AMEX, AmEx or Amex may refer to:

• American Stock Exchange
• American Express, a global financial services corporation
• American Express Community Stadium, association football stadium in Brighton, England, currently sponsored by American Express
• American Experience, a television program.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article focuses too much on specific examples, without clearly discussing its abstract general subject. Please help by consulting secondary sources for general statements made about the subject and improving this article by adding more general information. The talk page may contain suggestions. (August 2011)

Wes Anderson
Anderson in Berlin, 2005
Born	Wesley Wales Mortimer Anderson (1969-05-01) May 1, 1969 (age 43) Houston, Texas, United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Texas at Austin
Occupation	Director, Screenwriter, Producer, Actor
Years active	1994–present
Influenced by	François Truffaut, Satyajit Ray, Hal Ashby[1][2]

Wesley Wales Mortimer "Wes" Anderson (born May 1, 1969)^[3][4][5][6] is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials. He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums and a 2010 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Fantastic Mr. Fox. His films employ similar aesthetics, using a deliberate, methodical cinematography, with mostly primary colors. His soundtracks feature folk and early rock music, in particular classic British rock. Anderson's films combine dry humor with poignant portrayals of flawed characters – often a mix of the wealthy and the working class. He is also known for working with many of the same actors and crew on varying projects.

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom opened the Cannes Film Festival 2012.^[7]

Early life[link]

This section requires expansion.

Wesley Wales Mortimer Anderson was born on May 1, 1969 in Houston, Texas.^[8] His father, Melver Anderson, ran an advertising and public relations company, and his mother, Texas Anne Burroughs, was an archaeologist who later became a real estate agent. Anderson grew up with his two brothers, Eric and Mel, but their parents divorced when Anderson was only eight. Anderson would later describe the divorce as "the most crucial event of my brothers and my growing up." This situation gave him the premise for The Royal Tenenbaums's story.^[9] As a child, the young Anderson directed many Super 8 movies starring himself and his brothers. He went to Westchester High School and St. John's School, a private school in Houston featured in Anderson's film Rushmore. There he wrote and directed many plays for the school's theater. After graduating from St. John's, Wes Anderson attended the University of Texas at Austin. There he met Owen Wilson, who became an essential writing partner and cast member in Anderson's filmography. Anderson and Wilson met during a playwriting class and became roommates. Then they worked on a script for a full-length movie called Bottle Rocket. Anderson earned his B.A. in philosophy in 1991 and released the short film version of Bottle Rocket in 1992. ^[10]

Film career[link]

Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators. For example, the Wilson brothers (Owen, Luke, and Andrew), Bill Murray,^[11] Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Kumar Pallana and son Dipak Pallana, Stephen Dignan and Brian Tenenbaum, and Eric Chase Anderson (Anderson's brother). Other frequent collaborators include writer Noah Baumbach (who co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, with Anderson co-producing his film The Squid and the Whale), Owen Wilson (who co-wrote three of Anderson's feature films), cinematographer Robert Yeoman (A.S.C.), music supervisor Randall Poster, and composer Mark Mothersbaugh.

Anderson has acknowledged that he went to India to film his 2007 film The Darjeeling Limited partly as a tribute to the legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose "films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways" (the film is dedicated to him).^[12] Jason Schwartzman reunited with Anderson for the The Darjeeling Limited, acting as well as co-writing the script with Anderson and Roman Coppola.^[13] In September 2006, following the disappointing commercial and critical reception of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen released a tongue-in-cheek "letter of intervention" of Anderson's artistic "malaise." Proclaiming themselves to be fans of "World Cinema" and Anderson in particular, they offered Anderson their soundtrack services for his The Darjeeling Limited, including lyrics for a title track.^[14]

In 2008, Wes Anderson was hired to write the screenplay of the American adaptation of My Best Friend, a French film, for producer Brian Grazer, Anderson's first draft was titled "The Rosenthaler Suite". Anderson's stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book Fantastic Mr. Fox was released in 2009.

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is an admirer of Anderson's, praising Bottle Rocket and Rushmore in an Esquire magazine article.^[15]

Wes Anderson has launched the acting careers of such stars as Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Matthew Gray Gubler, and Jason Schwartzman.

Advertising[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

In September 2007, Wes Anderson oversaw a series of six commercials for AT&T: "College Kid", "Reporter", "Mom", "Architect", "Actor" and "Businessman." The campaign also includes online, print and outdoor advertising. These TV spots are part of AT&T's "Your Seamless World" national campaign from BBDO/New York. Each ad embodies Anderson's distinct style by focusing on a subject and having the environment around them change. Each of the six AT&T commercials introduces us to a different AT&T customer. As each of these people comes before the camera and talks about the different, far-reaching locales where he or she needs cell-phone service, the visuals behind the customer change dramatically to reflect the different destinations.

The "Reporter" piece was subject to controversy when several Lebanese-American groups protested its airing as ignorant given the complex and sensitive nature of the Lebanese political situation. The ad portrayed photojournalists dodging bullets on a Beirut rooftop while the city was being bombed. It was subsequently pulled from rotation after the assassination of Antoine Ghanem on September 19, 2007 with AT&T and BBDO issuing public apologies. ^[16]

Anderson starred in and directed an American Express "My Life, My Card" commercial, which chronicled the "filming" of an action movie starring Jason Schwartzman. Anderson acts as if he is being interviewed by someone from American Express for the ad, while walking around completing tasks on set, a scene paying homage to the movie Day for Night by François Truffaut. It was aired on television and in movie theaters in both a short and extended version, during and shortly after the theatrical release of The Life Aquatic.

In 2008, Wes Anderson teamed up with Brad Pitt for a commercial for Japanese cell phone company SoftBank, filmed in one continuous shot in a French seaside town. The commercial takes inspiration from Jacques Tati's Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot.

