Adrian Lyne

Last updated

Adrian Lyne
Born (1941-03-04) 4 March 1941 (age 83)
Peterborough, England
Education Highgate School
Occupations
  • Film director
  • film producer
  • screenwriter
Years active
  • 1976–present
Spouse
Samantha Lyne
​
(m. 1974)​
Children4
Relatives Oliver Lyne (brother)

Adrian Lyne (born 4 March 1941) [1] is an English film director. Lyne is known for sexually charged narratives, conflicting passions, the power of seduction, moral ambiguity, betrayal, and the indelibility of infidelity. [2] [3]

Contents

In the mid 1970s, he directed television commercials for DIM Lingerie (France), but Lyne's career in feature length films began in 1980 with Foxes, and would later direct Flashdance , 9½ Weeks , Fatal Attraction , Jacob's Ladder , Indecent Proposal , Lolita , and Unfaithful . Lyne received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director for Fatal Attraction. [4]

Early life

Lyne was born in Peterborough, Northamptonshire (now Cambridgeshire) and raised in London. [1] He was educated at Highgate School in North London; [5] together with his younger brother, Oliver Lyne (1944–2005), a classical scholar and academic at the University of Oxford. [6] Their father was a teacher at the school. [5]

Career

An avid moviegoer during his school days at Highgate, he was inspired to make his own films by the work of French New Wave directors like Jean Luc Godard, François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol. Lyne was among a generation of British directors in the 1970s, including Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, Tony Scott and Hugh Hudson, who would begin their career making television commercials before going on to have major success in films. [7] Their techniques in making commercials were admired and copied by major names in the film industry, with Lyne stating: "I remember making this advertisement up in Yorkshire when I got a message that Stanley Kubrick had called. He'd seen an ad I'd made for milk in which I'd used a particular type of graduated filter. He wanted to know exactly which filter I'd used." [7] Two of Lyne's early short films, The Table (1973) and Mr Smith (1976), were entries in the London Film Festival. Lyne made his feature filmmaking debut in 1980 with Foxes , a look at the friendship of four teenage girls growing up in the San Fernando Valley, starring Jodie Foster.

His next film, 1983's Flashdance , was an innovative blend of rock 'n' roll, new dance styles, and visual imagery. Lyne's visuals (reminiscent of his 1970s UK commercials for Brutus Jeans), wedded to Giorgio Moroder's score, propelled the story of an aspiring ballerina (Jennifer Beals, in her film debut) who works in a factory by day and dances in a club at night. [7] The film generated over $200 million worldwide and was the third highest-grossing film of 1983. [8] The film was also nominated for four Academy Awards, with the theme song, "What a Feeling", winning the Oscar for Best Song. In 1986, Lyne attracted controversy with 9½ Weeks . Based on a novel by Elizabeth McNeill, the tale of a sexually abusive relationship starred Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. Although considered too explicit by its American distributor, and cut for U.S. release, it became a huge hit abroad in its unedited version.

Lyne's fourth film was Fatal Attraction , which generated over $320 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 1987. [9] Based on James Dearden's British erotic thriller Diversion , the story of a happily married lawyer (Michael Douglas) who tries to break off an affair with an attractive single woman (Glenn Close), only to have her become obsessed with him and endanger his family, the film struck a chord with audiences. Deemed "the zeitgeist hit of the decade" by Time magazine, Fatal Attraction earned six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Glenn Close), Best Supporting Actress (Anne Archer), Best Screenplay and Best Editing.

In 1990, Lyne directed Jacob's Ladder . Written by Academy Award-winner Bruce Joel Rubin ( Ghost ) and starring Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña and Danny Aiello, the film takes audiences on a journey through Vietnam veteran Jacob Singer's (Robbins) post-war life where apparent reality is interleaved with nightmarish hallucinations, leading to a twist ending. With Indecent Proposal , Lyne examined how the sexes look at relationships and money. Starring Robert Redford, Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore, Indecent Proposal became a worldwide box office hit. [10]

Lyne's version of Lolita , based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov and starring Jeremy Irons, was filmed for theatrical release in 1997, but American distributors shied away from it due to its controversial subject matter. The film premiered on Showtime and was so well-received that national theatrical distribution soon followed. His next film, Unfaithful , was loosely based on Claude Chabrol's La Femme Infidèle . The movie stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane in a story of a marriage threatened by infidelity and murder. Lane received much praise for her performance, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Twenty-year gap

