during the final days of shooting. Hanson later retired from work and was reported to have frontotemporal dementia. He died of natural causes at his Hollywood Hills home at the age of 71, Curtis Hanson at the Internet Movie Database Curtis Hanson on Facebook Frontotemporal Degeneration association
29.
L.A. Confidential (film)
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L. A. Confidential is a 1997 American neo-noir crime film directed, produced and co-written by Curtis Hanson. The screenplay by Hanson and Brian Helgeland is loosely based on James Ellroys 1990 novel of the same name, like the book, the film tells the story of a group of LAPD officers in 1953, and the intersection of police corruption and Hollywood celebrity. The title refers to the 1950s scandal magazine Confidential, portrayed in the film as Hush-Hush, however, he supported Hansons casting decisions and this gave the director the confidence to approach Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, and Danny DeVito. The film grossed $126 million worldwide and was acclaimed, holding a 99% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning two, Basinger for Best Supporting Actress and Hanson and Helgeland for Best Adapted Screenplay, it lost every other category to Titanic. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. In early 1950s Los Angeles, Sergeant Edmund Ed Exley, son of the legendary LAPD detective Preston Exley, is determined to live up to his fathers reputation and his intelligence, insistence on following regulations, and cold demeanor contribute to his isolation from other officers. He exacerbates this resentment by volunteering to testify in the Bloody Christmas case in exchange for a promotion to Detective Lieutenant. This goes against the advice of Captain Dudley Smith, who states that a detective should be willing to shoot a guilty man in the back for the greater good. Exleys ambition is fueled by the murder of his father, killed by an unknown assailant, officer Wendell Bud White, whom Exley considers a mindless thug, is a plainclothes officer obsessed with violently punishing woman-beaters. One such incident leads him to confront a former cop named Leland Buzz Meeks, White comes to dislike Exley after Whites partner, Dick Stensland, is fired due to Exleys testimony in the Bloody Christmas scandal. The Nite Owl case, a multiple homicide at a coffee shop, Sergeant Jack Vincennes is a narcotics detective who moonlights as a technical advisor on Badge of Honor, a popular TV police drama series. He is providing Sid Hudgens, publisher of the Hush-Hush tabloid magazine, three African Americans are initially charged with the Nite Owl murders, and later killed in a shootout. Although the Nite Owl crime initially looks like a robbery, Exley. He begins a relationship with Lynn Bracken, a Veronica Lake look-alike prostitute, the body count rises when White searches a storage room under Lefferts mothers house, and finds the decomposed corpse of Meeks. When Vincennes approaches Smith with the evidence he has found with Exley, Smith shoots Vincennes, who utters Rollo Tomasi before dying, the origin of which Exley told Vincennes in confidence. Exleys suspicions are aroused when Smith asks him who Rollo Tomasi is, during an interrogation of Hudgens, Smith arranges for White to see photos of Bracken sleeping with Exley, which sends White into a rage. Confident that White has gone after Exley to kill him, Smith kills Hudgens, Exley investigates and discovers Meeks and Stensland used to work closely with Smith
30.
