Neil Jordan | |
---|---|
Born | Neil Patrick Jordan 25 February 1950 Sligo, Ireland |
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, novelist |
Years active | 1979–present |
Spouse(s) | Vivienne Shields (divorced) Brenda Rawn (m. 2004) |
Children | 5 |
Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. He won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Lion and a Silver Bear. He was honoured with receiving the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1996. [1] He is known for writing and directing acclaimed dramas such as Mona Lisa (1986), The Crying Game (1992), Michael Collins (1996), The Butcher Boy (1997) and The End of the Affair (1999). Jordan also created the Showtime series The Borgias (2011) and Sky Atlantic's Riviera (2017). Jordan is also known as an author. He wrote Night in Tunisia (1976) which won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. [2] [3]
Jordan was born in Sligo, the son of Angela (née O'Brien), a painter, and Michael Jordan, a professor. [4] He was educated at St. Paul's College, Raheny. Later, Jordan attended University College Dublin, where he studied Irish history and English literature. He graduated in 1972 with a BA in History. He became involved in student theatre there, where he met Jim Sheridan, who also was later to become an important Irish film director. Of his religious background, Jordan said in a 1999 Salon interview: "I was brought up a Catholic and was quite religious at one stage in my life, when I was young. But it left me with no scars whatever; it just sort of vanished." He said about his current beliefs that "God is the greatest imaginary being of all time. Along with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, the invention of God is probably the greatest creation of human thought." [5]
Neil Jordan's career began in the late 1970s working for the Irish television channel, RTÉ. Included in his work was writing storylines for the children's fantasy series, Wanderly Wagon . [6]
In 1981, when John Boorman was filming Excalibur in Ireland, he recruited Jordan as a "creative associate". A year later, Boorman was executive producer on Jordan's first feature Angel , a tale of a musician caught up in the Troubles played by Stephen Rea who has subsequently appeared in almost all of Jordan's films to date. During the 1980s, he directed films that won him acclaim, including The Company of Wolves and Mona Lisa , both made in England. The Company of Wolves, a dark and sexually-themed reimagining of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale based on short stories by Angela Carter, became a cult favourite.
As a writer/director, Jordan has a highly idiosyncratic body of work, ranging from mainstream hits like Interview with the Vampire to commercial failures like We're No Angels to a variety of more personal, low-budget arthouse pictures. He was also the driving force behind the cable TV series The Borgias .
Unconventional sexual relationships are a recurring theme in Jordan's work, and he often finds a sympathetic side to characters that audiences would traditionally consider deviant or downright horrifying. His film The Miracle , for instance, followed two characters who struggle to resist a strong, incestuous attraction. Interview with the Vampire, like the Anne Rice book it was based on, focused on the intense, intimate interpersonal relationship of two undead men who murder humans nightly (although the pair never have sex, they are clearly lovers of a sort), accompanied by an equally complex vampire woman who is eternally trapped in the body of a little girl. While Lestat (Tom Cruise) is depicted in an attractive but villainous manner, his partner Louis (Brad Pitt) and the child vampire Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) are meant to capture the audience's sympathy despite their predatory nature. In the remake of The End of the Affair , two people (Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore) engage in a love affair that will end as suddenly as it started, with both not wanting its end.
In addition to the unusual sexuality of Jordan's films, he frequently returns to the Troubles of Northern Ireland. The Crying Game and Breakfast on Pluto both concern a transgender character (played by Jaye Davidson and Cillian Murphy, respectively), both concern The Troubles and both feature frequent Jordan leading man Stephen Rea. The two films, however, are very different, with The Crying Game being a realistic thriller/romance, and Breakfast on Pluto is a much more episodic, stylised, darkly comic biography. Jordan also frequently tells stories about children or young people, such as The Miracle and The Butcher Boy . While his pictures are most often grounded in reality, he occasionally directs more fantastic or dreamlike films, such as The Company of Wolves, High Spirits , Interview with the Vampire and In Dreams .
The critical success of Jordan's early pictures led him to Hollywood, where he directed High Spirits and We're No Angels; both were critical and financial disasters. He later returned home to make the more personal The Crying Game, which was nominated for six Academy Awards. Jordan won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film. [7] Its unexpected success led him back to American studio filmmaking, where he directed Interview with the Vampire. He also directed the crime drama The Brave One starring Jodie Foster.
