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Home / News / Tagged: film director

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Jez Butterworth, Playwright, Screenwriter and Film Director

Butterworth has had major success with his play Mojo which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre London in 1995. I won the Laurence Olivier, George Devine and Critic’s Circle Award. Butterworth wrote and directed the film adaptation of Mojo, released in 1997. He directed and co-wrote with his brother Tom the film Birthday Girl (2001) which was produced by his brother Steve and starred Nicole Kidman. Butterworth also achieved positive reviews with his plays The Night Heron (2002) and The Winterling (2006). His play Parlour Song opened to rave reviews at the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York in March 2008.

Butterworth's fourth play for the Royal Court was the comedy Jerusalem (2009). The production starred Mark Rylance as Johnny Byron and featured Mackenzie Crook as Ginger in a supporting role. It was a sell-out at the Royal Court and with the same cast transferred to the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in January 2010. On 26 October 2012, Butterworth's play The River opened at the Royal Court starring Dominic West, Laura Donnelly and Miranda Raison.

After the wild successes of his State-of-England play Jerusalem and Northern Irish drama The Ferryman, Jez Butterworth again turns to matters of national identity in the wild and highly entertaining new epic series Britannia, this time looking at the cataclysmic impact of the Roman invasion. All episodes will be available on demand in the UK starting on 18 January 2018.

Film Director Agnes Varda and Artist JR’s Honor Ordinary People on a Heroic Scale

The original French title of “Faces Places,” the new film made jointly by Agnès Varda (born in 1928) and the photographer and muralist JR (born in 1983), is “Visages Villages,” meaning “Faces Villages,” which more precisely reflects the film’s substance and the directorial duo’s intentions. They travel in JR’s van (equipped with a photo booth and a large-format printer) to small towns in France, which are as infused with nostalgia as are American small towns, and which are similarly threatened by the economic and social forces of modern life.

In the movie’s first set of extended encounters, in a former coal-mining town, the filmmakers speak with a woman named Jeanine who’s the lone holdout in a row of miners’ homes that’s soon to be demolished, and then with neighbors from the town who lovingly describe the ways of life that have vanished from the town along with the mining industry. What Varda and JR do with their filmed knowledge is what distinguishes it from the familiar round of investigative documentaries: a headshot of Jeanine, taken in the van, is blown up dozens of feet high and pasted by JR and his crew to the wall of her house, magnifying and honoring her on a scale usually reserved for public and historic figures.

More than a cinematographer or a photographer, more than a documentarist or a narrative artist, Varda is an iconographer, whose stories and explorations, recollections and encounters, are magnified into images that are, in effect, devotional. Whether festive or mournful, tragic or comedic, they embrace the fullness of experience and emotion with a fervent grandeur, which is why, in “Faces Places,” her work with JR becomes, in its own way, iconic of itself—his murals are transformed, here, into symbols of her own artistic passion.

 

The Triforce Creative Network for Actors, Writers and Directors

TriForce Creative Network was built on a strong ethos of inclusion and access, opening doors to the industry to people from all walks of life and providing a trusted and viable avenue for the industry to discover diverse talent. We provide opportunities for actors, writers, directors, producers and crew through the following initiatives:

MonologueSlam UK

Supported by Spotlight, Equity and Channel 4, MonologueSlam UK is a renowned nationwide showcase for actors. For more info go to: monologueslamuk.com

WriterSlam UK

Supported by Channel 4, ITV, Sky and BBC, as well as production companies Hat Trick, Tiger Aspect and TriForce Productions, WriterSlam provides a platform for writers looking to break into TV. Prizes include paid development commissions and mentoring with top TV executives. For more information go to: http://thetcn.com/writerslam/

TriForce Short Film Festival

TFSFF is a short film festival established by the TriForce Creative Network in 2012 to showcase talent in contemporary film-making, helping emerging film-makers to develop skills and access opportunities to further their careers. 16 shortlisted films get the chance to be seen on the big screen, in front of key industry representatives, with the winning film-makers earning career development opportunities with our industry partners, as well as a cash prize for their next project. The TFSFF takes place at BAFTA, presenting a packed day of seminars tackling the key issues of the industry and offering invaluable advice from industry professionals, alongside a bustling industry expo and screenings of the shortlisted films. For more information go to: tfsff.com

The TCN Incubator

The TCN Incubator in association with Creative Skillset will develop 6 writers over a 12 month period with regular workshops, script development and mentoring. Building on the success of our writers initiative WriterSlam, this is an incredible opportunity for 6 writers wanting to take their next step in writing for TV! For more information go to: http://thetcn.com/incubator/

TriForce Productions

The production company was set up to create TV, film and online content, with a focus on diverse content for mainstream audiences. We delivered our first broadcast commission, Sorry, I Didn’t Know, a comedy panel show with a twist for ITV2 in 2016, with more projects in the pipeline. For more information go to: http://thetcn.com/triforce-productions/

Jonathan Demme film director, producer and screen writer

Jonathan Demme was one of the most eclectic, delightful and original film makers in Hollywood. He also happened to be one of the nicest: the compassionate sensibility that lent his work his warmth and musicality was no put-on. Plainly put, he loved people. 

