Director Profile

Main Page

2007-11-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

Director List

- A -

- Adrian Lyne
- Akira Kurosawa
- Alfonso Cuaron
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Andrew Niccol
- Andy Tennant
- Andy Wachowski
- Ang Lee
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul

- B -

- Barry Sonnenfeld
- Baz Luhrmann
- Bernardo Bertolucci
- Brett Ratner

- C -

- Chatrichalerm Yukol

- D -

- David Lynch

Chatrichalerm Yukol

2007-11-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

Date of Birth
29 November 1942, Thailand

Mini Biography
Yukoi, also known as Tan Mui, is paving the way for a whole new genre of film. His latest release, Suriyothai (2001), is Thailand's first big budget blockbuster film as well as one of its most highly anticipated. Breaking new ground in cinema has been a way of life for the son of 35 mm pioneers His Royal Highness Anusornmongkolkarn and MOM Ubon Yuko Na Ayudhya. Tan Mui has been involved in film since the time he was born, November 29, 1942. His parents were co-founders of the Lavo Pappayon Company that was apart of the family's daily life up until Tan Mui was sent to Australia for schooling. He next moved to the USA where he received a degree in geology from UCLA. His minor was in film studies, sharing the classroom with directors Francis Ford Coppola and Roman Polanski. He completed his work in the US by interning with the famous film producer, 'Merian Cooper'. When he returned to his native Thailand he began working for his father right away. Breaking away and trying to make it on his own, he took to writing and directing TV dramas like Ying Gor Mee Hua Jai (Women Have a Heart too), Hong Si Chompu (The Pink Room), and Mor Bhi (Ghost Speller). His feature film debut came when he headed the Mun Ma Kab Kwam Mued (It Comes with the Darkness) in 1972. His follow up, Chue Karn (His Name is Karn) earning him a nod for the award for Best Director in Thailand. His success continued as he released at least a film a year until 1979. Yet he continues to be one of the most important directors in Thailand while experiencing success on the international level as well, evidenced by the success of his film Kong (The Box) at film festivals around the world. He has spent the last few years tackling the most anticipated (as well as high pressured) film in Thai cinema history, Suriyothai. Yet with his background and his many talents, moviegoers everywhere are betting that Tan Mui will deliver.

IMDb Mini Biography By: goodtanin@yahoo.com

Trivia
Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1981.

Mentor to his young cousin SirLaosson Dara.

Where Are They Now
(July 2002) BKK, Making his recover film ''Last love''

Director:

- The Legend of Naresuan: Declaration in Independence (2007)
- Legend of King Naresuan: Hostage of Hongsawadi (2006)
- Suriyothai (2001)
- Daughter 2 (1997)
- Daughter (1996)
- Gunman II (1995)
- Song for Chao Phraya (1990)
- The Elephant Keeper (1987)
- Citizen II (1984)
- Gunman (1983)
- The Last Love (1975)

From : www.imdb.com

Brett Ratner

2007-11-01T18:24:00.001-07:00

Date of Birth
28 March 1969, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

Height
5' 8" (1.73 m)

Mini Biography
Ratner grew up in Miami Beach, the only child of a famous Jewish socialite mother. He attended Miami Beach Senior High and was President of the Leo Club in 1986. He was also a member of the "fraternity" Royal Palm. He attended NYU film school currently lives in a $3.6 M house in Beverly Hills. Ratner is also a good friend of Def Jam mogul Russell Simmons, and has directed music videos for many rap stars.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Fratboy2

Trade Mark
Opens his movies with a character singing.

Frequently casts Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker and Ken Leung.

Frequently casts Ken Leung.

Trivia
Engaged to Rebecca Gayheart. [1997]

Got his start by directing rap and hip-hop videos for his friend Russell Simmons. When the original director of Money Talks (1997) had to be replaced, Russell Simmons recommended him.

Attended Miami Beach Senior High.

Once vowed he would not direct movies until he had directed at least 100 music videos.

Without knowing him, Steven Spielberg and his company Amblin Entertainment sent him $5000 to finish funding for his final film project at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts after he sent out 20 letters to producers asking for help.

Dating Serena Williams. [2004]

His favorite film is Scarface (1932).

Was in pre-production for a remake of John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) after he finished Rush Hour (1998). It was to be written by Cassavetes' son, Nick Cassavetes and Warren Beatty was set to star. Ratner left the project when he was offered The Family Man (2000).

Favorite film director is Hal Ashby.

After meeting with real life FBI agents, he decided that it would not be authentic to have Scott Glenn reprise the role of Jack Crawford in Red Dragon (2002), his The Silence of the Lambs (1991) prequel. Instead, he cast Harvey Keitel, in a role originally created by Dennis Farina in Manhunter (1986). Keitel and Farina had also both played Ray Barbone in the film Get Shorty (1995). Ratner was considered for directing the sequel to Get Shorty, entitled Be Cool (2005), in which Keitel also appears.

Ranked #81 on Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. He did not rank on the 2004 list.

At Miami Beach Senior High School was a drama student of well-known instructor Jay W. Jensen.

Replaced director Matthew Vaughn just two months before filming began on X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).

Was for some time attached to direct Superman Returns (2006). He left the project because of repeated delays and difficulty in casting a lead actor. The project then went to Bryan Singer, while Ratner went on to direct X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), the two previous movies in the saga having been directed by Singer.

In Red Dragon (2002), digital technology was used to smooth over some of Anthony Hopkins's facial features so that he would look younger than he was in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Similar technology was used in the first scene of X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), so that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen could play their characters twenty years younger.

Considered directing Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

His mother, Marsha Presman, was just 16 when she gave birth to her son.

Personal Quotes
"There's no difference between a tacky Jew from Miami and a rap star. They both want the Cadillac and the Rolex with the diamonds."

"In Hollywood you gotta keep the movement. You gotta have three or four projects and whichever one comes in first, or better, that's the one you're going to do."

"There are very few perfect films. I think Reservoir Dogs (1992) is close to being a perfect film".

"Why do I need final cut? Final cut is for artistes quote unquote--directors whose movies don't make a lot of money. Maybe Scorsese should have final cut because a guy like Harvey Weinstein or a studio might change it to make it a little more accessible or a little more commercial and he has a vision of what he wants it to be. He wants it to be four hours long or whatever."

[Explaining his recasting of the role of "Jack Crawford" with Harvey Keitel in Red Dragon (2002)]: When Jonathan Demme said make your own version, I couldn't see anyone but Anthony Hopkins and I couldn't see anyone but Anthony Heald as "Dr. Chilton". I can't see another acting doing it. But what happened was I went down to the FBI, and discovered they're like tough New York Cops. They weren't like Scott Glenn.

"No matter how successful you are, you are not invincible. The studio is writing the checks. It's all about leverage and who has the power. The goal is to get the biggest deal you can, because you are going to have to give something back to the studios anyway."

Am I Orson Welles? Obviously not. But 50 years from now, who knows how, as a person, I'll have grown. I've already changed, from being a 26-year-old kid to a 38-year-old guy - I'm not a man yet, really. But as I get older, who knows how my experiences and my knowledge, this past 12 years making movies, how that's all going to affect the movies that I make? I know that the life I lived from 16 to 26 allowed me to make a movie like Rush Hour, so now let's see...

In an action movie, I don't want to move the camera too much, because the movement should be within the frame. The same goes for comedy. You don't want to push in for a joke; it's plenty in a medium shot. Watch my jokes, they're never in close-up. If the audience feels the camera, it's horrible.

Salary
Rush Hour 3 (2007) $7,500,000
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) $8.000.000 + A percentage of final net gross
Red Dragon (2002) $6,000,000
Rush Hour 2 (2001) $5,000,000
The Family Man (2000) $5,000,000

Where Are They Now
No longer involved in the production of a new Superman movie. Stated that the repeated delays and difficulty in casting a lead actor made it impossible for him to remain involved.

Director:

- Rush Hour 3 (2007)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
- "Prison Break" (1 episode, 2005)
- Pilot (2005) TV Episode
- Untitled David Diamond/David Weissman Project (2005) (TV)
- After the Sunset (2004)
- Red Dragon (2002)
- Rush Hour 2 (2001)
- The Family Man (2000)
- Mariah #1's (1999) (V) (video "Heartbreaker")
- Madonna: The Video Collection 93:99 (1999) (V) (video "Beautiful Stranger")
- Partners (1999) (TV)
- "Making the Video" (1999) TV Series (unknown episodes)
- Rush Hour (1998)
- Money Talks (1997)
- Whatever Happened to Mason Reese (1990)

From : www.imdb.com

Bernardo Bertolucci

2007-10-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
16 March 1940, Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Height
5' 10½" (1.79 m)

Mini Biography
Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films are known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy, in 1940. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed Commare secca, La (1962). His second film, Prima della rivoluzione (1964), which was released in 1971, received an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay. Bertolucci also received an Academy Award nomination as best director for Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972), and the best director and best screenplay for the film The Last Emperor (1987), which walked away with nine Academy Awards.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Matt Dicker

Spouse
Clare Peploe (1990 - present)
Adriana Asti (? - ?) (divorced)

Trivia
Brother of Giuseppe Bertolucci, cousin of Giovanni Bertolucci.

Son of poet Attilio Bertolucci.

Born at 7:25pm-CET

Homage at the 48th Donostia-San Sebastián Film Festival. [2000]

Was voted the 44th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 121-127. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

The young Bertolucci took after his father, a Roman poet and film critic, and became a celebrated published poet by the age of 20. He gave up poetry for the cinema after working as an assistant to Pier Paolo Pasolini on the movie Accattone (1961).

President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1990

In July of 1990, along with Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra and Marcello Mastroianni, he wrote: "With the death of Sergei Parajanov cinema lost one of its wizards.".

Personal Quotes
[on Los Angeles[ The Big Nipple.

[His answer on 2 October 1979 to a woman who had just seen a special screening of Luna, La (1979) at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute, Chicago] I left the ending ambiguous, because that is the way life is.

I don't film messages. I let the post office take care of those.

I am still against any kind of censorship. It's a subject in my life that has been very important.

A monoculture is not only Hollywood, but Americans trying to export democracy. I don't think you can in any way export culture with guns or tanks. I think that I used to love Hollywood movies. I remember great phases and moments. But, unfortunately, now is not the moment.

[on making The Dreamers (2003)] . . . it gave me the chance of visiting a moment that I really loved a lot, the late 1960s. It was a kind of magic moment in many senses. There was a fantastic projection of the future, of utopias, which were very noble in some ways. I remember being young in the 1960s . . . we had a great sense of the future, a great big hope. This is what is missing in the youth today. This being able to dream and to change the world."

[In response to Ingmar Bergman's contention that Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972) (US title: "Last Tango in Paris") was really about homosexuals, and only in those terms did the film make sense and become interesting] I accept all interpretations of my films. The only reality is before the camera. Each film I make is kind of a return to poetry for me, or at least an attempt to create a poem.

You know for American filmmakers, the Oscars is like a mystic thing. For me it was being in a mirror of my dreams when I was dreaming of Hollywood when I was an adolescent.

Director:

- The Dreamers (2003)
- Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (2002) (segment "Histoire d'eaux")
- Besieged (1998)
- Stealing Beauty (1996)
- Little Buddha (1993)
- The Sheltering Sky (1990)
- 12 registi per 12 città (1989) (segment "Bologna")
- The Last Emperor (1987)
- Addio a Enrico Berlinguer, L' (1984)
- Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981)
- Luna, La (1979)
- Novecento (1976)
- Last Tango in Paris (1972)
- Salute è malata, La (1971)
- Strategia del ragno (1970)
- Conformista, Il (1970)
- Amore e rabbia (1969) (segment "Agonia")
- Partner (1968)
- Via del petrolio, La (1967) (TV)
- Canale, Il (1966)
- Prima della rivoluzione (1964)
- Commare secca, La (1962)

From : www.imdb.com

Baz Luhrmann

2007-10-30T18:03:00.001-07:00

Date of Birth
17 September 1962, New South Wales, Australia

Birth Name
Mark Anthony Luhrmann

Nickname
Baz

Mini Biography
Baz's parents did Ballroom competitions, thus growing up around the very subject matter of his first three films.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Christine Aldaz

Mini Biography
Luhrmann grew up in rural Australia and it was at his father's movie theatre that he first became enthralled by the world of movies and the power of story telling. He also encountered a variety of interesting people while working at the local gas station, and Luhrmann went on to use these experiences as a source for his own creativity. His most notable works to date are the three films that make up his Red Curtain Trilogy. The Red Curtain style of film making was devised by Luhrmann to actively promote audience participation, and the third movie in the trilogy, Moulin Rouge! (2001), has been his most successful film to date.

