Steven Shainberg

Last updated

Steven Shainberg
Born (1963-02-05) February 5, 1963 (age 61)
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, screenwriter

Steven Shainberg (born February 5, 1963) is an American film director and producer. He is the nephew of author Lawrence Shainberg. Both are part of the Shainberg family of Memphis, Tennessee, founder of the Shainberg's chain of stores, which is now part of Dollar General.

Contents

Biography

Shainberg received his BA from Yale University in English Literature and East Asian studies. After graduation, he worked as a location manager, assistant director, production coordinator, and assistant editor on a number of films, commercials, and rock videos. He also worked as an independent producer developing adaptations of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent and Henry JamesThe Americans. At the American Film Institute, he directed and wrote four short films including The Prom starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Andras Jones and J. T. Walsh. The Prom won the Grand Prize at the Houston International Film Festival, the Critics’ Award at the Breckenridge Film Festival, and the silver medal for Drama at the New York Film Festival.

In 1998, his short film series Mr. Viril (Angela & Viril, Alice & Viril) ran for almost six months on MTV, in addition to his video for Debbie Harry’s "Strike Me Pink". The former starred a young Angelina Jolie.

Films

Shainberg's first feature film Hit Me , based on the Jim Thompson novel A Swell-Looking Babe, [1] premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1996 was released in theaters in August 1998. However, Shainberg's breakthrough didn't come until 2002's Secretary .

Secretary stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as a mentally ill young woman who gets a job as a secretary to a lawyer played by James Spader. The story follows the two characters as they develop a sexual, sadomasochistic relationship. The film was well received and honored with numerous awards including a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Maggie Gyllenhaal. [2]

Shainberg's film Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr. was a fictionalized account of the life of renowned photographer Diane Arbus. The film, released in 2006, received mixed reviews from critics. [3]

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Sayles</span> American film director

John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He is known for writing and directing the films The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Matewan (1987), Eight Men Out (1988), Passion Fish (1992), The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), Lone Star (1996), and Men with Guns (1997).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Smith</span> English actress (born 1934)

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith is an English actress. Known for her wit in comedic roles, she has had an extensive career on stage and screen over seven decades and is one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award, making her one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane Arbus</span> American photographer (1923–1971)

Diane Arbus was an American photographer. She photographed a wide range of subjects including strippers, carnival performers, nudists, people with dwarfism, children, mothers, couples, elderly people, and middle-class families. She photographed her subjects in familiar settings: their homes, on the street, in the workplace, in the park. "She is noted for expanding notions of acceptable subject matter and violates canons of the appropriate distance between photographer and subject. By befriending, not objectifying her subjects, she was able to capture in her work a rare psychological intensity." In his 2003 New York Times Magazine article, "Arbus Reconsidered", Arthur Lubow states, "She was fascinated by people who were visibly creating their own identities—cross-dressers, nudists, sideshow performers, tattooed men, the nouveaux riches, the movie-star fans—and by those who were trapped in a uniform that no longer provided any security or comfort." Michael Kimmelman writes in his review of the exhibition Diane Arbus Revelations, that her work "transformed the art of photography ". Arbus's imagery helped to normalize marginalized groups and highlight the importance of proper representation of all people.

<i>Secretary</i> (2002 film) 2002 film by Steven Shainberg

Secretary is a 2002 American erotic romantic comedy-drama film directed by Steven Shainberg from a screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson, based on the 1988 short story of the same name by Mary Gaitskill. Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader, the film explores the intense relationship between a dominant lawyer and his submissive secretary, who indulge in various types of BDSM activities such as erotic spanking and petplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivier Assayas</span> French film director, screenwriter and film critic

Olivier Assayas is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. Assayas is known for his eclectic filmography, consisting of slow-burning period pieces, psychological thrillers, neo-noirs, and comedies. He has directed French, Spanish, and English-language films with international casts. The son of filmmaker Jacques Rémy, Assayas began his career as a critic for Cahiers du Cinéma. There he wrote about world cinema and its film auteurs, who later influenced his work. Assayas made several short films, and made his feature debut with Disorder in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Gyllenhaal</span> American actress and filmmaker (born 1977)

