Paris, je t'aime

In the ’90s Olivier Assayas emerged as one of the key figures in the new generation of French filmmakers. As a former critic for Cahiers du Cinema and a die-hard cinephile, he makes his films both personal and referential to the works of directors that he adores. His father was a director/screenwriter in the 1940s who later worked mainly for TV. When it was increasingly difficult for him to work because of a health condition, Olivier started to help him, first merely as a secretary, and then ghostwriting a few screenplays for the Maigret TV series. In the late 1970s he joined the team of influential film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, that once launched the French New Wave. While working for Cahiers he wrote essays on his favorite European filmmakers, Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and published extensive studies on American horror films and Hong Kong Cinema (the latter came out long before Hong Kong cinema became fashionable with Western filmgoers and critics). He collaborated on screenplays of two André Téchiné films, Rendez-Vous and Le Lieu du Crime, and directed a few shorts before making his feature debut in 1986 with Desordre. Though his films enjoyed considerable critical acclaim in France and at international film festivals, his name was virtually unknown in English-speaking countries until the release of his 1996 film Irma Vep, a loving tribute both to Louis Feuillade and Hong Kong cinema. Still faithful to his critical roots, he later directed a documentary on Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=B80105)

Gurinder Chadha (Punjabi: ਗੁਰਿੰਦਰ ਚੱਡਾ; born 10 January 1960), OBE, is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach (1993), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004) and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008). Her most recent project is the comedy film It’s a Wonderful Afterlife released on 21 April 2010.

Background

Gurinder Chadha was born in Nairobi. Her family was part of the Indian diaspora in East Africa. They moved to Southall, West London when she was two years of age, where she attended Clifton Primary School. After graduating from the University of East Anglia, Chadha attended the London College of Printing in 1984/85 and studied for a post-graduate diploma in radio journalism, following which she worked as a BBC Radio reporter. Chadha then began working in television, and moved into film production in 1993.

She is married to Japanese-American filmmaker Paul Mayeda Berges, with whom she sometimes collaborates. They have twins, born in June 2007.
Career

After starting her media career in radio in the mid-80s, Chadha moved into TV as a BBC news reporter. She went on to direct award-winning documentaries for the British Film Institute, BBC and Channel Four, and in 1989 released the documentary I’m British but… for Channel 4, which followed the lives of young British Asians. In 1990, Chadha set up a production company, Umbi Films. Her first film was the 11-minute Nice Arrangement (1991) about a British Asian wedding.

Chadha mentions the influence that the film Purab aur Pachhim had on her work, in an interview with Robert K. Elder for The Film That Changed My Life.

Her affinity for stories about families was also attributed to her love for It’s a Wonderful Life.

Her first feature, Bhaji on the Beach, won numerous international awards including a BAFTA Nomination for ‘Best British Film of 1994’ and the Evening Standard British Film Award for ‘Best Newcomer to British Cinema’. Chadha first received wide recognition for the film in 1993. Several major projects followed, most notably the movies Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Bride and Prejudice (2004).

In 1995 she directed Rich Deceiver, a two-part drama for the BBC, watched by 11 million viewers.

What’s Cooking? was the Opening Night Film of the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, and was the first British script to be invited to the Sundance Institute’s Writer’s Lab. The film was voted joint audience award winner in the New York Film Critics’ 2000 season (tied with Billy Elliott), and Chadha won the award for Best British Director in the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards.

Bend it Like Beckham was the highest grossing British-financed, British- distributed film, ever in the UK box-office (prior to the success of Slumdog Millionaire). The film was a critical and commercial success internationally, topping the box-office charts in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and South Africa, and winning audience favourite film awards at the Locarno, Sydney and Toronto film festivals. The film received a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), a BAFTA Nomination for Best British Film, a European Film Academy Nomination for Best Film, and a Writers Guild of America Nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Bride and Prejudice – a film which marries Jane Austen with Indian and Western musicals – was the first film ever to open at Number One in the UK and India on the same day.

She wrote the screenplay for The Mistress of Spices (2005), (based upon the novel of the same name by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni) with Berges, who directed the film.

In 2005 she appeared on the BBC show Your London, in which she told the story of a Sikh prince who lived in London in the 19th century. In 2006 she took part in the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? in which she traced her Sikh family roots back to Kenya and before that to India’s Punjab.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging – based on the international bestseller, was released worldwide by Paramount Pictures in 2008/2009. It’s a Wonderful Afterlife premiered at the Sundance Film Festival before releasing internationally in 2010.

Chadha has received several Honorary Doctorates from British universities and was awarded an O.B.E. in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours List on 17 June 2006 for her services to the British film industry.

Although the BBC had confirmed that Chadha was to direct the forthcoming feature film adaptation of the popular TV series Dallas, she left the project in 2007.

Chadha is currently collaborating with composer A.R. Rahman and lyricist Stephen Schwartz on DreamWorks Animation’s first musical set in India. She has announced an animated musical entitled Monkeys of Bollywood, based on the Indian epic Ramayana. Reportedly, the Bollywood-style animated musical is set in Mumbai and revolves around two monkeys who try to stop an ancient demon from conquering the world. It is produced by DreamWorks Animation.

Her next film is an epic drama on Indian Independence and Partition, to be released in 2012. It is based on the book Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.

