Key
Collaborators:
Cedric
Gibbons (Production Designer), Katharine Hepburn (Leading Player), Spencer
Tracy (Leading Player), Donald Ogden Stewart (Screenwriter), Gene Allen
(Production Designer), Henry
Daniell (Character Player), Bronislau Kaper (Composer), Garson Kanin
(Screenwriter), Ruth Gordon (Screenwriter), William Daniels
(Cinematographer)
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)
Recommended:
Dinner
at Eight (1933), Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), Camille
(1936), A Woman's Face (1941), Gaslight (1944), Born Yesterday (1950),
The Actress (1953), It Should Happen to You (1954), Heller in Pink
Tights (1960)
1,000
Greatest Films: Camille (1936), Holiday (1938), The Philadelphia
Story (1940), A Star is Born (1954)
"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)
"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)
"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)
"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)
"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)
Last
updated:
11/01/2008 01:31 AM.
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