Jonathan Glazer | |
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Born | London, England | 26 March 1965
Education | Nottingham Trent University (BA) |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1993–present |
Notable work |
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Spouse | Rachael Penfold |
Children | 3 |
Jonathan Glazer (born 26 March 1965) is an English film director and screenwriter. He began his career in theatre before transitioning into film, directing the features Sexy Beast (2000), Birth (2004), Under the Skin (2013), and The Zone of Interest (2023).
Glazer's work is defined by depictions of flawed and desperate characters; themes such as alienation, loneliness and individualism; and a bold visual style uses an omniscient perspective and dramatic music. Glazer has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards and two Academy Awards. For the historical drama The Zone of Interest, he won the Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Glazer has directed music videos for acts including Radiohead, Massive Attack, Richard Ashcroft and Jamiroquai. He received nominations for the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction for his videos for Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" (1996) and Radiohead's "Karma Police" (1997). He has also directed commercials for brands including Kodak, Sony, Nike, Barclays and Alexander McQueen.
"There were all these fantastic characters, who were in and out of my house when I was a little boy. Many of them were East End Jews who had moved to the suburbs for a better quality of life, not super-intellectual people, but incredible entertainers – vaudeville musicians, writers and the like. As a child, I loved and absorbed the richness of that culture."
– Glazer about the artistic Jewish community in which he was raised [1]
Jonathan Glazer was born on 26 March 1965 in London, England, [2] and is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. [1] [3] His ancestors were Ukrainian Jews and Bessarabian Jews who fled the Kishinev pogrom and arrived in the United Kingdom in the 1900s. [3] [4] He said: "My great-grandparents were born in Vilnius and Odesa. One was a tailor. His wife, a seamstress." [3] His family lived in Hadley Wood, near Barnet, and was Reform Jewish: "Synagogue three times a year, and Friday-night dinners every week." [4] His father was a cinephile, with whom he frequently watched David Lean, Sidney Lumet, Sydney Pollack, and Billy Wilder movies. [4] [5]
Glazer attended the Jewish Free School, then located in the borough of Camden. [6] During his childhood, he participated in the Givat Washington programme, spending five months in a religious boarding school in Israel. After finishing high school, he went to art school, "because drawing was... the only thing he was good at". [6]
After graduating with an emphasis in theatre design from Nottingham Trent University, Glazer began his career directing theatre and making film and television trailers. [5] [7]
In 1993, Glazer wrote and directed three short films ("Mad", "Pool" and "Commission"), and joined Academy Commercials, a production company based in Central London.[ citation needed ] He directed campaigns for Guinness ( Dreamer , Swimblack and Surfer ) [8] [9] and Stella Artois (Devil's Island). [10]
Glazer directed two music videos for the rock band Radiohead, "Street Spirit" (1996) and "Karma Police" (1997). He named "Street Spirit" as a turning point in his work: "I knew when I finished that, because [Radiohead] found their own voices as an artist, at that point, I felt like I got close to whatever mine was, and I felt confident that I could do things that emoted, that had some kind of poetic as well as prosaic value." [11]
Glazer won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 1997 for his work on "Karma Police" and Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" (1996). [12] He was unsatisfied with his "Karma Police" video, saying he had "missed emotionally and dramatically". [11] He described his video for the 1998 single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", by Unkle and the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, as a more successful "partner" to the "Karma Police" video. [11] Glazer's 1999 television advert "Surfer", for Guinness, was voted the best of all time in a poll conducted by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times the following year. [8]
Glazer was set to direct the film Gangster No. 1 , written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, but was replaced after disagreements with the producers regarding casting. Glazer left the production along with Mellis and Scinto. [13] [14] In 2000, Glazer worked with Mellis and Scinto again, directing his first feature, the gangster film Sexy Beast. [15] Ben Kingsley was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. [16] In 2004, Glazer directed his second feature film, Birth , starring Nicole Kidman. [17]
In 2001, Glazer directed the "Odyssey" spot for Levi Strauss jeans. [18] [19] In 2006, he directed the second Sony BRAVIA TV advertisement, which took ten days and 250 people to film. It was filmed at an estate in Glasgow, and featured paint exploding all over the tower blocks. [20] Later the same year, he was commissioned to make a television advert for the new Motorola Red phone. The advertisement, showing two naked black bodies emerging from a lump of flesh rotating on a potter's wheel, was due to air in September 2006 but was shelved by Motorola. The advertisement was to benefit several charities in Africa.[ citation needed ]
In 2013, Glazer directed Under the Skin, a loose adaptation of the 2000 novel by Michel Faber, starring Scarlett Johansson. It premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and received a theatrical release in 2014. [21] The film was named the best film of 2014 by numerous critics and publications, [22] was included in many best-of-the-decade lists, and ranked 61st on the BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century list, an international poll of 177 top critics. [23]
Glazer's fourth feature film, The Zone of Interest , based loosely on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to acclaim. [24] It competed for the Palme d'Or, [25] and won the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI Prize. [26] At the 96th Academy Awards, The Zone of Interest won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. [27]
In his acceptance speech, Glazer addressed the ongoing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip: [27] [28] [29] [30]
All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, 'Look what they did then,' rather 'Look what we do now.' Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization — how do we resist?
