Philip Ridley (born 1964 in East London ^[1]) is a British artist working with various media.

Biography[link]

Ridley was born in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London, where he still lives and works. Ridley studied painting at St. Martin’s School of Art and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Japan. He started as both a performance artist and the creator of a long sequence of charcoal drawings called The Epic Fail of Oracle Foster.^[2] One drawing from this sequence, "Corvus Cum", portraying a man ejaculating a black bird, was exhibited at the ICA in London while Ridley was still a student and – with calls for it to be displayed behind a curtain – became a cause célèbre.^[3] Ridley also started his own theatre group as a student, acting in many of the productions, and made several short art films, including Visiting Mr Beak which starred the veteran actor Guy Rolfe. His short film for Channel 4, The Universe of Dermot Finn, was officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival, where it was a critical success and went on to receive theatrical distribution.^[4]

Ridley has written three books for adults, Crocodilia, In the Eyes of Mr. Fury, and Flamingoes in Orbit; the screenplay for The Krays^[5] feature film; nine adult stage plays: The Pitchfork Disney, the multi-award-winning ''The Fastest Clock in the Universe, Ghost from a Perfect Place, Vincent River, the controversial Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass, Piranha Heights, Tender Napalm and Shivered: plus a further five plays for young people: Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece, Sparkleshark and Brokenville.^[6]

He has also directed two feature films from his own screenplays: The Reflecting Skin – winner of 11 international awards – and The Passion of Darkly Noon^[7] (winner of the Best Director Prize at the Porto Film Festival) and one short film, The Universe of Dermot Finn.^[8]

His children's books include Scribbleboy (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), Kasper in the Glitter (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Mighty Fizz Chilla (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award), ZinderZunder, Vinegar Street, and Krindlekrax (winner of both the Smarties Prize and the WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award). The stage play of Krindlekrax – adapted by Ridley himself – premiered at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in the summer of 2002. His children's novel Zip's Apollo was published in 2005.^[9]

He is also a photographer — he created the cover images for Ridley: Plays 1 and Ridley: Plays 2, (published by Methuen) and regularly exhibits portraits of friends and images of East London, the two main themes of his photographic output – and a poet (his work has appeared in several collections). He co-wrote, with Nick Bicat, two songs that appeared in his film The Passion of Darkly Noon, ("Who Will Love Me Now?", sung by P.J. Harvey - later covered by Sunscream - and "Look What You've Done" sung by Gavin Friday). Ridley has won both the Evening Standard's Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright Awards. He is the only person ever to receive both prizes.^[10]

Ridley's third film as writer-director, Heartless, premiered at the Frightfest horror film festival in London in August 2009.^[11] The film stars Jim Sturgess, Clemence Poesy, Noel Clarke, Eddie Marsan, Luke Treadaway, Ruth Sheen and Timothy Spall, and was released in the UK in May 2010.^[12] It was the first mainstream British film to be released across all platforms (theatrical, DVD, Blu-ray, download) at the same time.^[13] In addition to this, a new collection of his adult plays has just been published by Methuen (including Vincent River, Mercury Fur, Leaves Of Glass and Piranha Heights, with a new introduction by Ridley). An opera for teenagers titled Tarantula In Petrol Blue was recently premiered by Aldeburgh Music.^[14]

He was featured on BBC 2's flagship arts programme The Culture Show on 2 March 2012^[15]

List of works (incomplete)[link]

Literature[link]

• 1986 - Embracing Verdi (short story)
• 1987 - Leviathan (short story)
• 1988 - Crocodilia (novella)
• 1989 - In the Eyes of Mr. Fury (novel)
• 1989 - Mercedes Ice (children's novel)
• 1990 - Flamingoes in Orbit (short stories)
• 1990 - Dakota of the White Flats (children's novel)
• 1991 - Krindlekrax (children's novel)
• 1994 - Meteorite Spoon (children's novel)
• 1995 - The Hooligan's Shampoo (short story for children)
• 1995 - Kasper in the Glitter (children's novel)
• 1996 - Dreamboat Zing(short story for children)
• 1996 - Alien Heart (short story)
• 1997 - Scribbleboy (children's novel)
• 1998 - Zinderzunder (children's novel)
• 1998 - Wonderful Insect (short story)
• 2000 - Vinegar Street (children's novel)
• 2002 - Mighty Fizz Chilla (children's novel)
• 2005 - Zip's Apollo (children's novel)
• 2007 - Love Songs for Extinct Creatures (poetry reading)

