Michael Winterbottom
Encyclopedia
Michael Winterbottom is a prolific English filmmaker who has directed seventeen feature films in the past fifteen years. He began his career working in British television before moving into features. Three of his films — Welcome to Sarajevo
, Wonderland
and 24 Hour Party People
— have been nominated for the Palme d'Or
at the Cannes Film Festival
.
Michael often works with the same actors, many faces can be seen in several of his films, including Shirley Henderson
, Paul Popplewell
, John Simm
, Steve Coogan
.
. He went to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn
, taking his O Levels
in an accelerated four years, and then studied English at Balliol College, Oxford
before going to film school
at Bristol University, where his contemporaries included Marc Evans
.
's mystery series Cracker, four television movies, an episode of the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, two documentaries about Ingmar Bergman
and an episode of the documentary series Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood focusing on Scandinavian silent cinema.
He also directed the mini-series Family
, written by Roddy Doyle
. Each of four episodes focused on one member of a working-class Dublin family. It was this series that first brought Winterbottom to the attention of filmgoers, when it was edited down into a feature and shown at festivals.
Winterbottom's 1995 cinematic debut firmly established his intense visual sense, naturalistic style and compelling use of pop songs to reinforce narrative. The story of a mentally unbalanced lesbian serial killer
and her submissive lover/accomplice falling in love as they slaughter their way across the motorways of Northern England
. It found only a limited release.
Go Now
That same year, he reunited with Jimmy McGovern
for the BBC
television film Go Now
, the story of a young man who falls ill with multiple sclerosis
just as he meets the love of his life. Focusing on the turmoil this causes the couple, the film was given a theatrical release in many countries, including the United States
.
Jude
In 1996 Winterbottom adapted his favourite novel, Thomas Hardy
's bleak classic Jude the Obscure
, the tale of forbidden love between two cousins which had so scandalized British society on its release in 1895 that Hardy gave up novel-writing. It was not Winterbottom's first time approaching the work, having already filmed the pig-slaughter sequence at film school. Starring Christopher Eccleston
and Kate Winslet
, Jude
brought Winterbottom wider recognition, his first screening at Cannes
and numerous Hollywood offers, all of which he eventually turned down.
Welcome to Sarajevo
Welcome to Sarajevo
was filmed on location in the titular city
, mere months after the Siege of Sarajevo
had ended, adding greatly to its sense of authenticity and allowing frequent intercutting of actual news footage from the combat. The film is based on the true story of a British reporter, Michael Nicholson
, who spirited a young orphan girl out of the war zone to safety in Britain.
I Want You
and With or Without You
Winterbottom's next two films both had distribution difficulties and were not widely seen. I Want You
is a neo-noir sex thriller, shot in bold primary colors by the Polish cinematographer Slawomir Idziak
and set in a decaying seaside resort. Starring Rachel Weisz
and Alessandro Nivola
, it focuses more on mood than plot and was inspired by the Elvis Costello
song of the same name. With or Without You, starring Christopher Eccleston
, is a light Belfast
-set sex comedy, about a couple who are trying desperately to conceive, only for each to have past loves re-enter their lives.
Wonderland
1999's Wonderland
marked a decided shift in style for Winterbottom, with its loose, handheld photography and naturalistic, often improvised dialogue which drew comparisons to Robert Altman
. Featuring Gina McKee, Shirley Henderson, John Simm
, Ian Hart
and Stuart Townsend
, it is the story of three sisters and their extended family over the Guy Fawkes
Day weekend in London
. The disparate elements are tied together by an orchestral score by minimalist composer Michael Nyman
, who would become a frequent collaborator with Winterbottom.
The Claim
Winterbottom followed that project up with his biggest budgeted film, The Claim
, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy
's The Mayor of Casterbridge
set in 1860s California
. Shot with a budget of $20 million in the wilds of Canada
, it was not a financial success and proved an ordeal to make, with Winterbottom himself getting frostbite
. The production had previously been ready to shoot in Spain
, with sets already built, when financing fell through. Attempts were made to cast Madonna
, in a role eventually played by Milla Jovovich
and many of the production details and difficulties were explained to the public on an unusually frank official website.
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
documents the anarchic, drug and sex-fueled rise and fall of the influential label Factory Records
and the music scene in Manchester
from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. As much an ode to the city of Manchester as the story of the contemporary musical world, the film stars Steve Coogan
as broadcaster/music-mogul Tony Wilson
.
In This World
His 2002 film In This World
depicts the harrowing journey of two Afghan refugees from Pakistan
, across the Middle East
and Europe to Britain which they try to enter with the help of people smugglers
. Shot on digital video
with non-professional actors who virtually lived out the events of the film, its compelling sense of reality brought Winterbottom numerous awards including a Golden Bear and a BAFTA for best film not in the English language.
Code 46
The futuristic romantic mystery Code 46
is a retelling of the Oedipus
myth, in a world where cloning
has created people so interrelated that strict laws (the Code 46 of the title) govern human reproduction. Essentially a film noir, it follows a fraud investigator played by Tim Robbins
as he investigates a femme fatale played by Samantha Morton
. The film's highly stylized settings were created on a limited budget by taking the tiny crew around the world, shooting in places which already looked like one hundred years in the future. Much of the film was shot in Shanghai
, while Dubai
and Rajasthan
in India
were also variously mixed to create a multi-ethnic melting-pot culture.
9 Songs
9 Songs, released in 2004, gained attention as the most sexually explicit film ever to receive a certificate
for general release in the UK. It charts a year-long relationship between two lovers, almost exclusively through their sexual interaction and various rock concerts the couple attend. During these concerts, the nine songs of the film's title often comment on the couple's relationship. The film became notorious in the UK for its candid scenes of unsimulated sex between the leads, Kieran O'Brien
and Margo Stilley
.