Filmography[link]

• Bottle Rocket (short film co-written with Owen Wilson) (1992)
• Bottle Rocket (co-written with Owen Wilson) (1996)
• Rushmore (co-written with Owen Wilson) (1998)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (co-written with Owen Wilson) (2001)
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (co-written with Noah Baumbach) (2004)
• Hotel Chevalier (short film, created as a prologue to The Darjeeling Limited) (2007)
• The Darjeeling Limited (co-written with Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola) (2007)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (co-written with Noah Baumbach) (2009)
• Moonrise Kingdom (co-written with Roman Coppola) (2012)^[17]

Recurring collaborators[link]

Collaborator	Bottle Rocket (1996)	Rushmore (1998)	The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)	The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)	The Darjeeling Limited (2007)	Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)	Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Waris Ahluwalia				N	N
Eric Chase Anderson		N	N	N	N	N	N
Noah Baumbach				N		N
Adrien Brody					N	N
Seymour Cassel		N	N	N
Roman Coppola				N	N	N	N
Brian Cox		N				N
Stephen Dignan	N	N	N
Willem Dafoe				N		N
Michael Gambon				N		N
Anjelica Huston			N	N	N
Bill Murray		N	N	N	N	N	N
Mark Mothersbaugh	N	N	N	N			N
Alexandre Desplat						N	N
Dipak Pallana	N	N	N
Kumar Pallana	N	N	N		N
Jason Schwartzman		N			N	N	N
Brian Tenenbaum	N	N	N
Andrew Wilson	N	N	N
Luke Wilson	N	N	N
Owen Wilson	N	N	N	N	N	N
Wallace Wolodarsky		N			N	N

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wes Anderson

External links[link]

• Wes Anderson at Unsung Films
• Wes Anderson at AllRovi
• Wes Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• Tête-à-Tête with Nic Harcourt at Los Angeles Times Magazine
• "Into The Deep", in-depth Anderson profile at The Guardian 12 February 2005
• "Wes Anderson", brief profile by Martin Scorsese. Esquire.
• Interview with Wes Anderson for The Darjeeling Limited at Ioncinema.com
• Wes Anderson Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos (Video)
• "Notes on Quirky" Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, No.1, 2010

Gary Oldman
Oldman at the London premiere of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, September 2011.
Born	Leonard Gary Oldman[1] (1958-03-21) 21 March 1958 (age 54) New Cross, London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor, filmmaker, musician
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Lesley Manville (1987–1989) Uma Thurman (1990–1992) Donya Fiorentino (1997–2001) Alexandra Edenborough (2008–present)
Parents	Leonard Bertram Oldman Kathleen Cheriton
Family	Laila Morse (sister)

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English screen and stage actor, filmmaker and musician, who is the highest-grossing actor in the history of film.^[2] A successful theatre actor and former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Oldman gained mainstream recognition from the early 1980s to early 1990s for his portrayals of morally ambiguous characters in films including Meantime, Sid and Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears, The Firm, State of Grace, JFK and Dracula. He became a popular portrayer of villains by the mid 1990s,^[3] playing the antagonist of True Romance, Léon, The Fifth Element, Air Force One and The Contender. Since the millenium Oldman has starred in such films as the Harry Potter series, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Aside from film acting, he has starred in television shows like Knots Landing and Friends, voiced various characters in the Call of Duty video game series, and wrote and directed Nil By Mouth, a film partially based on his own childhood.^[4]

Oldman has garnered widespread critical and peer respect;^[5] Tom Hardy once remarked, "Gary Oldman is, hands down, the greatest actor that's ever lived."^[6] Among other honours, Oldman has won two BAFTA Awards and a Saturn Award, and has been nominated for Academy-, Emmy-, Screen Actors Guild- and Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the Palme d'Or. Norman Stansfield, his overstated antagonist in Léon, has been named as one of cinema's greatest villains.^[7] In 2011, Oldman was voted an "Icon of Film" by Empire readers.^[8]

Early life[link]

Oldman was born in London, the son of Kathleen (née Cheriton; b. 28 November 1919), a housewife, and Leonard Bertram Oldman (21 May 1921 – October 1985), a former sailor who worked as a welder.^[9][10] He has said that his father was an alcoholic who left his family when Oldman was seven.^[11] Oldman attended the South East London Boys' School on Creek Road in Deptford, leaving school at 16 to work in a sports shop.^[12] He was an accomplished singer and pianist as a child, but gave up his musical aspirations to pursue an acting career.^[13] His inspiration was Malcolm McDowell's performance in 1970 film The Raging Moon.^[14][15] In a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose, Oldman said, "Something about Malcolm [McDowell] just arrested me, and I connected, and I said, 'I wanna do that'."^[16]

Acting career[link]

Theatre, early films and foray into American cinema (1979–1990)[link]

Oldman studied with the Young People's Theatre in Greenwich during the mid 1970s,^[17][18] while working jobs on assembly lines, as a porter in an operating theatre, selling shoes and beheading pigs in an abbatoir.^[17] He later won a scholarship to attend the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Sidcup, Kent, from which he graduated with a BA in Acting in 1979.^[18][19] Before enrolling at Rose Bruford, Oldman had unsuccessfully applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), who welcomed him to try again the following year, but advised him to find something else to do for a living^[16][19] (when asked by Charlie Rose if he had reminded RADA of this, Oldman joked, "the work speaks for itself"^[16]). He made his professional stage debut in 1979 as Puss, alongside Michael Simkins, in Dick Whittington and His Cat, at York's Theatre Royal. The play then ran in Colchester, then with Glasgow's Citizens Theatre;^[19] Oldman's work ethic and trademark intensity would make him a favourite with audiences in Glasgow during the 1980s.^[18] From 1980–1981, he appeared in The Massacre at Paris (Christopher Marlowe), Desperado Corner (Shaun Lawton), and Robert David MacDonald's plays Chinchilla and A Waste Of Time. He performed in a 6-month West End run of MacDonald's Summit Conference, opposite Glenda Jackson, in 1982.^[19] Also that year, Oldman made his film debut in Colin Gregg's Remembrance, and would have starred in Don Boyd's Gossip if that film had not collapsed. The following year, he landed a starring role as a skinhead in Mike Leigh's film Meantime, and moved on to Chesterfield to assume the lead role in Entertaining Mr Sloane (Joe Orton). Afterwards, he went to Westcliffe to star in Saved (Edward Bond).^[19]