IMDb Mini Biography By: bazthegreat

Spouse
Catherine Martin (26 January 1997 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark
Frequently uses bright distinct colors and fast-paced editing.

Trivia
Baz Luhrmann presented and produced the song that hit the charts in 1999, "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)." The lyrics were written by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich, and the vocals were performed by Lee Perry.

Produced and directed a hit re-invention of the classic opera "La Boheme" for the stage in Sydney, taking place in the 1950s post-war Paris, stressing acting more than big "Pavarotti style voices", to create an experience for "people who might be a little intimidated by opera". It was eventually filmed in 1993 for PBS's "Great Performances".

Luhrmann and Catherine Martin's first child, Lillian (Lilly) Amanda Luhrmann, was born in Sydney on Friday, 10th October 2003.

His first three films, Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo + Juliet (1996), and Moulin Rouge! (2001), were dubbed the "Red Curtain Trilogy" as they all fell under a particular style of film making. Luhrmann the changed direction and plans to make a trilogy of historical epics, the first of these was to be "Alexander the Great", which was later dropped.

Did ballroom dance as a child.

His father died the first day of filming Moulin Rouge! (2001).

Family once owned a gas station and a farm.

In late 2004, he directed the world's most expensive advertisement for Chanel No 5, a 4-minute short film titled "No 5: The Film" starring Nicole Kidman (who he worked with for Moulin Rouge! (2001)) and Rodrigo Santoro. The film ad, about a fairy-tale romance in which Chanel is part of the story but is not what the story is about, cost £18 million and made Kidman a Guinness World Record holder for highest paid actress in a commercial (she netted $3.71 million). Varying length versions of the film ad were shown on television, and - a first for Chanel - in movie theaters. Costumes were designed by Karl Lagerfeld and a score by Claude Debussy. Kidman wore £17m worth of real gems.

Was nominated for Broadway's 2003 Tony Award as Best Director (Musical) for "La Boheme."

Son William Alexander Luhrmann was born June 8th, 2005

Was among the guests at Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's wedding.

Wanted to make a movie about Alexander The Great with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role around the same time as Oliver Stone made his movie Alexander (2004), but this project was dropped.

Personal Quotes
"All the films I make are about 60% of what I imagine them to be"

"There's no doubt that when you're up for an award you want to win, but, finally, art is not a horse race. If Gladiator was a great film in its form and Crouching Tiger a great film in its form, which is better? They're just different. It's not a horse race. You can't say, you know, Gladiator is so much faster! "

"One of the proud moments for us was Robert Wise, who directed Sound of Music and West Side Story, he is the great-great grandfather of musical cinema and he said, "I've seen Moulin Rouge and the musical has been re-invented." I bring this up because you get that kind of thing and that's wonderful."

"So, what is creative freedom? We can make what we want, how we want. The only constraint is: not for any budget."

"That's the only plan I've got - to not have a plan."

"Well, it's pretty hard for them to sack me and put someone in to do iambic pentameter in modern dress, you know? What we've made, we only have one iron-clad guarantee every single time which is it will never work and no-one will ever see it. Because it has gone on to more than pay its bill, and, by varying degrees, it has been acclaimed, the notion that the studio interferes... I like to engage with them, I don't have a producer... There's a whole system in Hollywood where the director never speaks to the studio, but I like to engage them in a discussion. I listen. But then finally we listen to ourselves."

"...if you make a film full of risk, studios don't run towards you to give you $50,000,000 in order to reinvent the post-modern musical, I can tell you. If you do manage to cajole them into doing it and you want to maintain the flag of creative freedom, you better make sure that it pays its bill."

"There are successes and failures in what we're doing, but that's the road we're walking down - stealing from culture all over the place to write a code so that very quickly the audience can swing from the lowest possible comedy moment to the highest possible tragedy with a bit of music in the middle."

"So we thought, let's look back to a cinematic language where the audience participated in the form. Where they were aware at all times that they were watching a movie, and that they should be active in their experience and not passive. Not being put into a sort of sleep state and made to believe through a set of constructs that they are watching a real-life story through a keyhole. They are aware at all times that they are watching a movie. That was the first step in this theatricalised cinematic form that we now call the Red Curtain."

"So, yes, we won for ourselves a criteria, a mantra, which is that we only make what we want to make in the way we want to make it. I believe we make universal stories for the world, but it has an Australian voice, and to maintain that voice you must be connected to your land. So the need to be in Australia motivated us to motivate Fox to build this studio down there, where they now shoot Star Wars and The Matrix, so it's a wonderful facility."

"The primary myth part came out of a revelation of the value of Shakespeare. Those are dramas that play to the simple person and the complicated person."

"But above everything else, Shakespeare had to deal with a city of 400,000 people and a theatre that held 4,000 and everyone from the streetsweeper upwards. Not unlike your local cineplex, and he used everything possible to arrest and stop that audience - really bawdy comedy and then, wham! Something really beautiful and poetic. Everything we did in Romeo and Juliet was based on Elizabethan Shakespeare. The fact that there was pop music in it was a Shakespearean thing. We would be fearless about the lowness of the comedy."

"We went to this huge, icecream picture palace to see a Bollywood movie. Here we were, with 2,000 Indians watching a film in Hindi, and there was the lowest possible comedy and then incredible drama and tragedy and then break out in songs. And it was three-and-a-half hours! We thought we had suddenly learnt Hindi, because we understood everything! [Laughter] We thought it was incredible. How involved the audience were. How uncool they were - how their coolness had been ripped aside and how they were united in this singular sharing of the story. The thrill of thinking, 'Could we ever do that in the West? Could we ever get past that cerebral cool and perceived cool.' It required this idea of comic-tragedy. Could you make those switches? Fine in Shakespeare - low comedy and then you die in five minutes."

"The Red Curtain requires some basics. One is that the audience knows how it will end when it begins, it is fundamental that the story is extremely thin and extremely simple - that is a lot of labour. Then it is set in a heightened, created world. Then there is a device - the heightened world of Strictly Ballroom, Verona beach. Then there is another device - dance or iambic pentameter or singing, and that's there to keep the audience awake and engaged. The other thing is that this piece was to be a comic tragedy. This is an unusual form, there's been a few goes at it - [like] Dancer in the Dark - but it's not common in Western cinematic form."

Director:
- Moulin Rouge! (2001)
- Romeo + Juliet (1996)
- Strictly Ballroom (1992)

From : www.imdb.com

Barry Sonnenfeld

2007-10-10T18:21:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
1 April 1953, New York, New York, USA

Mini Biography
Barry Sonnenfeld was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from New York University of Film School in 1978. After "refining" his craft on several hardcore porn films, he started work as director of photography on the Oscar-nominated In Our Water (1982). Then Joel Coen and Ethan Coen hired him for Blood Simple. (1984). This film began his collaboration with the Coen Bros., who used him for their next two pictures, Raising Arizona (1987) and Miller's Crossing (1990). He also worked with Danny DeVito on his Throw Momma from the Train (1987) and Rob Reiner on When Harry Met Sally... (1989) and Misery (1990). Sonnenfeld got his first work as a director from Orion Pictures on The Addams Family (1991), a box-office success released in November 1991. Its sequel, Addams Family Values (1993), was not so successful at the box office, but he got critical acclaim for his fourth directorial effort, Get Shorty (1995). Produced by Jersey Films and based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, the film won a Golden Globe for best male performance. In 1996 Steven Spielberg asked him to direct Men in Black (1997). Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, the movie was a critical and financial smash. Producer Jon Peters then asked Sonnenfeld to direct Wild Wild West (1999), an adaptation of an old TV series. This was certainly NOT well received! He also directed the comedy Big Trouble (2002), after which he made his most successful film sequel, Men in Black II (2002).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Alex Manca

Spouse
Susan Ringo (1989 - present) 1 child

Trade Mark
Directs mainstream films that have an offbeat quality to them.

Frequently casts Siobhan Fallon.

Trivia
Was uninjured when a private jet he was travelling in collided with five empty 'planes after a rough landing in Van Nuys, California. [16 February 1999]

Started his career directing porn films. He's quoted in the January 26, 1998 Newsweek magazine (page 60) saying that he was depressed when he heard that Boogie Nights (1997) was being made (a film about making pornos) because he had wanted to make a movie about the time he shot 9 feature length pornos in nine days.

NYU Film School Assistant to Elliott Erwitt.

Lives in Long Island, NY.

Loves to eat smoked whitefish.

Was offered the job of directing Forrest Gump (1994), but declined. The job then went to Robert Zemeckis, who won an Academy Award for it.

Has a private bathroom designed to look like a public bathroom, complete with stalls and urinals in his house in New York.

One of his most embarrassing moments occurred when he was a teenager attending his first rock concert. His mom had the PA announcer say, "Barry Sonnenfeld, call your mother."

Nephew of Vaudeville and screen comedian Gus Schilling, whose voice likeness he inherited genetically.

Father of Chloe Sonnenfeld.

Has stated in many interviews that before making Men in Black he was considering doing a live-action film version of The Jetsons. With Jim Carrey playing George Jetson and Nicole Kidman playing Jane Jetson.

Was set to direct "Fun with Dick and Jane" (2005), but bowed out citing personal reasons.

Personal Quotes
About Men in Black (1997): "It's basically a remake of The French Connection (1971) with aliens as a comedy."

Director :
- "Pushing Daisies" (3 episodes, 2007)
The Fun in Funeral (2007) TV Episode
Dummy (2007) TV Episode
Pie-lette (2007) TV Episode
- "Notes from the Underbelly" (5 episodes, 2007)
Mother's Milk (2007) TV Episode
Julie and Eric's Baby (2007) TV Episode
Million Dollar Baby (2007) TV Episode
Animal Style (2007) TV Episode
Pilot (2007) TV Episode
- RV (2006)
- Men in Black 2 (2002)
- Big Trouble (2002)
- "The Tick" (1 episode, 2001)
Pilot (2001) TV Episode
- Wild Wild West (1999)
- "Maximum Bob" (1998) TV Series (unknown episodes)
- Men in Black (1997)
- Get Shorty (1995)
- Addams Family Values (1993)
- For Love or Money (1993)
- The Addams Family (1991)

From : http://www.imdb.com

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

2007-10-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
16 July 1970, Bangkok, Thailand

Nickname
Joe

Mini Biography
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b. 1970, Bangkok) grew up in Khon Kaen, a city in the north east of Thailand. He has a degree in Architecture from Khon Kaen University and a Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been making films and videos since the early 90s. He is one of the few filmmakers in Thailand who have worked outside the strict Thai studio system. In his films, he experiments with certain elements found in the dramatic plot structure of Thai television and radio programs, comics and old films. He finds his inspiration in small towns around the country. In his work, he often uses non-professional actors and improvised dialogue in exploring the shifting boundaries between documentary and fiction.

In 2000, he completed his first feature, Dokfa nai meuman (2000), a documentary that has been screened at many international festivals and received enthusiastic reviews and awards as well as being listed among the best films of the year 2000 by Film Comment and the Village Voice. He is active in promoting experimental and independent films through Kick the Machine, the company he founded in 1999. He is currently working on several video projects and a new feature, Tropical Malady.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Trade Mark
The opening credits always come in several minutes into the film.

Films are usually in two parts of parallels and contrasts.

Trivia
Graduated from Khon Kaen University in Thailand in 1994.

Received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997.

Worked as an architect and multi-media artist before becoming a filmmaker.

Both his parents were doctors. They had a practice in Khon Khaen.

Studied architecture.

Personal Quotes
I was very shy, so I didn't really interact well with others. My friends were the kids of doctors, because we all lived in the hospital housing unit. Even now I like hospitals - that sterilised smell, it brings back all these memories. I'd see a lot of sick and dying people, but at the time, I didn't have a big philosophical way of thinking about illness and death. To me, it was just people - they come and go.

When Blissfully Yours won a prize at Cannes, a studio got interested and bought the distribution rights, but they didn't understand this kind of film; they opened it in huge multiplexes, and people expected big entertainment. So my film really disappointed people.