The Truman Show
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The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir, produced by Scott Rudin, Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman, and Adam Schroeder, and written by Niccol. The Truman Show was originally a spec script by Niccol, inspired by an episode of The Twilight Zone called Special Service, unlike the finished product, it was more of a science-fiction thriller, with the story set in New York City. Scott Rudin purchased the script, and set up production at Paramount Pictures, brian De Palma was to direct before Weir signed as director, making the film for $60 million—$20 million less than the original estimate. Niccol rewrote the script while the crew was waiting for Carrey to sign, the majority of filming took place at Seaside, Florida, a master-planned community located in the Florida Panhandle. The Truman Show has been analyzed as a thesis on Christianity, metaphilosophy, simulated reality, existentialism, all of Seahavens residents are actors. Creator and executive producer Christof wants to capture Trumans real emotion, despite Christofs control, Truman manages to act in unexpected ways. During his college years, Truman was set to fall in love and marry co-student Meryl, but fell in love with another actress, Sylvia. Sylvia managed to bring Truman out of the sight of cameras long enough to him that his reality is fake before she was taken away and off-set. While Truman went on to marry Meryl, he continues to fantasize about Sylvia, using scraps from magazines to recreate her face in secret, outside of the show, Sylvia has become part of a Free Truman campaign that demands the end of the show. The film begins during the year of the show. During the day, Truman notices strange occurrences that all seem centered on him, Truman spots a disheveled man and recognizes him as his father, who had snuck back into the set, but the actors quickly drag the man away. Despite efforts by Meryl and Trumans best friend Marlon to reassure Truman, Truman becomes even more suspicious about his life, one day, he takes Meryl by surprise by going on an impromptu road trip, but their way is blocked by apparent emergencies created by Christof. Meryl begins to break down from the stress, and during an argument with Truman, Truman, depressed and confused, is consoled by Marlon, and Christof uses the opportunity to re-introduce Trumans father to the show proper, hoping to bring Truman back to some emotional stability. Truman seems to recover, but the day, the producers find Truman sleeping in his basement. Marlon is sent to check on Truman, only to find he has disappeared through a makeshift tunnel, Marlon breaks character, and Christof orders the first transmission cut of the shows history while a city-wide search for Truman is launched. Audiences around the world are drawn to this sudden change, Truman is found sailing out of Seahaven, having conquered his fear of water, and Christof resumes the broadcast as he sends a man-made lightning storm to try to capsize the boat. Network executives fear that Truman may die on live television, realizing he cannot dissuade Truman any further, Christof ends the storm. Truman continues to sail until his boat punctures the wall of the dome, to his surprise, Truman considers this, then states, In case I dont see you
31.
Gattaca
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Gattaca is a 1997 American science fiction film written and directed by Andrew Niccol. It stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, with Jude Law, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal, and Alan Arkin appearing in supporting roles. The film centers on Vincent Freeman, played by Hawke, who was conceived outside the eugenics program, the movie draws on concerns over reproductive technologies which facilitate eugenics, and the possible consequences of such technological developments for society. It also explores the idea of destiny and the ways in which it can, characters in Gattaca continually battle both with society and with themselves to find their place in the world and who they are destined to be according to their genes. The films title is based on the first letters of guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine and it was a 1997 nominee for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. The film flopped at the box office, but it received positive reviews and has since gained a cult following. In the not-too-distant future, eugenics is common, a genetic registry database uses biometrics to classify those so created as valids while those conceived by traditional means and more susceptible to genetic disorders are known as in-valids. Genetic discrimination is illegal, but in practice genotype profiling is used to identify valids to qualify for employment while in-valids are relegated to menial jobs. Vincent Freeman is conceived without the aid of genetic selection, his genetics indicate a probability of several disorders. His parents, regretting their decision, use genetic selection to give birth to their next child, growing up, the two brothers often play a game of chicken by swimming out to sea with the first one returning to shore considered the loser, Vincent always loses. Vincent dreams of a career in space travel but is reminded of his genetic inferiority, one day Vincent challenges Anton to a game of chicken and bests him before Anton starts to drown. Vincent saves Anton and then leaves home, Vincent works as an in-valid, cleaning office spaces including that of Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, a space-flight conglomerate. He gets a chance to pose as a valid by using hair, skin, blood and urine samples from a donor, Jerome Eugene Morrow, who is a former swimming star paralyzed due to a car accident. With Jeromes genetic makeup, Vincent gains employment at Gattaca, and is assigned to be navigator for a trip to Saturns moon Titan. To keep his identity hidden, Vincent must meticulously groom and scrub down daily to remove his own genetic material, Gattaca becomes embroiled in controversy when one of its administrators is murdered a week before the flight. The police find a fallen eyelash of Vincents at the scene, an investigation is launched to find the murderer, Vincent being the top suspect. Through this, Vincent becomes close to a co-worker, Irene Cassini, though a valid, Irene has a higher risk of heart failure that will prevent her from joining any deep space Gattaca mission. Vincent also learns that Jeromes paralysis is by his own hand, after coming in place in a swim meet
32.