In a recent interview Chadha mentioned she was planning to make part two to the hit romantic comedy Bend It Like Beckham where she hopes the three main actors make a return. The film would be based on their successes, and a further development on Joe and Jess’s love story. —Wikipedia

Sylvain Chomet (born 1963) is a French comic writer, animator and film director. Born in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines, near Paris, he studied art at high-school until he graduated in 1982. Chomet moved to London in 1988 to work as an animator at the Richard Purdum studio. In September of that year, he established a freelance practice, working on commercials for clients such as Principality, Renault, Swinton and Swissair.

In addition to his animation career, Chomet created many print comics, starting in 1986 with Secrets of the Dragonfly. In 1992 Chomet wrote the script for a science fiction comic called The Bridge In Mud. 1993 saw Chomet writing the story for Léon-la-Came, which was drawn by Nicolas De Crécy for À Suivre magazine. This was published in 1995 and won the René Goscinny Prize in 1996. In 1997, Chomet published Ugly, Poor, and Sick, again with Nicolas De Crécy. This won them the Alph-Art Best Comic Prize at the Angoulême Comic Strip Festival.

The Old Lady and the Pigeons

In 1991, Chomet started work on his first animated film, The Old Lady and the Pigeons (La Vieille Dame et les pigeons), with backgrounds designed by Nicolas De Crécy. In 1993, Chomet moved to Canada. During 1995 and 1996, he finished work on The Old Lady and the Pigeons. The short film won him a BAFTA, the Grand Prize at the 1997 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the Cartoon d’or prize, as well as the Audience Prize and Jury Prize at the Angers Premiers Plans Festival. It also received an Oscar nomination for best animated short film.

The Triplets of Belleville

Chomet’s first feature-length animated film, The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville, or Belleville Rendez-vous in the UK) was also nominated for two Oscars in 2003 (Best Animated Feature and Best Song), and introduced Chomet’s name to a much wider audience.

Upon the release of The Triplets of Belleville Nicolas De Crécy accused Chomet of plagarising his work, citing it as the reason for the dissolution of their collaboration.The visual style of Les Triplettes de Belleville closely resembles the earlier work of Nicolas De Crécy’s 1994 graphic novel Le Bibendum Celeste.

The Illusionist

Chomet’s next film was The Illusionist (L’Illusionniste), which premiered at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2010, after many delays (it was first planned for release in 2007) The Illusionist, like Chomet’s previous work, has its roots in mid twentieth century popular French culture. It is based on an unproduced script that Jacques Tati had written in 1956 as a personal letter to his estranged eldest daughter, and stars an animated version of Tati himself. It was originally conceived by Tati as a journey of love and discovery that takes two characters across western Europe to Prague. Chomet says that “Tati wanted to move from purely visual comedy and try an emotionally deeper story” and states that “It’s not a romance, it’s more the relationship between a dad and a daughter”.It cost an estimated £10 million to make, and was funded by Pathé Pictures.

According to the 2006 reading of The Illusionist script at the London Film School introduced by Chomet, “The great French comic Jacques Tati wrote the script of The Illusionist and intended to make it as a live action film with his daughter.”

Other Projects

Another project, Barbacoa, originally stated to be released in late 2005, was canceled because of lack of funding. Also, The Tale of Despereaux was to be Chomet’s first computer-animated film, scheduled to come to American theaters Christmas 2008, but direction shifted to Sam Fell after the production studio dismissed Chomet.Chomet, for his part, says that he could not stand the creative environment.

In 2005 he directed a segment for the collaborative film Paris, je t’aime; he was assigned the 7th arrondissement (the Eiffel Tower). It was Chomet’s first work in live action.

Django Films

In the mid-2000’s Chomet founded an animation studio in Edinburgh, Scotland, called Django Films. The Django Films studio was set up with the ambition to produce a number of films and establish itself in the film-making scene in both: animation and live action but now is being dismantled. In its life span Django was beset with production difficulties, first losing funding for what was to be its first animated feature, Barbacoa, failing to secure funding for what was labelled “A Scottish Simpsons” for the BBC then came the very public sacking of Chomet as Director from The Tale of Despereaux by Gary Ross. Django Films never got close to employing the 250 Artists that it would require, as reported by Scotland on Sunday in 2005. Chomet has been critical of the standard of British art schools in their lack of ability to produce sufficiently skilled animators required for his Edinburgh Studio. —Wikipedia

Born in St. Louis Park, MN, in 1957, Ethan Coen studied philosophy at Princeton University. Soon after he graduated, he and his brother began writing their first screenplays, and, in 1984, they made their debut with Blood Simple. Both of them wrote and edited the film, while Joel took the directing credit and Ethan billed himself as the producer. It earned considerable critical acclaim and established the brothers as fresh, original talent. Their next major effort (after Crimewave, a 1985 film they wrote that was directed by Sam Raimi), 1987’s Raising Arizona was a screwball comedy miles removed from the dark, violent content of their previous movie, and it won over critics and audiences alike. Their fan base growing, the Coens went on to make Miller’s Crossing (1990), a stark gangster epic with a strong performance from John Turturro, whom the brothers also used to great effect in their next film, Barton Fink (1991). Fink earned Joel a Best Director award and a Golden Palm at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the festival’s Best Actor award for Turturro. A surreal, nightmarish movie revolving around a writer’s creative block, it was a heavily stylized, atmospheric triumph that further established the Coens as visionary arbiters of the bizarre.

