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Sidney Lumet
Saturday, Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m.
A master of cinema, Sidney Lumet is known for his technical knowledge and his ability to get first-rate performances from his actors. His more than 40 films are often emotional, but seldom overly sentimental, and tell intelligent, complex stories.
Born in Philadelphia, Lumet began his career as a child actor. He began directing for live television in 1950, working on such distinguished series as “Omnibus” and “Studio One,” and filmed anthologies like Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre. He directed his first film, “Twelve Angry Men” (1957), at the request of producer and star Henry Fonda. For his efforts, he garnered a Best Director Academy Award nomination. After directing “The Sacco-Vanzetti Story” on NBC, Lumet received several prestigious film assignments, including his 1962 artistic triumph “Long Day's Journey Into Night.”
Known for making films that combine popular elements with serious themes, his greatest commercial triumph was “Network” (1976). His remarkably diverse body of work includes “The Pawnbroker” (1965), “Serpico” (1973), “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974), “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975) and “The Verdict” (1982). Among later films are “Q & A” (1991), “Guilty as Sin” (1993), “Night Falls on Manhattan” (1996), “Critical Care” (1997) and “Gloria” (1999).
Lumet has been nominated for five Oscars and received the Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in 2005 for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers and the art of the motion picture."
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Natasha Richardson
Sunday, Oct. 30, 7 p.m.
Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Natasha Richardson started her career at Leeds Playhouse. She has performed extensively on stage in roles including Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Ophelia in “Hamlet” at the Young Vic Theatre Company. In 1986, she was voted the London Drama Critics’ Most Promising Newcomer for her performance as Nina in “The Seagull” with Vanessa Redgrave and Jonathan Pryce. In 1987, she played Tracey Lord in Richard Eyre’s musical “High Society.” Playing the title role of Anna Christie in 1992 at the Young Vic, she was voted London Drama Critics’ Poll Best Actress. She reprised the role in 1993 on Broadway at the Roundabout opposite Liam Neeson and was nominated for a Tony and a Drama Desk for Best Actress and won a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Debut of an Actress. For her performance as Sally Bowles in Sam Mendes’ and Rob Marshall’s production of “Cabaret” she won the 1998 Tony, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actress in a Musical. She then played Anna on Broadway in Patrick Marber’s Tony-nominated play “Closer” in 1999 and in 2003 played Ellida in Trevor Nunn’s production of “Lady from the Sea” at The Almeida in London. She recently completed her role as Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” on Broadway for the Roundabout at Studio 54.
Some of Richardson’s television credits include Ibsen’s “Ghosts” for the BBC, also starring Judi Dench, Michael Gambon and Kenneth Branagh; the HBO miniseries “Hostages” with Colin Firth; the BBC film “Suddenly Last Summer,” based on the play by Tennessee Williams and directed by Richard Eyre. In 1993, she was nominated for a Cable Ace Award for her portrayal of Zelda Fitzgerald in the TNT movie “Zelda” directed by Pat O’Connor and co-starring Timothy Hutton. In 2001, she starred as Ruth Gruber in the CBS mini-series “Haven” based on Gruber’s book.
In 1987, Richardson made her feature film debut in the role of Mary Shelley in Ken Russell’s “Gothic.” Her performance caught the attention of director Paul Schrader who cast her in her highly acclaimed title role in “Patty Hearst.” Since then, Richardson has achieved notable success in such films as Pat O’Connor’s “A Month In The Country” and Roland Joffe’s “Fat Man And Little Boy.” She then went on to win The London Evening Standard Award for Best Actress of 1990 for her performance in Volker Schlondorf’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Paul Schrader’s “The Comfort Of Strangers.” In 1994, she received the Best Actress Award at the Karlovy Vary Festival for her lead role in “Widow’s Peak” co-starring Mia Farrow and Joan Plowright. She co-starred with Jodie Foster and Liam Neeson in “Nell” in 1995, and in 1998 starred in Disney’s “The Parent Trap” with Dennis Quaid and Lindsay Lohan. Her films also include “Blowdry” in 2001, Ethan Hawke’s “Chelsea Walls” in 2002, ”Wakin’ up in Reno” with Billy Bob Thornton in 2002 and “Maid in Manhattan” with Jennifer Lopez in 2003.
