John Maybury (born 25 March 1958) is an English filmmaker and artist. He first came to prominence as the director of the music video for the Pet Shop Boys 1984 single "West End Girls". In 2005 he was named as one of the 100 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain. [1]
During the 1980s, Maybury produced a number of short films and music videos including for Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U", which was voted #35 in a Channel 4 poll of the greatest pop music videos [2] and received various awards, and "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys, a defining 1980s video.
In 1998, Maybury produced his first full-length feature Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon , a biopic on the life of painter Francis Bacon starring Derek Jacobi and Daniel Craig. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. [3]
In 2005, he directed The Jacket with Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley. In 2008 his film The Edge of Love , a biopic on the life of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas starring Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy, Matthew Rhys and Keira Knightley premiered. He also directed the final episode of the HBO/BBC Rome series.
Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music history in the 1999 edition of The Guinness Book of Records.
Keira Christina Knightley is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films and blockbusters, particularly period dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, two BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, and a Laurence Olivier Award. In 2018, she was appointed an OBE at Buckingham Palace for services to drama and charity.
Matthew Raymond Dillon is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award nomination and Grammy nomination.
The Jacket is a 2005 American science-fiction psychological thriller film directed by John Maybury and starring Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Kris Kristofferson and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It is partly based on the 1915 Jack London novel The Star Rover, published in the United Kingdom as The Jacket. Massy Tadjedin wrote the screenplay based on a story by Tom Bleecker and Marc Rocco. The original music score is composed by Brian Eno and the cinematography is by Peter Deming.
"West End Girls" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. The song's lyrics are concerned with class and the pressures of inner-city life in London which were inspired partly by T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. It was generally well received by contemporary music critics and has been frequently cited as a highlight in the duo's career.
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon is a 1998 film produced by The British Film Institute and BBC Film. It was written and directed by John Maybury and stars Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig and Tilda Swinton. A fictional biography of painter Francis Bacon (Jacobi), it concentrates on his strained relationship with George Dyer (Craig), a small-time thief. The film draws heavily on the authorised biography of Bacon, The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon by Daniel Farson, and is dedicated to him.
"Love Comes Quickly" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, released as the second single from their debut studio album, Please (1986). It peaked at number 19 on the UK Singles Chart in March 1986.
"It's a Man's Man's Man's World" is a song written by James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome. Brown recorded it on February 16, 1966, in a New York City studio and released it as a single later that year. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its title is a word play on the 1963 comedy film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
The Edge of Love is a 2008 British biographical romantic drama film directed by John Maybury and starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy, and Matthew Rhys. The script was written by Knightley's mother, Sharman Macdonald. Originally titled The Best Time of Our Lives, the fictional story concerns Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, his wife Caitlin Macnamara and their married friends, the Killicks. The film premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
John Carney is an Irish film director, producer, screenwriter and lyricist who specialises in musical drama films. He is best known as the showrunner and executive producer of Modern Love on Amazon Prime Video, for his films Once, Begin Again, and Sing Street. He is also a co-creator of the Irish TV drama series Bachelors Walk.
John MathiesonCAL, BSC is an English cinematographer and commercial director. He is one of a group of filmmakers who emerged from the music video industry of the late 1980s and 1990s. He is a frequent collaborator with director Ridley Scott, acting as director of photography on most of his films beginning with Gladiator (2000), for which he won a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. He has worked with directors like Joel Schumacher, Rowan Joffé, Matthew Vaughn, Guy Ritchie, James Mangold, and Rob Letterman.
James Nicholas Righton is a British musician. As well as singing, he was the keyboard-player of the London-based new rave band Klaxons, which disbanded in 2015. In March 2016, Righton announced his new project Shock Machine with a video directed by Saam Farahmand. Righton released his first solo album The Performer on Soulwax's Deewee label in March 2020.
Annabel Brooks is a British actress who has appeared in films and on television since the 1980s. She was educated at Badminton School and Columbia University, before leaving to pursue acting.
The Penelopes are a French indie pop/electronic band from Paris, consisting of Axel Basquiat and Vincent T. They have recently relocated to London. Though the band is a duo, they have additional musicians on bass, guitar and drums for live performances. The Penelopes are also award winning film composers, remixers, producers, and DJs.
Last Night is a 2010 romantic drama film that was written and directed by Massy Tadjedin, her directorial debut. The film follows married couple Joanna and Michael Reed, who are tempted by different forms of infidelity when they spend a night apart following a fight. Joanna is emotionally drawn to her ex-boyfriend Alex Mann while Michael is physically attracted to his co-worker Laura Nunez. The cast includes Griffin Dunne, Daniel Eric Gold, Anson Mount, Stephanie Romanov, Scott Adsit, Justine Cotsonas, and Chriselle Almeida. Last Night was produced by Entertainment One in association with the Gaumont Film Company, and deals with questions about emotional and physical infidelity.
Cut is a British advertising campaign launched in 2009 by the charitable organisation Women's Aid to promote awareness of domestic violence. The campaign was created by advertising agency Grey London, and centres on a 120-second commercial starring Keira Knightley. The commercial was supported by poster and online components. Cut was directed by Joe Wright and produced by Dominic Delaney. Post-production work was handled by Big Buoy and Prime Focus. The campaign drew a significant amount of media attention, especially after advertising approval body Clearcast prohibited the short film from appearing on even post-watershed television, due to several particularly violent scenes. The title of the piece refers to the filmmaking practice of cutting.
Love & Mercy is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Bill Pohlad about the Beach Boys' co-founder and leader Brian Wilson and his struggles with mental illness during the 1960s and 1980s. It stars Paul Dano and John Cusack as the young and middle-aged Wilson, respectively, with Elizabeth Banks as his second wife Melinda Ledbetter and Paul Giamatti as his psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy. The title comes from Wilson's 1988 song of the same name.
Colette is a 2018 biographical drama film directed by Wash Westmoreland, from a screenplay by Westmoreland, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Richard Glatzer, based upon the life of the French novelist Colette. It stars Keira Knightley, Dominic West, Eleanor Tomlinson, and Denise Gough.
Michael Wojas was an English nightclub owner who ran The Colony Room Club in Dean Street in London's Soho district, from 1994 until he closed it in 2007, having inherited it from Ian Board who took it over from Muriel Belcher, who founded the private drinking club in 1948.