He rose to prominence in the 1980's with his comedy films Melvin and Howard (1980), Swing Shift (1984), Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). He became best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs (1991), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. He later directed the acclaimed films Philadelphia (1993) and Rachel Getting Married (2008).

Throughout 1986-2004, Demme was known for his dramatic close-ups in films. This style of close-ups involves the actor looking directly into the camera during crucial moments, particularly in the 'Quid pro quo' scene in The Silence of the Lambs. According to Demme, this was done to put the audience into the character's shoes. Beginning with Rachel getting married, Demme then adopted a documentary style of filmmaking.

Jonathan Demme died on Wednesday 26 April aged 73. In 2008 Ryan Gilbey asked him whether he had anything to add to the formula he gave in 1986 for making a decent movie 'you get a good script, good actors and try not to screw it up'. He let out a joyful laugh 'That's the formula, baby!'.

 

 

Director Asghar Farhadi Acting on Principle

Film director Asghar Farhadi returns to Teheran with another riveting moral tale and new inquiries into human behaviour. Aside from The Past (2013) which is set in France, his dramas all unfold in Iran and mostly in and around Teheran. And if the context for his fictions may be specific, the themes they explore have universal appeal. A Separation (2011), which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, played a huge acclaim internationally, which audiences relating to the pain caused by the disintegration of a family. To Farhadi, the human condition transcends all borders.

Farhadi's The Salesman, for which he was awarded Best Director prize at Cannes last year (Shahab Hosseini deservedly picked up Best Actor award), is a typically tense and supremely crafted study in mistaken identity, hypocrisy and the power of art to shine a light on our foibles and indiscretions. The main protagonists are a couple forced to move home as the result of a fissure in their residential block. They are both about to appear on stage in an as-yet-uncensored production of Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman'. The play's director offers them an empty apartment while they look for something more permanent. What he doesn't tell them is who used to live there and why a stranger should appear at the door when the husband is teaching literature to a class of mostly disinterested boys. What happens during the unexpected visit threatens the couple's peaceful existence and reverberates both on and off the theatre stage.

Farhadi's skilful melding of Miller's play and his own tale recalls Pedro Almodovar's deploying of Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire' within the narrative of All About my Mother (1999). Both tease out the complex fabric of the play to examine the predicament the film's characters find themselves in. The role of censorship adds another layer in The Salesman. The play cannot be performed publicly without approval from the state censor, which taps into a wider malaise in Iranian society regarding openness that the film explores.

Playwright Screenwriter and Film Director Martin McDonagh

Martin McDonagh is a playwright, screenwriter and film director born and brought up in London to Irish parents. He has been described as one of the most influential living playwrights in Ireland.

Separated into two trilogies, McDonagh first six plays are located in and around the county of Galway, where he spent his holidays as a child. McDonagh first non-Irish play The Pillowman is set in a fictitious totalitarian state and premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London in 2003.

A Behanding in Spokane is his first play set the United States and it premiered on Broadway in March 2010. Lead actor Christopher Walken was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as a killer looking for the hand he lost in his youth.

McDonagh also penned two prize-winning radio plays, one of which is The Tale of the Woolf and the Woodcutter. In February 2010, an announcement revealed that McDonagh was working on a new stage musical with composer Tom Waits and director Robert Wilson.

Mc Donagh has stated that he prefers writing films to plays. In 2006, McDonagh won an Academy Award for his short film Six Shooters (2005), which is the playwright's first film. Six Shooters is a black comedy that features Brendan Gleeson, Ruaidhri Conroy, David Wilmot and Aisling O'Sullivan, and was shot on location in Wicklow, Waterford and Rosslare. In the short film, Gleeson's character encounters a strange and possibly psychotic young man during a homeward train journey following the death of his wife.

McDonagh then went on directing In Bruges, a feature-length film based on his own screenplay, in which two irish hit men hide in the Flemish town of Bruges after a problematic job. Released in the USA in 2008, the film features Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. In 2012, Seven psychopaths was released in North America.