Known to be discreet about his private life, [31] Glazer is married to the visual effects supervisor Rachael Penfold. [32] They live in Camden, North London with their three children. [1] He is Jewish. [5] [33] Glazer named Stanley Kubrick as his favourite director and said he was close to Italian and Russian cinema. [1] His influences include Ingmar Bergman, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. [31]
Year | Title | Director | Writer |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | Sexy Beast | Yes | No |
2004 | Birth | Yes | Yes |
2013 | Under the Skin | Yes | Yes |
2023 | The Zone of Interest | Yes | Yes |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1994 | Mad | Yes | Yes | Also producer and editor |
1997 | Commission | Yes | Yes | |
2019 | The Fall | Yes | Yes | |
2020 | Strasbourg 1518 | Yes | Yes | TV short |
First Light: Alexander McQueen | Yes | No |
Year | Title | Artist | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1995 | "Karmacoma" | Massive Attack | |
"The Universal" | Blur | ||
1996 | "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" | Radiohead | |
"Virtual Insanity" | Jamiroquai | ||
1997 | "Into My Arms" | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | |
"Karma Police" | Radiohead | ||
1998 | "Rabbit in Your Headlights" | UNKLE ft. Thom Yorke | |
2000 | "A Song for the Lovers" | Richard Ashcroft | |
2006 | "Live with Me" | Massive Attack | |
2009 | "Treat Me Like Your Mother" | The Dead Weather |
Year | Title | Company |
---|---|---|
"Husband to Be" | Kodak | |
"Linda 2" | Pretty Polly | |
"Shock of the New" | Mazda | |
"Chief Executive's Wife" | AT&T | |
"City" | Club Med | |
"Sales Director" | AT&T | |
1996 | "Frozen Moment" | Nike |
"New York" | Caffrey's | |
1997 | "Parklife" | Nike |
1998 | "Swimblack" | Guinness |
"Lamppost" | BT Easyreach | |
1999 | "Surfer" | Guinness |
2000 | "Kung Fu" | Levi Strauss |
"Last Orders" | Stella Artois | |
"Devil's Island" | ||
"Protection" | Volkswagen Polo | |
"Whatever You Ride" | Wrangler | |
2001 | "Dreamer" | Guinness |
2002 | "Odyssey" | Levi Strauss |
2003 | "Evil" | Barclays |
"Bull" | ||
"Chicken" | ||
2004 | "Bar" [34] | Band Aid 20 |
"Double Don" | ||
"Rant" | ||
"Razor" | ||
2006 | "Ice Skating Priests" | Stella Artois |
"Paint" | Sony BRAVIA | |
"Clay" [35] | Motorola Red | |
2010 | "Temptation" | Cadbury's Flake |
"Kaka" [36] | Sony 3D | |
"Last Tango in Compton" [37] [38] | Volkswagen Polo | |
2013 | "The Ring" [39] [40] | Audi |
2019 | "Flight" | Apple |
2024 | "The Galleria" [41] | Prada |
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. They comprise Thom Yorke ; brothers Jonny Greenwood and Colin Greenwood (bass); Ed O'Brien ; and Philip Selway. They have worked with the producer Nigel Godrich and the cover artist Stanley Donwood since 1994. Radiohead's experimental approach is credited with advancing the sound of alternative rock.
Timothy Blake Nelson is an American actor and playwright. Described as a "modern character actor", his roles include Delmar O'Donnell in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Gideon in Minority Report (2002), Doctor Steve Pendanski in Holes (2003), Doctor Jonathan Jacobo in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Danny Dalton Jr. in Syriana (2005), Samuel Sterns in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Richard Schell in Lincoln (2012), the titular character of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) and Henry McCarty in Old Henry (2021). He portrayed Wade Tillman / Looking Glass in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), for which he received a Critics' Choice Television Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2020.
Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood is an English musician. He is the lead guitarist and keyboardist of the rock band Radiohead, and has composed numerous film scores. He has been named one of the greatest guitarists by numerous publications, including Rolling Stone.
Sexy Beast is a 2000 black comedy crime film directed by Jonathan Glazer and written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto. It stars Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, and Ian McShane. It follows Gary "Gal" Dove (Winstone), a retired criminal visited by a sociopathic gangster (Kingsley) who demands that he take part in a bank robbery in London.