Their 1994 follow-up to Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, was a relative critical and commercial disappointment. Whatever failings The Hudsucker Proxy exhibited, however, were more than atoned for by the unquestionable success of the Coens’ next film, Fargo (1996). A black, violent crime comedy that recalled Blood Simple in its themes of greed, corruption, and murder, but provided more redemptive sentiment than was afforded to the characters of the previous film. The brothers shared a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for their work, and another Oscar, for Best Actress, went to Frances McDormand. Following Fargo, the Coens went on to make The Big Lebowski in 1998. In 1999, Ethan closed out the decade by publishing Gates of Eden, a collection of his short stories.

The Coens next served up the depression-era comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), which turned out to be their biggest box-office. 2001 saw the release of The Man Who Wasn’t There, yet another ode to film noir and another award winner at Cannes. In 2003, Ethan and Joel were credited as executive producers on Terry Zwigoff’s hit comedy Bad Santa largely due to the fact that the origin of the film’s story came from the Coens. That same year, the brothers re-teamed with George Clooney for the screwball comedy Intolerable Cruelty. In 2004, the duo released The Ladykillers starring Tom Hanks, a remake of the classic British comedy. The film marked the first time Ethan Coen officially shared the directing credit with Joel, as well as the first time they shared producer credit. After a three year layoff from movies, the brothers returned with an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. The taut but philosophically minded thriller, which brought universal praise and several award nominations to the brothers, including the Oscars.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:85372)

Combining thoughtful eccentricity, wry humor, arch irony, and often brutal violence, the films of the Coen brothers have become synonymous with a style of filmmaking that pays tribute to classic American movie genres, especially film noir, while sustaining a firmly postmodern feel. Born in St. Louis Park, MN, in 1954, Joel Coen studied at New York University before moving into filmmaking in the early ‘80s. He and his younger brother began writing screenplays while Joel worked as an assistant editor on good friend Sam Raimi’s 1983 film The Evil Dead. In 1984, they made their debut with Blood Simple. Both of them wrote and edited the film (using the name Roderick Jaynes for the latter duty), while Joel took the directing credit and Ethan billed himself as the producer. It earned considerable critical acclaim and established the brothers as fresh, original talent. Their next major effort (after Crimewave, a 1985 film they wrote that was directed by Raimi), 1987’s Raising Arizona was a screwball comedy miles removed from the dark, violent content of their previous movie, and it won over critics and audiences alike. Their fan base growing, the Coens went on to make Miller’s Crossing (1990), a stark gangster epic with a strong performance from John Turturro, whom the brothers also used to great effect in their next film, Barton Fink (1991). Fink earned Joel a Best Director award and a Golden Palm at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the festival’s Best Actor award for Turturro.

Their 1994 follow-up to Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, was a relative critical and commercial disappointment. Whatever failings The Hudsucker Proxy exhibited, however, were more than atoned for by the unquestionable success of the Coens’ next film, Fargo (1996). A black, violent crime comedy with a surprisingly warm heart. The brothers shared a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for their work, and another Oscar, for Best Actress, went to Frances McDormand, to whom Joel had been married since 1984. Following Fargo, the Coens went on to make The Big Lebowski in 1998. A blend of bungled crime and warped comedy, Lebowski was a laid-back, irreverent revision of the hardboiled L.A. detective genre. It met with mixed critical reception, though it did receive a Golden Bear nomination for Joel Coen at the Berlin Film Festival. The year 2000 brought the Coens into the depression-era with O Brother, Where art Thou? An admittedly loose adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, O Brother starred George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson as escaped convicts on a surreal journey through 1930s Mississippi. Wasting no time in production of their next feature, the following year found Joel the recipient of his third Best Director award at Cannes for the darkly comic, monochromatic post-noir The Man Who Wasn’t There. Starring Billy Bob Thornton as a humble, small-town barber who gets mixed up in a tangled web of blackmail and deceit. Two years later, Joel and Ethan re-teamed with Clooney for Intolerable Cruelty, a film that represented their version of a ‘30s screwball comedy. The film was noteworthy in that it was the first movie made by the brothers that did not originate with them; they rewrote a script that was already in existence. Joel and Ethan were also listed as executive producers on the 2003 Terry Zwigoff film Bad Santa, a story that came from one of their original ideas. 2004 saw the release of the Coens’ first remake, The Ladykillers starring Tom Hanks. That film also marked the first time Joel shared directorial credit with Ethan. After a three year layoff from movies, the brothers returned with an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. The taut but philosophically minded thriller opened to nearly universal praise and became one of the two films to dominate year end critics and industry awards. Joel and Ethan won the best Director award from the Director’s Guild of America, and found themselves nominated as directors, writers, and producers at that year’s Oscar telecast.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:85375~T1)

Born 9 April, 1960 in Sant Adrià de Besòs (Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish film director. She received a History M.A. at University of Barcelona and has worked as a journalist and director for several television advertisements. In 2000 she created Miss Wasabi Films, a production company in charge of the development of several documentaries. Creative director of JWT, founder and creative director of the agency Target and the production company Eddie Saeta, she has done several ads for the brands: British Telecommunications, Ford, Danone, BMW, Ikea, Evax, Renault, Peugeot, Winston, Kronenbourg, Pepsi, Kellogg, MCI, Helene Curtis, Procter Gamble, Philip Morris and the Fundación Once, amongst others. She is a public supporter of the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party and made several advertisements for television during the 2008 Elections. Member of the jury at the Berlin Film Festival in 2009, Coixet, along with Bigas Luna, are selected to be in charge of the exhibit at the Spanish World Expo Pavilion in the Shanghai World Expo 2010. She has a daughter named Zoe, born in 1997. —IMDb

Rising out of the mid-western suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Wes Craven has become synonymous with genre bending and innovative horror, challenging audiences with his bold visions and keeping them on the edge of their seats since the release of his first feature film, The Last House on the Left, which he wrote, directed, and edited in 1972. In the 39 years since that controversial film’s arrival, Craven has demonstrated that he is a filmmaker with heart, guts, humor – and an unbridled imagination expanding into films, television, and literature.