Alan Ball (screenwriter)
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Alan Erwin Ball is an American writer, director, and producer for television, film, and theatre. Ball was born in Marietta, Georgia, to Frank and Mary Ball, an aircraft inspector and his older sister, Mary Ann, was killed in a car accident when Ball was 13, he was in the passenger seat at the time. He attended high school in Marietta, and went on to attend the University of Georgia and Florida State University, after college, he began work as a playwright at the General Nonsense Theater Company in Sarasota, Florida. Ball broke into television as a writer and story editor on the situation comedies Grace Under Fire, Ball has written two films, American Beauty and Towelhead, the latter of which he also produced and directed. He is also the creator, writer and executive producer of the HBO drama series Six Feet Under and he was showrunner for True Blood for its first five seasons. In 2010 Ball began work on an adaptation of the crime noir novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston. In December 2010, after months of pre-production, HBO cancelled production on All Signs of Death. He is also one of the producers of the Cinemax series Banshee. In January 2015, it was announced that Balls period musical drama Virtuoso had had a pilot ordered by HBO, the pilot will be executively produced by Elton John. Confirmed actors to be starring in the show include Peter Macdissi, Iva Babic, Francois Civil, Lindsay Farris, Nico Mirallegro, Ball has discussed his Buddhist faith in numerous interviews, noting how it has influenced his film making. In an interview with Amazon. com, Ball commented on the scene in American Beauty with the plastic bag, stating. And I didnt have a camera, like Ricky does. Theres a Buddhist notion of the miraculous within the mundane, and I think we live in a culture that encourages us not to look for that. Ball has also discussed how his Buddhism has shaped themes in Six Feet Under, Ball is gay and has been called a strong voice for LGBT community. In 2008 he made Out magazines annual list of the 100 most impressive gay men and women and he lives in Los Angeles with his partner, Peter Macdissi, who has starred in several of Balls works. Alan Ball at TV. com Alan Ball at the Internet Movie Database Alan Ball at the Internet Off-Broadway Database Alan Ball interview video at the Archive of American Television
33.
American Beauty (1999 film)
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American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a 42-year-old advertising executive who has a crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenaged daughters best friend. Annette Bening co-stars as Lesters materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure daughter, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, and Allison Janney also feature. Ball began writing American Beauty as a play in the early 1990s and he shelved the play after realizing the story would not work on stage. After several years as a screenwriter, Ball revived the idea in 1997 when attempting to break into the film industry. The modified script had a cynical outlook that was influenced by Balls frustrating tenures writing for several sitcoms, producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen took American Beauty to DreamWorks, the then-fledgling film studio bought Balls script for $250,000, outbidding several other production bodies. DreamWorks financed the $15 million production and served as its North American distributor, principal photography took place between December 1998 and February 1999 on soundstages at the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, and on location in Los Angeles. Mendes dominant style was deliberate and composed, he made use of static shots and slow pans. Cinematographer Conrad Hall complemented Mendes style with peaceful shot compositions to contrast with the turbulent on-screen events, during editing, Mendes made several changes that gave the film a less cynical tone than the script. Released in North America on September 17,1999, American Beauty was positively received by critics, reviewers praised most aspects of the production, with particular emphasis on Mendes, Spacey, and Ball, criticism focused on the familiarity of the characters and setting. It was nominated for and won other awards and honors, mainly for the direction, writing. Lester Burnham is an advertising executive and magazine writer who despises his job. He is unhappily married to Carolyn, a neurotic yet fiercely ambitious real estate broker who grows red roses in their yard, their daughter, Jane. His job as a part-time bar caterer serves as a front for his secret marijuana dealings, Frank is a strict disciplinarian who previously sent Ricky to a military school and briefly committed him to a psychiatric hospital. Jim Olmeyer and Jim Berkley, a gay couple who live nearby, on the way to school, Frank reveals his homophobia while he angrily discusses the incident with Ricky. Lester becomes infatuated with Janes vain friend, Angela Hayes, after seeing her perform a dance routine at a high school basketball game with Jane. He starts having sexual fantasies about Angela, in red rose petals are a recurring motif. Carolyn begins an affair with her married business rival, Buddy Kane, when Lesters boss and efficiency expert, Brad, tells him that he is to be laid off, Lester instead blackmails him for $60,000 and quits his job
34.