Saved proved to be a major breakthrough for Oldman. He had written to Max Stafford-Clark, artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre, requesting that he watch the play. Impressed, Stafford-Clark cast Oldman as Scopey, the lead role of Bond's The Pope's Wedding, in 1984.^[19] For his acclaimed performance, he won two of British theatre's top honours: the Time Out Fringe Award for Best Newcomer, and the British Theatre Association's Drama magazine award for Best Actor—the latter of which was shared with future film co-star Anthony Hopkins.^[3][18][20] His turn in The Pope's Wedding led to a run of work with the Royal Court, and from 1984 to 1986 he appeared in Rat In the Skull (Ron Hutchinson), The Desert Air (Nicholas Wright), Cain and Abel, The Danton Affair (Pam Gems), Women Beware Women (Thomas Middleton), Real Dreams (Trevor Griffiths) and all three of Bond's The War Plays: Red Black and Ignorant, The Tin Can People and Great Peace.^[19] Oldman was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1985–1986.^[21] The 1984 production of The Pope's Wedding had been seen by director Alex Cox, who cast Oldman as ill-fated rocker Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid And Nancy. In 1987, Oldman gained his third starring film role as Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. That same year, Oldman appeared in the plays The Country Wife (William Wycherley) and Serious Money (Caryl Churchill).^[20]

Oldman's performances in Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears were widely acclaimed, and paved the way for work in Hollywood. Prominent United States film critic Roger Ebert, on the basis of Oldman's work in those films, described him as "the best young British actor around".^[22] His portrayal of Vicious was applauded by many, perhaps most notably ex-Sex Pistols vocalist John Lydon, who despite questioning the authenticity of the film, described Oldman as a "bloody good actor".^[23] Oldman reportedly lost considerable weight for the role and was briefly hospitalised.^[24] His performance would go on to be ranked No. 62 in Premiere magazine's "100 Greatest Performances of All Time"^[25] and No. 8 in Uncut magazine's "10 Best actors in rockin' roles", the latter describing his portrayal as a "hugely sympathetic reading of the punk figurehead as a lost and bewildered manchild."^[26] After coming to prominence for his portrayals of Vicious and Orton, Oldman increased his profile during the late 1980s and early 1990s via starring roles in films such as Criminal Law (which marked Oldman's first use of an American accent), The Firm, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and State of Grace. Janet Maslin, another noted US film critic, referred to his work as "phenomenal".^[27] In late 1988, he starred opposite long-time hero^[16] Alan Bates in We Think the World of You, and alongside Dennis Hopper and Frances McDormand in the 1989 film Chattahoochee. In 1989, Oldman also starred as football hooligan Clive Bissel in British drama The Firm; in 2011, Total Film named Oldman's performance as the best of his career.^[28] Oldman moved to the United States in the early 1990s, where he has since lived.^[29] Oldman and other young British actors of the 1980s who were becoming established Hollywood film actors, such as Tim Roth, Bruce Payne, Colin Firth, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Paul McGann, were dubbed the 'Brit Pack', of which Oldman was de facto leader.^[6][30]

Villain roles and mainstream success (1991–2001)[link]

Oldman in 2000

In 1991, Oldman starred in what was at that point the most significant role of his career as Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK. The following year, he starred as Count Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola's romance-horror Dracula. A commercially successful film adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel,^[31] it was a box office success worldwide. Oldman's performance is regarded by many as a staple of the horror genre, and was recognised by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films as the best male performance of 1992, who awarded Oldman the Best Actor award.^[32] Oldman would later become a popular portrayer of villains:^[3] he played violent pimp Drexl Spivey in True Romance (1993), a sadistic prison warden in Murder in the First (1995), a futuristic corporate tyrant in The Fifth Element (1997), and Dr. Zachary Smith/Spider Smith in the commercially successful but critically panned Lost in Space (1998). In 1994's Léon, he played corrupt DEA officer Norman Stansfield, which has since been named by multiple publications as one of the best villains of modern cinema.^[7] Oldman also displayed a skill for world accents; along with the Transylvanian Count Dracula, he played German-born Viennese composer Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, and Russian terrorist Ivan Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster Air Force One. He portrayed another historical figure, Pontius Pilate, in Jesus (1999). He also appeared as the Devil in the 1993 promo video to the Guns N' Roses single "Since I Don't Have You",^[33] and served as a member of Jury at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Oldman's visibility as one of the foremost portrayers of villains in Hollywood became apparent when MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch aired a match between Oldman and Christopher Walken to determine the greatest cinematic villain.^[34]

Oldman appeared opposite Jeff Bridges as zealous Republican congressman Sheldon Runyon in The Contender (2000), in which he was also credited as a producer. He received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his performance. In 2001, he starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal, as Mason Verger, the only surviving victim of Hannibal Lecter. Oldman reportedly spent six hours per day in the make-up room to achieve the character's hideously disfigured appearance.^[35] It marked the second time Oldman had appeared opposite Hopkins, a personal friend who was part of the supporting cast of Dracula. Oldman is uncredited in the film, reportedly over a dispute regarding top billing, which was going to co-star Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore. He received an Emmy Award nomination for two guest appearances in Friends in May 2001, appearing in the two-part episode "The One With Chandler and Monica's Wedding" as Richard Crosby, a pedantic actor who insists that "real" actors spit on one another when they enunciate, leading to tension, then later friendship, between Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) and himself. Oldman had met LeBlanc on the set of Lost in Space in 1998.

Career slump and mainstream resurgence (2001–present)[link]

Oldman at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International

Following his Friends appearance, Oldman did not appear in any significant roles until 2004. He starred in the generally well-received Interstate 60 (2002), as well as Tiptoes (2003) and Sin (2003), both of which were received poorly by critics. Although the film failed to impress critics, Oldman did garner critical acclaim for his portrayal of a man afflicted with dwarfism in Tiptoes: Variety described his work in the film as an "astonishingly fine" performance.^[36] Oldman starred as the Devil in the BMW short film, Beat The Devil (2002), and contributed voice acting to several video games. The Guardian described this time period as the "low point" of Oldman's career, consisting of "barrel-scraping roles".^[37]

In 2004, Oldman returned to prominence when he landed a significant role in the Harry Potter film series, playing Harry Potter's godfather Sirius Black. Oldman and star Daniel Radcliffe reportedly became very close during the filming of the series.^[38] The following year, Oldman starred as James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's commercially and critically acclaimed Batman Begins, a role he reprised in the even more successful sequel The Dark Knight (2008) and will reprise again in the upcoming instalment The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of A Christmas Carol in which Oldman played three roles.^[39][40][41] He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller The Unborn, released in 2009.^[42][43] In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Book of Eli.^[44] He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood.^[45] Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen and was nominated for an Annie Award for his performance in Kung Fu Panda 2.