Theatre[link]

Adult Stage Plays

• 1991 - The Pitchfork Disney
• 1992 - The Fastest Clock in the Universe
• 1994 - Ghost from a Perfect Place
• 2000 - Vincent River
• 2005 - Mercury Fur
• 2007 - Leaves of Glass
• 2008 - Piranha Heights
• 2011 - Tender Napalm
• 2012 - Shivered

Plays for Young People

• 1996 - Fairytaleheart
• 1996 - Sparkleshark
• 2003 - Brokenville
• 2004 - Karamazoo
• 2004 - Moonfleece (professional premiere in 2010)
• 2008 - Feathers in the Snow

Plays for Children

• 2002 - Krindlekrax
• 2004 - Daffodil Scissors

Libretto

• 2007 - on such a day (concert piece)
• 2009 - Tarantula in Petrol Blue (opera)

Film[link]

• 1988 - The Universe of Dermot Finn (short film)
• 1990 - The Krays (screenplay)
• 1990 - The Reflecting Skin (screenplay and director)
• 1995 - The Passion of Darkly Noon (screenplay and director)
• 2010 - Heartless (screenplay and director)

Radio plays[link]

• 1989 - October Scars the Skin
• 1989 - The Aquarium of Coincidences
• 1991 - Shambolic Rainbow

Songs[link]

From the film The Passion of Darkly Noon (music Nick Bicat)

• Who Will Love Me Now? (sung by PJ Harvey)
• Look What You've Done (To My Skin) (sung by Gavin Friday)

From the film Heartless (music Nick Bicat)^[16]

• Heartless (sung by Jim Sturgess)
• This Is The World We Live In ( sung by Joe Echo)
• What Skin Is All About (sung by Joe Echo)
• The Other Me (sung by Joe Echo)
• It Must Be Somewhere (sung by Mary Leay)
• The Darker It Gets ( sung by Joe Echo)
• In You Are All The Stories ( sung by Joe Echo)
• Beautiful (sung by Joe Echoe)
• Phoenix In Dynamite Sky (sung by Joe Echo)

Exhibitions[link]

Group Shows

• 1981 - New Contemporaries, ICA, London.
• 1982 - New Contemporaries, ICA, London.
• 1983 - Christie's Student Show, Christie's, London.
• 1984 - The Leicester Exhibition, Leicester.
• 1985 - Open Drawing Exhibition, Tettenhall Gallery, Wolverhampton.
• 1985 - Open Exhibition, Lamont Gallery, London.
• 1986 - Ten Painters, 7th Floor Gallery, St. Martin's School of Art, London.
• 1986 - Summer Exhibition, Bernard Baron Gallery, London.
• 1987 - Group Show, Tom Allen Centre, London.
• 1987 - Selected Show, Lamont Gallery, London.
• 1987 - Young Contemporaries, Birch & Conran, London.
• 1988 - Decency, Discretly Bizarre Gallery, London.
• 1988 - Selected Show, Lamont Gallery, London.
• 1988 - Mendacity, Discretly Bizarre Gallery, London.
• 1988 - Magical Cats, Lamont Gallery, London.
• 1988 - Art Jonction International, Nice, France.
• 1988 - Bergamo Art Fair, Bergamo, Italy.

Solo Shows

• 1985 - The Roaring Dreams Show, Tom Allen Centre, London.
• 1985 - The Feeling Landscapes Show, Bernard Baron Gallery, London.
• 1985 - The Glittering Gargolyes Show, The Fallen Angel, London.
• 1986 - Mermaids, Monsters and Sleeping Moons, Mermaid Theatre, London.
• 1986 - Recent Images, The Fallen Angel, London.
• 1986 - The Epic of Oracle Foster, Lamont Gallery, London.
• 1987 - Shy Moon, The Garden Gallery, London.
• 1989 - The Vingegar Blossoms, Lamont Gallery, London.
• 2007 - Recent Portraits (photography exhibition)
• 2007 - East End (photography exhibition)
• 2008 - Recent Portraits 2 (photography exhibition)

Selected works in anthologies[link]

• Poem "The Silver Hat" in the collection Love (edited by Fiona Waters)
• Poem "The Prince and the Snail" in collection The Works 4 (edited by Gaby Morgan)
• Three poems in collection Poems For The Retired Nihilist (edited by Graham Bendel)