A Cock and Bull Story
He followed that with 2006's A Cock and Bull Story
, which was released in the United States
and Australia
as Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. It is an adaptation of the famously "unfilmable" The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
, one of the earliest novels. Shandy is a narrator so easily distracted in relating his life story that by the end of the book he has not yet come to his own birth. The film, similarly, is about the making of a film of Tristram Shandy, and the impossibility of that task. Moreover, it deals with the impossibility of capturing the complexity of life in a work of art, but the value of the attempt. Steve Coogan stars as himself and as Shandy. The film also marks the end of Winterbottom's lengthy collaboration with writer Frank Cottrell Boyce
, who chose to be credited under the pseudonym Martin Hardy.
The Road to Guantanamo
Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo
is a docu-drama about the "Tipton Three
", three British Muslims captured by US forces in Afghanistan
who spent two years as prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as alleged enemy combatants. It was shot in Afghanistan
, Pakistan
and Iran
(which doubled as Cuba
) in the autumn of 2005. It premiered at the Berlinale on 14 February 2006. It debuted in the UK on television, on 9 March, as it was co-financed by Channel 4
.
A Mighty Heart
A Mighty Heart
is based on the book by Mariane Pearl, wife of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl
. The film stars Angelina Jolie
and focuses on the pregnant Mariane's search for her missing husband in Pakistan in 2002. Produced by Jolie's partner Brad Pitt
, it was shot in the autumn of 2006 in India, Pakistan and France and premiered out of competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival
on 21 May.
Genova
Genova
is a family drama about an Englishman, played by Colin Firth
, who moves his two American daughters to Italy
following the death of his wife. Once there, the oldest girl starts exploring her sexuality, while the younger girl begins to see the ghost of her mother. It co-stars Catherine Keener
and Hope Davis
and was filmed in the titular city of Genoa
, Italy, during the summer of 2007. It was written by Wonderland screenwriter Laurence Coriat. It premiered at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and Winterbottom later won the Silver Shell for best director at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The Shock Doctrine
Winterbottom was reunited with his The Road to Guantanamo
co-director Mat Whitecross on a documentary based on Naomi Klein
's bestselling book The Shock Doctrine
. The film follows the use of upheavals and disasters by various governments as a cover for the implementation of free market economic policies that benefit only an elite few. Klein at first disowned the film after learning that it would be composed almost entirely of period footage and narration, with virtually no interview material with sources. The film premiered at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival and aired in the UK on Channel 4's More4 documentary channel on 1 September 2009. It made its American premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
, alongside Winterbottom's following film. At the festival, Klein, who had reconciled herself with the filmmakers' approach, participated in a Q&A with Winterbottom and Whitecross.
The Killer Inside Me
Winterbottom's film of Jim Thompson
's 1952 noir novel
, starring Casey Affleck
, Kate Hudson
and Jessica Alba
is a period film which follows a small town Texas
sheriff (Affleck), who is also a psychotic killer, through his descent into complete madness. It premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
and caused controversy for the realistic brutality of its violence toward women. In his defence, Winterbottom said, "It's the not the real world. It's kind of a parallel version of the real world. . . . I was taken in by that world."
The Trip
This improvised six-episode comedy series, filmed in the English Lake District
, stars Steve Coogan
and Rob Brydon
as the semi-fictionalized versions of themselves they previously played in A Cock and Bull Story
. Coogan, an actor unhappy with his career, agrees to write a series of restaurant reviews for The Observer
in order to impress his girlfriend Misha (Margo Stilley
). As the series opens, she has dumped him and he invites Brydon to take her place on the vacation. Each episode of the series takes place largely over a different gourmet meal, the restaurant names giving each episode their title. The episodes were edited down into a feature film which premiered at the Toronto International Film festival in September 2010, while the series itself then aired on the BBC starting in November, 2010.
Trishna
Winterbottom's modern retelling of Tess of the d'Urbervilles
is his third Thomas Hardy
film. It stars Riz Ahmed
and Freida Pinto
and was shot in Jaipur
and Mumbai
, India
in early 2011. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival
on September 9, 2011.
Winterbottom is attached to direct this adaptation of author Jess Walter
's novel The Financial Lives of the Poets, which Walter adapted for the screen. Starring Jack Black
, the film follows a man who loses his job and must keep his family afloat by working as a pot dealer. It is scheduled to shoot in January 2012.
Untitled Amanda Knox
Project
This film will involve the dramatic, headline-making trial, conviction and eventual acquittal of American student Amanda Knox
for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher. Winterbottom traveled to Perugia
, Italy in 2010 and attended court hearings for research on the project, at one time set to star Colin Firth
. He said the film would be fictionalized and focus on journalists and the media circus surrounding the trial more than on the actual events in dispute.
Paul Raymond’s Wonderful World of Erotica
Winterbottom is set to reteam with Steve Coogan
on a biography of famed British pornographer/strip club owner Paul Raymond. The film is being written by Matt Greenhalgh
.
The Trip 2
Producer Andrew Eaton has announced plans for a second series of the show with Coogan and Brydon, this time taking them on a culinary driving tour through Italy.
The Longest Cocktail Party
Winterbottom is attached to direct a film version of Richard DeLillio's 1973 autobiographical novel
about his time working with The Beatles
. Liam Gallagher
is co-producing the project with Winterbottom and his long-time producer Andrew Eaton. It is being written by British comedy writer Jesse Armstrong
.
