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Sidney Lumet |
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Director / Screenwriter /
Producer |
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1924 - 2011 |
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Born June 25,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
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Key
Production Country: USA, UK |
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Key Genres:
Drama, Police Drama, Courtroom Drama, Family Drama, Docudrama, Urban Drama,
Crime, Ensemble Film, Comedy Drama |
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Key
Collaborators: Boris Kaufman (Cinematographer),
Philip Rosenberg (Production Designer),
Andrzej Bartkowiak (Cinematographer), Sean Connery (Leading Player), Ralph Rosenblum (Editor),
Tony Walton (Production Designer), Jack Warden (Leading Player), Harry
Andrews (Leading Character Player), Oswald Morris (Cinematographer), Quincy
Jones (Composer) |
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Highly
Recommended: 12 Angry Men (1957)*, Fail-Safe
(1964), Dog Day Afternoon (1975)*, The Verdict (1982)* |
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Recommended: The
Hill (1965), Serpico (1973), Network (1976)*, Running on Empty (1988),
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) |
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Worth
a Look: The Fugitive Kind (1959), The Pawnbroker (1965), The Deadly
Affair (1966), The Offence (1972), Equus (1977), Prince of the City (1981), Q&A (1990), Night
Falls on Manhattan (1996), Find Me Guilty (2006) |
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Approach with Caution:
The Group (1966), Bye Bye Braverman (1968), The Anderson Tapes (1972), Murder on the Orient Express
(1974), The Morning After (1986) |
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Duds: Long Day's
Journey Into Night (1962), The Wiz (1978), Family Business (1989) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section. |
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Links:
[
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Film Reference ]
[
Sidney
Lumet: A Serious Voice in the American Cinema ] [
FilmForce
Featured Filmmaker ] [
New
York Mag Interview (2007) ] [
Hollywood
Reporter Article: Honorary Oscar ] [
Jam! Interview (2007) ] [
Telegraph Article (2008) ] [
Sight & Sound Article (2008)
] |
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Books:
[
Making
Movies ] [
Sidney
Lumet: Film and Literary Vision ] [
Sidney
Lumet ] [
Sidney
Lumet: Interviews ] [
Street Smart: The New York of Lumet, Allen, Scorsese, and Lee ] |
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"Although
Sidney Lumet has applied his talents to a variety of genres
(drama, comedy, satire, caper, romance, and even a musical), he
has proven himself most comfortable and effective as a director
of serious psychodramas and was most vulnerable when attempting
light entertainments. His Academy Award nominations, for
example, have all been for character studies of men in crisis,
from his first film, Twelve Angry Men, to
The Verdict." -
Stephen E. Bowles (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers,
1991) |
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"At its best,
Lumet's direction is efficiently vehicular but pleasantly
impersonal...When his subjects are responsible, as in Long
Day's Journey Into Night, his services are valuable. In most
other instances, only his innate good taste saves him from utter
mediocrity... Lumet shows no sign of ever rising above the
middle-brow aspirations of his projects to become the master
rather than the mimic of the current trend away from Hollywood.." -
Andrew
Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968) |
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"This
American film-maker used to be my favourite director. I was
ecstatic over 12 Angry Men, impressed by The
Pawnbroker and trampled on by The Hill; and thought
The Deadly Affair about the best thriller of its decade.
Such worship makes it all the more difficult to be objective,
but I think disillusionment started about The Group, with
its ragbag of disparate elements which Lumet made, as with many
of his later films, so dislikeable as to alienate one from the
movie itself." -
David
Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999) |
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"Repression and its explosive effects have been explored by
Lumet. He makes social statements in comedies and dramas that
are unusually tense and pulsating." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"For
any director with a little lucidity, masterpieces are films that
come to you by accident." -
Sidney Lumet |
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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
Stage Struck
(1958), That Kind of Woman (1959), A View from the Bridge (1962), The
Sea Gull (1968), The Appointment (1969), Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots
(1970), The Anderson Tapes (1972), Child's Play (1972), Lovin' Molly
(1974), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), Deathtrap (1982), Daniel
(1983), Garbo Talks (1984), Power (1986), A Stranger Among Us (1992),
Guilty as Sin (1993), and Gloria (1998). |
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"Trained
in television, immersed in theatre and often inspired when
working with leading acting talent, Sidney Lumet's
filmography - a variable but impressive forty films
-demonstrates the value of collaborative creativity and
professional production. He deserves to be recognized as one
of the greatest social chroniclers of his native New York...
Since Q&A (1990), the quality of the still-prolific
Lumet's work has failed to match that of his glory days, but
he remains an industry elder of compelling reputation."
-
Richard Armstrong, The Rough Guide to
Film |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
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●
Strained
Seriousness |
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100 Essential Directors (Pop
Matters) |
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●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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Sidney Lumet's Favourites |
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Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
William Wyler,
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Ingmar Bergman,
Fellini's Roma (1972)
Federico Fellini,
The Godfather (1972)
Francis Ford
Coppola,
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
John Ford,
Intolerance (1916)
D.W. Griffith,
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Carl
Dreyer,
Ran (1985)
Akira Kurosawa,
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Stanley Donen &
Gene Kelly,
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick.
Source: Sight & Sound (2002) |
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