"Architecture taught me how to look at things and how to accommodate people in certain spaces. People experience space, beauty, in true time, and film is also like journeying through time."

Director :
- Estado do Mundo, O (2007) (segment "Luminous People")
- Syndromes and a Century (2006)
- Ghost of Asia (2005)
- Worldly Desires (2005)
- Tropical Malady (2004)
- The Adventures of Iron Pussy (2003)
- Blissfully Yours (2002)
- Masumi Is a PC Operator (2001)
- Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
- Boys at Noon (2000)
- Malee and the Boy (1999)
- Thirdworld (1998)
- Like the Relentless Fury of the Pounding Waves (1996)
- 0016643225059 (1994)
- Kitchen and Bedroom (1994)
- Bullet (1993)

From : http://www.imdb.com

Ang Lee

2007-10-04T18:25:00.001-07:00

Date of Birth
23 October 1954, Pingtung, Taiwan

Height
5' 7" (1.70 m)

Mini Biography
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Masters Degree in Film Production at New York University. At NYU, he served as Assistant Director on Spike Lee's student film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). After Lee wrote a couple of screenplays, he eventually appeared on the film scene with Tui shou (1992) (aka Pushing Hands), a dramatic-comedy reflecting on generational conflicts and cultural adaptation, centering on the metaphor of the grandfather's Tai-Chi technique of "Pushing Hands". Hsi yen (1993) (aka The Wedding Banquet) was Lee's next film, an exploration of cultural and generational conflicts through a homosexual Chinese man who feigns a marriage in order to satisfy the traditional demands of his Taiwanese parents. It garnered Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, and won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The third movie in his trilogy of Taiwanese-Culture/Generation films, all of them featuring his patriarch figure Sihung Lung, was Yin shi nan nu (1994) (aka Eat Drink Man Woman), which received a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination. Lee followed this with Sense and Sensibility (1995), his first Hollywood-mainstream movie. It acquired a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and won Best Adapted Screenplay, for the film's screenwriter and lead actress, Emma Thompson. Lee was also voted the year's Best Director by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. Lee and frequent collaborator James Schamus next filmed The Ice Storm (1997), an adaptation of Rick Moody's novel involving 1970s New England suburbia. The movie acquired the 1997 Best Screenplay at Cannes for screenwriter James Schamus, among other accolades. The Civil War drama Ride with the Devil (1999/I) soon followed and received critical praise, but it was Lee's Wo hu cang long (2000) (aka Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) that is considered one of his greatest works, a sprawling period film and martial-arts epic that dealt with love, loyalty and loss. It swept the Oscar nominations, eventually winning Best Foreign Language Film, as well as Best Director at the Golden Globes, and became the highest grossing foreign-language film ever released in America. Lee then filmed the comic-book adaptation, Hulk (2003) - an elegantly and skillfully film with nice action scenes. Lee has also shot a short film - Chosen (2001) (aka Hire, The Chosen) - and most recently won the 2005 Best Director Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film based on a short story by Annie Proulx.

IMDb Mini Biography By: artist_signal

Spouse
Jane Lin (1983 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark
Frequently casts actor Sihung Lung as his 'father figure'

Some of his films - Sense and Sensibility (1995), Wo hu cang long (2000) (aka Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) - involved repressed women trying to deal with the confines of their society.

Trivia
While attending NYU, worked on Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), Spike Lee's well-renowned student film.

Graduated from Tisch School of the Arts Graduate program

Graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1980 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Theatre Studies from the Department of Theare.

Earned his Masters Degree in Fine Arts from New York University

Turned down an offer to direct Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).

Two sons: Haan (b. 1984) and Mason (b. 1990), both born in Illinois.

His movies Hsi yen (1993), Yin shi nan nu (1994) and Wo hu cang long (2000) were Oscar-nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film". Wo hu cang long (2000) won.

Father of Mason Lee

Left Taiwan in 1978 to study in the US.

A dedicated fan of Calgary Flames hockey team.

Taught Kai Wong filmmaking as Montgomery-Fellow-in-Residence at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League college which Meryl Streep once attended.

Never storyboards his movies, even visually complex films such has his acclaimed Wo hu cang long (2000) (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)

Developed a very strong relationship with Anne Hathaway while filming Brokeback Mountain (2005). It was Ang who persuaded Anne to take the role of Jane Austen in Becoming Jane (2007); having directed Sense and Sensibility (1995) he knew she would be perfect for the role.

Personal Quotes
"Making a martial arts film in English to me is the same as John Wayne speaking Chinese in a western".

It could be the hidden side of you; I think making movies is a great way to release that. I think it is important to be honest with that, and have fun with it.

There's a private feeling to the movie, an intimate feeling. I think eventually everybody has a Brokeback Mountain (2005) in them. Someone you want to come back to. And, of course, some people don't come back.

"I don't know where I am, but I never know where I am. I was born in China, then my parents moved to Taiwan, where we were outsiders, then to the States, then back to China, then back here. I trust the elusive world created by movies more than anything else. I live on the other side of the screen."

"American films are less American every day, because you have to please a world audience. There's less authenticity, so it's more accessible."

"On the receiving side, I think the whole world is more ready, with the Internet, with film festivals and DVDs. It used to be a one-way street from West to East: we were receiving and the West was producing. I think we're getting closer and closer. The gap between cultures is getting erased every day."

"I'm experienced enough to know that the hardest thing to tell is an epic short story; slices of life that add up to an epic feeling."

"Everywhere can be home and everywhere is not really home and you have to deal with loneliness and alienation. I'm old enough to realize that eventually you have to deal with loneliness, anyway. I'm happily married, I love my children, but eventually you have to deal with yourself. I trust the elusive world created by movies more than anything else. I'm very happy when I'm making a movie."

"Nothing stands still. That's important in my movies. People want to believe in something, want to hang on to something to get security and want to trust each other. But things change. Given enough time, nothing stands still. I think seeking for security and lack of security is another thing in my movies."

"Every movie I make. That's my hideout, the place I don't quite understand, but feel most at home."

"My father's family were liquidated during the Cultural Revolution in China because they were landowners. He was the only one to escape. I was born and brought up in Taiwan. But you absorb the trauma. My parents had no sense of security. It was as if the world could turn against them at any moment."

Director :
- Lust, Caution (2007)
- Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- Hulk (2003)
- The Hire: Chosen (2001)
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
- Ride with the Devil (1999/I)
- The Ice Storm (1997)
- Sense and Sensibility (1995)
- Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
- The Wedding Banquet (1993)
- Pushing Hands (1992)

From : http://www.imdb.com

Andy Wachowski

2007-10-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
29 December 1967, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Birth Name
Andrew Paul Wachowski

Height
6' 3¼" (1.91 m)

Spouse
Alisa Blasingame (1991 - present)

Trade Mark
Frequently casts Joe Pantoliano

Uses overhead shots when crowds of people enter a room

Stunning fight scenes

Cuts to the next scene by focusing or entering an object

Trivia
Brother of Larry Wachowski.

The Wachowskis included in their contracts for the Matrix sequels that they would not have to do press junkets or interviews of any kind and they would not have to be photographed for promotional purposes. They want the films to speak for themselves.

Ranked #27 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List with brother Larry. They had ranked #89 in 2002.

He and his brother have written a screenplay called "Carnivore". The script was one of the scripts on Empire magazine's "Twelve Greatest Unproduced Scripts In Hollywood" list. (As of October 2003 it is still unproduced.)

His production company is Eon Entertainment

Attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School along with his brother Larry Wachowski in Chicago, Illinois.

Salary
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) $4,000,000 + gross points
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) $4,000,000 + gross points

Director :
- The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005) (VG)
- The Matrix Online (2005) (VG) (as The Wachowski Brothers)
- The Matrix Revolutions (2003) (as The Wachowski Brothers)
- Enter the Matrix (2003) (VG) (as The Wachowski Brothers)
- The Matrix Reloaded (2003) (as The Wachowski Brothers)
- The Matrix (1999) (as The Wachowski Brothers)
- Bound (1996) (as The Wachowski Brothers)

From : http://www.imdb.com

Andy Tennant

2007-10-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
1955, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Spouse
Sharon Johnson-Tennant (? - present)

Trivia
Studied theater under John Houseman at University of Southern California.

Dancer turned writer turned director.

Andy Tennant was raised in Flossmoor, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

Director :- The Wedding Album (2006) (TV)
- Hitch (2005/I)
- Sweet Home Alabama (2002)
- "The American Embassy" (1 episode, 2002)
Pilot (2002) TV Episode
- Anna and the King (1999)
- Ever After (1998)
- Fools Rush In (1997)
- It Takes Two (1995)
- "Sliders" (2 episodes, 1995)
Pilot: Part 1 (1995) TV Episode
Pilot: Part 2 (1995) TV Episode
- "South of Sunset" (1993) TV Series (unknown episodes)
- "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." (2 episodes, 1993)
Brisco for the Defense (1993) TV Episode
The Orb Scholar (1993) TV Episode (as Andy Tenant)
- The Amy Fisher Story (1993) (TV)
- Desperate Choices: To Save My Child (1992) (TV)
- "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures" (1992) TV Series (unknown episodes)
- Keep the Change (1992) (TV)
- "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" (5 episodes, 1990-1991)
My Fair Shelly (1991) TV Episode
Teens from a Mall (1991) TV Episode
Rent-A-Kube (1990) TV Episode
Parker Lewis Must Lose (1990) TV Episode
Operation Kubiak (1990) TV Episode
- "The Wonder Years" (2 episodes, 1989-1991)
Heartbreak (1991) TV Episode
Math Class (1989) TV Episode
- "Ferris Bueller" (1990) TV Series (unknown episodes)

From : http://www.imdb.com

Andrew Niccol

2007-10-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
1964, New Zealand

Mini Biography
New Zealand-born screenwriter-director Andrew Niccol began his career in London, successfully directing TV commercials before moving to Los Angeles in order to make films "longer than 60 seconds." He interested high-powered producer Scott Rudin in his The Truman Show (1998) script, but Rudin was not willing to gamble on a rookie director, particularly when Jim Carrey came aboard, swelling the budget to about $60 million. Peter Weir helmed instead, bringing a complementary vision which lightened the material somewhat, and the clever satire, which followed a cheerful insurance man (Carrey) as he slowly realizes that all the people in his life are just actors in a TV show, opened to critical raves. Since the deal for "Truman" came together slowly, Niccol actually made his screenwriting and directing debut with Gattaca (1997) (1997), a superb, well-acted sci-fi movie that raised issues of genetic engineering in a totalitarian environment.

IMDb Mini Biography By: goodtanin@yahoo.com

Spouse
Rachel Roberts (2002 - present) 1 child

Trade Mark
The plot of his films often revolve around artificial reality, such as gene manipulation in Gattaca, the life of Truman in The Truman Show and the computer generated actress in S1m0ne

Trivia
Directed television commercials for over 10 years prior to his directing debut Gattaca (1997)

Father of Jack Niccol, born in 2003.

Personal Quotes
"My biggest mistake, going back to The Truman Show, was that I wrote my most expensive film first. And you just shouldn't do that. I remember talking to the studio head at the time and she said, "There's no way for a first film that we'll give you a budget of $80 million. But we would give you $20 million." So I went off and wrote Gattaca and made sure it was $20 million. So they let me make it."

"America is certainly starting to look outward at last. The impact of its actions and the world's attitude towards them is being thrown in its face. My film is only based on what I've torn from the newspaper headlines. It's just that maybe I read more closely or widely than most."

"Hollywood's only allegiance these days is to money. If they think there's cash to be made by making films with a conscience, then you might see a revival of that kind of film-making. Otherwise, forget it."