Charlie Kaufman
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Charles Stuart Charlie Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and lyricist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and he made his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York, which was also well-received, film critic Roger Ebert named it the best movie of the decade in 2009. He also won two BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplays and one BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, three of Kaufmans scripts appear in the Writers Guild of Americas list of the 101 greatest movie screenplays ever written. Kaufman was born in New York City to a Jewish family on November 19,1958 and he grew up in Massapequa, New York before moving to West Hartford, Connecticut where he graduated high school. While attending high school, Kaufman was part of the drama club, performing in numerous productions before landing the lead role in a production of Play It Again. After high school graduation, Kaufman attended Boston University before transferring to New York University where he studied film, while attending New York University, Kaufman met Paul Proch, with whom he would write many unproduced scripts and plays. Between 1983 and 1984, Kaufman and Proch wrote comedic articles and his work included parodies of Kurt Vonnegut and the X-Men. Kaufman and Proch tried to get their screenplays produced, sending them to people in film industry. The only response the two ever received for their work was a letter from Alan Arkin in regards to their screenplay titled Purely Coincidental. In hope of finding talent agents the two began to write scripts for television series such as Married. In 1991, Kaufman moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in search of job prospects. Kaufman got his start in television by writing two episodes for Chris Elliotts Get a Life during the 1991–1992 season, during the 1993–1994 season, Kaufman worked on Foxs sketch comedy show The Edge. Kaufman wrote some pilot scripts while working as a television writer and he later worked as a writer for Ned and Stacey and The Dana Carvey Show. He first came to notice as the writer of Being John Malkovich, directed by Spike Jonze, earning an Academy Award nomination for his effort. He wrote the script on spec in 1994, sending it to companies and studios. Kaufman and Jonze reunited yet again as the director screenwriter respectively for Adaptation, Adaptation featured a fictionalized version of Kaufman and his fictional brother, Donald, who is credited as writer of the film along with Kaufman. The idea came to Kaufman while attempting to adapt Susan Orleans novel The Orchid Thief into film, struggling with writers block, Kaufman turned the script into an exaggerated account of his struggles with adapting the screenplay. The film focuses on Barriss claim to have been a CIA hit man and it was George Clooneys directorial debut
35.
Being John Malkovich
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Being John Malkovich is a 1999 American fantasy-comedy film directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, both making their feature film debut. The film stars John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener, with John Malkovich, the film follows a puppeteer who finds a portal that leads into Malkovichs mind. Released by USA Films, the film was nominated in three categories at the 72nd Academy Awards, Best Director for Jonze, Best Original Screenplay for Kaufman, Craig Schwartz is an unemployed puppeteer in a forlorn marriage with his pet-obsessed wife Lotte. Gaining a file clerk job through Dr. Craig enters a door hidden behind a filing cabinet. Craig is able to observe and sense whatever Malkovich does for fifteen minutes before he is ejected and dropped into a ditch near the New Jersey Turnpike and he reveals the portal to Maxine and they let others use it for $200 a turn. Craig tells Lotte, who becomes obsessed with the experience, allowing her to out her transgender desires. Lotte becomes attracted to Maxine and they begin a relationship via Lotte being inside Malkovichs head while Maxine has sex with Malkovich. Craig, forsaken by both women, binds and gags Lotte and locks her in a cage, then enters Malkovichs mind and has sex with Maxine, Craig discovers that he is able to control Malkovichs actions while in his head, causing the actor to become paranoid. He is ejected and meets Craig by the turnpike, Malkovich demands that the portal be closed, but Craig refuses. Lotte escapes with the help of the animals in the cage and phones Maxine, Maxine is annoyed but accepts it as she enjoyed the experience. Seeking help, Lotte finds Lester, who reveals himself to be Captain Mertin and he is aware of the portal and has a room dedicated to Malkovich. Lester explains that the connected to it becomes ripe for occupation on the eve of their 44th birthday. However, after the old host turns 44, the moves to its next host. The former allows one to increase their life before moving on to another host while the means being trapped within the unborn child. Lester, who has been using the portal to prolong his life, reveals his plan to use Malkovich for himself, offered the chance to join Lesters group, Lotte warns him that Craig has control. Craig finds he is able to remain in Malkovich indefinitely and he spends the next eight months in Malkovichs body, and through his control turns Malkovich into a world-famous puppeteer. Malkovich marries Maxine and learns that she is pregnant as their relationship grows distant, as Malkovichs 44th birthday approaches, Lester and his friends cut a deal with Maxine and fake her kidnapping. They call up Craig threatening to kill her if Craig does not leave Malkovich, Craig ends the call, causing Lester to think that he called their bluff
36.