Oldman earned Academy-, BAFTA Award nominations as well as numerous nominations from critics for his portrayal as British spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), a re-adaptation of the John le Carré novel, directed by Tomas Alfredson, also starring Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Tom Hardy.^[46]

He has also participated in the creation of The Legend of Spyro games produced by Sierra Entertainment, providing the voice to the Fire Guardian, Ignitus. He also voices Sergeant Reznov in the award-winning Call of Duty video game series.

Future Projects[link]

Oldman will star in John Hilcoat's Lawless as Floyd Banner, a big-hitting mobster. Lawless will be released in Aug 29.

Relativity Media has acquired US rights to IM Global's thriller Paranoia which stars Oldman in a supporting role along with Harrison Ford and Liam Hemsworth. Production begins in the summer of 2012. Oldman will also star in the revenge thriller Motor City along with Gerard Butler.

It was announced on March 23, 2012 that Oldman would appear upcoming remake of RoboCop as Norton, the scientist who created RoboCop. The film is set for released in August 2013.^[47]

Other ventures[link]

Filmmaking[link]

In 1997, Oldman directed, produced, and wrote the award-winning Nil by Mouth, a movie partially based on his own childhood.^[4] Nil By Mouth went on to win the BAFTA Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film (shared with Douglas Urbanski) and also the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay, the Channel 4 Director's Award, and an Empire Award. In 1999, it was adjudged by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts as one of the one hundred best British films of the 20th century.^[48] Nil By Mouth was listed by Time Out as number twenty-one of the top 100 best British films ever.

Oldman and producing partner Douglas Urbanski formed the SE8 GROUP to produce Nil By Mouth. The company also produced The Contender, which also starred Oldman. He was also credited as a producer. Some media outlets reported that Oldman was unhappy with the finished product and felt that DreamWorks had heavily edited the film to reflect their pro-Democratic leanings. These claims were later debunked; Oldman, who is not a U.S. citizen, was described as "so uninvolved in politics, he has never even declared a party affiliation".^[49] Oldman has finished his latest screenplay, Chang & Eng, co-written with Darin Strauss, based on the author's book of the same name; SE8 Group will produce. In September 2006, Nokia Nseries Studio^[50] released the Oldman-directed short film Donut, with music by Tor Hyams. The film was shot with an N93 in order to promote the phone. Juliet Landau made a 25-minute documentary about the making of the video. In 2011, he directed a music video for Alex Eden's first single, "Kiss Me Like the Woman You Loved", for Side Tracked Records.

Music[link]

Oldman has had a keen interest in music from an early age. He is a proficient pianist and stated in a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose that he would rather be a musician than an actor.^[16] Oldman sang several tracks on the Sid and Nancy soundtrack, and sang and played live piano in the 1988 movie Track 29. He traced over Beethoven compositions in 1994's Immortal Beloved. He also tutored Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe on bass guitar.^[51] Oldman appeared on Reeves Gabrels' album The Sacred Squall of Now, performing a vocal duet with David Bowie on the track "You've Been Around".^[52] Recently, he produced a live performance by former White Stripes member, Jack White, in conjunction with the Vevo and Youtube.

Popularity and influence[link]

Oldman signing autographs at the Harry Potter premiere, 2007

Oldman has long established a cult following among film fans.^[29][53] He is known for playing the primary antagonist in a number of popular motion pictures,^[3][54] which has seen him referenced in popular culture. At the peak of his popularity in the 1990s, Oldman was dubbed by Empire magazine as Hollywood's "psycho deluxe",^[55] and was spoofed on popular television shows such as Fox comedy series In Living Color^[56] and MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch,^[34] as well as drafted in to appear on the first ever cover of Loaded magazine.^[57] In 1993, he had a cameo role as the Devil in the promo video to the Guns N' Roses single "Since I Don't Have You"^[33]—he also played the Devil in the 2002 BMW short Beat The Devil, alongside Clive Owen, James Brown and Marilyn Manson.^[58] On YouTube, Oldman is the subject of a number of tribute videos. In contrast to his often dark on-screen roles, Oldman's affable real-life demeanour has been noted,^[29] and he was named as one of Empire magazine's "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History" in 2007.^[59] Oldman contributed in a YouTube video posted by Jimmy Kimmel titled Movie: The Movie. He portrayed shortly a centaur at a medical clinic. Very many other famous actors were present at the trailer.^[60]

Allmovie has described Oldman as "capable of portraying almost any type of character", and as having "consistently amazed viewers with his ability to completely disappear into his roles."^[3] His performances during his career have provided inspiration for younger actors who would go on to enjoy successful Hollywood careers. Brad Pitt has described Oldman as his foremost acting "god",^[61] while Daniel Radcliffe has cited Oldman as the actor whose career he would most like to emulate.^[62] Tom Hardy has named Oldman as his "hero"^[63] and "hands down, the greatest actor that's ever lived";^[6] Ryan Gosling has also named Oldman as his favourite actor.^[64] Other actors who have been influenced by Oldman include: Shia LaBeouf,^[65] Joseph Gordon-Levitt,^[66] Johnny Depp,^[67] Chris Pine,^[68] Jason Isaacs^[69] and Michael Fassbender.^[6] Dracula and Hannibal co-star, Anthony Hopkins, has described Oldman as "multi-talented", and as possessing "a great genius and flair for creativity",^[70] while Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy co-star Colin Firth once said of Oldman, "He is as far as I'm concerned a very strong candidate for the world's best living actor."^[71] Harry Potter co-star Ralph Fiennes said of Oldman, "I love Gary Oldman's work. I just think he's a genius actor."^[72] In relation to Oldman's British peers, John Hurt called him "the best of the bunch."^[37]