Director :
- Lord of War (2005)
- S1m0ne (2002)
- Gattaca (1997)

From : http://www.imdb.com

Akira Kurosawa

2007-10-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
23 March 1910, Omori, Tokyo, Japan

Date of Death
6 September 1998, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. (stroke)

Nickname
The Emperor
Wind Man

Height
6' 0½" (1.84 m)

Mini Biography
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, making his directorial debut in 1943. After working in a wide range of genres, he made his breakthrough film _Rashomon (1950)_ in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Shichinin no samurai (1954) (Seven Samurai) and the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation _Kumonosu jo (1957)_ (Throne of Blood), the later two showcasing the magnetic personality of Toshirô Mifune, who also starred in the two samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Tsubaki Sanjûrô (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made the Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai epic Kagemusha (1980), which was in many ways a dry run for Ran (1985), his second Shakespeare adaptation. He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal _Yume (1990)_, Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Shichinin no samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as Per un pugno di dollari (1964) and _Kakushi toride no san akunin (1958)_, as Star Wars (1977).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Michael Brooke

Spouse
Yôko Yaguchi (21 May 1945 - 1 February 1985) (her death) 2 children

Trade Mark
Frequently uses the "wipe effect" to fade from one scene to another. This effect later became famous due to its usage in the StarWars trilogy.

Likes to do Shakespearan plays in Feudal Japanese settings.

Often casts Toshirô Mifune

Often casts Takashi Shimura

Trivia
His films are frequently copied and remade by American and European filmmakers.

In December 1971, after a period of suffering from mental fatigue and frustrated with a run of unsatisfying and sub par directing work, Kurosawa attempted suicide by slashing his wrist thirty times with a razor. Fortunately, the wounds were not fatal and he made a full recovery.

Because he could not get film financing for a period of time in his career, he directed and even appeared in Japanese television commercials.

At over 6' feet tall, he was extremely large by Japanese standards, having stood a head taller than any of his colleagues.

Although the Japanese press tried to paint him as a tyrant, almost all of his casts and crews agreed he was a much more cool and detached presence on sets. Many also described him as "intense".

He was voted the 6th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, making him the only Asian on a list of 50 directors.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945". Pages 583-605. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Kurosawa worshipped legendary American director John Ford, his primary influence as a filmmaker. When the two met, Ford was uncommonly pleasant to the younger Japanese filmmaker and after wards Kurosawa dressed in a similar fashion to Ford when on film sets.

Unbeknownst to many people, Kurosawa had always wanted to make a Godzilla film of his own, but the executives at Toho Co., Ltd. (the Japanese studio that produces all the Godzilla films) wouldn't let him because they feared it would cost too much.

According to his family, he rarely thought about anything other than films. Even when at home, he would sit around silently, apparently composing shots in his head.

Although he received an Honorary Award in 1990 "For cinematic accomplishments that have inspired, delighted, enriched and entertained worldwide audiences and influenced filmmakers throughout the world," Akira Kurosawa was only nominated once for a Best Director Oscar for Ran (1985). Also, his only film to have ever received the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was for Dersu Uzala (1975)...his only film not done in Japanese (it was in Russian).

He had a son Hisao, and a daughter, Kazuko.

His movie Dodesukaden (1970), Dersu Uzala (1975) and Kagemusha (1980) were Oscar-nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film". Dersu Uzala (1975) won. Rashômon (1950) won an Honorary Award as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951.

Ranked #6 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors ever!" [2005]

In the 1990s, he referred to the 'Kagemusha' (1980), which some have considered a great film on its own, as a mere "dress rehearsal" for 'Ran' (1985) (both are epics about failing emperors set roughly in same historical era), with the latter film having been his passion for roughly a decade before he made it.

His two favorite actors to work with were apparently Takashi Shimura and, more famously, Toshirô Mifune. Kurosawa made 16 films with Mifune (almost always in a leading role) and 19 films with Shimura (in either a leading or supporting role).

He worked with most of his cast and crew members repeatedly, similarly to the way his idol John Ford used the same people again and again. When Kurosawa was at his working peak, it was widely thought that if he didn't work with an actor or crew member again, the implication was that he did not like them.

He was born the youngest of four children for Isamu and Shima Kurosawa. As a child, he revered his elder brother Heigo. While young Akira was mainly into painting, Heigo was a film-lover and worked as a "benshi", a narrator/ commentator for foreign silent films. Akira's love for film was handed down from his brother. Unfortunately, Heigo suffered from depression and committed suicide. Short thereafter, both Akira's eldest brother and only sister died from illnesses, leaving Akira the only remaining child. His siblings' deaths (particularly that of Heigo) was a traumatic experience for Akira and is thought to have considerably darkened his world view.

He was a fan of the films of Satyajit Ray.

Several of his films have been remade in America as westerns. Shichinin no samurai (1954)(The Seven Samurai) was remade as The Magnificent Seven (1960), and Yojimbo (1961) (The Bodyguard) was remade as Per un pugno di dollari (1964). In addition, Kakushi-toride no san-akunin (1958) (The Hidden Fortress) was a major inspiration for the Star Wars saga, which takes many inspirations from westerns and is often referred to as a space western. Common story elements include General Makabe, who became Obi-Wan Kenobi; Princess Yuki, who became Princess Leia, and whose trick of disguising herself as a handmaiden would later be used by Queen Amidala; and the farmers from whose viewpoint the film is told, Matashichi and Tahei, whose constant bickering inspired C-3PO and R2-D2.

One his closest friend was Ishirô Honda, the writer-director behind Gojira (1954).

He was infamous for his perfectionism. Among the related tales are his insisting a stream be made to run in the opposite direction in order to get a better visual effect, and having the roof of a house removed, later to be replaced, because he felt the roof's presence to be unattractive in a short sequence filmed from a train. He also required that all the actors in his period films had to wear their costumes for several weeks, daily, before filming so that they would look lived in.

Although his "samurai" films are considered the archetypal samurai films over the rest of the world, they were actually considered atypical in Japan. Most Japanese samurai films had been set in the 18th & 19th centuries, when a peaceful Japan was at the peak of its nationalism, with the largest number of bushido code-adhering samurai. Kurosawa's films typically feature individualistic "ronin" (masterless samurai) rather true "samurai" and a majority are set in the far more chaotic feudal periods (16th-17th centuries) when the Japanese were engaged in civil war.

His favorite Japanese director was Kenji Mizoguchi.

He named the film that made him want to work in cinema as Abel Gance's film Roue, La (1923), particularly certain kinetic shots of trains.

Personal Quotes
"For me, film-making combines everything. That's the reason I've made cinema my life's work. In films painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film."

"Human beings share the same common problems. A film can only be understood if it depicts these properly."

"The characters in my films try to live honestly and make the most of the lives they've been given. I believe you must live honestly and develop your abilities to the full. People who do this are the real heros."

"With a good script, a good director can produce a masterpiece. With the same script, a mediocre director can produce a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can't possibly make a good film. For truly cinematic expression, the camera and the microphone must be able to cross both fire and water. The script must be something that has the power to do this."

"In all my films, there's three or maybe four minutes of real cinema."

"So long as my pictures are hits I can afford to be unreasonable. Of course, if they start losing money then I've made some enemies."

"It is quite enough if a human being has but one field where he is strong. If a human being were strong in every field it wouldn't be nice for other people, would it?"

"Good Westerns are liked by everyone. Since humans are weak, they want to see good people and great heroes. Westerns have been done over and over again, and in the process a kind of grammar has evolved. I have learned much from this grammar of the Western."

"I like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself."

"When I start on a film I always have a number of ideas about my project. Then one of them begins to germinate, to sprout, and it is this which I take and work with. My films come from my need to say a particular thing at a particular time. The beginning of any film for me is this need to express something. It is to make it nurture and grow that I write my script- it is directing it that makes my tree blossom and bear fruit."

"Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing."

"To have not seen the films of Ray is to have lived in the world without ever having seen the moon and the sun."

Being an artist means not having to avert one's eyes.

Director:
- Madadayo (1993)
- Rhapsody in August (1991)
- Dreams (1990)
- Ran (1985)
- Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) (1980)
- Dersu Uzala (1975)
- Dodesukaden (1970)
- Red Beard (1965)
- Heaven and Hell (1963)
- Sanjuro (1962)
- Yojimbo the Bodyguard (1961)
- The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
- Three Rascals in the Hidden Fortress (1958)
- The Lower Depths (1957)
- Throne of Blood (1957)
- I Live in Fear: Record of a Living Being (1955)
- Seven Samurai (1954)
- Living (1952)
- The Idiot (1951)
- Rashomon (1950)
- Shubun - Sukyandaru (1950)
- Stray Dog (1949)
- The Quiet Duel (1949)
- Drunken Angel (1948)
- Wonderful Sunday (1947)
- No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
- Those Who Make Tomorrow (1946)
- Judo Story II (1945)
- Most Beautifully (1944)
- Judo Story (1943)
- Horse (1941) (some scenes) (uncredited)

From : http://www.imdb.com

Alfonso Cuaron

2007-10-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
28 November 1961, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Birth Name
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco

Nickname
Alfie

Height
6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born in 28 November in Mexico City, Mexico. He has always wanted to be a director, and also an astronaut. He didn't want to enter to the army so he forgot that possibility. When he was little instead of playing he wanted to make a film, but unfortunately he didn't have a camera. On his 12th birthday he finally received a camera, and since then he started to shoot everything he saw, showing it afterwards to everybody. As a teenager, films were his hobby, and he didn't have many friends. Sometimes he said to his mother he would go to a friend's home, when in fact he would go to the cinema. His ambition was to know every cinema in the city. Near his house there were two studios, Studios Churubusco and Studios 212, where he would go and try to see some interesting stuff. After finishing school, Cuarón decided to study cinema right away. He tried to study in CCC (Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica) but wasn't accepted because at the time they weren't accepting students under 24. As his mother didn't support that idea of cinema, he started to study philosophy in the morning and in the afternoon he went to the CUEC (Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos). During that time he met many people who would later become his collaborators and friends. One of them was Luis Estrada. He also became good friends with Carlos Marcovich and Emmanuel Lubezki. Luis Estrada directed a short called "Vengance is Mine" and Alfonso and Emmanuel collaborated with him. The film was spoken in English and that didn't please the teachers of the CUEC, specially Marcela Fernández Violante. It caused such arguments that in 1985, Alfonso was expelled from the university.

During his time studying in CUEC he met Mariana Elizondo, and with her he has his first son, Jonás Cuarón. After being expelled, Alfonso thought he could never be a director and so went on to work in a Museum so he could sustain his family. One day, José Luis García Agraz and Fernando CáMara went to the museum and made an offer to Cuarón. They asked him to work as cable person in "Víspera, La (1982)". That was his salvation. After that he was assistant director in Garcia Agraz's "Nocaut (1984)", and in some other films.

He was also second unit director in "Gaby: A True Story (1987)", and co-wrote and directed some episodes in the series ""A Hora Marcada" (1967)". On New Year's Eve he decided he wouldn't again be an assistant director, and with his brother Carlos started writing what would be his first feature film: "Sólo con tu pareja (1991)" (Love in the time of Hysteria). The screenplay was written, now the problem was to get the money. IMCINE (Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia) had already decided which projects it would support that year, but the director of one of those projects was unable to direct it, so his project was canceled, and "Sólo con tu pareja" took its place. There was a lot of tension between Alfonso and the IMCINE executives but after it was finished, it was a huge success and turned out to be a very good film. In Toronto festival the films won many awards, and Alfonso started to be noticed by Hollywood producers. Sydney Pollack was the first one to invite him to shoot in Hollywood. He proposed a feature film to be directed by Alfonso, but the project didn't work and was canceled. Anyway, Alfonso moved to Los Angeles without anything concrete, and stayed with some friends, as he had no money. Soon after that, Pollack called him again to direct an episode called ""Fallen Angels: Murder, Obliquely (#1.5)" (1993)" of the series ""Fallen Angels" (1993)", that was the first job he had in US, and also the first time he worked with Alan Rickman.

Some time passed and Alfonso wanted to direct something as he needed money, he finally signed a contract with Warner Brothers to direct the film Addicted to Love (1995) (V). One night he read the screenplay for the film A Little Princess (1995) and fell in love with it. He talked to Warner Brothers and after some meetings he gave up from directing "Addicted to Love" to do instead "A Little Princess". Even thought it wasn't a great box office success, the film received two nominations for the Oscars, and won many other awards. After "A Little Princess" Alfonso developed for some time a project with Richard Gere starring. It was the story of a man who crosses a desert thinking he's a whale, to find the sea. The project was canceled, but Cuarón got an offer from Twentieth Century Fox to direct the modern adaptation of the Charles Dickens' classic Great Expectations (1998). He didn't want to direct it but the studio insisted a lot, and in the end he accepted it. The experience was very painful and difficult for him mainly because there was never a definitive screenplay.