Richardson currently can be seen starring opposite Sir Ian McKellan in “Asylum” based on the Patrick McGrath novel, directed by David Mackenzie and released by Paramount Classics. She also recently completed Merchant Ivory’s “The White Countess,” featuring an original screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, in which she stars opposite Ralph Fiennes.
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Walter Murch
Monday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m.
Walter Murch has been honored by both British and American Motion Picture Academies for his picture editing and sound mixing. In 1997, Murch received an unprecedented double Oscar for both film editing and sound mixing on “The English Patient” (Anthony Minghella), as well as that year's British Academy Award for best editing. Seventeen years earlier, he had received an Oscar for best sound for “Apocalypse Now” (Francis Ford Coppola), as well as British and American Academy nominations for his picture editing. He also won a double British Academy Award in 1975 for his film editing and sound mixing on “The Conversation” (Francis Ford Coppola), was nominated by both academies in 1978 for best film editing for "Julia" (Fred Zinnemann), and in 1991 received two nominations for best film editing from the American Academy for the films “Ghost” (Jerry Zucker) and The Godfather Part III (Francis Ford Coppola).
Among Murch’s other credits include: picture editing for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (Philip Kaufman), “Romeo is Bleeding” (Peter Medak), “First Knight” (Jerry Zucker), “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (Anthony Minghella), and “K-19: The Widowmaker” (Kathryn Bigelow).
His most recent credit is for “Cold Mountain” (Anthony Minghella) for which he received an Academy nomination for editing, and British Academy nominations for editing and sound mixing.
He is currently working on “Jarhead” for director Sam Mendes. The film, from the novel by Anthony Swofford, will be released November 2005. He also has been involved in film restoration, notably Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil” (original 1958, restored 1998), Francis Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now Redux” (original 1979, restored 2001), and Thomas Edison's “Dickson Experimental Sound Film” (1894).
Murch was sound effects supervisor for “The Godfather” (Francis Ford Coppola), and responsible for sound montage and rerecording on “THX-1138” (George Lucas), “American Graffiti” (George Lucas), “The Godfather Part II” (Francis Ford Coppola), and “Crumb” (Terry Zweigoff). He was rerecording mixer on all of the films for which he was picture editor.
Murch also directed and co-wrote the film “Return to Oz,” released by Walt Disney Pictures in 1985. Between films, he pursues interests in the science of human perception, cosmology and the history of science. Since 1995, he has been working on a reinterpretation of the Titius-Bode Law of planetary spacing, based on data from the Voyager Probe, the Hubble telescope, and recent discoveries of exoplanets orbiting distant stars. He has also translated into English a number of previously untranslated works by the Italian novelist Curzio Malaparte.
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Jeff Daniels
Monday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m.
Jeff Daniels made his feature film debut in Milos Forman’s “Ragtime,” but it was his portrayal as Debra Winger’s husband in “Terms of Endearment” that catapulted him to stardom. Woody Allen was among the first to recognize the actor’s talent and comic ability and cast Daniels in a starring role in “The Purple Rose of Cairo.” He then went on to star in a number of films, including “Something Wild,” “The Butcher’s Wife,” “Checking Out,” “Fly Away Home,” “101 Dalmatians,” “Speed,” “Pleasantville,” “Arachnophobia,” “Gettysburg,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “Blood Work,” “The Hours,” “Gods and Generals,” “Imaginary Heroes” and “Because of Winn-Dixie.” He recently completed production of Doug McGrath’s “Have You Heard” and “Goodnight, and Good Luck,” directed by George Clooney. He will next be seen in “The Squid and the Whale,” written and directed by Noah Baumbach (to be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films in October 2005)
Television credits include the recent “Five People You Meet In Heaven” (based on Mitch Albom’s best-selling novel), TNT’s remake of Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl,” Robert Altman’s “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial,” Lee Grant’s “No Place Like Home,” A&E’s “The Crossing,” NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” and “Cheaters” for HBO.
Daniels’ success is not limited to the screen. His appearances on the Broadway stage include Lanford Wilson’s “Redwood Curtain” and “Fifth of July,” which won him a Drama Desk Award for Best Supporting Actor. Off Broadway, Daniels earned a Drama Desk nomination for “Lemon Sky,” as well as an Obie for his performance in the Circle Repertory Company production of “Johnny Got His Gun.”