After Unfaithful, Lyne did not direct another film for twenty years. [11]

In 2005, Lyne was reportedly linked to Warner Bros.' biopic of Johnny Stompanato, with Keanu Reeves portraying him and Catherine Zeta-Jones set to star as Lana Turner. [12] In 2006, Lyne was committed to directing Two Minutes to Midnight, a Sheldon Turner-scripted thriller for 20th Century Fox. [13] In 2007, he was circling to direct Prince of Thieves, which later became The Town . [14] In 2012, Lyne was in talks to direct a film adaptation of the John Grisham novel The Associate . [15] In 2015, there was talk of him directing Nicole Kidman in an adaptation of the 2013 A.S.A. Harrison novel Silent Wife. [16] The next year, Michael Douglas and Halle Berry were connected to another Lyne project called Silence. [17] As of 2022, none of these projects have come to fruition.

Return to directing

He most recently directed the erotic thriller Deep Water , based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith. [11] Disney's 20th Century Studios released the film on Hulu in the United States and on Amazon Prime Video in other countries. [18] It is Lyne's first directorial effort in 20 years, and the first erotic film released by Disney since Color of Night in 1994. [19] [20]

Filmography

YearTitleDirectorWriterNotes
1973 The Table YesYesShort films
1976 Mr. Smith YesYes
1980 Foxes YesNo
1983 Flashdance YesNo
1986 9½ Weeks YesNo
1987 Fatal Attraction YesNo
1990 Jacob's Ladder YesNo
1993 Indecent Proposal YesNo
1997 Lolita YesNo
2002 Unfaithful YesNoAlso producer
2018 Back Roads NoYesInitially attached to direct [21]
2022 Deep Water YesNo

Related Research Articles

<i>Fatal Attraction</i> 1987 film by Adrian Lyne

Fatal Attraction is a 1987 American psychological thriller film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by James Dearden, based on his 1980 short film Diversion. Starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and Anne Archer, the film follows Dan Gallagher (Douglas), an attorney who cheats on his wife Beth (Archer) with editor Alex Forrest (Close) following a chance encounter at a work function. When Dan decides to end the affair, Alex grows increasingly unstable and begins stalking him and his family.

<i>Flashdance</i> 1983 American romantic drama film by Adrian Lyne

Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic drama dance film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Jennifer Beals as a passionate young dancer, Alex Owens, who aspires to become a professional ballerina, alongside Michael Nouri, who plays her boyfriend and the owner of the steel mill where she works by day in Pittsburgh. It was the first collaboration of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and the presentation of some sequences in the style of music videos was an influence on other 1980s films including Footloose, Purple Rain, and Top Gun, Simpson and Bruckheimer's most famous production. It was also one of Lyne's first major film releases, building on television commercials. Alex's elaborate dance sequences were shot using body doubles.

<i>Indecent Proposal</i> 1993 American drama film by Adrian Lyne

Indecent Proposal is a 1993 American erotic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Amy Holden Jones. It is based on the 1988 novel by Jack Engelhard, in which a couple's marriage is disrupted by a stranger's offer of a million dollars for the wife to spend the night with him. It stars Robert Redford, Demi Moore, and Woody Harrelson.

<i>Unfaithful</i> (2002 film) 2002 American erotic thriller film directed by Adrian Lyne

Unfaithful is a 2002 American erotic thriller drama film directed and produced by Adrian Lyne and written by Alvin Sargent and William Broyles Jr., adapted from the Claude Chabrol film The Unfaithful Wife (1969). Starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Olivier Martinez, and Erik Per Sullivan, the film follows Edward (Gere) and Connie Sumner (Lane), a couple living in the suburbs of New York City whose marriage is jeopardized when the wife has an affair with a stranger (Martinez) she encounters by chance.

<i>The Unfaithful Wife</i> 1969 film by Claude Chabrol

The Unfaithful Wife is a 1969 French–Italian crime drama film written and directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Stéphane Audran and Michel Bouquet. The story follows a businessman who discovers his wife has been unfaithful.

<i>9½ Weeks</i> 1986 American romantic drama film

9½ Weeks is a 1986 American erotic romantic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne, and starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. Basinger portrays a New York City art gallery employee who has a brief yet intense affair with a mysterious Wall Street broker, played by Rourke. The screenplay by Sarah Kernochan, Zalman King and Patricia Louisianna Knop is adapted from the 1978 memoir of the same name by Austrian-American author Ingeborg Day, under the pseudonym "Elizabeth McNeill".

<i>The Cry of the Owl</i> (1987 film) 1987 French film

The Cry of the Owl is a 1987 French-Italian psychological thriller film, adapted from the 1962 novel The Cry of the Owl by Patricia Highsmith. The film was directed by Claude Chabrol and stars Christophe Malavoy, Mathilda May and Virginie Thévenet.

<i>Deep Water</i> (Highsmith novel) 1957 psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith

Deep Water is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith first published in 1957 by Harper & Brothers. It is Highsmith's fifth published novel. The working title was originally The Dog in the Manger. It was brought back into print in the United States in 2003 by W. W. Norton & Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erotic thriller</span> Film and literary sub-genre

The erotic thriller or sexual thriller is a film subgenre defined as a thriller with a thematic basis in illicit romance or sexual fantasy. Though exact definitions of the erotic thriller can vary, it is generally agreed "bodily danger and pleasure must remain in close proximity and equally important to the plot." Most erotic thrillers contain scenes of softcore sex and nudity, though the frequency and explicitness of those scenes can differ from film to film.

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<i>Deep Water</i> (2022 film) 2022 film by Adrian Lyne

Deep Water is a 2022 erotic psychological thriller film directed by Adrian Lyne, from a screenplay by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson, based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, with Tracy Letts, Lil Rel Howery, Dash Mihok, Finn Wittrock, Kristen Connolly, and Jacob Elordi appearing in supporting roles. It marks Lyne's return to filmmaking after a 20-year absence since his last film, Unfaithful (2002).

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References

  1. 1 2 "Adrian Lyne". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  2. ↑ "Adrian Lyne & Nicole Kidman Team For Hot AFM Pic 'Silent Wife'". Deadline. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  3. ↑ "Come Back to the Cinema Plex, Adrian Lyne". Musée magazine. Retrieved 21 January 2022. Your films gather characters' dysfunctions and mend their gloomy lives through the delicate haze of soft and natural lighting
  4. ↑ "1988 | Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences". 4 December 2015.
  5. 1 2 Highgate School Register 7th Edn 1833–1988, Ed. Patrick Hughes & Ian F Davies 1989
  6. ↑ Currie, Bruno (1 April 2005). "Professor Oliver Lyne: Olympian Balliol classicist". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 Delaney, Sam (23 August 2007). "The British admen who saved Hollywood". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  8. ↑ Litwak, Mark (1986). Reel Power: The Struggle for Influence and Success in the New Hollywood. New York: William Morrow & Co. p. 91. ISBN   0-688-04889-7.
  9. ↑ "Fatal Attraction". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 5 August 2007.
  10. ↑ "Indecent Proposal". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 29 May 2010.
  11. 1 2 "Adrian Lyne Deep Water Ana de Armas, Ben Affleck Patricia Highsmith novel – Deadline". August 2019.
  12. ↑ Fleming, Michael (23 August 2005). "Lana turns heads at WB". Variety.
  13. ↑ Gardner, Chris; Fleming, Michael (12 March 2006). "Lyne counts 'Minutes'". Variety.
  14. ↑ Fleming, Michael (10 August 2007). "Rush to judgment". Variety.
  15. ↑ Trumbore, Dave (13 April 2012). "Adrian Lyne May Direct the Adaptation of John Grisham's THE ASSOCIATE". Collider. Retrieved 19 June 2022.
  16. ↑ "Adrian Lyne & Nicole Kidman Team for Hot AFM Pic 'Silent Wife'". 30 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "Michael Douglas & Halle Berry to Star in Adrian Lyne's 'Silence' – Cannes". 13 May 2016.
  18. ↑ Palmer, Roger (13 December 2021). ""Deep Water" Moving To Hulu". What's on Disney Plus. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  19. ↑ "Full Frontal Nudity From the Company That Patented the Cute Wiggly Tush - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times . 3 April 1994.
  20. ↑ "New Regency Bringing Adrian Lyne Back To Directing With 'Deep Water;' Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas In Talks For Patricia Highsmith Adaptation". August 2019.
  21. ↑ McClintock, Pamela (21 May 2012). "Cannes 2012: Adrian Lyne's 'Back Roads' Finally Gets Financing (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
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