Oldman has garnered critical acclaim for his diverse performances and portrayals of real-life historical figures^[73][74] and is noted for his avoidance of the Hollywood celebrity scene,^[73][75] often being referred to as an "actor's actor".^[9] Oldman's performances have gained the admiration of prominent film critics: Roger Ebert has hailed him as a "marvelous actor",^[76] and "one of the great actors, able to play high, low, crass, noble".^[77] In 1987, he had called Oldman "the best young British actor around", and said, "like a few gifted actors, he is able to re-invent himself for every role".^[22] Ebert's co-presenter on the film review television show, At the Movies, Gene Siskel, described Oldman as "wonderful"^[78] and one of "[his] favorite actors";^[79] following Siskel's death in 1999, Oldman said, "it's pretty overwhelming for a kid from South London to hear the two most important film critics in the world call you one of the greatest actors in the world."^[80] Janet Maslin of The New York Times has described him as a "phenomenal" actor who "since Sid and Nancy has taken on a string of new accents and dramatic identities with stunning ease."^[27] Sid Vicious' Sex Pistols bandmate Johnny Rotten called Oldman a "bloody good actor".^[12] Oldman's portrayals of eccentric characters – many of which Oldman has himself described as "wacky or strange"^[81] — have occasionally polarised critics.^[82] He has stated, however, that he seeks to play more reserved roles at this stage in his career.^[29][81][83] In reviewing The Dark Knight, where Oldman plays an honest, upright cop James Gordon, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that he "is so skilled he makes virtue look exciting". In response, Oldman said, "That's the best review I ever had... I'll put it on my tombstone."^[84] In his review of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Travers described Oldman as "one of the best actors on the planet."^[85] Prior to his first Academy Award nomination for that film, Oldman was widely regarded as one of the greatest actors never nominated for such an award; Leigh Singer of The Guardian called him "arguably the best actor never Oscar-nominated."^{[86][87][88][89]} When he lost out on the award, The Globe and Mail ran an article entitled, "Overlooked: possibly the greatest actor of them all".^[90]

As of 15 September 2011, motion pictures starring Oldman as leading actor or supporting co-star have grossed over $3.2 billion at the United States box office, and over $8.4 billion worldwide.^[91] In December 2011, the Palm Springs International Film Festival announced that Oldman would be receiving its International Star Award, which honours "an actor or actress who has achieved both critical and commercial international recognition throughout their body of work." The PSIFF chairman called Oldman "a performer whose ability to portray the most extreme of characters is a testament to the enormity of his talent."^[92]

Personal life[link]

Oldman was born and brought up in London, England, and moved to the United States in the early 1990s.^[29] Despite numerous lead and supporting roles in major Hollywood productions, Oldman is intensely private with his personal life and is known for his stance on celebrity and the ideals of Hollywood, once stating that "being famous, that's a whole other career. And I haven't got any energy for it."^[29] His disenchantment with celebrity culture was reinforced when news reports of a physical altercation with Robert De Niro circulated in the 1990s; Oldman claims that he had never met De Niro at the time.^[93]

Marriages and family[link]

Oldman married his first wife Lesley Manville in 1987 but left her in 1989 three months after their son, Alfie, was born.^[94] He met American actress Uma Thurman on the set of State of Grace, and they were married in 1990, but it ended two years later.^[95] Oldman then settled into a relationship with actress and model Isabella Rossellini. The couple were rumoured to be engaged as of July, 1994 but separated two years later.^[96] Oldman was married to Donya Fiorentino from 1997 to 2001 and has sons Gulliver Flynn (b. 20 August 1997) and Charlie John (b. 11 February 1999) with her.^[94]

On 31 December 2008, Oldman married English jazz singer Alexandra Edenborough in Santa Barbara, California in a private, formal ceremony.^[97] Oldman currently lives in Los Angeles with his family.^[98] Oldman's sister, Laila Morse, is also an actress, best known as Mo Harris in the BBC's long-running series EastEnders; she also had a role in Oldman's directorial debut, Nil by Mouth. Oldman supports South East London football team Millwall.^[99]

Alcohol and legal problems[link]

His problems with alcohol were well known during the early 1990s. After a string of alcohol-fuelled debacles he checked himself into Marworth treatment facility in Waverly Township, Pennsylvania, for alcoholism treatment in 1993.^[100] In subsequent interviews Oldman acknowledged his problems with alcohol, and called himself a recovering alcoholic on a 2001 interview with Charlie Rose.^[101] In 2001, former wife Donya Fiorentino claimed that Oldman had a drug habit and abused her,^[102] a claim which was investigated by the family courts, child custody evaluator, the police, and Los Angeles city attorney. Oldman was awarded legal custody of their children; Fiorentino was granted short court-monitored visits. Today, Oldman lives a teetotal lifestyle and attributes his success in beating his addiction to Alcoholics Anonymous, and has since publicly praised the organisation.^[103]

Filmography[link]

Film and television[link]

Video games[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gary Oldman

Media related to Gary Oldman at Wikimedia Commons

• Gary Oldman at the Internet Movie Database
• Gary Oldman at Yahoo! Movies
• Interview with Gary Oldman on his directorial debut – Nil by Mouth
• Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: The Strange Career of Gary Oldman

Martin Scorsese
Scorsese at the Tribeca Film Festival, 2007
Born	Martin Charles Scorsese (1942-11-17) November 17, 1942 (age 69) Queens, New York, USA
Nationality	American
Education	Cardinal Hayes High School
Alma mater	New York University (B.A.) NYU Tisch School of the Arts (M.F.A.)
Occupation	Film director, producer, actor, screenwriter
Years active	1963–present
Influenced by	in alphabetical order: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger,[1] Satyajit Ray[2]
Spouse	Laraine Marie Brennan (1965–ca 71; divorced) Julia Cameron (1976–77; divorced) Isabella Rossellini (1979–82; divorced) Barbara De Fina (1985–91; divorced) Helen Morris (1999–present)
Parents	Charles Scorsese, Catherine Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese^[3] ( /skɔrˈsɛsɛ/;^[4] born November 17, 1942)^[5][6][7][8] is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation. He is a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema, and has won Academy Award, Palme d'Or, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and DGA Awards.

Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption,^[9] machismo, modern crime, and violence. Scorsese is hailed as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers of all time, directing landmark films such as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and Goodfellas (1990) – all of which he collaborated on with actor and close friend Robert De Niro.^[10] He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), having been nominated a previous five times.