He then reunited with producer Jorge Vergara and founded Anhelo Productions and Moonson Productions. Anhelo's first picture was also Alfonso's next film, the erotic road movie "Y tu mamá también (2001)", which was a huge success. During the promotion of the film in Venice, Alfonso met the cinema critic Annalisa Bugliani. They started dating and are now married. "Children of Men (2006)" was supposed to be Alfonso's next film, a science-fiction story. During the pre-production of the film, Warner Brothers invited Alfonso to direct the third Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)", and he accepted the offer after some thinking. The film was the greatest box office success of his career.

He had a beautiful daughter in 2003 called Tess Bu Cuarón, and in February 2005 another son, called Olmo Teodoro Cuarón. Alfonso Cuarón signed a three-year first look deal with Warner Brother, which allows his films to be distributed worldwide. As a result of that deal, he has two new projects, _History of Love, The (2007)_ and _Memory of Running, The (2007)_. He is also developing another Mexican film "_México '68 (2007)_", about the violent students' revolt that happened in Mexico in 1968. He directed one 5 minute segment of the anthology film Paris, je t'aime (2006)with Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier. His latest project, the futuristic film Children of Men (2006) with Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine premieres at Venice Film Festival and will be released in the US in December 2006.

IMDb Mini Biography By: huckf

Spouse
Annalisa Bugliani (2001 - present) 2 children
Mariana Elizondo (1980 - 1993) (divorced) 1 child

Trade Mark
Frequently works with Emmanuel Lubezki as his director of photography.

Often uses restlessly moving camera work.

Use of long continuous shots.

Often uses wide camera angles.

When directing, he flashes the title of the movie both at the beginning and at the end of all of his films.

Trivia
Brother of Carlos Cuarón.

He had never read any of the Harry Potter books when he was offered to direct the third film.

Father of Tess Bu Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón and Olmo Teodoro Cuarón.

He is friends with directors Guillermo del Toro, Mira Nair, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Terry George and Terry Gilliam.

He turned down the chance to direct Addicted to Love (1997) to work instead on A Little Princess (1995).

He was the mentor of actor/director Dean Paras.

He was set to write/direct the film Hart's War (2002) but when production was about to begin he decided to do Y tu mamá también (2001) instead.

He is friends with singer Ian Brown and offered to direct one of his future videos.

Lives in New York with his wife, Annalisa Bugliani, his daughter, Tess Bu Cuarón and his son, Olmo Teodoro Cuarón.

He was the original director of the film The Perez Family (1995), but pulled out before production started.

He was attached to direct _Life of Pi (2007)_, but due to the production of Children of Men (2006), he had to step aside the director's chair. 'Jean- Pierre Jeunet' replaced him.

He has never read the novel 'The Children of Men' by P.D. James in which is film Children of Men (2006) is based on.

He became attached to direct the film Runaway Jury (2003) but after a few months he left the project.

He's a fan of Tim Burton.

In 2007, he was one of 10 Mexican Oscar-nominees. The others were Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo Arriaga, Guillermo del Toro, Adriana Barraza, Guillermo Navarro, Emmanuel Lubezki, Eugenio Caballero, Pilar Revuelta and Fernando Cámara.

Was attached to direct "Speed Racer" (2008) with Johnny Depp in lead, but the job went to Wachowski brothers.

Personal Quotes
What's the point of being an Australian guy traveling through India if you are going to go to India to meet other Australians?

I believe that human beings are born first and given passports later. I'm really thankful for my journey. And it's a journey I didn't design.

The only reason you make a movie is not to make or set out to do a good or a bad movie, it's just to see what you learn for the next one.

Most of cinema nowadays is about shooting a lot and then figuring it out in the cutting room, rather than seeing your film it the head and see what's in your head and not shoot what you have already envisioned in your head.

When people see some depth you never intended that's really cool, you just put on a face and say "Oh, yeah, that was deep". What are you going to say? I'm just a moron with luck?

When you work with kids, people tell you to be very delicate, but that's the last thing you should do with kids. They feel patronized if you're like that. They just want you to be normal.

(Thoughts on the one film (or films) that made him want to become a filmmaker and why): There was no epiphany from one film. There were a few that stood out over the years. I was 8 when I saw _Ladri di biciclette (1948)_, and it was the first black-and-white film I had ever seen. It triggered my curiosity to start seeing European cinema. When I was 7, I saw The Making of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1970). Hearing George Roy Hill talk about all the choices he made, I knew that directing movies was what I wanted to do. I remember seeing Death and Venice 40 times one year, and then switching my allegiance to Godard after seeing Masculine/Feminine! I knew early on that I was a nerd and that films were my refuge. Those first few minutes before the lights went off, and you're alone in the theater waiting, were really pleasurable. Whether it was Steve McQueen, the coolest guy in cinema, to Robert Altman's strange and wonderful 3 Women (1977), I saw hundreds of films before I ever picked up a camera. I believe I took something away from each one.

There are fewer established rules in the way you tell a story for commercials than in features,it's a great little short story you get to play with.

If I would rescue one of my movies, it would be A Little Princess.

Director :

- The Shock Doctrine (2007)
- The Possibility of Hope (2007) (V)
- Children of Men (2006)
- Paris, je t'aime (2006) (segment "Parc Monceau")
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
- Y tu mamá también (2001)
- Great Expectations (1998)
- A Little Princess (1995)
- "Fallen Angels" (1 episode, 1993)
Murder, Obliquely (1993) TV Episode
- Sólo con tu pareja (1991)
- "Hora Marcada" (5 episodes, 1988-1990)
Ángel Pérez (1990) TV Episode
De Ogros (1990) TV Episode
Zangamanga (1990) TV Episode
No estoy jugando (1989) TV Episode
A veces regresa (1988) TV Episode
- Cuarteto para el fin del tiempo (1983)
- Vengeance Is Mine (1983)
- Who's He Anyway (1983)

From : http://www.imdb.com

Adrian Lyne

2007-10-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth

4 March 1941, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, UK

Mini Biography

Starting his career as a director of TV commercials, he moved into film by making his debut with the teen drama Foxes (1980), but made his breakthrough film with the musical hit Flashdance (1983) and was later hired to helm Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986). He was nominated for best director at the Academy Awards for Fatal Attraction (1987). His most successful film (so far) is Unfaithful (2002), a remake of Claude Chabrol's Femme infidèle, La (1969) which was nominated for best actress ('Diane Lane').

IMDb Mini Biography By: Doug

Spouse

Samantha (? - ?)

Personal Quotes

"I like movies that create discussion, I love it, I love it when they haven't forgotten about your movie by dinnertime afterwards and they're still arguing about it the next day, that's what a movie should do, it should make you argue and disagree."

There's nothing more depressing than making a movie. It has moments of real joy, mostly later if you like what you've done, but making it is miserable -- like chipping lumps off of me. I tend to be obsessive and I'm a total manic depressive. I find it very hard to enjoy things. After "Flashdance" opened, there were lines around the block, full houses, but all I could think was, "Tomorrow, it's going to fall off!" But also I'm terrified of starting to believe your own legend, starting to believe you're good at this, that you're not still learning.

I'm fascinated by relationships and how they work or don't work. It's all that matters, isn't it? I'm much more interested in the small picture than the big one, because I think close-ups and the minutiae and the breath in one's face is much more interesting than the landscape out there.

The style is determined by each movie and even more so by every individual scene that dictates how you shoot it. When you have something dramatic, something exciting, that's when you start moving the camera. Otherwise, I say, "Leave it alone." But look, the last thing I want to do is to repeat myself.

I'm much more interested in weak, vulnerable people than I am in heroes.

Director :

- Unfaithful (2002)

- Lolita (1997)

- Indecent Proposal (1993)

- Jacob's Ladder (1990/I)

- Fatal Attraction (1987)

- Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986)

- Flashdance (1983)

- Foxes (1980)

- Mr. Smith (1976)

From : http://www.imdb.com

David Lynch

2007-10-03T16:54:00.000-07:00

Date of Birth
20 January 1946, Missoula, Montana, USA

Birth Name
David Keith Lynch

Height
5' 11" (1.80 m)

Mini Biography
Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married, and fathered future director Jennifer Chambers Lynch shortly after he turned 21. That experience, plus attending art school in a particularly violent and run-down area of Philadelphia, inspired Eraserhead (1977), a film that he began in the early 1970s (after a couple of shorts) and which he would work on obsessively for five years. The final film was initially judged to be almost unreleasably weird, but thanks to the efforts of distributor Ben Barenholtz, it secured a cult following and enabled Lynch to make his first mainstream film (in an unlikely alliance with Mel Brooks), though The Elephant Man (1980) was shot through with his unique sensibility. Its enormous critical and commercial success led to Dune (1984), a hugely expensive commercial disaster, but Lynch redeemed himself with Blue Velvet (1986), his most personal and original work since his debut. He subsequently won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the dark, violent road movie Wild at Heart (1990), and achieved a huge cult following with his surreal TV series _"Twin Peaks" (1990)_, which he adapted for the big screen, though his comedy series "On the Air" (1992) was less successful. He also draws comic strips and has devised multimedia stage events with regular composer Angelo Badalamenti. He had a much-publicised affair with Isabella Rossellini in the late 1980s.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Michael Brooke

Mini Biography
Born in 1946 in Missoula, Montana, David Lynch was raised early in small town America. After high school, he went to Boston to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Shortly after that, he planned a 3 year trip to Europe to work on his art, but didn't take to it and left after 15 days. In 1977, he released his first film Eraserhead (1977), which, although not critically acclaimed, was noticed by many people, including Francis Ford Coppola, who was rumored to have screenings of it for his cast and crew on the Apocalypse Now (1979) set. After a stream of visually stunning films such as Blue Velvet (1986), Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Dr. (2001). All these films, and a few more, beginning with Blue Velvet (1986), and including his "Twin Peaks" (1990) TV series, feature what has now been added to signature Lynch features, such as vibrant colors, the use of dreams and amazing montage to connect character thought and multiple emotions into one sequence. In addition to that, since Blue Velvet (1986), Lynch has gained the reputation of one of the foremost auteurs in the filmmaking industry, and one of the few living auteur's who continually defies both cinematic convention and the Hollywood curse. His films continually represent his ideal that films; representing life, should be complicated, and, in some cases and sequences, be inexplainable. I'm sure he knows why he puts the scenes and shots and props and cuts and effects and filters and lights and colors and actors and costumes and music in the scenes, but he'll never tell anyone else. For this reason, and due to the beautiful confusion of his films, he will always be recognized as if not one of the greatest filmmakers, one of the most original. Lynch is a creative master, and even if his films aren't necessarily realistic, they are real in their representation of what life is: a confusing, irrational series of random events that truly have little purpose, and one makes their own interpretation of every event, giving their life purpose personally. Lynch wants his films to resonate emotionally and instinctively, and for every person to relate and make their own understanding. As he said "Life is very, very confusing, and so films should be allowed to be, too". David Lynch is original. He has done things in filmmaking that D.W. Griffith did in his day. David Lynch will never stop making beauty on the screen.

IMDb Mini Biography By: TADAMS

Spouse
Mary Sweeney (10 May 2006 - present) (filed for divorce) 1 child
Mary Fisk (21 June 1977 - 1987) (divorced) 1 child
Peggy Lynch (1967 - 1974) (divorced) (1 child)

Trade Mark
Has frequently cast Jack Nance, Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Sherilyn Fenn, Harry Dean Stanton, Michael J. Anderson, Everett McGill, Frances Bay, Dean Stockwell, David Patrick Kelly, Brad Dourif, Catherine E. Coulson, Grace Zabriskie, Ian Buchanan, Alicia Witt, Justin Theroux, Bellina Logan, Laura Harring, and Naomi Watts.

Finds small-town USA fascinating.

Has a taste for low/middle frequency noise, dark and rotting environments, distorted characters, a polarized world (angels vs demons, Madonnas vs whores), and debilitating damage to the skull or brain.

Use of slow-motion during key scenes of violence.

Red Curtains.

Strobe Lights.

Almost always casts a musician for a supporting role: Sting in _Dune (1984)_ ; Chris Isaak, David Bowie, and Julee Cruise in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992); Marilyn Manson and Henry Rollins in Lost Highway (1997); Billy Ray Cyrus Rebekah Del Rio and Angelo Badalamenti in Mulholland Dr. (2001).

Uses many references to France, the French language, culture, people, and names.

Constant references to dreams as a way of connecting the plot and twists in his films.

Uses Roy Orbison songs in his films.

Close up shots of eyes

His regular casting director is Johanna Ray.

Trivia
Ate lunch at Bob's Big Boy in Los Angeles, California, nearly every day for almost eight years in a row.

Is an Eagle Scout.

His grandfather was Finnish.

Currently (2002) runs his own personally authorized Web site, http://www.davidlynch.com/ and has been rumored to appear in the chat area of the site under a more than obvious name.

Personally approved DVD releases of his movies do not have any chapter stops. This is done because he believes that films are meant to be viewed from beginning to end.

He is also an artist working in paint and such dynamic elements as live ants and rotting flesh. He also frequently designs and builds the furniture in his films. These can be seen in the documentary about him, Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch (1997) (TV).

Projects he has written but to date has not produced include "Ronnie Rocket," "Up at the Lake," and "One Saliva Bubble."

Producer Dino De Laurentiis offered him the chance to direct "Hand-Carved Coffins" based on a Truman Capote work, but Lynch turned it down; to date the project has not been produced.

His favorite band is Rammstein.

Wrote the Gordon Cole character (from "Twin Peaks" (1990)) with himself in mind.

After the financial disaster that was Dune (1984), Lynch and Dino De Laurentiis were almost ready to part company but Lynch showed Dino the script for Blue Velvet (1986), which he had been working on for some time, and the two combined talents to make the seminal 1986 classic.

After George Lucas saw Eraserhead (1977), he offered Lynch the chance to direct Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) but Lynch turned him down. Lynch felt the film would be more Lucas' vision than his own.

Daughter, Director Jennifer Chambers Lynch (b. 1968), with first wife actress Peggy Lynch. Son, Austin Jack Lynch (b. 1982), with second wife Mary Fisk. Son, Riley Sweeney Lynch (b. 1992), with film editor Mary Sweeney (she later became his third wife).

While in college, roomed with Peter Wolf, former lead singer with the J. Geils Band. Lynch kicked him out, however, because he thought Wolf was "too weird."

His son, Austin Jack Lynch, appeared in an episode of "Twin Peaks" (1990) as Pierre Tremond, or the Creamed-Corn Kid. His nephew, Jonathan J. Leppell, played Pierre Tremond/Chalfont in the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Julee Cruise, who appears in "Twin Peaks" (1990), is his musical protégée. Lynch wrote the lyrics on her first album, some of the lyrics of her second album, and occasionally plays an instrument on her recordings.

He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985," pp. 621-626 (as David K. Lynch). New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

Had his name removed as writer and director on the Director's extended cut of Dune (1984), which was first screened on television. These were replaced with the names Judas Booth and the name used by many a director who wish to be disassociated with a movie, Alan Smithee.

Has cited Luis Buñuel, Werner Herzog, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, and Roman Polanski as some of his influences.

In addition to excluding chapter breaks in his approved DVD releases of his movies, he hasn't recorded an audio commentary in any of his films. This is because he believes that films speak for themselves.

Announced at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival that he has been shooting a feature length project on digital video called "Inland Empire" for over a year. He also announced that he was so impressed with digital that he was giving up directing on projects on film.

He drew and wrote the comic strip, "The Angriest Dog in the World" that ran in the Los Angeles Reader newspaper throughout the 1980s.

President of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.

Is famous (or infamous) for not saying anything on Eraserhead (1977). He lets the viewers decide what it means.

He was offered the chance to direct Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), but he turned it down, saying that the script was funny, but it wasn't his thing.

Was very good friends with Jack Nance.

Is friends with Kyle MacLachlan.

He was introduced to Isabella Rossellini at a restaurant by a mutual friend when he was in the process of casting Blue Velvet (1986). Struck by her serene European beauty, he told her, "You could be Ingrid Bergman's daughter." 'You idiot,' my friend said to me," Lynch recalled, "'she is Ingrid Bergman's daughter!'"

His grandmother was German.

Though on the surface his alliance with Mel Brooks on The Elephant Man (1980) would seem unlikely to many, a number of Lynch's films are interpreted as being satirical of traditional Hollywood clichés (Mulholland Dr. (2001), Wild at Heart (1990), _Blue Velvet (1986)_ albeit in a much darker and artistic way than in the films that made Brooks a success (Young Frankenstein (1974), Blazing Saddles (1974), etc.).

Was engaged to Italian actress Isabella Rossellini from 1986 to 1990.

Claims one of his favorite films to be The Wizard of Oz (1939), and has many references to the classic in his films, the most obvious are in Wild at Heart (1990).

Is friends with Mädchen Amick.

Fan of Elvis Presley.

Personal Quotes
It's better not to know so much about what things mean or how they might be interpreted or you'll be too afraid to let things keep happening. Psychology destroys the mystery, this kind of magic quality. It can be reduced to certain neuroses or certain things, and since it is now named and defined, it's lost its mystery and the potential for a vast, infinite experience.

I sort of go by a duck when I work on a film because if you study a duck, you'll see certain things. You'll see a bill, and the bill is a certain texture and a certain length. Then you'll see a head, and the features on the head are a certain texture and it's a certain shape and it goes into the neck. The texture of the bill for instance is very smooth and it has quite precise detail in it and it reminds you somewhat of the legs. The legs are a little bit bigger and a little more rubbery but it's enough so that your eye goes back and forth. Now, the body being so big, it can be softer and the texture is not so detailed, it's just kind of a cloud. And the key to the whole duck is the eye and where the eye is placed. And it has to be placed in the head and it's the most detailed, and it's like a little jewel. And if it was fixed, sitting on the bill, it would be two things that were too busy, battling, they would not do so well. And if it was sitting in the middle of the body, it would get lost. But it's so perfectly placed to show off a jewel right in the middle of the head like that, next to this S-curve with the bill sitting out in front, but with enough distance so that the eye is very very very well secluded and set out. So when you're working on a film, a lot of times you can get the bill and the legs and the body and everything, but this eye of the duck is a certain scene, this jewel, that if it's there, it's absolutely beautiful. It's just fantastic." "Film exists because we can go and have experiences that would be pretty dangerous or strange for us in real life. We can go into a room and walk into a dream. If we didn't want to upset anyone, we would make films about sewing, but even that could be dangerous. But I think finally, in a film, it is how the balance is and the feelings are. But I think there has to be those contrasts and strong things withing a film for the total experience.

I'm not a real film buff. Unfortunately, I don't have time. I just don't go. And I become very nervous when I go to a film because I worry so much about the director and it is hard for me to digest my popcorn.

It makes me uncomfortable to talk about meanings and things. It's better not to know so much about what things mean. Because the meaning, it's a very personal thing, and the meaning for me is different than the meaning for somebody else.

To give a sense of place, to me, is a thrilling thing. And a sense of place is made up of details. And so the details are incredibly important. If they're wrong, then it throws you out of the mood. And so the sound and music and color and shape and texture, if all those things are correct and a woman looks a certain way with a certain kind of light and says the right word, you're gone, you're in heaven. But it's all the little details.

In Hollywood, more often than not, they're making more kind of traditional films, stories that are understood by people. And the entire story is understood. And they become worried if even for one small moment something happens that is not understood by everyone. But what's so fantastic is to get down into areas where things are abstract and where things are felt, or understood in an intuitive way that, you can't, you know, put a microphone to somebody at the theatre and say 'Did you understand that?' but they come out with a strange, fantastic feeling and they can carry that, and it opens some little door or something that's magical and that's the power that film has.

I think that ideas exist outside of ourselves. I think somewhere, we're all connected off in some very abstract land. But somewhere between there and here ideas exist. And I think the mind isn't conscious enough to go all the way to where we're connected, but it's conscious of a certain amount of that territory. And when these ideas fly into the conscious part, then you can capture them. But if they're outside of the conscious part, you don't even know about them. So you just hope that you can make the conscious part of your mind bigger or that these ideas will fly into your airspace, so you can shoot them down and grab them and take them home. So that's all you try to do. Sometimes an idea will strike you when you're sitting in a quiet chair. But sometimes an idea will strike you when you're standing. Sometimes music will also help you. If I thought I could just sit still in a quiet place and get ideas, I would do that all the time, but sometimes nothing happens. There's no rhyme or reason to it. But you've got to write them down right away. I forget so many things. Then if I forget it and try to remember it, my whole day is ruined because I can't remember and I feel horrible. And I imagine that it was one of the all time great ideas. And it probably isn't.

I've said many, many, many unkind things about Philadelphia, and I meant every one.

(his films) mean different things to different people. Some mean more or less the same things to a large number of people. It's okay. Just as long as there's not one message, spoon-fed. That's what films by committee end up being, and it's a real bummer to me...Life is very, very complicated, and so films should be allowed to be, too.

I don't think that people accept the fact that life doesn't make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable. It seems like religion and myth were invented against that, trying to make sense out of it.

[on plans to build 100 transcendental meditation centers to bring an end to crime and war]: "Peace could be on this Earth this year. It would be a whole new world."

I like to make films because I like to go into another world. I like to get lost in another world. And film to me is a magical medium that makes you dream...allows you to dream in the dark. It's just a fantastic thing, to get lost inside the world of film.

I would rather not make a film than make one where I don't have final cut.

All my movies are about strange worlds that you can't go into unless you build them and film them. That's what's so important about film to me. I just like going into strange worlds.

I'm not sure what these people are saying. Is it that if you depicted no graphic violence, the world would calm down and there would be less violence? Or is it that if you sense certain things about violence and then portray those things in a film, does that make the violence go to another level? Or is the violence in films a way to experience something without having to do it in real life?

Sex is a doorway to something so powerful and mystical, but movies usually depict it in a completely flat way. Being explicit doesn't tap into the mystical aspect of it either in fact, that usually kills it because people don't want to see sex so much as they want to experience the emotions that go along with it. These things are hard to convey in film because sex is such a mystery.

I'm convinced we all are voyeurs. It's part of the detective thing. We want to know secrets and we want to know what goes on behind those windows. And not in a way that we would use to hurt anyone. There's an entertainment value to it, but at the same time we want to know: What do humans do? Do they do the same things as I do? It's a gaining of some sort of knowledge, I think.

My mother refused to give me coloring books as a child. She probably saved me, Because when you think about it, what a coloring book does is completely kill creativity.

There's something deeply satisfying about directing the flow of water.

Cigarettes are pretty much my worst vice, and I even stopped smoking for 20 years. I spend most of my free time with my family and working on art.

Sex was like a world so mysterious to me, I really couldn't believe there was this fantastic texture to life that I was getting to do...it has all these different levels, from lust and fearful, violent sex to the real spiritual thing at the other end. It's the key to some fantastic mystery of life.

I like things to be orderly. For seven years I ate at Bob's Big Boy. I would go at 2:30, after the lunch rush. I ate a chocolate shake and four, five, six, seven cups of coffee--with lots of sugar. And there's lots of sugar in that chocolate shake. It's a thick shake. In a silver goblet. I would get a rush from all this sugar, and I would get so many ideas! I would write them on these napkins. It was like I had a desk with paper. All I had to do was remember to bring my pen, but a waitress would give me one if I remembered to return it at the end of my stay. I got a lot of ideas at Bob's.

[On actor Kyle MacLachlan]: "What do we do together? I have a pretty good cappuccino machine, and anytime he gets the urge, he comes on over. We talk about the problems associated with getting a good cup of coffee."

In a large city I realized there was a large amount of fear. Coming from the Northwest, it kind of hits you like a train.

There was nothing much going on upstairs until the age of nineteen.

As a teenager, I was really trying to have fun 24 hours a day. I didn't start thinking until I was 20 or 21. I was doing regular goof-ball stuff.

My father was a scientist for the Forest Service. He would drive me through the woods in his green Forest Service truck, over dirt roads, through the most beautiful forests where the trees are very tall and shafts of sunlight come down and in the mountain streams the rainbow trout leap out and their little trout sides catch glimpses of light. Then my father would drop me in the woods and go off. It was a weird, comforting feeling being in the woods. There were odd, mysterious things. That's the kind of world I grew up in.