Margalit Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal is an American actress and filmmaker. Part of the Gyllenhaal family, she is the daughter of filmmakers Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Achs, and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jake Gyllenhaal</span> American actor (born 1980)

Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal is an American actor. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, and his older sister is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He began acting as a child, making his acting debut in City Slickers (1991), followed by roles in his father's films A Dangerous Woman (1993) and Homegrown (1998). His breakthrough roles were as Homer Hickam in October Sky (1999) and as a psychologically troubled teenager in Donnie Darko (2001).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Miller</span> American actress and film director (born 1962)

Rebecca Augusta Miller, Lady Day-Lewis is an American filmmaker and novelist. She is known for her films Angela (1995), Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002), The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009), and Maggie's Plan (2015), all of which she wrote and directed, as well as her novels The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and Jacob's Folly. Miller received the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Personal Velocity and the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Director for Angela.

Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal is an American screenwriter and director. She is the mother of actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Gyllenhaal</span> American film director

Stephen Roark Gyllenhaal is an American film director and poet. He is the father of actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

<i>A Place in the Sun</i> (1951 film) 1951 US drama film by George Stevens

A Place in the Sun is a 1951 American drama film based on the 1925 novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the 1926 play, also titled An American Tragedy. It tells the story of a working-class young man who is entangled with two women: one who works in his wealthy uncle's factory, and the other a beautiful socialite. Another adaptation of the novel had been filmed once before, as An American Tragedy, in 1931. All these works were inspired by the real-life murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in 1906, which resulted in Gillette's conviction and execution by electric chair in 1908.

<i>Fur</i> (film) 2006 American film

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is a 2006 American romantic drama film directed by Steven Shainberg and written by Erin Cressida Wilson, based on Patricia Bosworth's book Diane Arbus: A Biography. It stars Nicole Kidman as iconic American photographer Diane Arbus, who was known for her strange, disturbing images, and also features Robert Downey Jr. and Ty Burrell. As the title implies, the film is largely fictional.

The 6th Online Film Critics Society Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2002, were given on 6 January 2003.

<i>Happy Endings</i> (film) 2005 film by Don Roos

Happy Endings is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Don Roos and starring Tom Arnold, Jesse Bradford, Bobby Cannavale, Steve Coogan, Laura Dern, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lisa Kudrow and Jason Ritter. The film's plot uses interconnected storylines to tell three stories of Los Angeles natives that center around love and family. This plot structure led to the coining of the term "hyperlink cinema", by Alissa Quart in her review of this film for the journal Film Comment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Bosworth</span> American journalist (1933–2020)

Patricia Bosworth was an American journalist, biographer, memoirist, and actress. She was a faculty member of Columbia University’s school of journalism as well as Barnard College, and was a winner of the Front Page Award for her journalistic achievement in writing about the Hollywood Blacklist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin Cressida Wilson</span> American dramatist

Erin Cressida Wilson is an American playwright, screenwriter, professor, and author.

The Dublin Film Critics' Circle is an Irish film critic association. From 2006, every year, members of the association give out their annual awards.

<i>The Skeleton Twins</i> 2014 American film

The Skeleton Twins is a 2014 American comedy-drama film directed by Craig Johnson and starring Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. The film premiered in competition at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. It won the Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic at the festival. Wiig and Hader play twins in the film. The film received positive reviews; critics praised Johnson's direction and the performances of Hader and Wiig.

<i>The Honourable Woman</i> 2014 British spy thriller television series

The Honourable Woman is a 2014 British political spy thriller television miniseries in eight parts, directed and written by Hugo Blick for the BBC and SundanceTV. Featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal in the title role, it aired on BBC Two in the United Kingdom on 3 July 2014 and premiered on SundanceTV in the United States on 31 July 2014. An advance screening of the series was held on 7 April 2014 at the MIPTV Media Market.

<i>The Lost Daughter</i> (film) 2021 film by Maggie Gyllenhaal

The Lost Daughter is a 2021 psychological drama film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Elena Ferrante. The film stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Domińczyk, Jack Farthing, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ed Harris. Colman also served as an executive producer.

References

  1. "Hit Me". Variety . December 21, 1996.
  2. Andrea LeVasseur (2016). "Steven Shainberg". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016.
  3. Rotten Tomatoes: Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus