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Sidney Lumet(1924-2011)

  • Director
  • Writer
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeterTop 5,0001620
Sidney Lumet
Martin Scorsese's films from the 1970s and '80s are very influential on the look and feel of 'Joker', but writer/director Todd Phillips reveals that it was an era of cinema more than a single filmmaker that inspired his and Joaquin Phoenix's take on the classic Batman foe.
Play clip2:53
Does 'Joker' Exist in a Scorsese-Verse of Films?
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Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although his politics were somewhat left-leaning and he often treated socially relevant themes in his films, Lumet didn't want to make political movies in the first place. Born on June 25, 1924, in Philadelphia, the son of actor Baruch Lumet and dancer Eugenia Wermus Lumet, he made his stage debut at age four at the Yiddish Art Theater in New York. He played many roles on Broadway in the 1930s and also in the film Dans une pauvre petite rue (1939). After starting an off-Broadway acting troupe in the late 1940s, he became the director of many television shows in the 1950s. Lumet made his feature film directing debut with 12 Hommes en colère (1957), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earned three Academy Award nominations. The courtroom drama, which takes place almost entirely in a jury room, is justly regarded as one of the most auspicious directorial debuts in film history. Lumet got the chance to direct Marlon Brando in L'Homme à la peau de serpent (1960), an imperfect, but powerful adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending". The first half of the 1960s was one of Lumet's most artistically successful periods. Long voyage vers la nuit (1962), a masterful, brilliantly photographed adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill play, is one of several Lumet films about families. It earned Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Dean Stockwell and Jason Robards deserved acting awards in Cannes and Hepburn an Oscar nomination. The alarming Cold War thriller Point limite (1964) unfairly suffered from comparison to Stanley Kubrick's equally great satire Dr. Folamour ou : comment j'ai appris à ne plus m'en faire et à aimer la bombe (1964), which was released shortly before. Le prêteur sur gages (1964), arguably the most outstanding of the great movies Lumet made in this phase, tells the story of a Holocaust survivor who lives in New York and can't overcome his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps. Rod Steiger's unforgettable performance in the title role earned an Academy Award nomination. Lumet's intense character study La Colline des hommes perdus (1965) about inhumanity in a military prison camp was the first of five films he did with Sean Connery. After the overly talky but rewarding drama Le Groupe (1966) about young upper-class women in the 1930s, and the stylish spy thriller M.15 demande protection (1967), the late 1960s turned out to be a lesser phase in Lumet's career. He had a strong comeback with the box-office hit Le Gang Anderson (1971). The Offence (1973) was commercially less successful, but artistically brilliant - with Connery in one of his most impressive performances. The terrific cop thriller Serpico (1973), the first of his films about police corruption in New York City, became one of his biggest critical and financial successes. Al Pacino's fascinating portrayal of the real-life cop Frank Serpico earned a Golden Globe and the movie earned two Academy Award nominations (it is worth noting that Lumet's feature films of the 1970s alone earned 30 Oscar nominations, winning six times). The love triangle Lovin' Molly (1974) was not always convincing in its atmospheric details, but Lumet's fine sense of emotional truth and a good Blythe Danner keep it interesting. The adaptation of Agatha Christie's Le crime de l'Orient-Express (1974), an exquisitely photographed murder mystery with an all-star cast, was a big success again. Lumet's complex crime thriller Un après-midi de chien (1975), which Pauline Kael called "one of the best "New York" movies ever made", gave Al Pacino the opportunity for a breathtaking, three-dimensional portrayal of a bisexual man who tries to rob a bank to finance his lover's sex-change operation. Lumet's next masterpiece, Network : Main basse sur la TV (1976), was a prophetic satire on media and society. The film version of Peter Shaffer's stage play Equus (1977) about a doctor and his mentally confused patient was also powerful, not least because of the energetic acting by Richard Burton and Peter Firth. After the enjoyable musical The Wiz (1978) and the interesting but not easily accessible comedy Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), Sidney Lumet won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for his outstanding direction of Le prince de New York (1981), one of his best and most typical films. It's about police corruption, but hardly a remake of Serpico (1973). Starring a powerful Treat Williams, it's an extraordinarily multi-layered film. In his highly informative book "Making Movies" (1995), Lumet describes the film in the following way: "When we try to control everything, everything winds up controlling us. Nothing is what it seems." It's also a movie about values, friendship and drug addiction and, like "Serpico", is based on a true story. In Piège mortel (1982), Lumet successfully blended suspense and black humor. Le verdict (1982) was voted the fourth greatest courtroom drama of all time by the American Film Institute in 2008. A few minor inaccuracies in legal details do not mar this study of an alcoholic lawyer (superbly embodied by Paul Newman) aiming to regain his self-respect through a malpractice case. The expertly directed movie received five Academy Award nominations. Lumet's controversial drama Daniel (1983) with Timothy Hutton, an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's "The Book of Daniel" about two young people whose parents were executed during the McCarthy Red Scare hysteria in the 1950s for alleged espionage, is one of his underrated achievements. His later masterpiece À bout de course (1988) has a similar theme, portraying a family which has been on the run from the FBI since the parents (played by Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch) committed a bomb attack on a napalm laboratory in 1971 to protest the war in Vietnam. The son (played by River Phoenix in an extraordinarily moving, Oscar-nominated performance) falls in love with a girl and wishes to stay with her and study music. Naomi Foner's screenplay won the Golden Globe. Other Lumet movies of the 1980s are the melancholic comedy drama À la recherche de Garbo (1984); the occasionally clichéd Les coulisses du pouvoir (1986) about election campaigns; the all too slow thriller Le Lendemain... du crime (1986) and the amusing gangster comedy Family Business (1989). With Contre-enquête (1990) Lumet returned to the genre of the New York cop thriller. Nick Nolte shines in the role of a corrupt and racist detective in this multi-layered, strangely underrated film. Sadly, with the exception of Dans l'ombre de Manhattan (1996), an imperfect but fascinating crime drama in the tradition of his own previous genre works, almost none of Lumet's works of the 1990s did quite get the attention they deserved. The crime drama Une étrangère parmi nous (1992) blended genres in a way that did not seem to match most viewers' expectations, but its contemplations about life arouse interest. The intelligent hospital satire Critical Care (1997) was unfairly neglected as well. The courtroom thriller L'Avocat du diable (1993) was cold but intriguing. Lumet's Gloria (1999) remake seemed unnecessary, but he returned impressively with the underestimated courtroom comedy Jugez-moi coupable (2006) and the justly acclaimed crime thriller 7h58 ce samedi-là (2007). In 2005, Sidney Lumet received a well-deserved honorary Academy Award for his outstanding contribution to filmmaking. Sidney Lumet tragically died of cancer in 2011.
BornJune 25, 1924
DiedApril 9, 2011(86)
BornJune 25, 1924
DiedApril 9, 2011(86)
IMDbProStarmeterTop 5,0001620
  • Nominated for 5 Oscars
    • 38 wins & 52 nominations total