Early life[link]

From left: Salvo Cuccia, Martin Scorsese and Vittorio De Seta at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.

Martin Scorsese grew up in New York City. His father, Charles Scorsese (1913–1993), and mother, Catherine Scorsese (born Cappa; 1912–1997), both worked in New York's Garment District. His father was a clothes presser and an actor, and his mother was a seamstress and an actress.^[11] His father's parents emigrated from Polizzi Generosa, in the province of Palermo, Sicily, and his mother was also of Italian descent. Scorsese was raised in a devoutly Catholic environment.^[12] As a boy, he had asthma and couldn't play sports or do any activities with other kids and so his parents and his older brother would often take him to movie theaters; it was at this stage in his life that he developed passion for cinema. Enamored of historical epics in his adolescence, at least two films of the genre, Land of the Pharaohs and El Cid, appear to have had a deep and lasting impact on his cinematic psyche. Scorsese also developed an admiration for neorealist cinema at this time. He recounted its influence in a documentary on Italian neorealism, and commented on how Bicycle Thieves alongside Paisà, Rome, Open City inspired him and how this influenced his view or portrayal of his Sicilian genes. In his documentary, Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, Scorsese noted that the Sicilian episode of Roberto Rossellini's Paisà which he first saw on television alongside his relatives, who were themselves Sicilian immigrants, made a significant impact on his life.^[2] He acknowledges owing a great debt to the French New Wave and has stated that "the French New Wave has influenced all filmmakers who have worked since, whether they saw the films or not."^[13] He has also cited filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini as a major influence on his career.^{[2][14][15][16][17]} His initial desire to become a priest^[18] while attending Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx gave way to cinema, and, consequently, Scorsese enrolled in NYU's University College of Arts and Science, (now known as the College of Arts and Science), where he earned a B.A. in English in 1964. He went on to earn his M.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1966, a year after the school was founded.^[19]

Family[link]

Scorsese has been married five times. His first wife was Laraine Marie Brennan; they have a daughter, Catherine. He married the writer Julia Cameron in 1976; they have a daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, who is an actress and appeared in The Age of Innocence, but the marriage lasted only a year. The divorce was acrimonious and served as the basis of Cameron's first feature, the dark comedy, God's Will,^[20] which also starred their daughter, Domenica.^[21][22] Their daughter also had a small role in Cape Fear using the name Domenica Scorsese and has continued to act, write, direct and produce.^[23]

He was married to actress Isabella Rossellini from 1979 to their divorce in 1983. He then married producer Barbara De Fina in 1985; their marriage ended in divorce as well, in 1991. He has been married to Helen Morris since 1999; they have a daughter, Francesca, who appeared in The Departed and The Aviator. He is based in New York City.

Scorsese has commented, "I'm a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic, there's no way out of it."^[24]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Scorsese attended New York University's film school (B.A., English, 1964; M.F.A., film, 1966)^[25] making the short films What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963) and It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964). His most famous short of the period is the darkly comic The Big Shave (1967), which features Peter Bernuth. The film is an indictment of America's involvement in Vietnam, suggested by its alternative title Viet '67.^[26] Scorsese has mentioned on several occasions that he was greatly inspired in his early days at New York University by his Armenian-American film professor Haig P. Manoogian.

In 1967, Scorsese made his first feature-length film, the black and white I Call First, which was later retitled Who's That Knocking at My Door with his fellow students actor Harvey Keitel and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, both of whom were to become long-term collaborators. This film was intended to be the first of Scorsese's semi-autobiographical 'J.R. Trilogy', which also would have included his later film, Mean Streets.

1970s[link]

From there he became friends with the influential "movie brats" of the 1970s: Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg. It was Brian De Palma who introduced Scorsese to Robert De Niro. During this period he worked as the assistant director and one of the editors on the documentary Woodstock and met actor-director John Cassavetes, who would also go on to become a close friend and mentor.^[27] Scorsese is also credited as one of the cameramen who photographed the infamous late-1969 Altamont rock festival for the 1970 Rolling Stones film "Gimme Shelter".

[edit] Mean Streets

In 1972 Scorsese made the Depression-era exploiter Boxcar Bertha for B-movie producer Roger Corman, who also helped directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and John Sayles launch their careers. It was Corman who taught Scorsese that entertaining films could be shot with next to no money or time, preparing the young director well for the challenges to come with Mean Streets. Following the film's release, Cassavetes encouraged Scorsese to make the films that he wanted to make, rather than someone else's projects.

Championed by influential movie critic Pauline Kael, Mean Streets was a breakthrough for Scorsese, De Niro, and Keitel. By now the signature Scorsese style was in place: macho posturing, bloody violence, Catholic guilt and redemption, gritty New York locale (though the majority of Mean Streets was actually shot in Los Angeles), rapid-fire editing, and a rock soundtrack. Although the film was innovative, its wired atmosphere, edgy documentary style, and gritty street-level direction owed a debt to directors Cassavetes, Samuel Fuller, and early Jean-Luc Godard.^[28] (Indeed the film was completed with much encouragement from Cassavetes, who felt Boxcar Bertha was undeserving of the young director's prodigious talent.)^[27]

In 1974, actress Ellen Burstyn chose Scorsese to direct her in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Although well regarded, the film remains an anomaly in the director's early career, as it focuses on a central female character. Returning to Little Italy to explore his ethnic roots, Scorsese next came up with Italianamerican, a documentary featuring his parents, Charles and Catherine Scorsese.

[edit] Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver followed in 1976 – Scorsese's dark, urban nightmare of one lonely man's slow, deliberate descent into insanity.

The film established Scorsese as an accomplished filmmaker and also brought attention to cinematographer Michael Chapman, whose style tends towards high contrasts, strong colors and complex camera movements. The film starred Robert De Niro as the troubled and psychotic Travis Bickle. The film co-starred Jodie Foster in a highly controversial role as an underage prostitute, and Harvey Keitel as her pimp, Matthew, called "Sport."