Neil Gaiman announced during his Today show appearance on 27 January 2009, that Neil Jordan would be directing the film of his Newbery Medal-winning book The Graveyard Book . [8] Jordan also wrote and directed the 2009 Irish-made film Ondine , starring Colin Farrell and Alicja Bachleda-Curuś. He also directed Byzantium , an adaptation of the vampire play of the same name starring Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton and Jonny Lee Miller. [9]
In 2011, Jordan's next feature was announced as the later aborted sci-fi romance Broken Dream, which was to have featured Ben Kingsley and John Hurt. [10]
He directed the thriller Greta (2018), starring Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz.
After working on the scripts for Riviera , Jordan has disowned the show, due to his scripts being reworked by others. He said he has no idea who rewrote these episodes. "They were changed, to my huge surprise and considerable upset. There were various sexual scenes introduced into the story and a lot of very expository dialogue. I objected in the strongest terms possible." [11]
Jordan has five children: Anna and Sarah from his marriage to solicitor Vivienne Shields; Dashiel and Daniel from his current marriage to Brenda Rawn, and Ben, from a relationship with architect Mary Donohoe. Jordan lives in Dalkey, Dublin. [12]
In 1996, Neil Jordan was honoured with receiving the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. [13] He has received many honorary doctorates, most notably from Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and Queen's University Belfast. [14] [15] [16]
In 2009, he signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after he was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. [17] [18]
In 2018, he donated his archives to the National Library of Ireland. Jordan's donation included TV and film scripts, production files, notebooks, storyboards and personal correspondence with artists and political figures. [19]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
---|---|---|---|---|
1981 | Traveller | No | Yes | No |
1982 | Angel | Yes | Yes | No |
1984 | The Company of Wolves | Yes | Yes | No |
1986 | Mona Lisa | Yes | Yes | No |
1988 | High Spirits | Yes | Yes | No |
1989 | We're No Angels | Yes | No | No |
1991 | The Miracle | Yes | Yes | No |
1992 | The Crying Game | Yes | Yes | No |
1994 | Interview with the Vampire | Yes | No | No |
1996 | Michael Collins | Yes | Yes | No |
1997 | The Butcher Boy | Yes | Yes | executive |
1999 | In Dreams | Yes | Yes | No |
The End of the Affair | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2000 | Not I (Short film) | Yes | No | No |
2002 | The Good Thief | Yes | Yes | executive |
2005 | Breakfast on Pluto | Yes | Yes | Yes |
2007 | The Brave One | Yes | No | No |
2009 | Ondine | Yes | Yes | Yes |
2012 | Byzantium | Yes | No | No |
2018 | Greta | Yes | Yes | executive |
2022 | Marlowe | Yes | Yes | No |
Executive producer
Producer
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Creator | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | Miracles & Miss Langan | No | Yes | No | No | TV movie |
2011–2013 | The Borgias | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Directed 6 episodes Wrote 20 episodes |
2017–2020 | Riviera | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Wrote 2 episodes |
Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
1984 | The Company of Wolves | 4 | |||||
1986 | Mona Lisa | 1 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | |
1992 | The Crying Game | 6 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | |
1994 | Interview with the Vampire | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | ||
1996 | Michael Collins | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||
1999 | The End of the Affair | 2 | 10 | 1 | 4 | ||
2005 | Breakfast on Pluto | 1 | |||||
2007 | The Brave One | 1 | |||||
Total | 13 | 1 | 33 | 5 | 15 | 1 |
Year | Title | Awards/Nominations |
---|---|---|
1986 | Mona Lisa | Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Direction Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated- Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay |
1992 | The Crying Game | Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated- Academy Award for Best Director Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Direction Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay |
1996 | Michael Collins | Golden Lion |
1997 | The Butcher Boy | Silver Bear for Best Director |
1999 | The End of the Affair | BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Direction Nominated- Golden Globe Award for Best Director |
2011 | The Borgias | Nominated- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (for episodes "The Poisoned Chalice" and "The Assassin" ) |
Awards
Raymond Roman Thierry Polański is a French and Polish film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, ten César Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Golden Bear and a Palme d'Or.
The Crying Game is a 1992 crime thriller film, written and directed by Neil Jordan, produced by Stephen Woolley and Nik Powell, and starring Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson, Adrian Dunbar, Ralph Brown, and Forest Whitaker. The film explores themes of race, sex, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Stephen Rea is an Irish actor of stage and screen. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a member of Dublin’s Focus Theatre, and came to the attention of film audiences as one of the close collaborators of director Neil Jordan. He is an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee, a two-time BAFTA Award winner, and a three-time Irish Film and Television (IFTA) Award winner.
