He never won an Oscar for Best Director (although he should’ve), but received an Honorary Oscar in 2005 (the Academy’s way of saying “we screwed up!”). The footage of the sweater-wearing Lumet is from 2008, when he Buirski captured him on camera for an “American Masters” project. He died three years later at the age of 86, after directing 44 movies in 52 years. It’s an insightful and revealing doc, that will be eye-opening for some viewers who will likely learn a thing or two about the filmmaker. Those four films are classics, but if you’re already quite familiar with Lumet’s work, you’ll likely appreciate “By Sidney Lumet” even more, because here you have an auteur sitting down and reflecting on, not just his work, but the motivation and inspiration for many of the themes – such as corruption and ineptness in authority figures as well as social justice issued, usually entwined in family or close relationships – that he revisits throughout so many of his films. I would highly recommend started with his seminal work from the 70s, such as “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Serpico” and “Network” and I’ll even throw in “The Verdict”, which is an 80s gem. If you’re absolutely unfamiliar with Lumet’s work, that’s a shame. It’s almost as if Lumet selected which of his films and what part of his life he wanted Buirski to cover in her doc – and I don’t mind that at all since I consider Lumet to have been one of our great American directors. In fact, it almost feels like he directed this since its kind of selective which of the director’s films it covers instead of going over his filmography in sequential order (which would be too exhaustive). If this were a book it would be called Lumet on Lumet, since its reminiscent of those books where directors discuss each of their films. Such is the case with “By Sidney Lumet” a documentary directed by Nancy Buirski (“Afternoon of a Fawn” and “The Loving Story”) that lives up to its title. It’s even rarer when that director is no longer with us. It’s a rare thing when a documentary focusing on a filmmaker features its subject reflecting on his/her career as the sole talking head. release date: Ap(Tribeca Film Festival), Octo(at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York City) and Novem(at Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in Los Angeles) Green, Thane Rosenbaum & Robin Yigit Smith Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes.Produced by: Nancy Buirski, Scott Berrie, Chris Donnelly, Joshua A. Lumet comes across as a mensch, but he was also a complex artist whose often literally dark films were filled with shadows, rage and spit, not just nobility. Buirski has a fixed idea about his work that flattens it, as underscored by her choices in film clips, notably from “ 12 Angry Men” and its big speeches. It serviceably sketches in his personal life, landing harder on themes (fathers and sons) than on details, a balance that would be fine if it didn’t produce some nagging questions, including about women (his mother and wives). “By Sidney Lumet” gets a lot of this in as it jumps from topics and skips around in time, from past to present and back again. Over a half-century, he directed more than 40 movies - or pictures, as he called them - including critical and popular triumphs as well as misfires that are largely ignored here.
AMERICAN MASTERS SIDNEY LUMET TV
When his first movie, “12 Angry Men” (1957), opened, he was 32 and a seasoned theater and TV professional, having worked with Max Reinhardt, Walter Bernstein, Abraham Polonsky and Yul Brynner, then a CBS director who helped Mr.
He was a child member of the Group Theater as a teenager he performed alongside Lotte Lenya. Lumet lived one of those exciting 20th-century American lives that seemed to hitch a ride on every artistic and political wave, with no dull acts or minor characters.
Lumet can spin a tale, these murky-looking, less-than-flattering sit-downs are irritatingly suboptimal, particularly given that he was so great at telling intimate stories about men in shadows. Rosenbaum stayed on as a producer.) It must have been a tough gig to resist and to finish, just because of its subject. Anker died in 2014, Nancy Buirski was brought in to turn these interviews into a movie. “By Sidney Lumet” began as on-camera interviews shot and produced in 2008 by Daniel Anker and Thane Rosenbaum for the PBS show “American Masters.” After Mr. True, there are moments when you wish you were watching one of his movies instead, but there’s something to be said for a tribute that inspires you to revisit the films and again seek out “ Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “ Serpico,” “ Q&A” and his masterpiece, “ Dog Day Afternoon.” (Mr. A documentary like “By Sidney Lumet,” for instance, gives you a chance to hang out with a favorite filmmaker, to listen to him talk about his life and work, to hear the cadences and occasional cracks in his voice. Movies about great directors rarely live up to their subjects.
0 kommentar(er)