Craven’s career is marked with both creative and commercial milestones that have made his name synonymous with genre building and innovative horror.
Craven reinvented the youth horror genre again in 1984 with the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film he wrote and directed. And though he did not direct any of its five sequels, he deconstructed the genre a decade later, writing and directing the audacious Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, which was nominated as Best Feature at the 1995 Independent Spirit Awards, and introduced the concept of self-reflexive genre films to the world.

In 1996 Craven reached a new level of success with the release of Scream. The film, which sparked the phenomenal trilogy, was the winner of MTV’s 1996 Best Movie Award and grossed more than $100 million domestically, as did Scream 2 (1997).

Between Scream 2 and Scream 3, Craven, offered the opportunity to direct a non-genre film for Miramax, helmed Music of the Heart (1999), a film that earned Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That same year, in the midst of directing, Craven completed his first novel, “The Fountain Society,” published by Simon & Shuster.

Craven has also directed Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) and Deadly Friend (1986). He wrote and directed The People under the Stairs (1991), Shocker (1989) and Swamp Thing (1982); he wrote, directed and edited The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and its sequel as well. For television, Craven helped create and produce the series Nightmare Cafe for NBC, directed the telefilms Night Visions, A Stranger in our House, Invitation to Hell, Chiller, and Casebusters, and directed seven classic episodes of the 1980’s revival of The Twilight Zone, which have now been released on DVD. Oh, and he discovered Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis and Sharon Stone, among others.

Recent work includes Craven’s 2005 psychological thriller, Red Eye, starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy and Brian Cox. In 2006 Craven deftly wrote and directed a romantic comedy homage to Oscar Wilde featuring Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell as a segment in the French ensemble production, Paris, je t’aime. Over the last few years, Craven has also produced remakes of two of his earlier films for his genre fans, The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House on the Left (2009).

Craven has always had an eye for discovering fresh talent, something that contributes to the success of his films. While casting A Nightmare on Elm Street, Craven discovered the then unknown Johnny Depp. Craven later cast Sharon Stone in her first starring role for his film Deadly Blessing. He even gave Bruce Willis his first featured role in an episode of TV’s mid-80’s edition of The Twilight Zone. In 2010’s, My Soul to Take, Craven once again brought together a cast of up-and-coming young teens, including Max Thieriot, in whom he saw the spark of stardom. The film marked Craven’s first collaboration with wife and producer Iya Labunka, who also produced with him the highly anticipated production of Scream 4.

Craven’s most recent film, Scream 4 (2011) reunites the director with Dimension Films and Kevin Williamson, as well as with stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, to re-boot the beloved franchise. Craven again exhibits his knack for spotting important talent, with a cast of young actors bringing us a totally new breed of Woodsboro high schoolers, including Emma Robert and Hayden Pannetierre. —wescraven.com

Among the most successful and talked-about Mexican filmmakers of his generation, director Alfonso Cuarón has shown a remarkable versatility, able to embrace old-school Hollywood elegance as well as rough-edged and darker-themed contemporary stories. Cuarón was born in Mexico City in 1961; he went on to study both filmmaking and philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. After graduating, Cuarón began working in television in Mexico; in 1991, he landed his first big-screen directorial assignment. Sólo Con Tu Pareja was a dark comedy about a womanizing businessman who learns he’s contracted AIDS; the film was a massive hit in Mexico, and was enthusiastically received around the world.

In 1995, Cuarón released his first feature film produced in the United States, A Little Princess, a graceful and elegant adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic novel. Cuarón’s next feature was also a literary adaptation, a modernized version of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Robert De Niro. Cuarón’s next project found him making a severe left turn; shot in Mexico with a Spanish-speaking cast, Y Tu Mamá También (2001) was a funny, provocative, and controversial road comedy about two sexually obsessed teenagers who take an extended road trip with an attractive woman in her thirties. The film’s open portrayal of sexuality and frequent rude humor, as well as the politically and socially relevant asides, made the film an international hit and a major success with critics.

