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George Cukor |
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Director |
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1899 - 1983 |
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Born July 7, New
York, New York, USA |
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Key
Production Country: USA |
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Key Genres:
Drama, Comedy, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Sophisticated Comedy, Comedy
Drama, Melodrama, Musical, Musical Comedy, Period Film, Coming-of-Age,
Domestic Comedy, Ensemble Film |
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Key
Collaborators: Cedric
Gibbons (Production Designer), Katharine Hepburn (Leading Player), Gene
Allen (Production Designer), Spencer
Tracy (Leading Player), Donald Ogden Stewart (Screenwriter), Garson Kanin
(Screenwriter), Ruth Gordon (Screenwriter), Bronislau Kaper (Composer),
Judy Holliday (Leading Player), William Daniels
(Cinematographer) |
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Highly Recommended: Holiday (1938)*, The
Women (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940)*, Adam's Rib (1949), A Star is Born (1954)*, Bhowani Junction (1956), My Fair Lady
(1964)* |
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Recommended:
Dinner
at Eight (1933), Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), Camille
(1936), A Woman's Face (1941), Gaslight (1944), Born Yesterday (1950),
The Marrying Kind (1952), The Actress (1953), It Should Happen to You (1954), Heller in Pink
Tights (1960) |
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Worth a Look:
Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Keeper of the Flame (1942), A Double Life
(1947), Edward, My Son (1949), Pat and Mike
(1952), Let's Make Love (1960), Travels with My Aunt (1972) |
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Approach with Caution:
Two-Faced Woman (1941), Les Girls (1957), The Chapman Report (1962) |
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Duds: Rich and
Famous (1981) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
]
[
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Bright
Lights Film Journal Feature ] [
Classic
Film and Television Home Page ] [
Reel
Classics Page ] |
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Books:
[
George
Cukor: A Double Life ] [
George
Cukor: Interviews ] [
On
Cukor ] [
George Cukor, Master of Elegance: Hollywood's Legendary Director and His
Stars ] [
George Cukor: A Critical Study and Filmography ] |
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"Stylistically,
his films are defined by their unshowy sophistication, with the
discreetly fluid camera focused firmly on the dazzling
performances; he was particularly adept with and sympathetic to
actresses, and made numerous films with women centre-stage.
Fittingly, the secret of Cukor's eminently civilised artistry
lies in its deceptive ease." -
Geoff
Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999) |
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"Although
most of Cukor's films are adaptations of preexisting novels and
plays, he has always chosen material that has been consistent
with his view of reality. Most often he has explored the
conflict between illusion and reality in peoples' lives. The
chief characters in his films are frequently actors and
actresses, for they, more than anyone, run the risk of allowing
the world of illusion with which they are constantly involved to
become their reality." -
Gene
D. Phillips (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998)
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"George
Cukor's filmography is his most eloquent defense. When a
director has provided tasteful entertainment of a high order
consistently over a period of more than thirty years, it is clear that
said director is much more than a mere
entertainer. Mere entertainers seldom entertain for more than
five years, and then only intermittently... He is a genuine
artist" -
Andrew
Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968) |
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"One of Hollywood's best directors of women and women's films
(Little Women, 33; The Women, 39). His
comedies (Adam's Rib, 49; Born Yesterday, 50) are
generally rich in the real humor of life." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"Alas, I
am not an auteur, but damn few directors can write. They're very
clever and they can go through the paces. As a director, you've
got to think of your own limitations. There are certain things
you're sympathetic with, and there are certain things you say to
yourself. "Well, I can do it because I'm perfectly
competent, but there's so many people who can do it much better
than I can." I've been sent a script I think is charming
and I said, "I think you ought to get an Italian director;
it's madness to ask me to do it." -
George
Cukor (Directing the Film, 1976) |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include Girls About Town (1931), Tarnished Lady
(1931), A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Rockabye (1932), What Price
Hollywood? (1932), Our Betters (1933), Romeo and Juliet (1936), Zaza
(1939), Susan and God (1940), Her Cardboard Lover (1942), Winged Victory
(1944), A Life of Her Own (1950), The Model and the Marriage Broker
(1951), Wild is the Wind (1957), Justine (1969), and The Blue Bird
(1976). |
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"While
Cukor’s cinema work embraces a variety of genres, he is
probably best remembered for sophisticated comedies like
Adam’s Rib (1949) and Born Yesterday (1950), with
their trademark quirky, and very modern, heroines. Cukor
worked with many of Hollywood’s finest actresses (among
them, most memorably, Katharine Hepburn and Judy Holliday)
and female scriptwriters. This earned him a reputation as a
"women’s director." Cukor’s independent, acerbic,
intelligent heroines are never less than interesting, and
his films characteristically proffer a kind of feminine
angle on the world. Yet they rarely identify fully with the
woman’s point of view, nor as a rule do they address
themselves exclusively to a female audience. In this regard,
Cukor has been likened to the American novelist Henry James."
-
Annette Kuhn, Schirmer Encyclopedia of
Film |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
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●
The
Far Side of Paradise |
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●
100 Essential Directors (Pop
Matters) |
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●
Jean-Pierre Melville's 64 Favourite Pre-War American
Filmmakers (Cahiers du Cinema, October 1961) |
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●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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●
Edmund
Goulding |
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Howard
Hawks |
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Walter
Lang |
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Ernst
Lubitsch |
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Joseph
L. Mankiewicz |
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Leo
McCarey |
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Vincente Minnelli |
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Jean
Negulesco |
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Jean
Renoir |
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George
Sidney |
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George
Stevens |
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●
William Wyler |
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