Back home in Chelsea, Mich, he has continued his passion for the theater by founding the Purple Rose Theater Company, which he dedicated to encourage and develop Midwestern actors, playwrights, directors and designers. All of Daniels’ own plays have premiered there: “Shoe Man” (Detroit News Critics Award for Best New Play), “The Tropical Pickle,” “The Vast Difference,” “Thy Kingdom’s Coming,” “Apartment 3A,” “Boom Town,” “Escanaba in da Moonlight,” “Across the Way” (which was nominated for Best New Play by the American Theatre Critics Association) and, most recently, “Norma & Wanda.”
Since the 1970’s, Daniels has been composing songs, and recently recorded “Jeff Daniels – Live and Unplugged,” a collection of live performances which humorously and touchingly reflect on his life and career. Proceeds from the sale of this CD benefit The Purple Rose Theater.
In 1999, Daniels formed Purple Rose Films, a Michigan-based independent production company. His first film as writer/director/actor was “Escanaba in da Moonlight,” a comedy about deer hunting based on his hit play. His second film, “Super Sucker,” a comedy about Midwestern vacuum cleaner salesmen, won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo.
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Ellen Burstyn
Friday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m.
Ellen Burstyn’s illustrious career encompasses film, stage, and television. She was the first woman to win both a Tony Award and an Academy Award in the same year for her work in Bernard Slade’s “Same Time,” “Next Year on Broadway” and in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1975), for which she also received the Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Award for Best Actress. Burstyn has received Academy Award nominations for five other films, including “The Last Picture Show” (1971), “The Exorcist” (1973), “Same Time, Next Year” (1978), “Resurrection” (1980), and “Requiem for a Dream” (1999).
Burstyn’s many theater credits include the 1982 Broadway production of “84 Charing Cross Road” and “Park Your Car in Harvard Yard,” in which she starred with Burgess Meredith off-Broadway. Burstyn appeared on Broadway in the acclaimed one-woman play “Shirley Valentine” and later in “Shimada” in 1992 and “Sacrilege” in 1995. In the mid-90s, she starred in two plays written by Horton Foote: “The Trip to Bountiful” and “Death of Papa.” Most recently, she starred in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Days Journey Into Night” at Houston’s Alley Theatre and at Hartford Stage in Connecticut.
Burstyn has worked with some of film’s most visionary directors, including Martin Scorsese and Darren Aronofsky, and has appeared in such films as “Alex in Wonderland” (1970), “The King of Marvin Gardens” (1972), “Harry and Tonto” (1974), “Providence” (1976), “Dream of Passion” (1978), “Silence of the North” (1980), “Twice in a Lifetime” (1986), “Dying Young” (1990), “The Cemetery Club” (1993), “Roommates” (1995), “How To Make An American Quilt” (1995), “The Babysitter’s Club” (1995), “The Spitfire Grill” (1996), “Playing By Heart” (1998), “The Yards” (1998), “Walking Across Egypt” (1999), and “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”(2002).
In television, Burstyn earned an Emmy nomination for her title role in “The People vs. Jean Harris” (1981). She received a second nomination for her starring role in “Pack of Lies,” a 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame television production, and in 2001 co-starred on the CBS series “That’s Life.”
Burstyn was the first woman to be elected president of the Actor’s Equity Association and served as the artistic director of the Actors Studio for six years, where she studied with the late Lee Strasberg. She continues to be active there as co-president with Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel. Burstyn received the Career Achievement Award from the 2000 Boston Film Festival and the Career Achievement Award from the prestigious National Board of Review in early 2001.
Born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, Mich., Burstyn spent her early years as a model and actress, appearing regularly on the classic television shows “The Jackie Gleason Show,” “The Doctors,” “Ben Casey” and “Iron Horse.”
Academically, Burstyn holds three honorary doctorates, one in fine arts from the School of Visual Arts, a Doctor of Humane Letters from Dowling College, as well as one from the New School for Social Research where she teaches in the Actors Studio/New School M.F.A. program. Burstyn also lectures throughout the country on a wide range of topics.
The upcoming year is a busy one for Burstyn. She is co-starring with Hugh Jackmans in Darren Aronofsky’s new film “The Fountain” (2006). She also recently joined Leelee Sobieski and Nicholas Cage in Neil La Bute’s independent film “The Wicker Man.” The film is a remake of the 1973 British horror flick about a police officer who investigates the disappearance of a young girl. Burstyn is also in the process of completing her memoir titled “Lessons in Becoming Myself,” which is scheduled to be published by Riverhead Press next year.