In 2004, Cuarón inherited the reins of the successful Harry Potter series, shooting Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with a sense of atmosphere and character theretofore lacking in the Chris Columbus-helmed installments. In 2006, Cuarón release Children of Men, based on P.D. James’ near-future tale of a totalitarian Britain stricken by plague, infertility, and xenophobia, Cuarón echoed a very urgent sense of fear and dread over terrorism and the conflict in Iraq. Working once again with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the director put lead Clive Owen through grueling long takes to achieve a “you are there” immediacy. Released in time for awards season in the U.S., Children was met with glowing reviews and promising box-office results, given its grim nature.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll)

Despite his unorthodox visage, Gérard Depardieu has made a profound mark on the acting world, earning a recognition as one of Europe’s most accomplished performers and appealing leading men. Perhaps a contributor to his consistently intense performances, Depardieu’s childhood was one of extreme poverty. At twelve years old, he dropped out of school and hitchhiked across Europe on an informal tour funded primarily by the profits of stolen cars and assorted black-market products. Depardieu would likely have continued in his juvenile delinquency were it not for a friend who was attending drama school in Paris. Intrigued, Depardieu enrolled at the Theatre National Populaire, where he studied his trade alongside future co-stars Patrick Dewaere and Miou-Miou. In 1965, the young actor made his debut in a French short film by the name of Le Beatnik et le Minet, and began making regular appearances on French television shows.

By the mid-‘70s, Depardieu had co-starred in 11 French films, though he wouldn’t enjoy widespread success until his role of a nihilistic but lovable petty criminal in director Bertrand Blier’s Going Places (1974). Not long afterward, Depardieu could be found holding his own against acclaimed French actress Isabelle Adjani in Barocco and portraying a passionate Communist organizer in 1900 (both 1976). In 1978, Depardieu re-teamed with Blier for the Oscar-winning Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, and he went on to win France’s prestigious César award for his performance as a resistance fighter in The Last Metro (1980). After his portrayal of a 16th century peasant in The Return of Martin Guerre (1982), Depardieu played the title role in Danton, and he stepped behind the camera as co-director for 1984’s Le Tartuffe.

The 1990s were equally successful for Depardieu, particularly in the case of director Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s 1990 version of Cyrano de Bergerac, for which Depardieu earned an Oscar nomination. He made his foray into American film in 1990’s Green Card opposite Andie MacDowell . Though the bulk of his success still stemmed from French films (All the Mornings of the World, Germinal, A Pure Formality, and Colonel Chabert, to name a few) Depardieu nonetheless achieved moderate recognition in the American film market. Despite the failures of Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) and Steve Miner’s English remake of My Father the Hero, Depardieu was praised for his performances in Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996), Nick Cassavetes’ She’s So Lovely (1997), and Randall Wallace’s The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), with Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Over the following years, Depardieu maintained his prowess in film. In addition to critically acclaimed performances in The Closet (2001), CQ (2001), City of Ghosts (2002), and Nathalie… (2003), Depardieu began work with internationally recognized French director Alain Chabat for RRRrrr! in 2004. Additional appearances throughout 2005 and 2006 included the title role in Boudu (2005), Alain in Quand j’étais chanteur (2006), and Chef Didier in Last Holiday. Depardieu made his directorial debut with 2000’s The Bridge.

Depardieu has become somewhat notorious for his stormy offscreen life. He made a concerted effort to cut back on his alcohol consumption following a heart attack and an emergency quintuple bypass operation, in 2000. In 2003, he officially cut off contact with his son, Guillaume Depardieu when the young man threatened him with a gun and received a suspended prison sentence. On another note, the elder Depardieu was involved in both a plane collision and two motorcycle accidents as well (in 1998 and 2003), and officials attributed at least one of the incidents to abnormally high alcohol levels in the actor’s bloodstream. In 2005, Depardieu allegedly scandalized European viewers when he crassly (and drunkenly) insulted a fellow guest on a French talk show for comments that the woman made about the cookbook he had authored.

The aforementioned cookbook was no one-hit wonder for Depardieu. A highly-regarded gourmand and gifted enologist, he opened the Parisian restaurant La Fontaine Gaillon, on the second arrondissement, along with Buffet froid co-star Carole Bouquet in fall 2003. In October 2005, Depardieu publicly announced his intention to retire from screen acting, following his starring role in Michou d’Auber (2007). —allmovie guide

A hard-drinking Australian seems an unlikely figure to be one of the most important and influential cinematographers in Asian cinema, but that is exactly what Christopher Doyle is. His richly atmospheric, improvisational style has worked its way into the lexicon of both music videos and mainstream Hollywood fare. Moreover, his photo-collage artwork and his bizarre, often drunken public antics have made him a sort of cult celebrity in much of Asia.

Born in 1952 in Sydney, Doyle fled the banality of the suburbs to spend much of his early life on the road. At various points in his life he was a well digger in India, a Norwegian merchant marine, a cow herder on an Israeli kibbutz, and a doctor of Chinese medicine in Thailand. In the late ‘70s, Doyle was rechristened Du Kefeng by his professor at the University of Hong Kong, and his life has not been the same since. Soon afterward, he moved to Taiwan and fell in with the Taipei art crowd, including such future members of the cultural elite as Hou Hsiao Hsien and Stan Lai. In 1978, he was one of the founding members of the Lanling Theatre Workshop, the first modern theater company in Taiwan; he also created a landmark television series, Travelling Images. Yet Doyle’s first breakthrough occurred in 1981, when Edward Yang asked him to shoot his feature debut That Day on the Beach over the angry protests of the studio’s 23 salaried cameramen. Fearful that Taiwan’s relatively modest film industry might stunt his career, he again hit the road and got a gig shooting Claire Devers’ Noir et Blanc (1986) in France, only to discover that his heart still belonged to Asia. That same year, he returned to Hong Kong and shot Shu Kei’s second feature, Soul, a pastiche of John Cassavete’s Gloria (1980) starring noted Taiwanese directors Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Ke Yizhong. Though the reviews for the film itself were mixed, people noticed Doyle’s unique camera work and he soon found regular work in the Hong Kong film industry.