[On his 1965 sojourn to Europe to study art] "I didn't take to Europe. I was all the time thinking, this is where I'm going to be painting. And there was no inspiration there at all for the kind of work I wanted to do."

[On his 1965 sojourn to Europe to study art] "I intended to stay three years. Instead, I stayed 15 days! I remember lying in an Athens basement with lizards crawling along the walls and contemplating that I was 7,000 miles from McDonalds!"

[On why his officially sanctioned DVDs contain no chapter stops]: "It is my opinion that a film is not like a book--it should not be broken up. It is a continuum and should be seen as such."

Absurdity is what I like most in life, and there's humor in struggling in ignorance. If you saw a man repeatedly running into a wall until he was a bloody pulp, after a while it would make you laugh because it becomes absurd.

I let the actors work out their ideas before shooting, then tell them what attitudes I want. If a scene isn't honest, it stands out like a sore thumb.

"It turns out, at least in my opinion, she's an unbelievable actress and there are things that she's done in this movie that are truly incredible. I haven't seen too many people get into a role and give it as much. So, the big news for me was this person was hired to be a dead girl and turns out to be a great actress and a perfect Laura Palmer" - on Sheryl Lee and her performance in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).

I love that film. I say now that The Straight Story is my most experimental movie, but up until then, Fire Walk With Me was my most experimental film, and some of the things, the combos, you know, like, sequences... It was a dark film, but like Peggy Lipton said in an interview, it was just too much in people's faces, and it didn't have the humour of Twin Peaks. So it was what it was supposed to be, but it wasn't what people wanted. It was supposed to be stand-alone, but it was also supposed to be the last week of Laura Palmer's life. And all those things that had been established, they could be pleasant on one level to experience, but unpleasant on another level. - On Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

[Hearing about Elvis Presley had Elvis reportedly told one of his backup singers that he thought no one would ever remember him]: That's incredible. Elvis swims in our minds, and in the emotions all through time.

Salary
The Alphabet (1968) $1,000

Where Are They Now
(May 2004) Lodz, Poland. Discussing his plans for building post production film studio in an old factory on Targowa street.

Director :
- To Each His Cinema (International: English title) (2007) (special edition)
- Boat (2007)
- Inland Empire (2006)
- Rammstein: Lichtspielhaus (2003) (video "Rammstein")
- The Short Films of David Lynch (2002)
- Darkened Room (2002)
- Dumbland (2002)
- Rabbits (2002)
- Mulholland Dr. (2001)
- The Straight Story (1999)
- Lost Highway (1997)
- Lumiere and Company (1995) (segment "Premonition Following An Evil Deed")
- "Hotel Room" (2 episodes, 1993)
Blackout (1993) TV Episode
Tricks (1993) TV Episode
- "On the Air" (1992) TV Series (unknown episodes)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
- "Twin Peaks" (6 episodes, 1990-1991)
Episode #2.22 (1991) TV Episode
Episode #2.7 (1990) TV Episode
Episode #2.2 (1990) TV Episode
Episode #2.1 (1990) TV Episode
Episode #1.3 (1990) TV Episode
Pilot (1990) TV Episode
- "American Chronicles" (1990) TV Series
- Wild at Heart (1990)
- Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted (1990) (TV)
- The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988) (mini) TV Series (segment "The Cowboy and the Frenchman")

- Blue Velvet (1986)
- Dune (1984)
- The Elephant Man (1980)
- Eraserhead (1977)
- The Amputee (1974)
- The Grandmother (1970)
- The Alphabet (1968)
- Six Figures Getting Sick (1966)

From : http://www.imdb.com/

Main Page

Alfred Hitchcock

2007-10-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

Date of Death
29 April 1980, Bel Air, California, USA. (renal failure)

Birth Name
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock

Nickname
Hitch The Master of Suspense

Height
5' 7" (1.70 m)

Mini Biography
Alfred Hitchcock was the son of East End greengrocer William Hitchcock and his wife Emma. Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.

In 1920, Hitch learned that Lasky were to open a studio in London and managed to secure a job as a title designer. He designed the titles for all the movies made at the studio for the next two years. In 1923, he got his first chance at directing when the director of Always Tell Your Wife (1923) fell ill and Hitch completed the movie. Impressed by his work, studio chiefs gave him his first directing assignment on Number 13 (1922); however, before it could be finished, the studio closed its British operation. Hitch was then hired by Michael Balcon to work as an assistant director for the company later to be known as Gainsborough Pictures. In reality, Hitch did more than this -- working as a writer, title designer and art director. After several films for the company, Hitch was given the chance to direct a British/German co-production called The Pleasure Garden (1925). Hitchcock's career as a director finally began. Hitchcock went on to become the most widely known and influential director in the history of world cinema with a
significant body of work produced over 50 years.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Col Needham

Mini Biography
He was born Alfred Joesph Hitchcock, his father was a green grocer called William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914), his mother was Emma Jane Whelan (1863 - 1942) and he had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (Born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock(born 1892). He grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic family. He attended St Ignatius college and a school for engineering and navigation. In 1914, when Hitchcock was 14 years old, his father died.

It was around 1920 when Hitchcock joined the film industry, he started off drawing the sets (Since he was a very skilled artist) and he met Alma Reville, though they never really spoke to each other. It was only when the director for "Always tell your wife" fell ill and Hitchcock had to complete the film, that he started off in the directing part of the film world, then Alma Reville and Hitchcock began to talk to each other.

Hitchcock had his first shot of being the director of a film in 1923 when he was to direct the film "The Number 13", though the production was stopped. Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed a film called "The Pleasure Garden" in 1925, a British/German production, which was very popular. In 1926, Hitchcock made his first notable film, "The Lodger". In the same year on the 2nd of December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child called Patricia Hitchcock (born 7th July 1928).

His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of them which also made him famous in the USA. David O. Selznick, an American producer at the time, got in touch with Hitchcock and the Hitchcock family moved to the USA to direct an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940).

It was when Saboteur (1942) was made, that films companies began to call his films after him; such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.

On March 7, 1979. Hitchcock was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award award, where he said this famous quote: "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat,
and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville." By this time, he was quite ill, he had angina and his kidneys had already started to have problems functioning properly.

He retired soon after making Family Plot (1976), he started to write a screenplay with Ernest Lehman called "The Short Night", though it was never made.

In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure. His funeral was held in the Church of Good Shepheard in Beverly Hills. Father Thomas Sullivan held the service, 600 people attended the service, among them where Mel Brooks (Director of High Anxeity (1977), a comedy tribute to Hitchcock and his films), Louis Jourdan, Karl Malden, Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh and Francois Truffaut.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Samtroy

Spouse
Alma Reville (2 December 1926 - 29 April 1980) (his death) 1 child

Trade Mark
Has a cameo in most of his films.

Likes to insert shots of a woman's hairstyle, frequently close-ups. [hair]

Bathrooms are often a plot device; often a hiding place or a place where lovemaking is prepared for. Hitchcock also frequently used the letters "BM," which stand for "Bowel Movement". [bathroom]

Often used the "wrong man" or "mistaken identity" theme in his movies.

He preferred blondes: The most famous actresses in his filmography were Anny Ondra, Madeleine Carroll, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren.

There is a recurrent motif of loss or assumed identity. While mistaken identity applies to a film like North by Northwest (1959), assumed identity applies to films such as Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), _Marnie_, and The 39 Steps (1935) among others.

Always formally dressed

Usually hired blonde haired women to play the leading women

In order to create suspense in his films, he would use different shots and angles with the camera. For example in Psycho, the shower scene has lots of different angles.

Driving sequences shot in particular way, which typically alternates twixt the character's POV while driving and a close-up shot of those inside car from opposite direction, so as to keep the viewer 'inside' the car and make any danger encountered more richly felt.

The silhouette he drew for himself to put on a Christmas card when he was still living in England. He used this silhouette in both his television shows "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour"

In a lot of his films, (more noticeably in the early black and white American films) he used to create more shadows on the walls to create suspense and tension, such as the "Glowing Milk" scene in Suspicion (1941).

Trivia
According to many people who knew Hitchcock, he couldn't stand to even look at his wife, Alma Reville, while she was pregnant.

Once dressed up in drag for a party he threw. Footage of this was in his office, but his office was cleaned out after his death, and it is not known if the footage still exists.

According to Hitchcock himself, he was required to stand at the foot of his mother's bed, and tell her what happened to him each day.

Born only one day before his wife, Alma Reville

Was a close friend of Albert R. Broccoli, well known as the producer of the James Bond - 007 franchise. Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) was the influence for the helicopter scene in From Russia with Love (1963)

He appears on a 32-cent U.S. postage stamp, in the "Legends of Hollywood" series, that was released 8/3/98 in Los Angeles, California.

As a child Hitchcock was sent to the local police station with a letter from his father. The desk sergeant read the letter and immediately locked the boy up for ten minutes. After that, the sergeant let young Alfred go, explaining, "This is what happens to people who do bad things." Hitchcock had a morbid fear of police from that day on. He possessed one additional phobia: eggs.

On April 29, 1974, the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York sponsored a gala homage to Alfred Hitchcock and his contributions to the cinema. Three hours of film excerpts were shown that night. François Truffaut who had published a book of interviews with Hitchcock a few years earlier, was there that night to present "two brilliant sequences: the clash of the symbols in the
second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) , and the plane attack on Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959)." After the gala, Truffaut reflected again on what made Hitchcock unique and concluded: "It was impossible not to see that the love scenes were filmed like murder scenes, and the murder scenes like love scenes...It occurred to me that in Hitchcock's cinema...to make love and to die are one and the same."

He never won a best director Oscar in competition, although he was awarded the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1967 Oscars.

Alma Reville and Hitch had one daughter, Patricia Hitchcock, who appeared in several of his movies: Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960)

In the New Year's Honour's list of 1980 (only a few months before his death), he was named an Honorary (as he was a U.S. citizen) Knight Commander of the British Empire.

From 1977 until his death, he worked with a succession of writers on a film to be known as "The Short Night". The majority of the writing was done by David Freeman, who published the final screenplay after Hitchcock's death.

He eventually began making his appearances in the beginning of his films, because he knew viewers were watching for him and he didn't want to divert their attention away from the story's plot.

His bridling under the heavy hand of producer David O. Selznick was exemplified by the final scene of Rebecca (1940). Selznick wanted his director to show smoke coming out of the burning house's chimney forming the letter 'R." Hitch thought the touch lacked any subtlety; instead, he showed flames licking at a pillow embroidered with the letter 'R.'

First visited Hollywood in 1940, but was turned down by virtually all major motion picture studios because they thought he could not make a "Hollywood" picture. He was finally offered a seven-year directing contract by producer David O. Selznick. His first project was supposed to be a film about the Titanic, but Selznick scrapped the project because he "couldn't find a boat to sink." Selznick assigned Hitch to direct Rebecca (1940) instead.

The famous Hitchcock profile sketch, most often associated with "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955), was actually from a Christmas card Hitchcock designed himself while still living in England.

When finishing a cup of tea while on the set, he would often non-discriminatingly toss the cup and saucer over his shoulder, letting it fall (or break) wherever it may.

He was director William Girdler's idol. Girdler made Day of the Animals (1977) borrowing elements from Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

Asked writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac to write a novel for him after Henri-Georges Clouzot had been faster in buying the rights for "Celle qui n'était plus" which became Diaboliques, Les (1955). The novel they wrote, "From Among the Dead", was shot as Vertigo (1958).

He delivered the shortest acceptance speech in Oscar history: while accepting the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1967 Oscars, he simply said "Thank you."

Müde Tod, Der (1921) by Fritz Lang was his declared favourite movie.

In a recent USC class on Hitchcock (fall of 2000), guest speaker Patricia Hitchcock revealed that two guilty pleasures of Hitch's were Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Benji (1974)!

His 'MacGuffins' were objects or devices which drove the plot and were of great interest to the film's characters, but which to the audience were otherwise inconsequential and could be forgotten once they had served their purpose.

Lent his name and character to a series of adolescent books entitled "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators" (circa late 1960s-early 1970s). The premise was that main character and crime-solver Jupiter Jones won the use of Mr. Hitchcock's limousine in a contest. Hitch also wrote forewords to this series of books. After his death, his famous silhouette was taken off the spine of the books, and the forewords (obviously) stopped appearing as well.

