Michael Winterbottom

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Michael Winterbottom at the presentation of his film The Shock Doctrine at the Berlinale 2009

Michael Winterbottom (born March 29, 1961 in Blackburn , Lancashire ) is a British film director . Along with Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, he is one of the most important protagonists of the new British film .

Life

As there was no cinema or theater in his hometown in northern England, Michael Winterbottom spent a lot of time at home in front of the television at the age of 14, watching international films on the BBC TV channel , which aroused his interest in the medium. He then joined a local film club at the age of 15, where he discovered New German Film with works by directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder , Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog , which had an inspiring effect on him. Winterbottom studied English at Oxford , after which he studied film and television at Bristol University and the Polytechnic of Central London . This was followed by a time editing at Thames Television , then he went to the BBC.

His very authentic Afghan refugee drama In This World won the Golden Bear at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival . Another great success was his film Welcome to Sarajevo about the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina . With The Empire and the Glory and Code 46 he turned to genre films (westerns and science fiction). In the film year 2005 he caused a sensation with his controversial and as pornography work 9 Songs . For the film The Road to Guantanamo he received a Silver Bear as best director at the Berlinale 2006 . Four years later, he received another invitation to the Berlinale 2010 for his thriller The Killer Inside Me .

In his films, Winterbottom often takes up topics of great political volatility. He often works realistically - naturalistically with amateurs or semi-professional actors, sometimes with a small staff on site . His political films are also his most successful. Other works have an emphasis on music, social issues, sexuality , family , fate or grief . The expressive, fluidly moving camera through to the video clip aesthetic can be found again and again . Overall, the will to style and the versatility stand out, the passion and thereby a tendency to pathos , sometimes also a cruelty towards the characters.

He often works with composer Michael Nyman , producer Andrew Eaton and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce . He mentions Jean-Luc Godard , Wim Wenders, François Truffaut and Ingmar Bergman as influences of his own. Other sources also include the name Rainer Werner Fassbinder, or that of Lindsay Anderson .

He was married to the author Sabrina Broadbent and has two daughters.

Quotes

"If you want to be political, you have to do something in the mainstream [...]"

- Michael Winterbottom

“Why a film works or not is often very simple. Sometimes something hits people's hearts. And sometimes not. "

- Michael Winterbottom

Filmography

Web links

Commons : Michael Winterbottom  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Video interview with director Michael Winterbottom, documentary film Portrait about Michael Winterbottom (Profile of a Director ) by Floriane Charles and Elodie Claeys, 24 minutes, 2002, produced by Mobilis Productions, included in the bonus material of the double DVD 24 Hour Party People , Disc 2 Extras , Special Edition, 2008, Arthaus - Special Films , Leipzig + Kino Home Entertainment GmbH , Leipzig
  2. ^ A b Geoff Brown, Pamela Church Gibson: Directors in British and Irish Cinema. In: BFI Screenonline. Retrieved April 20, 2008 .
  3. ↑ Allison, para. 4.
  4. ↑ cf. Xan Brooks: Wonderland. In: Sight & Sound . January 2000, accessed March 19, 2009 .
  5. ↑ a b Biography for Michael Winterbottom. In: IMDb . IMDb.com, Inc., accessed April 20, 2008 .
  6. ^ A b c Simon Hattenstone: The film factory . In: The Guardian . March 29, 2002 (English, theguardian.com ): “If you want to be political, you have to do something in the mainstream […]”
  7. ^ Rüdiger Suchsland: The fish and the meat. In: Artechock. January 20, 2005, accessed April 2, 2008 .
personal data
SURNAME Winterbottom, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film director
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Blackburn