The Promised Land
Jim Sturgess
, Colin Firth
and Matthew Macfadyen
are set to star in this political thriller set in 1930s/1940s Palestine
. Sturgess and Macfadyen will play two British police officers hunting Zionist militant Avraham Stern
, while Firth will play an official of the British Mandate government. The screenplay was written by Winterbottom and Laurence Coriat, and Winterbottom has already shot documentary footage with the surviving participants in the events.
Seven Days
Winterbottom has been working since 2007 on a project that will not be released until 2012. Seven Days stars John Simm
as a man imprisoned for drug-smuggling and charts his relationship with his wife, played by Shirley Henderson
. Written by Winterbottom and Coriat, the film is being shot a few weeks at a time, over a five-year period, to reflect the protagonist's time in prison and achieve an authentic aging process.
London Fields
Another prospective future project is this adaptation by Martin Amis
of his own novel
. It follows a psychic who encounters two different men — one of whom might be her killer. Gemma Arterton
has stated in interviews that she is attached to play the lead role of Nicola Six.
Welcome To Sarajevo
Welcome to Sarajevo is a British war film from 1997. It is directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is by Frank Cottrell Boyce and is based on the book Natasha's Story by Michael Nicholson.- Synopsis :...
, Wonderland
Wonderland (1999 film)
Wonderland is a 1999 drama film about the lives of a London couple, their three adult daughters and absent son. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film stars Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham, Shirley Henderson, Gina McKee, Molly Parker, John Simm, and Stuart Townsend...
and 24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...
— have been nominated for the Palme d'Or
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
.
Michael often works with the same actors, many faces can be seen in several of his films, including Shirley Henderson
Shirley Henderson
Shirley Henderson is a Scottish actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .-Early life:...
, Paul Popplewell
Paul Popplewell
Paul Popplewell was born in 1977 and raised in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.He became a professional Actor aged 16 when he dropped out of college after gaining the lead role of Simon in multi award winning BBC Television Drama ‘Criminal’ for which he won Best Actor at the Golden Chest Film...
, John Simm
John Simm
John Simm is an English stage and screen actor. In recent years he is best known for his roles as Sam Tyler in the detective drama Life on Mars and as The Master in the revival of the science fiction series Doctor Who, but he has also starred in many highly acclaimed award-winning television...
, Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
.
Personal life
Winterbottom was born in Blackburn, LancashireLancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. He went to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School is a co-educational independent school in Blackburn, Lancashire, founded in 1509 as a boys' school. The term "school" is usually used to collectively refer to the following:...
, taking his O Levels
General Certificate of Education
The General Certificate of Education or GCE is an academic qualification that examination boards in the United Kingdom and a few of the Commonwealth countries, notably Sri Lanka, confer to students. The GCE traditionally comprised two levels: the Ordinary Level and the Advanced Level...
in an accelerated four years, and then studied English at Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
before going to film school
Film school
The term film school is used to describe any educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training are usually incorporated into...
at Bristol University, where his contemporaries included Marc Evans
Marc Evans
Marc Evans is a Welsh-born film director, whose credits include the films House of America, Resurrection Man and My Little Eye.-Biography:Evans was born in 1963 in Carmarthen, Wales...
.
Early television career
Winterbottom's television career included such diverse projects as the pilot of Jimmy McGovernJimmy McGovern
Jimmy McGovern is a BAFTA award-winning English television scriptwriter from Liverpool.-Early career:McGovern started his career working on Channel 4's soap opera Brookside in 1982, tackling many social issues such as unemployment.-Successes:...
's mystery series Cracker, four television movies, an episode of the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, two documentaries about Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
and an episode of the documentary series Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood focusing on Scandinavian silent cinema.
He also directed the mini-series Family
Family (1994)
Family is a television drama series that aired on RTÉ One and BBC One in 1994. It was written by Roddy Doyle, the author of The Commitments, and directed by Michael Winterbottom.-Premise:...
, written by Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into successful films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He won the Booker Prize in 1993....
. Each of four episodes focused on one member of a working-class Dublin family. It was this series that first brought Winterbottom to the attention of filmgoers, when it was edited down into a feature and shown at festivals.
Film
Butterfly KissButterfly Kiss
Butterfly Kiss is a 1995 British film, directed by Michael Winterbottom and written by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It stars Amanda Plummer and Saskia Reeves...
Winterbottom's 1995 cinematic debut firmly established his intense visual sense, naturalistic style and compelling use of pop songs to reinforce narrative. The story of a mentally unbalanced lesbian serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
and her submissive lover/accomplice falling in love as they slaughter their way across the motorways of Northern England
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
. It found only a limited release.
Go Now
Go Now
Go Now is a 1995 television film directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Robert Carlyle as an MS-afflicted soccer player/construction worker struggling with the onset of multiple sclerosis....
That same year, he reunited with Jimmy McGovern
Jimmy McGovern
Jimmy McGovern is a BAFTA award-winning English television scriptwriter from Liverpool.-Early career:McGovern started his career working on Channel 4's soap opera Brookside in 1982, tackling many social issues such as unemployment.-Successes:...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television film Go Now
Go Now
Go Now is a 1995 television film directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Robert Carlyle as an MS-afflicted soccer player/construction worker struggling with the onset of multiple sclerosis....
, the story of a young man who falls ill with multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
just as he meets the love of his life. Focusing on the turmoil this causes the couple, the film was given a theatrical release in many countries, including the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Jude
Jude (film)
Jude is a 1996 English film, based on the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is written by Hossein Amini...
