Read Online The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded by David Thomson - Free Book Online
Authors: David Thomson
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He studied at Madrid University, but dropped out. By then he was a brilliant student, and he has had a career as a composer in film as well as a writer/director. He came to attention with Open Your Eyes (which starred the young Penélope Cruz) and was derived in part from Vertigo —it was a love story in which the present was remodeled on the past. The thriller element was so lit up by psychological dream power that Tom Cruise was excited enough to remake the film as Vanilla Sky (with himself, Cruz, and Cameron Diaz). And as another part of this exchange, Amenábar directed Nicole Kidman in an Irish-like ghost story, The Others . This was one of the films that lifted Kidman to the status of real actress as opposed to Mrs. Tom. It is not a perfect film—the story might have been more enclosing—but it showed that Amenábar was a magical realist with a melancholy cast of mind.
In that light, The Sea Inside was a tremendous advance: the story of a quadriplegic who ends his own life after a prolonged battle for the right to kill himself. It featured an amazing performance from Javier Bardem as the man and it won the Oscar for best foreign film.
So it’s not quite clear why such a gap followed in Amenábar’s output. But Ágora is a classical story in which a noblewoman (Rachel Weisz) falls in love with her own slave (Max Minghella). It remains to be seen how successful this will be, just as Amenábar seems poised over the decision of what kind of a director he will be.
Jon Amiel , b. London, 1948
1986: The Singing Detective (TV). 1989: Queen of Hearts . 1990: Tune in Tomorrow.… 1993: Sommersby . 1995: Copycat . 1997: The Man Who Knew Too Little . 1999: Entrapment . 2002: The Core . 2009: Creation .
Jon Amiel has gone from studying the wrecked skin of “Philip Marlowe” to ogling the up-thrust haunches of Catherine Zeta-Jones. Well, yes, there’s room for both in this book, but here is a warning case about the risks in going to Hollywood. A seasoned television director in London, Amiel got his great chance with Dennis Potter’s six-part serial. He may have complained at low budgets and tight schedules; still, there is nothing like material, and Ron Bass (the screenwriter on Entrapment ) has a smoothness of personality that keeps him years away from understanding such characters as Potter’s Marlowe.
The transition is sadder still when one recalls that Queen of Hearts —about Italians running a café in England—was full of charm, vitality and originality. Tune in Tomorrow … , from the Vargas Llosa novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter , was offbeat. But Sommersby is a numb remake of The Return of Martin Guerre; Copycat was contrived and nasty; and Entrapment is all concept and no material, and enough to strand its two likable star personalities.
Gillian Anderson , b. Chicago, 1968
Having given one of the best performances of its year, as Lily Bart in The House of Mirth (00, Terence Davies), and seeing it largely ignored, what is Gillian Anderson to think? That her Dana Scully on TV’s The X-Files passes as real drama or more serious work? In fact, of course, all Lily Bart did was persuade the discerning that those hints of uncommon character and intelligence as Scully were not accidental. (In that strange series, many minimal things can seem larger than is really the case—let no one be fooled, high-class tosh has frequently wasted two of the smartest actors on any screen.) As a child, Anderson was taken to live in London for over ten years. But she finished her school at the Goodman Theatre School in Chicago. After a small role in The Turning (92, L.A. Puopolo), she went into The X-Files in 1993. Her ventures beyond that hit show were odd to say the least: she narrated a documentary, Why Planes Go Down (97), presumably because Scully’s deadpan encouraged the thought of unnatural reasons. She was “Southside Girl” in Chicago Cab (98, Mary Cybulski and John Tintori); The Mighty (98, Peter Chelsom); in
In that light, The Sea Inside was a tremendous advance: the story of a quadriplegic who ends his own life after a prolonged battle for the right to kill himself. It featured an amazing performance from Javier Bardem as the man and it won the Oscar for best foreign film.
So it’s not quite clear why such a gap followed in Amenábar’s output. But Ágora is a classical story in which a noblewoman (Rachel Weisz) falls in love with her own slave (Max Minghella). It remains to be seen how successful this will be, just as Amenábar seems poised over the decision of what kind of a director he will be.
Jon Amiel , b. London, 1948
1986: The Singing Detective (TV). 1989: Queen of Hearts . 1990: Tune in Tomorrow.… 1993: Sommersby . 1995: Copycat . 1997: The Man Who Knew Too Little . 1999: Entrapment . 2002: The Core . 2009: Creation .
Jon Amiel has gone from studying the wrecked skin of “Philip Marlowe” to ogling the up-thrust haunches of Catherine Zeta-Jones. Well, yes, there’s room for both in this book, but here is a warning case about the risks in going to Hollywood. A seasoned television director in London, Amiel got his great chance with Dennis Potter’s six-part serial. He may have complained at low budgets and tight schedules; still, there is nothing like material, and Ron Bass (the screenwriter on Entrapment ) has a smoothness of personality that keeps him years away from understanding such characters as Potter’s Marlowe.
The transition is sadder still when one recalls that Queen of Hearts —about Italians running a café in England—was full of charm, vitality and originality. Tune in Tomorrow … , from the Vargas Llosa novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter , was offbeat. But Sommersby is a numb remake of The Return of Martin Guerre; Copycat was contrived and nasty; and Entrapment is all concept and no material, and enough to strand its two likable star personalities.
Gillian Anderson , b. Chicago, 1968
Having given one of the best performances of its year, as Lily Bart in The House of Mirth (00, Terence Davies), and seeing it largely ignored, what is Gillian Anderson to think? That her Dana Scully on TV’s The X-Files passes as real drama or more serious work? In fact, of course, all Lily Bart did was persuade the discerning that those hints of uncommon character and intelligence as Scully were not accidental. (In that strange series, many minimal things can seem larger than is really the case—let no one be fooled, high-class tosh has frequently wasted two of the smartest actors on any screen.) As a child, Anderson was taken to live in London for over ten years. But she finished her school at the Goodman Theatre School in Chicago. After a small role in The Turning (92, L.A. Puopolo), she went into The X-Files in 1993. Her ventures beyond that hit show were odd to say the least: she narrated a documentary, Why Planes Go Down (97), presumably because Scully’s deadpan encouraged the thought of unnatural reasons. She was “Southside Girl” in Chicago Cab (98, Mary Cybulski and John Tintori); The Mighty (98, Peter Chelsom); in
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