Alan Irwin Menken is an American composer and conductor, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Skydance Animation. Menken's music for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) has each won him two Academy Awards. He also composed the scores and songs for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Newsies (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home on the Range (2004), Enchanted (2007), Tangled (2010), and Disenchanted (2022), among others. His accolades include winning eight Academy Awards — becoming the second most prolific Oscar winner in the music categories after Alfred Newman, a Tony Award, eleven Grammy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and a Daytime Emmy Award. Menken is one of twenty-one people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
7 Television Commercials is a collection of music videos by the English rock band Radiohead, covering the period from The Bends (1995) to OK Computer (1997).
"Karma Police" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 25 August 1997 as the second single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997). It reached number one in Iceland and number eight on the UK Singles Chart. In the US, it reached number 14 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was included on Radiohead: The Best Of (2008).
Gangster No. 1 is a 2000 British crime drama film directed by Paul McGuigan. It is based on the stage play Gangster No.1 written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto. The film stars Paul Bettany in the title role and features Malcolm McDowell, David Thewlis and Saffron Burrows.
"Street Spirit (Fade Out)" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their second studio album, The Bends (1995). It was released as a single on 22 January 1996 and reached number five on the UK singles chart, Radiohead's highest position up to that point. Radiohead considered it a breakthrough in their songwriting. It was accompanied by a music video by Jonathan Glazer, and has been covered by acts including Peter Gabriel and the Darkness.
"Rabbit in Your Headlights" is a song by the British electronic duo Unkle, released on their debut album, Psyence Fiction (1998). It features vocals from the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, who wrote it with the Unkle member Josh Davis. The music video, directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Denis Lavant, was named among the greatest by Rolling Stone and Pitchfork.
Paweł Aleksander Pawlikowski is a Polish filmmaker. He garnered early praise for a string of documentaries in the 1990s and for his award-winning feature films of the 2000s, Last Resort (2000) and My Summer of Love (2004). His success continued into the 2010s with Ida (2013), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Cold War (2018), for which Pawlikowski won the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, while the film received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Louis Mellis is a Scottish actor and screenwriter.
"Long Hard Road Out of Hell" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson and British trip hop band Sneaker Pimps. It was released as a single from the soundtrack to the 1997 motion picture Spawn. An arena rock and gothic rock song, "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" was written by Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez and produced by Manson and Sean Beavan. Its lyrics are about self-loathing and its title is derived from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667). After the track was written, the Sneaker Pimps' Kelli Ali was recruited to perform background vocals on it, as the Spawn soundtrack featured collaborations between hard rock artists and electronic music artists. The Sneaker Pimps were dissatisfied with the final track and wanted a remix of it to be released as a single instead; conversely, Manson deemed it a personal favorite.
László Nemes is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. His 2015 debut feature film, Son of Saul, was screened in the main competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. He is the first Hungarian director whose film has won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Son of Saul is the second Hungarian film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2016, Nemes was a member of the main competition jury of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Surfer is an integrated advertising campaign launched in 1999 by Diageo to promote Guinness-brand draught stout in the United Kingdom. The cornerstone of the campaign is a television commercial, originally 60 seconds long, which centred on a Polynesian surfer successfully taking on a gigantic wave. Shot in Hawaii over a nine-day period and directed by Jonathan Glazer, the piece went on to win more awards than any other commercial in 1999, and in 2000 was voted the "Best ad of all time" in a poll conducted by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times.
Micaela Rachel "Mica" Levi, also known by their stage name Micachu, is an English musician, composer, producer, singer, and songwriter.
Under the Skin is a 2013 science fiction film directed by Jonathan Glazer and written by Glazer and Walter Campbell, based on the 2000 novel by Michel Faber. It stars Scarlett Johansson as an otherworldly woman who preys on men in Scotland. The film premiered at Telluride Film Festival on 29 August 2013. It was released in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2014, and in other territories later in the year.
Adam Pearson is a British actor, presenter and campaigner. He appeared in the 2013 film Under the Skin. He has neurofibromatosis and has been involved in outreach programmes to prevent bullying associated with deformities.
The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, co-produced among the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland. Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, the film focuses on the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who live with their family in a home in the "Zone of Interest" next to the concentration camp. Christian Friedel stars as Rudolf Höss alongside Sandra Hüller as Hedwig Höss.
The 96th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 23 categories honoring films released in 2023. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Raj Kapoor, Katy Mullan, and Molly McNearney and was directed by Hamish Hamilton. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show for the fourth time. He first presided over the 89th ceremony held in 2017, and had most recently hosted the previous year's ceremony.
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