This is another edition of Short Starts, where we present a weekly short film(s) from the start of a filmmaker or actor’s career. Many directors are embarrassed of their first film, especially if we count their student productions. That’s one of the reasons it’s so hard to find a lot of “short starts” for this column. As we saw recently with Ridley Scott’s debut, however, the British Film Institute is to be thanked for preserving a number of early works by filmmakers from across the pond. Stephen Frears, whose latest great feature, Philomena, is now in theaters, is another example. The funny thing is that he seems like he’d rather that his first film, made in 1968, was lost and forgotten. Most directors would kill to have started off with something as smart and well-shot as The Burning, yet he claims he was clueless while making it, that...
- 11/24/2013
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
As much as people have quibbles with (much more democratically voted-on) awards like the Oscars, the decisions by juries at film festivals tend to be even more contentious. Usually drawn from practitioners and actors, with a few other curious participants in there as well, jurors often come in with their own likes, dislikes and agendas, and in the absence of a unanimous choice, often end up settling for compromises.
Indeed, this year's Cannes Film Festival jury president Nanni Moretti said, after the awards were unveiled this past weekend, that none of the them were unanimously voted for (word is Andrea Arnold in particular was a fervent opponent of Leos Carax's "Holy Motors"). That being said, their Palme D'Or winner was a popular one: while a few critics were rooting for "Holy Motors," almost everyone was delighted that Michael Haneke's "Amour" picked up the prize (his second in four years,...
Indeed, this year's Cannes Film Festival jury president Nanni Moretti said, after the awards were unveiled this past weekend, that none of the them were unanimously voted for (word is Andrea Arnold in particular was a fervent opponent of Leos Carax's "Holy Motors"). That being said, their Palme D'Or winner was a popular one: while a few critics were rooting for "Holy Motors," almost everyone was delighted that Michael Haneke's "Amour" picked up the prize (his second in four years,...
- 5/31/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Philip French speaks to Ridley Scott, Ken Russell, Gurinder Chadha, Shane Meadows and Stephen Frears about their debut pictures and detects the styles of the then-fledgling auteurs
Do artists discover a personal style and develop their themes gradually or are these to be found in embryonic form in their earliest works? There's no easy answer to this dual question. Take, for example, Ken Russell's Amelia and the Angel (1957), Ridley Scott's Boy and Bicycle (1965), Stephen Frears's The Burning (1967), Gurinder Chadha's I'm British But… (1989) and Shane Meadows's Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1995). All were made on shoestring budgets and each lasts less than half an hour.
First, presented with the directors' names and the credits concealed, would you be able to match up film and film-maker? I think most moviegoers could, which suggests there is something in these first movies that we would now recognise as characteristic. Second,...
Do artists discover a personal style and develop their themes gradually or are these to be found in embryonic form in their earliest works? There's no easy answer to this dual question. Take, for example, Ken Russell's Amelia and the Angel (1957), Ridley Scott's Boy and Bicycle (1965), Stephen Frears's The Burning (1967), Gurinder Chadha's I'm British But… (1989) and Shane Meadows's Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1995). All were made on shoestring budgets and each lasts less than half an hour.
First, presented with the directors' names and the credits concealed, would you be able to match up film and film-maker? I think most moviegoers could, which suggests there is something in these first movies that we would now recognise as characteristic. Second,...
- 9/25/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Can you see signs of greatness in our BFI DVD – free with today's paper – featuring early films by veteran British directors?
Can you spot the germ of Ridley Scott's career-defining epics like Alien and Gladiator in his first film, an introspective short featuring his brother, Tony, cycling about South Shields and smoking fags? Or how about hints of Shane Meadows's crisp coming-of-age tale, This is England, in his chaotic and very low budget debut Where's the Money, Ronnie?
Stephen Frears is no great fan of his inaugural effort, a 30-minute drama called The Burning, and likens the process of a director crafting his first film to a "baby playing with its own shit – you just hope to learn something". But Gurinder Chadha thinks the important themes that define her later work were all present in the documentary short I'm British But …; and Ken Russell is still very fond of his first film,...
Can you spot the germ of Ridley Scott's career-defining epics like Alien and Gladiator in his first film, an introspective short featuring his brother, Tony, cycling about South Shields and smoking fags? Or how about hints of Shane Meadows's crisp coming-of-age tale, This is England, in his chaotic and very low budget debut Where's the Money, Ronnie?
Stephen Frears is no great fan of his inaugural effort, a 30-minute drama called The Burning, and likens the process of a director crafting his first film to a "baby playing with its own shit – you just hope to learn something". But Gurinder Chadha thinks the important themes that define her later work were all present in the documentary short I'm British But …; and Ken Russell is still very fond of his first film,...
- 9/25/2010
- by Tom Lamont
- The Guardian - Film News
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