Jean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed Quest for Fire (1981), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Bear (1988), The Lover (1992), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Enemy at the Gates (2001), Black Gold (2011), and Wolf Totem (2015).
Sir John Boorman is a British filmmaker. He is best known for directing feature films such as Point Blank (1967), Hell in the Pacific (1968), Deliverance (1972), Zardoz (1974), Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Excalibur (1981), The Emerald Forest (1985), Hope and Glory (1987), The General (1998), The Tailor of Panama (2001) and Queen and Country (2014).
Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, eight books for children, seven plays and screenplays, and dozens of short stories. Several of his books have been made into films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. Doyle's work is set primarily in Ireland, especially working-class Dublin, and is notable for its heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Irish English dialect. Doyle was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
Jim Sheridan is an Irish playwright and filmmaker. Between 1989 and 1993, Sheridan directed three critically acclaimed films set in Ireland, My Left Foot (1989), The Field (1990), and In the Name of the Father (1993), and later directed the films The Boxer (1997), In America (2003), and Brothers (2009). Sheridan received six Academy Award nominations.
Patrick McCabe is an Irish writer. Known for his mostly dark and violent novels set in contemporary—often small-town—Ireland, McCabe has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, for The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both of which have been made into films.
The Company of Wolves is a 1984 British gothic fantasy horror film directed by Neil Jordan and starring Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Micha Bergese, and Sarah Patterson in her film debut. The screenplay by Angela Carter and Jordan was adapted from her 1979 short story of the same name.
Jerzy Skolimowski is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist, actor and painter. Beginning as a screenwriter for Andrzej Wajda's Innocent Sorcerers (1960), Skolimowski has made more than twenty films since his directorial debut The Menacing Eye (1960). In 1967 he was awarded the Golden Bear prize for his Belgian film The Departure (1967). Among his other notable films is Deep End (1970), starring Jane Asher and John Moulder Brown.
Interview with the Vampire is a 1994 American gothic horror film directed by Neil Jordan, based on Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name, and starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. It focuses on Lestat (Cruise) and Louis (Pitt), beginning with Louis' transformation into a vampire by Lestat in 1791. The film chronicles their time together, and their turning of young Claudia into a vampire. The narrative is framed by a present-day interview, in which Louis tells his story to a San Francisco reporter. The supporting cast features Antonio Banderas and Stephen Rea.
Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat is a French film composer and conductor. He has received numerous accolades throughout his career spanning over four decades, including, two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, three César Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Grammy Awards. Desplat was made an Officer of the Ordre national du Mérite and a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres both in 2016.
Stephen Woolley is an English filmmaker and actor. His career has spanned over three and a half decades, for which he was awarded the BAFTA award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema in February 2019. As a producer, he has been Oscar-nominated for The Crying Game (1992), and has produced multi-Academy Award nominated films including Mona Lisa (1986), Little Voice (1998), Michael Collins (1996), The End of the Affair (1999), Interview with the Vampire (1994), and Carol (2016). He runs the production company Number 9 Films with his partner Elizabeth Karlsen.
Frédéric Mitterrand was a French politician who served as Minister of Culture and Communication of France from 2009 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was an actor, screenwriter, television presenter, writer, producer, and director.
Breakfast on Pluto is a 2005 comedy-drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan and based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Patrick McCabe, as adapted by Jordan and McCabe. The film stars Cillian Murphy as a transgender woman foundling searching for love and her long-lost mother in small town Ireland and London in the 1970s.
The Butcher Boy is a 1997 Irish black comedy film directed by Neil Jordan. The film was based on Patrick McCabe’s 1992 novel of the same name and McCabe co-wrote the screenplay with Jordan.
Saoirse Una Ronan is an American-born Irish actress. Primarily known for her work in period dramas since adolescence, she has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards and five British Academy Film Awards.
Kevin Rockett is an Irish film historian, writer, and scholar specializing in the history of Irish cinema. He is currently an associate professor in Film Studies and head of the School of Drama, Film and Music, at Trinity College, Dublin, and the author, co-author, or editor of numerous books, including Cinema and Ireland (1987), The Irish Filmography (1996), Neil Jordan: Exploring Boundaries (2003) and Irish Film Censorship (2004).
Mistaken is a novel by the Irish novelist and filmmaker Neil Jordan published in 2011 by John Murray in the UK and Soft Skull Press in the US. It won both the Irish Book Award and Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award.
Bi Feiyu is a Chinese writer. His works are known for their complex portrayal of the "female psyche." He has won some of the highest literary awards in China. He also wrote the screenplay for Zhang Yimou's 1996 film Shanghai Triad.