Lewis Furey | |
|---|---|
 Furey on the set of Fantastica | |
| Born | 7 June 1949 |
| Other names | Lewis Greenblatt |
| Spouse | Carole Laure |
Lewis Furey, born with the name Lewis Greenblatt (7 June 1949), is a Canadian composer, singer, violinist, pianist, actor and director. [1]
Born in Montreal, Quebec to French and American parents, Furey trained as a classical violinist, [2] and at age 11 performed as a soloist in the Matinées pour la jeunesse concert series of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. [1] From 1961 to 1965 he studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. [1] [3] He later studied at the Juilliard School in New York City. [2] In 1972, he began playing and recording his own rock music compositions. In the ensuing years, he produced three albums of pop music: Lewis Furey (1975, A & M 4522), The Humours of Lewis Furey (1976, A & M 4594) and The Sky is Falling (1979, Aquarius AQR-521). [1] [2] Distinguishing features of the albums were Furey's Lou Reed-like vocal stylings, a number of songs with gay content (particularly the local Montréal radio hit Hustler's Tango), and exotic arrangements featuring unusual uses of violin and banjo as well as elements of klezmer music.
In 1975, he began a new venture as a composer for films. His first film score, for director Gilles Carle's La Tête de Normande St. Onge (1975), won a Canadian Film Award. [2] In 1977, he worked on the Gilles Carle film L'Ange et la femme along with his future wife, the actress and singer Carole Laure. [1] [2] This project involved more than composing alone; Furey and Laure are famously seen performing a sex act in the film. [4] Furey also composed for the Allan Moyle film The Rubber Gun, which despite the risqué-sounding title was about families affected by drug use.[ citation needed ] Later in the 1970s, Furey and Laure produced a number of successful stage reviews in Paris. [1] Furey also served as producer and frequently also as songwriter for a series of albums by Carole Laure, beginning with Alibis (1979, RCA KKL-1-0290), a hit in Québec in 1979. [2] In 1980, Furey wrote the music for another Gilles Carle film Fantastica, which starred Laure in the lead role of Lorca. Furey also acted in the film and was nominated for a Genie Award in Canada for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role." [2]
Furey further developed his career in film and television music with productions such as a 1983 Gilles Carle movie, Maria Chapdelaine , [1] based on the classic Québec-based Louis Hémon novel of the same name. His score for this film won a Genie Award. In 1984 he wrote the screenplay for Night Magic , with the script co-written by Leonard Cohen. [1]
Based in France since the late 1970s, Furey has continued to score film and television work as well as producing and writing for successful albums by Laure, such as She Says Move On (1991) and Sentiments naturels (1997). [1] A stage production based on the latter ran for over a month in Paris in 1998. [1]
Furey's songs have been recorded by various other artists such as Céline Dion, [1] who recorded "Michael's Song" ( La ballade de Michel ) and "Listen to the Magic Man" (" Dans La Main D'un Magicien ") for the film The Peanut Butter Solution (1985), both co-written by Eddy Marnay [detailed biography in French Wikipedia]; Tom Robinson, who recorded "Closing a Door" ( Cabaret '79 , 1982) and "Love Comes" ( North by Northwest , 1982); and Petula Clark. [1] His first two albums became hits in Japan and are available on CD only as Japanese re-releases. He is abundantly represented on the Japanese-language internet (search on ルイス･フューレイ). A CD version of The Sky is Falling was released in France.
He is the brother of Canadian playwright/actor/pianist Richard Greenblatt, author of the major hit play 2 Pianos, 4 Hands . [1]
Georges-Henri Denys Arcand is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film The Barbarian Invasions won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three further times, including two nominations in the same category for The Decline of the American Empire in 1986 and Jesus of Montreal in 1989, becoming the only French-Canadian director in history whose films have received this number of nominations and, subsequently, to have a film win the award. For The Barbarian Invasions, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, losing to Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation.
Robert Charlebois, OC, OQ is a Québecois author, composer, musician, performer and actor.
Denise Filiatrault, is a Canadian actress and director.
Claude Gauthier is a Quebec singer-songwriter and actor.
Carole Laure is an actress and singer from Quebec, Canada.
Jay Leonhart is an American double bassist, singer, and songwriter who has worked in jazz and popular music. He has performed with Judy Garland, Bucky Pizzarelli, Carly Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Sting. Leonhart is noted for his clever songwriting, often laced with dry humor. His compositions have been recorded by Blossom Dearie, Lee Konitz, and Gary Burton. His poetry is published both in, and outside of, the venue of song.
Maria Chapdelaine is a romance novel written in 1913 by the Breton writer Louis Hémon, who was then residing in Quebec. Aimed at young French and Quebecois people, the book had been included in school curricula, translated, and has been extensively analyzed and adapted.
Gilles Carle, was a French Canadian director, screenwriter and painter.
The Death of a Lumberjack is a 1973 Canadian drama film directed and co-written by Gilles Carle. The film was entered into the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.
Fantastica is a 1980 French-Canadian musical film written and directed by Gilles Carle. It was entered into the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. An English-language dialogue dubbed version of the film was broadcast on Superchannel, a pay-TV channel in western Canada in the early 1980s.
Maria Chapdelaine is a French-Canadian historical drama film, released in 1983. An adaptation of Louis Hémon's novel Maria Chapdelaine, the film was directed and co-written by Gilles Carle and starred Carole Laure in the title role.
Night Magic is a 1985 Canadian-French musical film written by Leonard Cohen and Lewis Furey and directed by Furey. The film stars Nick Mancuso as Michael, a down on his luck musician whose fantasies begin to come true after he meets an angel. The film's supporting cast includes Stéphane Audran, Jean Carmet, Frank Augustyn, Louis Robitaille, Anik Bissonnette, Nanette Workman and Barbara Eve Harris.
The Angel and the Woman is a 1977 Canadian fantasy romance film written and directed by Gilles Carle and starring Carole Laure, Lewis Furey, and Stephen Lack. The film follows a woman who, after being brutally shot, dies in the snow and is resurrected by an angel who falls in love with her and eventually teaches her how to incinerate objects with her mind. The film is shot entirely in black-and-white and attracted some controversy due to its explicit unsimulated sex scenes between the two leads.
François Protat was a Canadian cinematographer, who won the Genie Award for Best Cinematography at the 7th Genie Awards in 1986 for Joshua Then and Now. Born in France, he emigrated to Canada in 1969 after studying at the École de photographie de la rue de Vaugirard.
Donald Pilon is a Canadian film and television actor. He won the Canadian Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1972 for his role in The True Nature of Bernadette , and was a Genie Award nominee in the same category in 1985 for The Crime of Ovide Plouffe .
Clara Furey is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist: singer-songwriter, actress, dancer and choreographer.
The 27th Canadian Film Awards were held on October 24, 1976 to honour achievements in Canadian film. The ceremony was hosted by Lorne Greene, and was held at the conclusion of the inaugural 1976 Festival of Festivals.
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Love Project is a Canadian drama film, directed by Carole Laure and released in 2014. An ensemble drama, the film focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of young theatre professionals who are working to produce a multimedia stage play.
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