In media[link]

• The song "Fury Eyes" (from The Creatures' second album, Boomerang) is dedicated to Ridley's novel In the Eyes of Mr. Fury.
• Ridley was one of 25 contemporary British writers asked to contribute a scene to NT25 Chain Play, celebrating 25 years of the Royal National Theatre in London.
• Ridley's song Who Will Love Me Now? (as sung by P.J. Harvey) was selected as Favourite Film Song by Radio 1 in 1998. It was covered by the techno/house band Sunscreem; the cover entered the top 40 UK chart and was used in the film South West 9.
• In 1996 Hungary's The Titanic Film Festival had a major retrospective of Ridley's work.

Notable awards won[link]

• Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival for The Reflecting Skin.^{[citation needed]}
• Grand Prize at the Stockholm Film Festival for The Reflecting Skin.^{[citation needed]}
• The Critics' Circle Theatre Awards-Most Promising New Playwright Award for The Fastest Clock In The Universe.^{[citation needed]}
• Best Film for Heartless at the Fantasporto Film Festival 2010.^{[citation needed]}
• Best Director for Heartless at the Fantasporto Film Festival 2010.^{[citation needed]}

Notable award nominations[link]

• London Festival Fringe Best Play Award for Vincent River^[17]
• London Festival Fringe Best Play Award for Tender Napalm^[18]
• The Evening Standard Best New Play for Ghost From A Perfect Place^{[citation needed]}
• Best Short Film at Cannes Film Festival for The Universe of Dermot Finn^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Philip Ridley at the Internet Movie Database (doesn't include novels or plays)
• Philip Ridley Biography
• Extremely detailed list of Ridley's credits (in French), compiled by Sébastien Cagnoli
• Interview and Gallery (portuguese)

Jim Sturgess
Born	James Anthony Sturgess (1981-05-16) 16 May 1981 (age 31) London, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actor, singer-songwriter
Years active	1994–present
Musical career
Instruments	Vocals, piano, drums, guitar
Years active	1996–present
Associated acts	Tragic Toys Dilated Spies Saint Faith
Website	myspace.com/officialjimsturgess

James Anthony "Jim" Sturgess (born 16 May 1981)^[1][2][3] is a British actor and singer-songwriter.^[4] His breakthrough role was appearing as Jude in the musical romance drama film Across the Universe (2007).^[5]

Early life[link]

Sturgess was born in London, England on 16 May 1981. He attended Frensham Heights School, in Farnham, Surrey. He spent most of his youth skateboarding around his local car parks and started his first band as early as 15 years old where they would rehearse in the garage of his Friend's Dad's house. The band would also play gigs in and around his local area to any publican that would turn a blind eye to the fact that they were all under age. Jim's first acting experience came when the local theatre group came to his school, looking for kids to audition for the local play. Quickly realising that he would be able to miss school, he went along to the audition and landed one of the parts in the play.In 1994, when he was 13, he starred in The Browning Version(his first film)^[6] It was clear to both his school and his parents that he had a natural talent but it was always music that was at the forefront of his mind. Jim moved to Manchester to attend Salford University as a way of hoping to start another band and hang around the Manchester music scene, where most of his music idols were from. It was here that he fell in with a group of aspiring actors and film makers, and his passion for acting was re ignited. He started to write and perform his own short films and plays, and it was whilst performing his one person show 'BUZZIN', based around his performance poetry, that Jim was discovered by an acting agent. Jim moved back to London and started to get work as an actor in Television productions such as the ITV Drama 'A Touch of Frost', where he gave an acclaimed performance as a young boy suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. He also joined a seven piece band called 'Saint Faith' where the band recorded and played gigs around the area of Camden Town in London where he was living. He continued to work in British Telefilms and Independent films such as Mouth to Mouth and used it as a way to fund his music. It was at this time that visionary director Julie Taymor was looking for a fresh raw talent, in both music and acting, to star in her Beatle's inspired musical Across the Universe. Jim landed the lead role as Jude, a young lad from Liverpool who goes to America in search of his father, and ends up getting thrown into the electric and revolutionary times of the 1960s.

Acting career[link]

In 2007, he made his big break in Julie Taymor's musical Across the Universe, portraying Jude Feeny, a paternally-shorn young man who travels to the US amid the raging throes of the late 1960s and falls in love with sheltered American teenager, Lucy, played by Evan Rachel Wood.