In 1996 Winterbottom adapted his favourite novel, Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
's bleak classic Jude the Obscure
Jude the Obscure
Jude the Obscure, the last of Thomas Hardy's novels, began as a magazine serial and was first published in book form in 1895. The book was burned publicly by William Walsham How, Bishop of Wakefield, in that same year. Its hero, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man who dreams of becoming a...
, the tale of forbidden love between two cousins which had so scandalized British society on its release in 1895 that Hardy gave up novel-writing. It was not Winterbottom's first time approaching the work, having already filmed the pig-slaughter sequence at film school. Starring Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
and Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
, Jude
Jude (film)
Jude is a 1996 English film, based on the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is written by Hossein Amini...
brought Winterbottom wider recognition, his first screening at Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
and numerous Hollywood offers, all of which he eventually turned down.
Welcome to Sarajevo
Welcome To Sarajevo
Welcome to Sarajevo is a British war film from 1997. It is directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is by Frank Cottrell Boyce and is based on the book Natasha's Story by Michael Nicholson.- Synopsis :...
Welcome to Sarajevo
Welcome To Sarajevo
Welcome to Sarajevo is a British war film from 1997. It is directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is by Frank Cottrell Boyce and is based on the book Natasha's Story by Michael Nicholson.- Synopsis :...
was filmed on location in the titular city
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, mere months after the Siege of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Serb forces of the Republika Srpska and the Yugoslav People's Army besieged Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 during the Bosnian War.After Bosnia...
had ended, adding greatly to its sense of authenticity and allowing frequent intercutting of actual news footage from the combat. The film is based on the true story of a British reporter, Michael Nicholson
Michael Nicholson
Michael Nicholson OBE is an English journalist and former ITN Senior Foreign Correspondent.- Journalistic career :Born in Romford, Essex, Nicholson attended the University of Leicester. Nicholson was a war reporter for ITN, who reported from wars in Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Vietnam, Cambodia,...
, who spirited a young orphan girl out of the war zone to safety in Britain.
I Want You
I Want You (1998 film)
I Want You is an 1998 English crime film directed by Michael Winterbottom.-Plot:Martin is an ex-convict who returns home and finds that Helen , his former girlfriend is involved with someone else...
and With or Without You
Winterbottom's next two films both had distribution difficulties and were not widely seen. I Want You
I Want You (1998 film)
I Want You is an 1998 English crime film directed by Michael Winterbottom.-Plot:Martin is an ex-convict who returns home and finds that Helen , his former girlfriend is involved with someone else...
is a neo-noir sex thriller, shot in bold primary colors by the Polish cinematographer Slawomir Idziak
Slawomir Idziak
Sławomir Idziak is a well-known Polish cinematographer, having worked on over forty Polish and foreign films.He has made fourteen movies with Krzysztof Zanussi, including Kontrakt , The Constant Factor and The Year of the Quiet Sun. He worked on all the early films of Krzysztof Kieślowski,...
and set in a decaying seaside resort. Starring Rachel Weisz
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz born 7 March 1970)is an English-American film and theatre actress and former fashion model. She started her acting career at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she co-founded the theatrical group Cambridge Talking Tongues...
and Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Nivola
Alessandro Antine Nivola is an American actor, perhaps best known for his roles in the films Best Laid Plans, Jurassic Park III, Face/Off, and the first two films of the Goal! trilogy.-Personal life:...
, it focuses more on mood than plot and was inspired by the Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
song of the same name. With or Without You, starring Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
, is a light Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
-set sex comedy, about a couple who are trying desperately to conceive, only for each to have past loves re-enter their lives.
Wonderland
Wonderland (1999 film)
Wonderland is a 1999 drama film about the lives of a London couple, their three adult daughters and absent son. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film stars Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham, Shirley Henderson, Gina McKee, Molly Parker, John Simm, and Stuart Townsend...
1999's Wonderland
Wonderland (1999 film)
Wonderland is a 1999 drama film about the lives of a London couple, their three adult daughters and absent son. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film stars Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham, Shirley Henderson, Gina McKee, Molly Parker, John Simm, and Stuart Townsend...
marked a decided shift in style for Winterbottom, with its loose, handheld photography and naturalistic, often improvised dialogue which drew comparisons to Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
. Featuring Gina McKee, Shirley Henderson, John Simm
John Simm
John Simm is an English stage and screen actor. In recent years he is best known for his roles as Sam Tyler in the detective drama Life on Mars and as The Master in the revival of the science fiction series Doctor Who, but he has also starred in many highly acclaimed award-winning television...
, Ian Hart
Ian Hart
Ian Hart is an English stage, television and film actor.-Early life:Hart, the grandson of Irish immigrants, was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. He is one of three siblings and was brought up in a Roman Catholic family...
and Stuart Townsend
Stuart Townsend
Stuart Townsend is an Irish actor and director. His most notable portrayals are of the characters Lestat de Lioncourt in the 2002 film adaptation of Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned, and Dorian Gray in the 2003 film adaptation of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.-Early life and...
, it is the story of three sisters and their extended family over the Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.Fawkes was born and educated in York...
Day weekend in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The disparate elements are tied together by an orchestral score by minimalist composer Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
, who would become a frequent collaborator with Winterbottom.
The Claim
The Claim
The Claim is a 2000 British Western/romance film directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce is loosely based on the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The original music score is composed by Michael Nyman....
Winterbottom followed that project up with his biggest budgeted film, The Claim
The Claim
The Claim is a 2000 British Western/romance film directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce is loosely based on the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The original music score is composed by Michael Nyman....