Photos53

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Known for

Henry Fonda, Martin Balsam, Jack Klugman, Ed Begley, Edward Binns, John Fiedler, E.G. Marshall, Joseph Sweeney, George Voskovec, Jack Warden, and Robert Webber in 12 Hommes en colère (1957)
12 Hommes en colère
9.0
  • Director
  • 1957
7h58 ce samedi-là (2007)
7h58 ce samedi-là
7.3
  • Director
  • 2007
Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Martin Balsam, Albert Finney, Richard Widmark, Michael York, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Wendy Hiller, and Rachel Roberts in Le crime de l'Orient-Express (1974)
Le crime de l'Orient-Express
7.2
  • Director
  • 1974
Serpico (1973)
Serpico
7.7
  • Director
  • 1973

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Director



  • 7h58 ce samedi-là (2007)
    7h58 ce samedi-là
    7.3
    • Director
    • 2007
  • Annabella Sciorra, Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Aleksa Palladino, Frank Pietrangolare, Alex Rocco, Tony Ray Rossi, and Ron Silver in Jugez-moi coupable (2006)
    Jugez-moi coupable
    7.0
    • Director
    • 2006
  • Rachel, quand du seigneur
    6.9
    Short
    • Director
    • 2004
  • Glenn Close and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Mise à nu (2004)
    Mise à nu
    6.1
    TV Movie
    • Director
    • 2004
  • Alan Arkin, Paula Devicq, Manny Perez, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and Joseph Lyle Taylor in Tribunal central (2001)
    Tribunal central
    7.9
    TV Series
    • Director
    • 2001–2002
  • Sharon Stone and Jean-Luke Figueroa in Gloria (1999)
    Gloria
    5.2
    • Director
    • 1999
  • James Spader and Kyra Sedgwick in Critical Care (1997)
    Critical Care
    5.9
    • Director
    • 1997
  • Andy Garcia in Dans l'ombre de Manhattan (1996)
    Dans l'ombre de Manhattan
    6.6
    • Director
    • 1996
  • Rebecca De Mornay and Don Johnson in L'Avocat du diable (1993)
    L'Avocat du diable
    5.7
    • Director
    • 1993
  • Une étrangère parmi nous (1992)
    Une étrangère parmi nous
    5.6
    • Director
    • 1992
  • Timothy Hutton, Nick Nolte, and Armand Assante in Contre-enquête (1990)
    Contre-enquête
    6.6
    • Director (as Alan Smithee: television prints)
    • 1990
  • Matthew Broderick, Sean Connery, and Dustin Hoffman in Family Business (1989)
    Family Business
    5.7
    • Director
    • 1989
  • River Phoenix, Christine Lahti, and Judd Hirsch in À bout de course (1988)
    À bout de course
    7.6
    • Director
    • 1988
  • Le Lendemain... du crime (1986)
    Le Lendemain... du crime
    5.9
    • Director
    • 1986
  • Richard Gere in Les coulisses du pouvoir (1986)
    Les coulisses du pouvoir
    5.7
    • Director
    • 1986