In 2008, he appeared in the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl in the supporting role of George Boleyn opposite Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. He also starred in 21 as the male lead Ben Campbell, a movie about five MIT students, who, by counting cards, take Las Vegas casinos for millions. Sturgess' co-stars in 21 include Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne.

He played Gavin Kossef in Crossing Over (2009), appearing with Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd. Set in Los Angeles, the storyline revolves around immigrants from different countries and backgrounds who share a common bond in desperately trying to gain legal status. Also in 2009, he starred in Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking loosely based on the best-selling true story book by Martin McGartland about a young Irishman recruited by the British police to infiltrate and spy on the Irish Republican Army and who saved about 50 innocent lives in the process.

Heartless, a film directed by Philip Ridley, premiered on 31 August 2009^[7] at the London FrightFest Film Festival, a popular horror film festival. Sturgess appears as Jamie Morgan, a young man whose life has always been blighted by the large, heart-shaped port wine birthmark on his face and sells his soul to the devil. Jim Sturgess won the Best Actor Award at the 2010 Fantasporto Film Festival for his role. The film also won the Best Film Award and the Best Director Award for Philip Ridley.

In 2010, Sturgess starred as a character based on Sławomir Rawicz, a young Polish officer who escaped from a Russian gulag during World War II. The film, The Way Back, is based on a true story and directed by the highly acclaimed Peter Weir.

Additionally in 2010, he provided voice-over work in director Zack Snyder's 3-D animated feature film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole based on the children's book series, Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky.

In May 2010, Sturgess officially signed on to appear in One Day (based on the novel of the same title by David Nicholls) co-starring with Anne Hathaway. The novel is based on two students who meet on 15 July 1988. The story follows them every 15 July over the following twenty years. Directed by Lone Scherfig,^[8] filming was completed on 17 September 2010^[9] and theatrical release in August 2011.

During 2010, he additionally filmed Upside Down. Filming was completed in May 2010 in Montreal and is currently^[when?] in post-production.^[10] Described as a "sci-fi romance". The film is the second full-length feature from writer and director Juan Solanas and is slated for release in 2011.^[11]

A third film project in 2010 was Promised Land to be directed by Michael Winterbottom and according to Variety "will recount the lead up to the 1948 partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel". Jim Sturgess will star as a British officer hunting down the extremist Jewish factions. Filming is due to begin in October.^[12]

In March and April 2011, filming took place for Ashes,^[13] a film directed by Mat Whitecross. The picture has been described as a contemporary film noir thriller that stars Ray Winstone and Lesley Manville along with Sturgess. Filmed in the Isle of Man, the production is being partially funded by the band Coldplay, university friends of the director.^[14] In September 2011, filming began for Cloud Atlas to be released in October 2011.^{[dated info]}

Music career[link]

Jim has been writing a performing his own music since the age of 15. He has played in bands around the Camden music scene for many years in bands such as Saint Faith and Dilated Spies. He has also written music for some of his films including 2 tracks that he wrote and performed for the film Crossing Over. He also co wrote the track Panic and Magic with Mickey O'Brien and collaborated with Director Philip Ridley in 3 tracks that appear in the film Heartless. He is currently working alongside his girlfriend Mickey O'Brien, keyboardist for the band La Roux on his latest band Tragic Toys.

	"Panic & Magic" noicon Sturgess has written music related to both Crossing Over and Heartless
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Soundtrack[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• 2008: Won, "Best Ensemble" – 21 (shared w/co-stars) at the ShoWest Convention, USA
• 2008: Nominated, "Choice Movie Breakout Male" – 21 at the Teen Choice Awards
• 2008: Nominated, "Choice Movie Breakout Male" – Across the Universe at the Teen Choice Awards
• 2008: Nominated, "Best Performance By An Actor In A Canadian Film" – Fifty Dead Men Walking at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards
• 2009: First Runner Up, "Best Actor Golden Space Needle Award" – Fifty Dead Men Walking^[20] at the Seattle International Film Festival
• 2009: Nominated, "Best Newcomer"^[21] at the Jameson Empire Awards (UK)
• 2010: Won, "Best Actor" – Heartless^[22] at the Fantasporto awards.

Notes[link]

1.^ From the soundtrack 21 – Original Motion Picture Score, not to be confused with the film's other soundtrack Music From The Motion Picture 21.

• Jim Sturgess talks about his music tastes
• Jim Sturgess interview at Reviewgraveyard.com