, an adaptation of Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
's The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge , subtitled "The Life and Death of a Man of Character", is a tragic novel by British author Thomas Hardy. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge . The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rustic England...
set in 1860s California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Shot with a budget of $20 million in the wilds of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, it was not a financial success and proved an ordeal to make, with Winterbottom himself getting frostbite
Frostbite
Frostbite is the medical condition where localized damage is caused to skin and other tissues due to extreme cold. Frostbite is most likely to happen in body parts farthest from the heart and those with large exposed areas...
. The production had previously been ready to shoot in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, with sets already built, when financing fell through. Attempts were made to cast Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, in a role eventually played by Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
and many of the production details and difficulties were explained to the public on an unusually frank official website.
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...
documents the anarchic, drug and sex-fueled rise and fall of the influential label Factory Records
Factory Records
Factory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside and James and...
and the music scene in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. As much an ode to the city of Manchester as the story of the contemporary musical world, the film stars Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
as broadcaster/music-mogul Tony Wilson
Tony Wilson
Anthony Howard Wilson, commonly known as Tony Wilson , was an English record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC....
.
In This World
In This World
In This World is a 2002 British docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom. The film follows two young Afghan refugees, Jamal Udin Torabi and Enayatullah, as they leave a refugee camp in Pakistan for a better life in London. Since their journey is illegal, it is fraught with danger, and they must...
His 2002 film In This World
In This World
In This World is a 2002 British docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom. The film follows two young Afghan refugees, Jamal Udin Torabi and Enayatullah, as they leave a refugee camp in Pakistan for a better life in London. Since their journey is illegal, it is fraught with danger, and they must...
depicts the harrowing journey of two Afghan refugees from Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, across the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Europe to Britain which they try to enter with the help of people smugglers
People smuggling
People smuggling is defined as "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents"...
. Shot on digital video
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
with non-professional actors who virtually lived out the events of the film, its compelling sense of reality brought Winterbottom numerous awards including a Golden Bear and a BAFTA for best film not in the English language.
Code 46
Code 46
Code 46 is a 2003 British film directed by Michael Winterbottom, with screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It was produced by BBC Films and Revolution Films. It is a disquieting science fiction love story with themes that explore the moral impacts of advances in biotechnology. The soundtrack was...
The futuristic romantic mystery Code 46
Code 46
Code 46 is a 2003 British film directed by Michael Winterbottom, with screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It was produced by BBC Films and Revolution Films. It is a disquieting science fiction love story with themes that explore the moral impacts of advances in biotechnology. The soundtrack was...
is a retelling of the Oedipus
Oedipus
Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family...
myth, in a world where cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
has created people so interrelated that strict laws (the Code 46 of the title) govern human reproduction. Essentially a film noir, it follows a fraud investigator played by Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
as he investigates a femme fatale played by Samantha Morton
Samantha Morton
Samantha Jane Morton is an English actress and film director. She began her performing career with guest roles in television shows such as Soldier Soldier and Boon before making her film debut in the 1997 drama film This Is the Sea, playing the character of Hazel Stokes...
. The film's highly stylized settings were created on a limited budget by taking the tiny crew around the world, shooting in places which already looked like one hundred years in the future. Much of the film was shot in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, while Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
and Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
were also variously mixed to create a multi-ethnic melting-pot culture.
9 Songs
9 Songs, released in 2004, gained attention as the most sexually explicit film ever to receive a certificate
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
for general release in the UK. It charts a year-long relationship between two lovers, almost exclusively through their sexual interaction and various rock concerts the couple attend. During these concerts, the nine songs of the film's title often comment on the couple's relationship. The film became notorious in the UK for its candid scenes of unsimulated sex between the leads, Kieran O'Brien
Kieran O'Brien
Kieran O'Brien is an English actor.-Biography:O'Brien, who grew up in nearby Royton, began acting at a early age and was the star of a BBC TV series Gruey by the time he was 15. He also featured in several other series at the time in one-off or recurring roles...
and Margo Stilley
Margo Stilley
Margo Stilley is an American actress and former model.-Biography:Stilley grew up in Conway, South Carolina, and left as a teenager to model in Milan before moving to London at the age of 18....
.
A Cock and Bull Story
A Cock and Bull Story
A Cock and Bull Story is a 2006 British comedy film directed by Michael Winterbottom...
He followed that with 2006's A Cock and Bull Story
A Cock and Bull Story
A Cock and Bull Story is a 2006 British comedy film directed by Michael Winterbottom...
, which was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
as Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. It is an adaptation of the famously "unfilmable" The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next 10 years....
, one of the earliest novels. Shandy is a narrator so easily distracted in relating his life story that by the end of the book he has not yet come to his own birth. The film, similarly, is about the making of a film of Tristram Shandy, and the impossibility of that task. Moreover, it deals with the impossibility of capturing the complexity of life in a work of art, but the value of the attempt. Steve Coogan stars as himself and as Shandy. The film also marks the end of Winterbottom's lengthy collaboration with writer Frank Cottrell Boyce
Frank Cottrell Boyce
-Awards:*2004: Buch des Monats des Instituts für Jugendliteratur/Book of the Month by the Institute for Youth Literature , Millions*2004: Carnegie Medal, Millions*2004: Luchs des Jahres , Millions...
, who chose to be credited under the pseudonym Martin Hardy.
The Road to Guantanamo
The Road to Guantanamo
The Road to Guantanamo, alternatively The Road to Guantánamo, is a British 2006 docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British detainees at a detainment camp in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba...
Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo
The Road to Guantanamo
The Road to Guantanamo, alternatively The Road to Guantánamo, is a British 2006 docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British detainees at a detainment camp in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba...
is a docu-drama about the "Tipton Three
Tipton Three
The Tipton Three is the collective name given to three men from Tipton, England, who were held in extrajudicial detention by the United States government for two years in Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba. Ruhal Ahmed was born on March 11, 1981;...
", three British Muslims captured by US forces in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
who spent two years as prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp as alleged enemy combatants. It was shot in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
(which doubled as Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
) in the autumn of 2005. It premiered at the Berlinale on 14 February 2006. It debuted in the UK on television, on 9 March, as it was co-financed by Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
.
A Mighty Heart
A Mighty Heart (film)
A Mighty Heart is a 2007 drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom; It is an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart. Although initially a financial failure, A Mighty Heart was met with relatively positive reviews from both critics and viewers alike.The film was screened out of...
A Mighty Heart
A Mighty Heart (film)
A Mighty Heart is a 2007 drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom; It is an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart. Although initially a financial failure, A Mighty Heart was met with relatively positive reviews from both critics and viewers alike.The film was screened out of...
is based on the book by Mariane Pearl, wife of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed by Al-Qaeda.At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai, India. He went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between...
. The film stars Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
and focuses on the pregnant Mariane's search for her missing husband in Pakistan in 2002. Produced by Jolie's partner Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
, it was shot in the autumn of 2006 in India, Pakistan and France and premiered out of competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival
2007 Cannes Film Festival
The 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the sixtieth, ran from 16 to 27 May 2007. Wong Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights opened the festival, and Denys Arcand's The Age of Ignorance closed...
on 21 May.
Genova
Genova (film)
Genova is a film directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Colin Firth, Catherine Keener, and Hope Davis. It was filmed in the titular city of Genoa during the summer of 2007. It was written by Wonderland screenwriter Laurence Coriat...
Genova
Genova (film)
Genova is a film directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Colin Firth, Catherine Keener, and Hope Davis. It was filmed in the titular city of Genoa during the summer of 2007. It was written by Wonderland screenwriter Laurence Coriat...
is a family drama about an Englishman, played by Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
, who moves his two American daughters to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
following the death of his wife. Once there, the oldest girl starts exploring her sexuality, while the younger girl begins to see the ghost of her mother. It co-stars Catherine Keener
Catherine Keener
Catherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and Capote...
and Hope Davis
Hope Davis
Hope Davis is an American actress. She has starred in more than 20 feature films, including About Schmidt, Arlington Road, Flatliners, Mumford, American Splendor, The Lodger and Next Stop Wonderland....
and was filmed in the titular city of Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, Italy, during the summer of 2007. It was written by Wonderland screenwriter Laurence Coriat. It premiered at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and Winterbottom later won the Silver Shell for best director at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The Shock Doctrine
Winterbottom was reunited with his The Road to Guantanamo
The Road to Guantanamo
The Road to Guantanamo, alternatively The Road to Guantánamo, is a British 2006 docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British detainees at a detainment camp in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba...
co-director Mat Whitecross on a documentary based on Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
's bestselling book The Shock Doctrine
The Shock Doctrine
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a 2007 book by Canadian author Naomi Klein, and is the basis of a 2009 documentary by the same name....
. The film follows the use of upheavals and disasters by various governments as a cover for the implementation of free market economic policies that benefit only an elite few. Klein at first disowned the film after learning that it would be composed almost entirely of period footage and narration, with virtually no interview material with sources. The film premiered at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival and aired in the UK on Channel 4's More4 documentary channel on 1 September 2009. It made its American premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
, alongside Winterbottom's following film. At the festival, Klein, who had reconciled herself with the filmmakers' approach, participated in a Q&A with Winterbottom and Whitecross.
The Killer Inside Me
The Killer Inside Me (2010 film)
The Killer Inside Me is a 2010 American film adaptation of the 1952 novel of the same name by Jim Thompson. The film is directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, and Jessica Alba. At its release, it was criticised for its graphic depiction of violence directed toward...
Winterbottom's film of Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson (writer)
James Myers Thompson was an American author and screenwriter, known for his pulp crime fiction....
's 1952 noir novel
The Killer Inside Me
The Killer Inside Me is a 1952 novel by American writer Jim Thompson published by Fawcett Publications. In the introduction to the anthology Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s, it is described as "one of the most blistering and uncompromising crime novels ever written."- Plot summary :The...
, starring Casey Affleck
Casey Affleck
Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt , better known as Casey Affleck, is an American actor and film director. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he played supporting roles in mainstream hits like Good Will Hunting and Ocean's Eleven as well as in critically acclaimed independent films such as...
, Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10...
and Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba
Jessica Marie Alba is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack . Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel...
is a period film which follows a small town Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
sheriff (Affleck), who is also a psychotic killer, through his descent into complete madness. It premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and caused controversy for the realistic brutality of its violence toward women. In his defence, Winterbottom said, "It's the not the real world. It's kind of a parallel version of the real world. . . . I was taken in by that world."
The Trip
The Trip (2010 TV series)
The Trip is a BAFTA award-winning television sitcom series which was first broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD in the United Kingdom. The series stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictionalised versions of themselves undertaking a restaurant tour of northern England.The six episode series, which is...
This improvised six-episode comedy series, filmed in the English Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, stars Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
and Rob Brydon
Rob Brydon
Rob Brydon is a BAFTA-nominated Welsh actor, comedian, radio and television presenter, singer and impressionist...
as the semi-fictionalized versions of themselves they previously played in A Cock and Bull Story
A Cock and Bull Story
A Cock and Bull Story is a 2006 British comedy film directed by Michael Winterbottom...