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Don Bluth
Saturday, Nov. 5, 7 p.m.
Producer, director and animator Don Bluth’s illustrious career spans nearly 50 years. In that time, he has worked with film giants such as Walt Disney Productions, Fox Animation Studios and now his own studio, Don Bluth Productions. Originally an English literature major at Brigham Young University, Bluth auspiciously began his career as an assistant animator to John Lounsbery on “Sleeping Beauty” (1959) and “The Sword in the Stone” (1961). After trying a stint as a producer and director of live musical plays with his brother Toby in the mid-1960s, Bluth returned to animation fulltime to pursue his real passion.
Bluth has worked in all categories of traditional animation, from mixing colors for ink and paint to writing scripts, directing scenes and even composing songs. His career took off shortly after rejoining Disney, where he served as an animator for “Robin Hood” (1973), directing animator for “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too” (1974) and “The Rescuers” (1976), director of animation for “Pete’s Dragon” (1977) and producer and director for “The Small One” (1978).
Bluth’s name came to the public’s attention in 1979 when he resigned his position at Walt Disney Productions along with long-time partners and fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy to start Don Bluth Productions. Since that time, Bluth has written, directed, produced and designed characters and environments for 12 films and three laser disc video games. Among his noteworthy films is “The Secret of N.I.M.H.” (1982), “An American Tail” (1986), “The Land Before Time” (1988), “All Dogs Go To Heaven” (1989) and “Thumbelina” (1994). Working with Fox Animation Studios, Bluth also has created “Anastasia” (1997), “Bartok the Magnificent” (1999) and “Titan A.E.” (2000). His video games include the well-known “Dragon’s Lair” (1983), “Space Ace” (1983) and “Dragon’s Lair II: A Time Warp” (1989).
Under Bluth’s “ToonTalk” banner, he has given seminars on storyboarding, character design, animation and directing at schools across the United States and Mexico. Bluth is also the author of two books: “Don Bluth’s Art of Storyboarding” (2004) and “Don Bluth’s Art of Animation Drawing” (2005).
Bluth has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1976. He makes his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he continues to develop animation education materials and new properties for feature animation productions.
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Gary Goldman
Saturday, Nov. 5, 7 p.m.
Gary Goldman’s career began in 1972 on the animated motion picture “Robin Hood” as a rough “inbetweener” to supervising animator Frank Thomas. From there, Goldman has worked in many of the production processes of traditional animation. Goldman earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in life drawing and a minor in art history from the University of Hawaii in 1971. His first job interview was at Walt Disney Productions, where he submitted his drawing portfolio and was hired into their animation-training program three days later. Goldman’s career continued as an animator on “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too” (1974) and “The Rescuers” (1976) and as directing animator on “Pete’s Dragon” (1977) and “The Small One” (1978).
Goldman and his artistic partners Don Bluth and John Pomeroy left Walt Disney Productions in 1979 to co-found Don Bluth Productions. Since then, Goldman has animated, produced, co-directed and supervised post-production on 12 films and three interactive video games, including, “The Secret of NIMH” (1982), “Dragon’s Lair” (1983), “Space Ace” (1983), “An American Tail” (1986), “Dragon’s Lair II: A Time Warp” (1988), “The Land Before Time” (1988), “All Dogs Go To Heaven” (1989), “Thumbelina” (1994), “Anastasia” (1997), “Bartok the Magnificent” (1999) and “Titan A.E.” (2000). Goldman’s last three films were produced in Phoenix, Ariz., for Fox Animation Studios, which Goldman co-helmed the creation of in 1994 at the invitation of 20th Century Fox executives Bill Mechanic and Peter Chernin.
Goldman continues to work with Bluth under the Don Bluth Films banner. They executive produced “Dragon’s Lair 3D: Return to the Lair” (2002) for PC, Mac, Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation® 2. Goldman and Bluth are busy developing intellectual properties for animated feature films, consulting on video game productions and giving seminars on animation production to animation professionals and students from around the world. Goldman recently worked with Bluth on two books: “Don Bluth’s Art of Storyboarding” and “Don Bluth’s Art of Animation Drawing.”
Goldman has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1976. | |
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