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001 film)
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The Man Who Wasnt There is a 2001 British-American neo-noir crime film written, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Billy Bob Thornton stars in the title role, also featured are Tony Shalhoub, Scarlett Johansson, James Gandolfini, and Coen regulars Frances McDormand, Michael Badalucco, Richard Jenkins and Jon Polito. Joel Coen won the Best Director Award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, Ethan Coen, Joel Coens brother and co-director of the film, did not receive the Best Director Award as he was not credited as a director. This was the last film to be produced and distributed by Gramercy Pictures until it was revived in 2015, in 1949, Ed Crane is a low-key barber in the town of Santa Rosa, California. He is married to Doris, a bookkeeper with a drinking problem, a customer named Creighton Tolliver tells Ed that hes a businessman looking for investors to put up $10,000 in a new technology called dry cleaning. Ed decides to get the money by anonymously blackmailing Doriss boss, Big Dave Brewster, Dave embezzles money from his department store to pay the blackmail. However, he pieces together the scheme and beats Tolliver until he implicates Ed. Dave confronts Ed at the store and attempts to kill him. After Daves funeral, his comes to Ed and confesses that, one day, she. Later, irregularities in the books are found. The police arrest Doris for embezzlement and Daves murder, Ed is persuaded to hire Freddy Riedenschneider, an expensive defense attorney from Sacramento, who arrives and takes up residence in the best and most expensive hotel in town. He proceeds to live lavishly on Doriss defense fund, which Frank obtained by mortgaging the barber shop and it is all for nothing, because Doris hangs herself in her cell the morning before the trial. It is later revealed that she was pregnant when she hanged herself, Riedenschneider leaves town disgusted and Frank, now deeply in debt, starts drinking heavily. Ed makes regular visits to Rachel Birdy Abundas, a teenage daughter. Tormented by loneliness, he imagines helping her start a musical career, the fantasy is crushed when a music teacher tells him that Birdy has no talent. Driving back from visiting the teacher, Birdy makes a pass at Ed and attempts to perform sex on him, causing Ed to lose control of the car. When Ed awakens in a bed, two police officers tell him hes under arrest for murder. Tollivers beaten body has found in a lake, along with Eds investment contract. The police believe Ed coerced Doris into embezzling the investment money, Ed is arraigned for the murder and mortgages his house to re-hire Riedenschneider
37.
Lantana (film)
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Lantana is a 2001 Australian drama film, directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Armstrong, Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey. It is based on the play Speaking In Tongues by Andrew Bovell, the film won seven AACTA Awards including Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. Lantana is set in suburban Sydney and focuses on the relationships between the characters in the film. The central event of the film is the disappearance and death of a woman whose body is shown at the start of the film, the films name derives from the plant Lantana, a weed prevalent in suburban Sydney. An unknown womans body is caught in the lantana bush. Leon, an officer, and Jane have sex in a motel room. They part ways, and we see that Leon and his wife Sonja attend Latin dance classes that the recently-separated Jane is also taking, Leon does not enjoy the classes, and is seen savagely beating a drug dealer during a bust. He has emotional issues, but wont confront or admit to them, Sonja sees a therapist, Valerie who has just published a book on her own daughters murder 18 months ago. She and her husband, John, are barely on speaking terms and she feels threatened by another patient of hers, Patrick Phelan, who is having an affair with a married man and is forcing Valerie to confront her own issues in her marriage to John. Hoping to see Leon again, Jane purposely bumps into him outside the police station and her next door neighbour, Nik, is upset that she is seeing someone because he is friends with her estranged husband Pete, who wants to return home. Jane pairs up with Sonja in the next class, which angers Leon, he ends their arrangement. She invites Nik over for coffee at the behest of his wife, Paula, with whom she is friendly, Paula starts to dislike Jane because of it. Valerie is coming home one night and drives off the road. She is stranded, and makes several calls to John, who does not answer, finally, she is seen approaching a car coming along the road, but never makes it home. Leon is the detective on the case, and looks into her office. Surprised at seeing his wifes name and file, he takes a recording of their sessions, Sonja is very upset and feels betrayed. Leon sleeps on the couch, in the morning Sonja says hell be lucky if she returns home that night, Leon goes to Johns house to interrogate him as the main suspect in his wifes disappearance. Leon starts a discussion about love, marriage and having affairs, Leon goes to Janes house on police duty, because she has placed a call
38.
