Post by london777 on May 29, 2017 14:22:34 GMT
O dear! Not only is Stephen Frears one of my favorite current directors (and he could not be more English), but he is actually one of the names which inspired me to start this thread. What a cock-up! Thanks for catching it early!
He is perhaps too much of a chameleon to have made a really great film, but he has made many very good ones in various genres.
My favorites are The Grifters (1990) and Philomena (2013). The latter is both funny and moving and I think an American director would have strayed into sentimentality whereas it made me very angry (and not many semi-fictional films do that). Dench and Coogan are wonderful.
He has made so many good ones and all so different:
-- Prick Up Your Ears (1987) Gary Oldman is great
-- Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
-- High Fidelity (2000) notable because Jack Black is actually likeable
-- Dirty Pretty Things (2002) I wrongly remembered this as being his breakthrough movie. Only 18 years out! But it has that feel to it.
-- The Queen (2006) somehow managed to avoid being either too gossipy or too reverential
-- Tamara Drewe (2010) Old-fashioned movie and not in a good way, but I am a Hardy buff and in love with Dorset so I like it. Besides which, Gemma Arterton has big tits and supports Charlton Athletic (I wonder if she has enough to buy the club?)
His only bad film is Lay the Favorite (2012). It is kind of rambling as if they were making it up as they went along. Another entry for Bruce Willis' "direct to DVD" collection?
I would love to watch again his "A Personal History of British Cinema" (TV documentary). I watched it on TV when it came out (1995) but would have missed a lot of the references back then. It is hard to acquire.
... it's great to see Bill Douglas getting a heads up but where's his magnificent "Childhood" trilogy?