Writer



  • Annabella Sciorra, Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Aleksa Palladino, Frank Pietrangolare, Alex Rocco, Tony Ray Rossi, and Ron Silver in Jugez-moi coupable (2006)
    Jugez-moi coupable
    7.0
    • written by
    • 2006
  • Alan Arkin, Paula Devicq, Manny Perez, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and Joseph Lyle Taylor in Tribunal central (2001)
    Tribunal central
    7.9
    TV Series
    • created by
    • written by (creator)
    • 2001–2002
  • Andy Garcia in Dans l'ombre de Manhattan (1996)
    Dans l'ombre de Manhattan
    6.6
    • screenplay
    • 1996
  • Timothy Hutton, Nick Nolte, and Armand Assante in Contre-enquête (1990)
    Contre-enquête
    6.6
    • screenplay
    • 1990
  • Le prince de New York (1981)
    Le prince de New York
    7.4
    • screenplay
    • 1981

Producer



  • Alan Arkin, Paula Devicq, Manny Perez, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and Joseph Lyle Taylor in Tribunal central (2001)
    Tribunal central
    7.9
    TV Series
    • executive producer
    • 2001–2002
  • James Spader and Kyra Sedgwick in Critical Care (1997)
    Critical Care
    5.9
    • producer
    • 1997
  • Daniel (1983)
    Daniel
    6.6
    • executive producer
    • 1983
  • Alan King and Ali MacGraw in Just Tell Me What You Want (1980)
    Just Tell Me What You Want
    5.4
    • producer
    • 1980
  • The Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)
    The Last of the Mobile Hot Shots
    5.1
    • producer
    • 1970
  • James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave, David Warner, and Simone Signoret in La mouette (1968)
    La mouette
    6.6
    • producer
    • 1968
  • Bye Bye Braverman (1968)
    Bye Bye Braverman
    5.6
    • producer (produced by)
    • 1968
  • M.15 demande protection (1967)
    M.15 demande protection
    6.7
    • producer
    • 1967
  • Mr. Broadway (1957)
    Mr. Broadway
    6.5
    TV Movie
    • producer
    • 1957

Videos1

Does 'Joker' Exist in a Scorsese-Verse of Films?
Clip 2:53
Does 'Joker' Exist in a Scorsese-Verse of Films?

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative names
    • Sydney Lumet
  • Height
    • 1.65 m
  • Born
    • June 25, 1924
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  • Died
    • April 9, 2011
    • Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA(lymphoma)
  • Spouses
      Mary Gimbel1980 - April 9, 2011 (his death)
  • Children
      Amy Lumet
  • Parents
      Baruch Lumet
  • Relatives
    • Jake Cannavale(Grandchild)
  • Other works
    Wrote the foreword to the book "Huston, We Have a Problem", by Oswald Morris (Scarecrow Press)
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Print Biographies
    • 5 Interviews
    • 10 Articles
    • 2 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    According to Roger Ebert, Lumet had a theory about why Marlon Brando's performances were so uneven. In a review of a bad film starring Brando, Ebert outlined this idea in detail: Lumet said that on the first scene he filmed for any director, Brando would do exactly two takes. In one of the takes, Brando would be putting technical skill and background research into his reading, and in the other he would simply recite his lines as blandly as possible. If the director used the bland take, Brando would proceed to sleepwalk though his performance for the entirety of filming.
  • Quotes
    There's no such thing as a small part. There are just small actors.
  • Trademarks
      Highly dialogue driven films, with a lot of speeches and dramatic verbal duels.

FAQ

Powered by Alexa
  • When did Sidney Lumet die?
    April 9, 2011
  • How did Sidney Lumet die?
    Lymphoma
  • How old was Sidney Lumet when he died?
    86 years old
  • Where did Sidney Lumet die?
    Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
  • When was Sidney Lumet born?
    June 25, 1924

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