Taxi Driver also marked the start of a series of collaborations between Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader, whose influences included the diary of would-be assassin Arthur Bremer and Pickpocket, a film by the French director Robert Bresson. Writer/director Schrader often returns to Bresson's work in films such as American Gigolo, Light Sleeper, and Scorsese's later Bringing Out the Dead.^[29]

Already controversial upon its release, Taxi Driver hit the headlines again five years later, when John Hinckley, Jr. made an assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan. He subsequently blamed his act on his obsession with Jodie Foster's Taxi Driver character (in the film, De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, makes an assassination attempt on a senator).^[30]

Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival,^[31] also receiving four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, although all were unsuccessful.

Scorsese was subsequently offered the role of Charles Manson in the movie Helter Skelter and a part in Sam Fuller's war movie The Big Red One, but he turned both down. However he did accept the role of a gangster in exploitation movie Cannonball directed by Paul Bartel. In this period there were also several directorial projects that never got off the ground including Haunted Summer, about Mary Shelley and a film with Marlon Brando about the Indian massacre at Wounded Knee.

[edit] New York, New York and The Last Waltz

The critical success of Taxi Driver encouraged Scorsese to move ahead with his first big-budget project: the highly stylized musical New York, New York. This tribute to Scorsese's home town and the classic Hollywood musical was a box-office failure.

New York, New York was the director's third collaboration with Robert De Niro, co-starring with Liza Minnelli (a tribute and allusion to her father, legendary musical director Vincente Minnelli). The film is best remembered today for the title theme song, which was popularized by Frank Sinatra. Although possessing Scorsese's usual visual panache and stylistic bravura, many critics felt its enclosed studio-bound atmosphere left it leaden in comparison to his earlier work.

Despite its weak reception, the film is regarded by some to be among the director's finest achievements. Richard Brody in the New Yorker wrote: "For Scorsese, a lifelong cinephile, the essence of New York could be found in its depiction in classic Hollywood movies. Remarkably, his backward-looking tribute to the golden age of musicals and noirish romantic melodramas turned out to be one of his most freewheeling and personal films." ^[32] Jean-Luc Godard is another admirer of the film.^[33]

The disappointing reception that New York, New York received drove Scorsese into depression. By this stage the director had also developed a serious cocaine addiction. However, he did find the creative drive to make the highly regarded The Last Waltz, documenting the final concert by The Band. It was held at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, and featured one of the most extensive lineups of prominent guest performers at a single concert, including Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Ronnie Wood and Van Morrison. However, Scorsese's commitments to other projects delayed the release of the film until 1978.

Another Scorsese-directed documentary entitled American Boy also appeared in 1978, focusing on Steven Prince, the cocky gun salesman who appeared in Taxi Driver. A period of wild partying followed, damaging the director's already fragile health.

Scorsese also helped provide footage for the documentary Elvis on Tour.

1980s[link]

[edit] Raging Bull

By several accounts (Scorsese's included), Robert De Niro practically saved Scorsese's life when he persuaded Scorsese to kick his cocaine addiction to make his highly regarded film, Raging Bull. Convinced that he would never make another movie, he poured his energies into making this violent biopic of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta, calling it a Kamikaze method of film-making.^[34] The film is widely viewed as a masterpiece and was voted the greatest film of the 1980s by Britain's Sight & Sound magazine.^[35][36] It received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Robert De Niro, and Scorsese's first for Best Director. De Niro won, as did Thelma Schoonmaker for editing, but Best Director went to Robert Redford for Ordinary People.

Raging Bull, filmed in high contrast black and white, is where Scorsese's style reached its zenith: Taxi Driver and New York, New York had used elements of expressionism to replicate psychological points of view, but here the style was taken to new extremes, employing extensive slow-motion, complex tracking shots, and extravagant distortion of perspective (for example, the size of boxing rings would change from fight to fight).^[37] Thematically too, the concerns carried on from Mean Streets and Taxi Driver: insecure males, violence, guilt, and redemption.

Although the screenplay for Raging Bull was credited to Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin (who earlier co-wrote Mean Streets), the finished script differed extensively from Schrader's original draft. It was re-written several times by various writers including Jay Cocks (who went on to co-script later Scorsese films The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York). The final draft was largely written by Scorsese and Robert De Niro.^[38]

The American Film Institute chose Raging Bull as the #1 American sports film on their list of the top 10 sports films.

[edit] The King of Comedy

Scorsese's next project was his fifth collaboration with Robert De Niro, The King of Comedy (1983). A satire on the world of media and celebrity, it was an obvious departure from the more emotionally committed films he had become associated with. Visually, it was far less kinetic than the style Scorsese had developed up until this point, often using a static camera and long takes.^[39] The expressionism of his recent work here gave way to moments of almost total surrealism. It still bore many of Scorsese's trademarks, however, such as its focus on a troubled loner who ironically becomes famous through a criminal act (murder and kidnapping, respectively).^[40]

The King of Comedy failed at the box office, but has become increasingly well regarded by critics in the years since its release. German director Wim Wenders numbered it among his fifteen favourite films.^[41] Also, Scorsese apparently believes that this is the best performance De Niro ever gave for him.^{[citation needed]}

Next Scorsese made a brief cameo appearance in the movie Anna Pavlova (also known as A Woman for All Time), originally intended to be directed by one of his heroes, Michael Powell. This led to a more significant role in Bertrand Tavernier's jazz movie Round Midnight.

In 1983 Scorsese began work on a long-cherished personal project, The Last Temptation of Christ, based on the 1951 (English translation 1960) novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, who was introduced to the director by actress Barbara Hershey when they were both attending New York University in the late 1960s. The movie was slated to shoot under the Paramount Pictures banner, but shortly before principal photography was to commence, Paramount pulled the plug on the project, citing pressure from religious groups. In this aborted 1983 version, Aidan Quinn was cast as Jesus, and Sting was cast as Pontius Pilate. (In the 1988 version, these roles were played respectively by Willem Dafoe and David Bowie.)

[edit] After Hours

After the collapse of this project Scorsese again saw his career at a critical point, as he described in the documentary Filming for Your Life: Making 'After Hours' (2004). He saw that in the increasingly commercial world of 1980s Hollywood, the highly stylized and personal 1970s films he and others had built their careers on would not continue to enjoy the same status. Scorsese decided then on an almost totally new approach to his work. With After Hours (1985) he made an aesthetic shift back to a pared-down, almost "underground" film-making style – his way of staying viable. Filmed on an extremely low budget, on location, and at night in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, the film is a black comedy about one increasingly misfortunate night for a mild New York word processor (Griffin Dunne) and featured cameos by such disparate actors as Teri Garr and Cheech and Chong. A bit of a stylistic anomaly for Scorsese, After Hours fits in well with popular low-budget "cult" films of the 1980s, e.g. Jonathan Demme's Something Wild and Alex Cox's Repo Man.