. Coogan, an actor unhappy with his career, agrees to write a series of restaurant reviews for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
in order to impress his girlfriend Misha (Margo Stilley
Margo Stilley
Margo Stilley is an American actress and former model.-Biography:Stilley grew up in Conway, South Carolina, and left as a teenager to model in Milan before moving to London at the age of 18....
). As the series opens, she has dumped him and he invites Brydon to take her place on the vacation. Each episode of the series takes place largely over a different gourmet meal, the restaurant names giving each episode their title. The episodes were edited down into a feature film which premiered at the Toronto International Film festival in September 2010, while the series itself then aired on the BBC starting in November, 2010.
Trishna
Winterbottom's modern retelling of Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess, is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British...
is his third Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
film. It stars Riz Ahmed
Riz Ahmed
Rizwan Ahmed , also known as Riz Ahmed, the Rizmeister General, or Riz MC, is a British MC, musician and actor. He is noted for his lead performances in The Road to Guantanamo, Shifty, Britz, and Four Lions.-Ethnic background:Ahmed is a British Pakistani...
and Freida Pinto
Freida Pinto
Freida Pinto is an Indian actress and model best known for her portrayal of Latika in the 2008 Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire, for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture...
and was shot in Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
and Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in early 2011. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
on September 9, 2011.
Future projects
BailoutWinterbottom is attached to direct this adaptation of author Jess Walter
Jess Walter
Jess Walter is an American author of five novels. His work has been published in fifteen countries and translated into thirteen languages....
's novel The Financial Lives of the Poets, which Walter adapted for the screen. Starring Jack Black
Jack Black
Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
, the film follows a man who loses his job and must keep his family afloat by working as a pot dealer. It is scheduled to shoot in January 2012.
Untitled Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox
Amanda Marie Knox is an American woman who was accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. She served 4 years of a 26-year sentence before the murder conviction was overturned on October 3, 2011. Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was also...
Project
This film will involve the dramatic, headline-making trial, conviction and eventual acquittal of American student Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox
Amanda Marie Knox is an American woman who was accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. She served 4 years of a 26-year sentence before the murder conviction was overturned on October 3, 2011. Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was also...
for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher. Winterbottom traveled to Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, Italy in 2010 and attended court hearings for research on the project, at one time set to star Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
. He said the film would be fictionalized and focus on journalists and the media circus surrounding the trial more than on the actual events in dispute.
Paul Raymond’s Wonderful World of Erotica
Winterbottom is set to reteam with Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
on a biography of famed British pornographer/strip club owner Paul Raymond. The film is being written by Matt Greenhalgh
Matt Greenhalgh
Matt Greenhalgh is an English screenwriter. He created and wrote the BBC television series Burn It, and the television film Legless. He adapted Deborah Curtis's Touching From a Distance—a biopic of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis—into the 2007 film Control, for which he was nominated for the...
.
The Trip 2
Producer Andrew Eaton has announced plans for a second series of the show with Coogan and Brydon, this time taking them on a culinary driving tour through Italy.
The Longest Cocktail Party
Winterbottom is attached to direct a film version of Richard DeLillio's 1973 autobiographical novel
The Longest Cocktail Party
The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider's Diary of the Beatles, Their Million-dollar Apple Empire and Its Wild Rise and Fall is a rock history book by Richard DiLello, published in 1973 by Playboy Press, and reprinted in 1981 and 2005...
about his time working with The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
. Liam Gallagher
Liam Gallagher
William John Paul "Liam" Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, the former frontman of the English rock band Oasis and currently of the band Beady Eye. Gallagher's erratic behaviour, distinctive singing style, and abrasive attitude have been the subject of commentary in the press...
is co-producing the project with Winterbottom and his long-time producer Andrew Eaton. It is being written by British comedy writer Jesse Armstrong
Jesse Armstrong
Jesse Armstrong is one of the co-creators of Channel 4's Peep Show, along with Sam Bain. He also co-wrote the BBC Four comedy The Thick of It and was one of the writers on series 1 and 2 of the BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound and the BBC Two sketch show That Mitchell and Webb...
.
The Promised Land
Jim Sturgess
Jim Sturgess
James Anthony "Jim" Sturgess is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His breakthrough role was appearing as Jude in the musical romance drama film Across the Universe .-Early life:...
, Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
and Matthew Macfadyen
Matthew Macfadyen
David Matthew Macfadyen is an English actor, known for his role as MI5 intelligence officer Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks and for starring as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.In June, 2010 Macfadyen won a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting...
are set to star in this political thriller set in 1930s/1940s Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. Sturgess and Macfadyen will play two British police officers hunting Zionist militant Avraham Stern
Avraham Stern
Avraham Stern , alias Yair was a Jewish paramilitary leader who founded and led the militant Zionist organization later known as Lehi .-Early life:Stern was born in Suwałki, Poland...
, while Firth will play an official of the British Mandate government. The screenplay was written by Winterbottom and Laurence Coriat, and Winterbottom has already shot documentary footage with the surviving participants in the events.
Seven Days
Winterbottom has been working since 2007 on a project that will not be released until 2012. Seven Days stars John Simm
John Simm
John Simm is an English stage and screen actor. In recent years he is best known for his roles as Sam Tyler in the detective drama Life on Mars and as The Master in the revival of the science fiction series Doctor Who, but he has also starred in many highly acclaimed award-winning television...
as a man imprisoned for drug-smuggling and charts his relationship with his wife, played by Shirley Henderson
Shirley Henderson
Shirley Henderson is a Scottish actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .-Early life:...
. Written by Winterbottom and Coriat, the film is being shot a few weeks at a time, over a five-year period, to reflect the protagonist's time in prison and achieve an authentic aging process.