He was listed as the editor of a series of anthologies containing mysteries and thillers. However, he had little to do with them. Even the introductions, credited to him, were, like the introductions on his television series, written by others.

One of the most successful Hitchcock tie-ins is a pulp publication titled "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine." The publication is highly respected and has become one of the longest running mystery anthologies. It continues to be published almost a quarter century after Hitchock's death.

He allegedly refused the British honour of C.B.E. (Commander of the order of the British Empire) in 1962.

When he won his Lifetime Achievement award in 1979, he joked with friends that he must be about to die soon. He died a year later.

Was voted the Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. The same magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Films of all time includes more films directed by Hitchcock than by any other director, with four. On the list were his masterworks Psycho (1960) (#11), Vertigo (1958) (#19), North by Northwest (1959) (#44) and Notorious (1946) (#66).

Was at his heaviest in the late 1930s, when he weighed over 300 pounds. Although always overweight, he dieted and lost a considerable amount of weight in the early 1950s, with pictures from sets like To Catch a Thief (1955) showing a surprisingly thin Hitchcock. His weight continued to fluctuate throughout his life.

He had a hard time devising one of his signature walk-ons for Lifeboat (1944), a film about a small group of people trying to survive on a small boat. What he eventually came up with was to have his picture in a newspaper advertisement for weight loss that floated among some debris around the boat. He had happened to have lost a considerable amount of weight from dieting around that time, so he was seen in both the "Before" and the "After" pictures.

Often said that Shadow of a Doubt (1943) was his favourite film that he had directed.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945". Pages 456-479. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

He claimed to have an intense fear of the police. He cited this phobia as the reason he never learned to drive; a person who doesn't drive can never be pulled over and given a ticket. It was also cited as the reason for the recurring "innocent man" themes in his films.

Supported West Ham United Football Club - told colleagues in Hollywood that he subscribed to English newspapers in order to keep track of their results.

Steven Spielberg has named him as an influence.

Always wore a suit on film sets.

He was infamous with cast and crews for his "practical jokes." While some inspired laughs, such as suddenly showing up in a dress, most were said to have been more cruel than funny. Usually he found out about somebody's phobias, such as mice or spiders, and in turn sent them a box full of them.

He almost never socialized when not shooting films, with most of his evenings spent quietly at home with his wife Alma Reville.

Directed the pilot episode of the radio series "Suspense" which aired from 1942-1962, and made a brief appearance at the end. It was an adaptation of his 1927 film The Lodger (1927) and starred Herbert Marshall and Edmund Gwenn , who reprised his brother Arthur Chesney 's role as Mr. Bunting.

He would work closely with screenwriters, giving them a series of scenes that he wanted in the films, thus closely controlling what he considered the most important aspect of the filmmaking process. Although the screenwriter would write the actual dialogue and blocking, many of the scripts for his films were rigidly based on his ideas.

Directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Albert Bassermann, Michael Chekhov, Claude Rains, Ethel Barrymore and Janet Leigh. Fontaine won an Oscar for Suspicion (1941).

Praised Luis Buñuel as the best director ever

As with W.C. Fields and Arthur Godfrey before him, he was legendary for gently tweaking his sponsors during the run of his TV show. One typical example runs, "We now interrupt our story for an important announcement. I needn't tell you to whom it will be most important of all."

Ranked #2 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors ever!" [2005]

Education: St. Ignatius College, London, School of Engineering and Navigation (Studied mechanics, electricity, acoustics and navigation). University Of London (Studied art).

Told François Truffaut that although he had made two films prior to The Lodger (1927), he considered that to be his first real film.

Due to his death in 1980, he never got to see Psycho II (1983) . It remains unsure as to whether or not he was approached regarding the second movie, or any other "Psycho (1960) -Expansion" motion picture.

He hated to shoot on location. He preferred to shoot at the studio where he could have full control of lighting and other factors. This is why even his later films contain special effects composite and rear screen shots.

Grandfather of Mary Stone, Tere Carrubba and Katie Fiala.

Interviewed in Peter Bogdanovich's "Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Robert Aldrich, George Cukor, Allan Dwan, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Chuck Jones, Fritz Lang, Joseph H. Lewis, Sidney Lumet, Leo McCarey, Otto Preminger, Don Siegel, Josef von Sternberg, Frank Tashlin, Edgar G. Ulmer, Raoul Walsh." NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

Inspired the adjective "Hitchcockian" for suspense thrillers.

He was reportedly furious when Brian De Palma decided to make Obsession (1976), because he thought it was a virtual remake of Vertigo (1958). Ironically, De Palma stopped making mystery/adventure films after Hitchcock's death in 1980, with the possible exception of Body Double (1984).

Although some of the movie going public knew him, his fame really took off after 1955. That's when "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955) started. When the show was broadcast in homes week after week it gave him a much bigger exposure in the public eye. He also became quite rich from the show when it was syndicated in the US and overseas.

For Psycho (1960), he deferred his standard $250,000 salary in lieu of 60% of the film's net profits. His personal earnings from the film exceeded $15 million. Adjusted for inflation, that amount would now top $150 million in 2006 terms.

Is the "voice" of the "Jaws" ride at Universal Studios.

August 2, 1968 he visited Finland to look filming locations for his next film, "The Short Night". Of course, the film was never made. In the airport he was interviewed by Finnish reporters. He was asked why his films were so popular. His answer was: "Everybody likes to be scared".

He was knighted in 1980, and died the same year.

A statistical survey he did among audiences revealed that according to moviegoers the most frightening noise in films was the siren of a police patrol-car, followed by the crash of a road accident, cracklings of a burning forest, far galloping horses, howling dogs, the scream of a stabbed woman and the steps of a lame person in the dark.

Though he was Oscar-nominated 5 times as Best Director, DGA-nominated 6 times as Best Director, and received 3 nominations from Cannes, he has never won in any of these competitive categories, a fact that surprises fans and film critics to this day.

He made a live cameo appearance in all of his movies beginning with Rebecca (1940), excluding Lifeboat (1944), in which he appeared in a newspaper advertisement; Rope (1948), in which his "cameo" is a neon version of his famous caricature in the city set outside the window; Dial M for Murder (1954), in which he appeared in a class reunion photo; and Family Plot (1976), in which
his "appearance" is as a silhouette of someone standing on the other side of a frosted glass door.

Personal Quotes
"There is a dreadful story that I hate actors. Imagine anyone hating Jimmy Stewart . . . Jack L. Warner. I can't imagine how such a rumor began. Of course it may possibly be because I was once quoted as saying that actors are cattle. My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark, that I would never call them cattle . . . What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle."

[on his cameos] "One of the earliest of these was in The Lodger (1927), the story of Jack the Ripper. My appearance called for me to walk up the stairs of the rooming house. Since my walk-ons in subsequent pictures would be equally strenuous - boarding buses, playing chess, etc. - I asked for a stunt man. Casting, with an unusual lack of perception, hired this fat man!"

"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder"

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."

"To me Psycho (1960) was a big comedy. Had to be."

"Even my failures make money and become classics a year after I make them."

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible"

"Drama is life with the dull bits left out."

[His entire acceptance speech for the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award] "Thank you."

[When accepting the American Film Institute Life Achievement award] "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat [Patricia Hitchcock], and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville."

[Eva Marie Saint on Hitchcock] "He said, 'I don't want you going back to sink-to-sink movies. You do movies where you wash the dishes looking drab in an apron. The audience wants to see their leading ladies dressed up.' He saw me as others didn't."

[About Dario Argento and his film Profondo rosso (1975)] "This young Italian guy is starting to worry me."

"Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake."

"I enjoy playing the audience like a piano."

[to Ingrid Bergman when she told him that she couldn't play a certain character the way he wanted because "I don't feel like that, I don't think I can give you that kind of emotion."] "Ingrid - fake it!"

"I was an uncommonly unattractive young man."

"It's only a movie, and, after all, we're all grossly overpaid."

"There is nothing quite so good as a burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating."

"Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, approval, encouragement and, occasionally, a hearty meal."

"Cartoonists have the best casting system. If they don't like an actor, they just tear him up."

[About Claude Jade, who starred in Topaz (1969)] "Claude Jade is a brave nice young lady. But I don't give any guarantee what she will do on a taxi's back seat."

[On directing Charles Laughton] "You can't direct a Laughton picture. The best you can hope for is to referee."

"The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book -- it makes a very poor doorstop."

"Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders."

"I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella (1937), the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach."

"If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on."

"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it."

"In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director."

[regarding The Birds (1963)] "You know, I've often wondered what the Audubon Society's attitude might be to this picture."

"Cary Grant is the only actor I ever loved in my whole life."

"[Walt Disney] has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up."

"Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints."

"I am scared easily, here is a list of my adrenaline-production: 1: small children, 2: policemen, 3: high places, 4: that my next movie will not be as good as the last one."

"When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, 'I say, 'Your salary.'"

"I don't understand why we have to experiment with film. I think everything should be done on paper. A musician has to do it, a composer. He puts a lot of dots down and beautiful music comes out. And I think that students should be taught to visualize. That's the one thing missing in all this. The one thing that the student has got to do is to learn that there is a rectangle up there - a white rectangle in a theater - and it has to be filled."

"To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script."

[on North by Northwest (1959)] "Our original title, you know, was 'The Man in Lincoln's Nose'. Couldn't use it, though. They also wouldn't let us shoot people on Mount Rushmore. Can't deface a national monument. And it's a pity, too, because I had a wonderful shot in mind of Cary Grant hiding in Lincon's nose and having a sneezing fit."

"I made a remark a long time ago. I said I was very pleased that television was now showing murder stories, because it's bringing murder back into its rightful setting - in the home."

I'm frightened of eggs, worse than frightened, they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes ... have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I've never tasted it. (on his lifelong fear of eggs - Ovophobia)

Salary
Psycho (1960) 60% of the net profits (salary deferred)
North by Northwest (1959) 250,000 + 10% of the net profits.
The Lady Vanishes (1938) $50,000

Director :
- Family Plot (1976)
- Frenzy (1972)
- Topaz (1969)
- Torn Curtain (1966)
- Marnie (1964)
- The Birds (1963)
- "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (1 episode, 1962)
I Saw the Whole Thing (1962) TV Episode
- "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (17 episodes, 1955-1961)
Bang! You're Dead (1961) TV Episode
The Horse Player (1961) TV Episode
Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat (1960) TV Episode
The Crystal Trench (1959) TV Episode
Arthur (1959) TV Episode
and 12 more you can see detail at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000033/filmoseries#tt0047708
- Psycho (1960)
- "Startime" (1 episode, 1960)
Incident at a Corner (1960) TV Episode
- North by Northwest (1959)
- Vertigo (1958)
- "Suspicion" (1 episode, 1957)
Four O'Clock (1957) TV Episode
- The Wrong Man (1956)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
- The Trouble with Harry (1955)
- To Catch a Thief (1955)
- Rear Window (1954)
- Dial M for Murder (1954)
- I Confess (1953)
- Strangers on a Train (1951)
- Stage Fright (1950)
- Under Capricorn (1949)
- Rope (1948)
- The Paradine Case (1947)
- Notorious (1946)
- Spellbound (1945)
- Watchtower Over Tomorrow (1945) (uncredited)
- Lifeboat (1944)
- Bon Voyage (1944)
- Aventure malgache (1944)
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
- Saboteur (1942)
- Suspicion (1941)
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
- Rebecca (1940)
- Jamaica Inn (1939)
- The Lady Vanishes (1938)
- Young and Innocent (1937)
- Sabotage (1936)
- Secret Agent (1936)
- The 39 Steps (1935)
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
- Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
- Number Seventeen (1932)
- Rich and Strange (1931)
- Mary (1931)
- The Skin Game (1931)
- Murder! (1930)
- Juno and the Paycock (1930)
- An Elastic Affair (1930)
- Elstree Calling (1930) (some sketches)
- The Manxman (1929)
- Blackmail (1929)
- Sound Test for Blackmail (1929)
- Champagne (1928)
- The Farmer's Wife (1928)
- Easy Virtue (1928)
- Downhill (1927)
- The Ring (1927/I)
- The Lodger (1927)
- The Mountain Eagle (1926)
- The Pleasure Garden (1925)
- Always Tell Your Wife (1923) (uncredited)
- Number 13 (1922) (unfinished)

From : http://www.imdb.com/

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