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Arthur Penn

 

TSPDT Rating

Director / Producer / Screenwriter
1922 -  
Born September 27, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Drama, Western, Biography
Key Collaborators: Dede Allen (Editor), George Jenkins (Production Designer), Warren Beatty (Leading Player), Faye Dunaway (Leading Player), Gene Hackman (Leading Player), Hurd Hatfield (Leading Player), Fred Coe (Producer), Jeff Corey (Leading Character Player), Ghislain Cloquet (Cinematographer), Aram Avakian (Editor)
Highly Recommended: Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Recommended: The Left-Handed Gun (1958), The Miracle Worker (1962), Mickey One (1965), Night Moves (1975)
Links: [ IMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide[ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [ Film Reference ] [ WNET New York Interview ] [ Internet Broadway Database[ Hollywood Reporter News Article (2006) ] [ Moving Image Source Article (2008) ]
Books: [ Arthur Penn
DVD's: [ Amazon ]
1,000 Greatest Films: Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Night Moves (1975)
 
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)The Left-Handed Gun (1958)The Miracle Worker (1962)Night Moves (1975)
 
     
  "For a stage director whose work suffers from an oppressive literalness of effect, Penn has revealed a distinctive flair for the cinema. The intense physicality of the performances in his films serves to counterbalance a strained reading of lines. A director of force rather than grace, Penn may yet reassert the plastic role of the actor in the scheme of things. Be that as it may, The Left-Handed Gun remains a tribute to the director's gifts of improvisation." - Andrew Sarris (The American Cinema, 1968)  
     
  "Penn is the classic example of a fine director touching his peak, wobbling a little, re-finding himself, and then going, completely off the boil...There are too few directors of Penn's particular talent around today and it is something of a tragedy that either Hollywood, or the sum of his own particular idiosyncrasies, has let him down." - Mario Reading (The Movie Companion, 2006)  
     
  "American director who has made an interesting variety of films, some of them very fine - but only 13 in 30 years...Since Bonnie and Clyde, Penn has not proved to be a major figure at the box office; his films are always fascinating, even exciting, in concept and casting, but sometimes lacking in fulfilment." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Illustrated Guide to Film Directors, 1999)  
     
  "The alienation of modern man in society, and the breaking of myths and legends are the subjects of Penn's most effective films." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)  
     
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Last updated: 28/01/2010 10:35 AM.  Contact Us: bill@theyshootpictures.com.
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