Doyle’s true artistic and commercial breakthrough occurred with his first collaboration with auteur Wong Kar-Wai in Days of Being Wild (1991). Doyle’s loose, ambient style seemed to match perfectly with Wong’s melancholy, largely improvised script; the two quickly formed a lasting professional relationship that would prove to be extremely beneficial to both of them. Wong films such as Ashes of Time soon became synonymous with Doyle’s ethereal look, while Wong’s loose and woolly directorial approach allowed Doyle to experiment and perfect his trademark style. Though he worked with such noted Hong Kong directors as Sylvia Chang in Mary From Beijing (1992) and Stanley Kwan in his Red Rose White Rose (1994), he gained international attention with his groundbreaking cinematography in Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express (1994). Featuring a lush, saturated color palette and dazzling camera work, Doyle’s atmospheric look made the film crackle with a rare vitality. After shooting Chungking Express’ quasi-sequel Fallen Angel, Doyle adopted a more restrained look for fifth-generation filmmaker Chen Kaige in Temptress Moon (1996). After teaming up with Wong Kar-Wai again for Happy Together (1997), featuring sumptuous black and white cinematography that seems to swoon with melancholy, Doyle began to get gigs on the other side of the Pacific. His cinematography was one of the few bright spots in Gus Van Sant’s Psycho (1998), and he also shot Barry Levinson’s return to Baltimore, Liberty Heights (1999). During that same time, he made his directing debut with Away With Words (1999). Co-scripted by film critic Tony Rayns and starring Japanese indie star Tadanobu Asano, the film received divergent reviews when it was screened at Cannes. Some attacked it for being self-indulgent while others hailed it as extraordinary. Doyle kicked off the new decade in high style earning international acclaim for his work on Wong-Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love. He then changed gears by shooting the low budget Jon Favroau feature Made. He continued to act as cinematographer on a series of internationally well-received films such as Hero, Rabbit Proof Fence, Eros, The Quiet American, and Three…Extremes. He collaborated again with Won-Kar Wai on 2046, and although the film itself failed to match the acclaim of In the Mood for Love, critics universally marveled over Doyle’s cinematography. In 2006 he joined forces with M. Night Shyamalan on his 2006 effort Lady in the Water.

(Source: http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:88185)

Natali was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a nursery school teacher/painter mother and a photographer father. He is of Italian and English descent. He moved to Toronto, along with his family, at the age of one. He attended the film programme at Ryerson University. He was eventually hired as a storyboard artist at the Nelvana Animation Studios.

Natali’s directing debut came in 1997, when he was approached to direct Cube (1997). The film became a success worldwide, especially in Japan and France, grossing $15 million in France and breaking box office records for a Canadian film. At the 19th Genie Awards, the film received five nominations and also won the award for Best Canadian First Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival. After this success, Natali went on to direct Cypher (2002) and Nothing (2003).

Following the June 2010 release of Splice (2009), Natali’s next efforts are expected to be an adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High Rise and a 3D remake of the Wes Craven natural horror film, Swamp Thing, for producer Joel Silver. A May 2010 item in The Hollywood Reporter, however, announced that Natali was to replace Joseph Khan as director of the highly anticipated adaptation of cyberpunk author William Gibson’s 1984 masterwork Neuromancer.

David Hewlett, who has participated in all of Natali’s major films to date, has been good friends with him since high school. —wikipedia

Constantine Alexander Payne (born February 10, 1961) is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humour and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.

Payne, a Greek American (his grandfather’s family name was Anglicized from Papadopoulos), was born in Omaha, Nebraska to parents who were restaurant owners. He was the youngest of three sons and grew up in the same neighborhood as billionaire Warren Buffett. Payne attended Creighton Preparatory School high school and later Stanford University, where he double majored in Spanish and History. As a part of his Spanish degree, he studied at the University of Salamanca (Spain). Payne got his MFA in 1990 from the UCLA Film School.

Payne worked in various capacities on films and television before he wrote and directed his first full-length film Citizen Ruth in 1995. His film Election, starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon, which takes aim at politics and education in America, attracted attention when New Yorker film critic David Denby named it the best film of 1999. Payne was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Election. In 2000 he did an uncredited polish-up of the screenplay for the comedy hit Meet The Parents. In 2001 Payne wrote a draft of Jurassic Park III. In 2003 he received a Golden Globe for his screenplay for About Schmidt, which also won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. To the surprise of many who kept track of Hollywood news, Payne and his writing partner Jim Taylor were not nominated for an Oscar for the About Schmidt screenplay. He won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe in 2005 for Best Screenplay for Sideways while the film also won the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy. In total, Sideways received five Academy Award Nominations. Payne served as an executive producer on the films King of California and The Savages. He also teamed up once again with writing partner Jim Taylor to write a draft of the screenplay for the film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, a comedy directed by Dennis Dugan starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James. Payne disliked the final product, stating that Adam Sandler rewrote so much of the story that almost all of what Payne and Taylor wrote was gone. In 2010 he directs The Descendants, a film adaptation based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings.