[edit] The Color of Money

Along with the 1987 Michael Jackson music video "Bad", in 1986 Scorsese made The Color of Money, a sequel to the much admired Robert Rossen film The Hustler (1961) with Paul Newman. Although typically visually assured, The Color of Money was the director's first foray into mainstream commercial film-making. It won actor Paul Newman a belated Oscar and gave Scorsese the clout to finally secure backing for a project that had been a long time goal for him: The Last Temptation of Christ. He also made a brief venture into television, directing an episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories.

[edit] The Last Temptation of Christ

After his mid-1980s flirtation with commercial Hollywood, Scorsese made a major return to personal film-making with the Paul Schrader-scripted The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Based on Nikos Kazantzakis's controversial 1960 book, it retold the life of Christ in human rather than divine terms. Even prior to its release the film caused a massive furore, worldwide protests against its blasphemy effectively turning a low budget independent movie into a media sensation.^[42] Most controversy centered on the final passages of the film which depicted Christ marrying and raising a family with Mary Magdalene in a Satan-induced hallucination while on the cross.

Looking past the controversy, The Last Temptation of Christ gained critical acclaim and remains an important work in Scorsese's canon: an explicit attempt to wrestle with the spirituality which had under-pinned his films up until that point. The director went on to receive his second nomination for a Best Director Academy Award (again unsuccessfully, this time losing to Barry Levinson for Rain Man).

Along with directors Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola, in 1989 Scorsese provided one of three segments in the portmanteau film New York Stories, called "Life Lessons".

1990s[link]

[edit] Goodfellas

After a decade of mostly mixed results, Gangster epic Goodfellas (1990) was a return to form for Scorsese and his most confident and fully realized film since Raging Bull. De Niro and Joe Pesci in Goodfellas offered a virtuoso display of the director's bravura cinematic technique and re-established, enhanced, and consolidated his reputation. After the film was released Roger Ebert, a friend and supporter of Scorsese, named Goodfellas "the best mob movie ever" and is ranked #1 on Roger's movie list for 1990, along with Gene Siskel and Peter Travers, the film is widely considered one of the director's greatest achievements.^[43][44][45]

However, Goodfellas also signified an important shift in tone in the director's work, inaugurating an era in his career which was technically accomplished but some have argued emotionally detached.^[46] Despite this, many view Goodfellas as a Scorsese archetype – the apogee of his cinematic technique.

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, Scorsese earned his third Best Director nomination for Goodfellas but again lost to a first-time director, Kevin Costner (Dances With Wolves). Joe Pesci earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Goodfellas. Scorsese and the film won over a numerous of different awards, including five BAFTA Awards, a Silver Lion and more.

After the film, Goodfellas was acknowledged as the second best in the gangster film genre (after The Godfather). The American Film Institute put Goodfellas at #94 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list and on the 2007 updated version they moved Goodfellas up to #92 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list (10th Anniversary Edition) and they put Goodfellas at #2 on their list of the top 10 Gangster films.

In 1990, he acted in a cameo role as Vincent van Gogh in the film Dreams by legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

[edit] Cape Fear

1991 brought Cape Fear, a remake of a cult 1962 movie of the same name, and the director's seventh collaboration with De Niro. Another foray into the mainstream, the film was a stylized thriller taking its cues heavily from Alfred Hitchcock and Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955). Cape Fear received a mixed critical reception and was lambasted in many quarters for its scenes depicting misogynistic violence. However, the lurid subject matter did give Scorsese a chance to experiment with a dazzling array of visual tricks and effects. The film garnered two Oscar nominations. Earning eighty million dollars domestically, it would stand as Scorsese's most commercially successful release until The Aviator (2004), and then The Departed (2006). The film also marked the first time Scorsese used wide-screen Panavision with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

[edit] The Age of Innocence

The opulent and handsomely mounted The Age of Innocence (1993) was on the surface a huge departure for Scorsese, a period adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about the constrictive high society of late-19th Century New York. It was highly lauded by critics upon original release, but was a box office bomb, making an overall loss. As noted in Scorsese on Scorsese by editor/interviewer Ian Christie, the news that Scorsese wanted to make a film about a 19th Century failed romance raised many eyebrows among the film fraternity all the more when Scorsese made it clear that it was a personal project and not a studio for-hire job.

Scorsese was interested in doing a "romantic piece". His friend, Jay Cocks gave him the Wharton novel in 1980, suggesting that this should be the romantic piece Scorsese should film as Cocks felt it best represented his sensibility. In Scorsese on Scorsese he noted that:

"Although the film deals with New York aristocracy and a period of New York history that has been neglected, and although it deals with code and ritual, and with love that's not unrequited but unconsummated – which pretty much covers all the themes I usually deal with – when I read the book, I didn't say, 'Oh good, all those themes are here.'"

Scorsese, who was strongly drawn to the characters and the story of Wharton's text, wanted his film to be as rich an emotional experience as the book was to him rather than the traditional academic adaptations of literary works. To this aim, Scorsese sought influence from diverse period films which made an emotional impact on him. In Scorsese on Scorsese, he documents influences from films such as Luchino Visconti's Senso and his Il Gattopardo as well as Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons and also Roberto Rossellini's La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV. Although The Age of Innocence was ultimately different than these films in terms of narrative, story and thematic concern, the presence of a lost society, of lost values as well as detailed re-creations of social customs and rituals continues the tradition of these films.

Recently, it has started to come back into the public eye, especially in countries such as the UK and France, but still is largely neglected in North America. The film earned five Academy Award nominations (including for Scorsese for Best Adapted Screenplay), winning the Costume Design Oscar. It also made a significant impact on directors such as Chinese auteur Tian Zhuangzhuang,^[47] and British filmmaker Terence Davies,^[48] both of whom ranked it among their ten favorite films.

This was his first collaboration with the Academy Award winning actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, with whom he would work again in Gangs of New York.

[edit] Casino