John Collee
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John Gerald Collee is a Scottish screenwriter whose film scripts include Master and Commander, Happy Feet, Creation, and Walking with Dinosaurs. He is also a journalist and a novelist, Collee practised medicine and wrote several novels before he became a full-time screenwriter. He is married to Deborah Snow, with whom he has three children, Collee was born in 1955 to Isobel and J. Gerald, the latter who was a professor of bacteriology at the University of Edinburgh. Collee grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland and in India and he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and began practising medicine in Cambridge, Bath, and Bristol. In his third year of practice, he wrote the medical thriller Kingsleys Touch, Collee subsequently worked in emergency medicine and worked as a doctor in countries like Gabon, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka. He then wrote a novel titled A Paper Mask, which was published in 1987. Rights to the novel were acquired for an adaptation, and Collee wrote the screenplay for director Christopher Morahan. With income from screenwriting, Collee wrote his third novel The Rig, around the same time The Rig was published, Collee became a weekly columnist for The Observer and wrote about travel, science and medicine. He kept the job for six years, when he began writing a book about Soviet medicine called The Kingdom of the Blind, he visited Moscow and Snow. The book was unpublished, but when Collee went to the Solomon Islands for a year to work as a doctor, Snow went with him, and they had their first child, Lauren, on the islands. He worked in London for a time before moving to Sydney, Australia in 1996 to meet Australian directors like Peter Weir. For Weir, Collee wrote the screenplay for Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World, John Collee is one of four co-founders of the Australian production company Hopscotch Features. He is also a member of the Australian branch of climate activist group 350. org. Screenwriter Executive producer Son of a Gun The Water Diviner The Guests List of Scottish novelists Collee, official website John Collee at the Internet Movie Database
39.
Peter Weir
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Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. The climax of Weirs early career was the $6 million multi-national production The Year of Living Dangerously, for his work on these five films, Weir personally accrued six Academy Award nominations as either a director, writer or producer. Since 2003, Weirs productivity has declined, having directed only one subsequent feature. Weir was born in Sydney, the son of Peggy and Lindsay Weir, Weir attended The Scots College and Vaucluse Boys High School before studying arts and law at the University of Sydney. His interest in film was sparked by his meeting with students, including Phillip Noyce. After leaving university in the mid-1960s he joined Sydney television station ATN-7, during this period, using station facilities, he made his first two experimental short films, Count Vims Last Exercise and The Life and Flight of Reverend Buckshotte. He also directed one section of the three-part, three-director feature film Three To Go, homesdale and Weirs two aforementioned CFU shorts have been released on DVD. It was a success in cinemas but proved very popular on the then-thriving drive-in circuit. It also helped launch the career of internationally renowned Australian cinematographer Russell Boyd and it was widely acclaimed by critics, many of whom praised it as a welcome antidote to the so-called ocker film genre, typified by The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Alvin Purple. Weirs next film, The Last Wave was a thriller about a man who begins to experience terrifying visions of an impending natural disaster. The Last Wave was a pensive, ambivalent work that expanded on themes from Picnic and it co-starred the Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, whose performance won the Golden Ibex at the Tehran International Festival in 1977, but it was only a moderate commercial success at the time. Between The Last Wave and his feature, Weir wrote. It starred Australian actors Judy Morris and Ivar Kants and was filmed in just three weeks, inspired by a real-life experience told to him by friends, it is a black comedy about a woman whose life is disrupted by a subtly menacing plumber. Weir scored a major Australian hit and further international praise with his next film, scripted by the Australian playwright David Williamson, it is regarded as classic Australian cinema. Gallipoli was instrumental in making Mel Gibson into a star, although his co-star Mark Lee. The film also won Linda Hunt an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The film was produced by Jim McElroy, who with his brother Hal McElroy had also produced Weirs first three films, The Cars That Ate Paris, Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave. These dramatic parts provided Harrison Ford with important opportunities to break the typecasting of his roles in the Star Wars