He has scenes of historical landmarks and museums in his films, and tends to use actual people for minor roles (real cops play cops, real teachers play teachers, etc.). He frequently incorporates telephone monologues as a dramatic device. He also tends to cast actor Phil Reeves in his films. He is on the short list of directors who have final cut rights for their films. In 2005, he became a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Directors Branch). His writing partner is Jim Taylor. —Wikipedia

Along with the Larrieu Brothers, the Martineau-Ducastel couple, or even Danièle Dubroux, Bruno Podalydès is, without any doubt, one of those who bring something new to French comedy nowadays and make it a clever, refined and somewhat subversive entertainment.

Born in 1961, Bruno Podalydès studied cinema in Saint-Denis University, before directing a series of corporate films for Air France featuring his brother Denis Podalydès,“the Antoine Doinel of corporate film”, he said. Their respective careers are now inseparable, since Denis plays the main part in all Bruno’s films. When he is asked how he sees his relationship with his brother who plays in all his films, he replies “like a director full of admiration for a great actor” of whom he praises the huge talent and the theatrical career in the Comédie Française.

Versailles rive gauche, his first film in 1992 was the first part of a “trilogy of train stations” (“trilogie des gares”). Acclaimed by critics, the film received several awards (including a César – French equivalent of an Oscar – the following year) and was released in theatres where it benefited from word of mouth. This medium length film of 45 minutes set the tone of his work: in this ludicrous comedy, a young man from Versailles tries to save a night with a woman that a series of events are compromising (his flat being invaded by a horde of strangers, for instance). In 1994, another short film, Voila, in which a father brings his newly born child in the forest for him to discover nature, was noticed at the Venice Festival. Two years later, Dieu seul me voit (Versailles-chantiers), the second part of his trilogy, stars again Denis Podalydès in the role of Albert Jeanjean, a lunar character fundamentally hesitating about all his choices, even the most insignificant ones are really heartbreaking to him", who is caught between three women. The film received the César for Best First Long Feature in 1999. Liberté-Oléron, co-written with Denis, was kind of the final part of the trilogy, even though it was not about a Versailles station. It was released in 2001 in France. Denis Podalydès plays a father who is not with it and takes his family on a cruise on a dubious boat. It is soon the wreck of both the boat and the family.

In 2002, The Mystery of the Yellow Room, a nineteenth-century set production with a higher budget, was the faithful and jolly adaptation of the detective novel classic by French author Gaston Leroux. The film, starring a galaxy of great French actors (Claude Rich, Jean-Noël Brouté, Sabine Azéma, Olivier Gourmet, Pierre Arditi, Michaël Lonsdale…), was a huge critical and public success in France. The Perfume of the Lady in Black, the sequel of Joseph Rouletabille’s adventures, has the occasionally frightening depth of Jacques Demy’s tales. It can also be associated to the witty cinema of Sacha Guitry, both jolly and cruel, and cheerful Tex Avery. Thanks to the same team of playful and extraordinary actors (with, in addition, a very energetic Zabou Breitman), this last film is a true opera of colours and light, seductive dances and impenetrable nights. It pays homage to the wonders of pretence, the pleasure of fiction and the desire to believe in it. —cineuropa

Director/writer Walter Salles Jr. spearheaded the return of Brazilian cinema to international prominence in the latter half of the 1990s, particularly with his esteemed hit Central Station (1998). Born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a well-heeled banker, Salles was raised in France and the United States before Brazil became his permanent home during his teens. Salles entered the Brazilian film industry as an award-winning documentary filmmaker during the industry’s 1980s/early-‘90s decline. After he moved to fiction with the thriller Exposure (1991), Salles’ feature career was stalled by Brazil’s disastrous economic freeze in the first half of the 1990s. Though he remained active by making documentaries for European television, Salles opted to stay in Brazil and made one of the first key films in the industry’s resurgence, Foreign Land (1995). Co-directed by Daniela Thomas, the internationally acclaimed Foreign Land addressed the fallout from Brazil’s economy through a mystery yarn set in Brazil and Portugal, as one man’s financial desperation sets the plot in motion. Salles’ next film, Central Station, helped seal Brazilian cinema’s revival. Inspired by his documentary Life Somewhere Else (1995), partly funded by a Sundance Film Institute award and shot by a neophyte film crew, Central Station’s metaphorical road story unstintingly revealed the harsh effects of Brazil’s poverty while mining profound emotion from the reluctant relationship between Fernanda Montenegro’s cynical letter writer Dora and motherless innocent Vinicius de Oliviera. A festival smash and international hit, Central Station won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, while stage star Montenegro earned several critics’ and festival awards and a Best Actress Oscar nod for her restrained performance. Collaborating again with Thomas, Salles followed up his breakthrough success with the millennial tale Midnight (1998), part of the 2000 Seen By… series for the French-German television station Arte that also included films by film festival favorites Hal Hartley and Alain Berliner.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:109635~T1)

Nobuhiro Suwa (諏訪 敦彦, Suwa Nobuhiro, born May 28, 1960 in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture) is a Japanese film director. His directorial works and screenplays often make use of improvisation techniques. Currently, Suwa is the President of Tokyo Zokei University.

Having graduated from Hiroshima Prefectural Hatsukaichi High School (located in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima), Suwa studied at Tokyo Zokei University, under the tutorship of Nobuhiro Kawanaka. While at the college, he began working producing independent films, of which Hanasareru Gang was chosen for the Pia Film Festival. After graduating from Tokyo Zokei, Suwa began directing television documentary films, and worked with directors such as Sōgo Ishii and Masashi Yamamoto.