London Fields
Another prospective future project is this adaptation by Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
of his own novel
London Fields (novel)
London Fields is a black comic novel murder mystery by British writer Martin Amis, published in 1989. Regarded by Amis's readership as possibly his strongest novel, the tone gradually shifts from high comedy, interspersed with deep personal introspections, to a dark sense of foreboding and...
. It follows a psychic who encounters two different men — one of whom might be her killer. Gemma Arterton
Gemma Arterton
Gemma Arterton is an English actress. She played the eponymous protagonist in the BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and starred in the feature films St Trinian's, the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, Clash of the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Tamara...
has stated in interviews that she is attached to play the lead role of Nicola Six.
Filmography
- Rosie the Great (1989, TV)
- Forget About Me (1990, TV)
- Under the Sun (1992, TV)
- Love Lies Bleeding (1992, TV)
- FamilyFamily (1994)Family is a television drama series that aired on RTÉ One and BBC One in 1994. It was written by Roddy Doyle, the author of The Commitments, and directed by Michael Winterbottom.-Premise:...
(1994, TV) - Butterfly KissButterfly KissButterfly Kiss is a 1995 British film, directed by Michael Winterbottom and written by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It stars Amanda Plummer and Saskia Reeves...
(1995) - Go NowGo NowGo Now is a 1995 television film directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Robert Carlyle as an MS-afflicted soccer player/construction worker struggling with the onset of multiple sclerosis....
(1995) - JudeJude (film)Jude is a 1996 English film, based on the novel Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is written by Hossein Amini...
(1996)
- Welcome to SarajevoWelcome To SarajevoWelcome to Sarajevo is a British war film from 1997. It is directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay is by Frank Cottrell Boyce and is based on the book Natasha's Story by Michael Nicholson.- Synopsis :...
(1997) - I Want YouI Want You (1998 film)I Want You is an 1998 English crime film directed by Michael Winterbottom.-Plot:Martin is an ex-convict who returns home and finds that Helen , his former girlfriend is involved with someone else...
(1998) - WonderlandWonderland (1999 film)Wonderland is a 1999 drama film about the lives of a London couple, their three adult daughters and absent son. Directed by Michael Winterbottom, the film stars Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham, Shirley Henderson, Gina McKee, Molly Parker, John Simm, and Stuart Townsend...
(1999) - With or Without You (1999)
- The ClaimThe ClaimThe Claim is a 2000 British Western/romance film directed by Michael Winterbottom. The screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce is loosely based on the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The original music score is composed by Michael Nyman....
(2000) - 24 Hour Party People24 Hour Party People24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...
(2002) - In This WorldIn This WorldIn This World is a 2002 British docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom. The film follows two young Afghan refugees, Jamal Udin Torabi and Enayatullah, as they leave a refugee camp in Pakistan for a better life in London. Since their journey is illegal, it is fraught with danger, and they must...
(2003) - Code 46Code 46Code 46 is a 2003 British film directed by Michael Winterbottom, with screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce. It was produced by BBC Films and Revolution Films. It is a disquieting science fiction love story with themes that explore the moral impacts of advances in biotechnology. The soundtrack was...
(2003)
- 9 Songs9 Songs9 Songs is a 2004 British film directed by Michael Winterbottom. The title refers to the nine songs played by eight different rock bands that complement the story of the film...
(2004) - A Cock and Bull StoryA Cock and Bull StoryA Cock and Bull Story is a 2006 British comedy film directed by Michael Winterbottom...
(2006) - The Road to GuantanamoThe Road to GuantanamoThe Road to Guantanamo, alternatively The Road to Guantánamo, is a British 2006 docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British detainees at a detainment camp in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba...
(2006) - A Mighty HeartA Mighty Heart (film)A Mighty Heart is a 2007 drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom; It is an adaptation of Mariane Pearl's memoir, A Mighty Heart. Although initially a financial failure, A Mighty Heart was met with relatively positive reviews from both critics and viewers alike.The film was screened out of...
(2007) - GenovaGenova (film)Genova is a film directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Colin Firth, Catherine Keener, and Hope Davis. It was filmed in the titular city of Genoa during the summer of 2007. It was written by Wonderland screenwriter Laurence Coriat...
(2008) - The Shock Doctrine (2009)
- The Killer Inside MeThe Killer Inside Me (2010 film)The Killer Inside Me is a 2010 American film adaptation of the 1952 novel of the same name by Jim Thompson. The film is directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, and Jessica Alba. At its release, it was criticised for its graphic depiction of violence directed toward...
(2010) - The TripThe Trip (2010 TV series)The Trip is a BAFTA award-winning television sitcom series which was first broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD in the United Kingdom. The series stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictionalised versions of themselves undertaking a restaurant tour of northern England.The six episode series, which is...
(2010, TV)
- TrishnaTrishna (2012 film)Trishna is a 2011 British drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed. The story is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles. It is Winterbottom's third Hardy adaptation, after Jude and The Claim. It and was shot in Jaipur and Mumbai,...
(2012) - BailoutBailout (film)Bailout is an upcoming film adaptation of Jess Walter's novel The Financial Lives of The Poets. Director Michael Winterbottom is scheduled to film it in January 2012. The film was announced on May 12, 2011 at the Cannes Film Festival...
(2012)
External links
- Critical essay by Deborah Allison SensesOfCinema.com
- "Fiction vs. Reality in the Films of Michael Winterbottom" AlternateTakes.co.uk
- Resonance FM radio interview — "Reality Check: Michael Winterbottom’s Code 46" PanelBorders.Wordpress.com