In 1996, his feature film directorial debut, 2/Duo (2/デュオ, 2/Dyuo) was released. Suwa’s second film, M/Other, was released soon after in 1999, winning the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festiva and being the subject of several other awards and critical acclaim, both in Japan and internationally. M/Other also won the award for best screenplay at the 50th Mainichi Film Awards. His assistant director in the film was Miwa Nishikawa.

Suwa’s third feature film, H Story (starring Kō Machida), was released in March 2000. It was a remake of Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour, and had been noted as an audacious attempt at a Nouvelle Vague portrayal of his hometown, Hiroshima. Also during the same year, he guest-appeared in and co-created the Sōgo Ishii-directed samurai epic Gojoe Reisenki: GOJEI.

In 2005, he directed and wrote Un Couple Parfait (不完全なふたり, Fukanzen no Futar, a.k.a. A Perfect Couple), which featured a French cast and crew. The film won the Special Prize of the Jury Award and the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the 58th Locarno Film Festival.

Later, in 2006, Suwa participated in the French omnibus film Paris, je t’aime. He directed and wrote the segment representing the IIe arrondissement, filmed at Place des Victoires. Paris, je t’aime was the opening film of the Un Certain Regard selection at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. —wikipedia

TOM TYKWER was born in 1965 in Wuppertal. “Peter Pan” was probably the first film he saw, and he says that the youthful fantasy of creating a magical parallel world remains an inspiration to this day. The dreamy, childlike sense of wonder in “Peter Pan” fascinated him, as did Vittorio de Sica’s “Miracle in Milan”. Another important cinematic experience was seeing “King Kong” – nine-year-old Tykwer realized that cinema was artificial, man-made. This particular film marked the start of his fondness for the horror genre. Tykwer also names James Whales’ “Bride of Frankenstein”, "Miracle in Milan” and John Carpenter’s “Halloween” as some other early discoveries. From this point on Tykwer’s adolescence revolved round his passion for the cinema. To get greater access to films he helped out in an art-house cinema, which also allowed him to circumvent age restrictions.

Tykwer started making Super 8 films at the age of eleven, a purely fan-driven exercise in which he essentially rehashed his favourite films and – as he readily admits – bored his long-suffering circle of friends stiff. Nevertheless, he continued to work on similar projects all through school. He was much impressed by a visit to Berlin, an apparent film paradise. Every night literally dozens of film classics were on offer. After graduating from school and numerous unsuccessful applications to just about every film school in Europe, he moved to Berlin and worked there as a projectionist. In 1987 he became the programmer at the ambitious ‘Moviemento’ cinema, and even at that young age was a highly respected film buff and contact point for German directors. At the same time he was analysing screenplays for the story department and interviewed many of his cinematic idols for TV profiles.

The desire to make his own films didn’t really take firm shape until he met and became friends with filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim, who vigorously purged his fixations with genre, urging him instead to come up with stories born of his own experience. For example, he suggested Tykwer record arguments with his girlfriend of the time and – in exaggerated form – turn it into a short film. BECAUSE (1990) was screened at the Hof Film Festival, which at that time was for Tykwer a veritable mecca of film culture. BECAUSE was greeted by the public with laughter and sympathetic identification, a totally unexpected reaction that turned out to be a watershed experience for the young director. To communicate intense personal truths, but at the same time challenge with formal experimentation – that was he now envisaged as the way forward. Another short film, EPILOG (1992) plunged Tykwer into personal financial debt, but allowed he and his cameraman partner Frank Griebe to gain important technical experience.

In Hof in 1990 he met Stefan Arndt, who also ran a cinema in Berlin. Their idea of doing something in tandem finally came to fruition when the producers of “Kleines Fernsehspiel” at German public broadcaster, ZDF, gave Tykwer the go-ahead to shoot his screenplay DEADLY MARIA, his first feature film. Here the horror film influences of his youth are very evident, but it then evolves into a love melodrama. The unusual story and extravagant, streamlined visual shaping of the film created a stir in the industry, highly unusual for a television drama, and enabled a – modest – cinematic release. Although audiences were far from large, dozens of film festivals around the world were now aware of Tykwer’s talent. The film was screened at over a hundred festivals and even in cinemas in some countries, such as Spain, Holland, Sweden, Norway and Brazil. Viewer reaction to the first German television broadcast was impassioned, confirming the impact – both disturbing and moving – that DEADLY MARIA had had at festivals.

Together with Stefan Arndt, Wolfgang Becker and Dani Levy, Tykwer founded production company ‘X Filme Creative Pool’ in 1994. It was to be a filmmaker collective that gave maximum creative control over their productions, yet still guaranteed a certain amount of structure and financial security. Together with Wolfgang Becker Tykwer wrote the screenplay for LIFE IS ALL YOU GET, while at the same time working on his second cinema feature WINTER SLEEPERS (1996/97). This ensemble film is clearly a bigger and far more complex production than DEADLY MARIA. The shooting in the mountains of Berchtesgaden was the first really big challenge for Tykwer and the new company. The hypnotic qualities of the film, already typical of Tykwer, brought the young director to the attention of the thinking members of the young German cinema-going public. The film itself became an insider tip at festivals. —www.tomtykwer.com