Peter Weir

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Peter Weir (2011)

Peter Lindsay Weir [ wɪə ] (born August 21, 1944 in Sydney , New South Wales , Australia ) is an Australian director .

Life

Weir studied arts and law at the University of Sydney. Weir had his breakthrough in Australia with his first films The Cars That Devoured Paris and Picnic on Valentine's Day . In Gallipoli and A Year in Hell , Mel Gibson made a name for himself as a character actor before making a world career with action films . In The Last Flood , a film about the clash of indigenous culture and civilization, Richard Chamberlain played a lawyer who was haunted by an Aboriginal prophecy in his dreams .

His first two films shot in the US , The Sole Witness (1985) and Mosquito Coast (1986), enabled Harrison Ford to develop into a character actor. Weir's reputation as an actor-director is also based on the subsequent films The Dead Poets Club (1989), which established Robin Williams as a serious actor, and The Truman Show , for which Jim Carrey received a Golden Globe for his lead role in 1998 .

In between were the 1990 comedy Green Card - a sham marriage with obstacles , with which Gérard Depardieu tried to gain a foothold in American cinema, and Fearless - Beyond Fear , a film about the psychological consequences of a plane crash, with the Weir on spiritual topics such as too Returned at the beginning of his career.

With the film Master & Commander - Until the End of the World , he shot his first costume and action film, also with psychological undertones. In his most recent film The Way Back - The Long Way (The Way Back, 2010) the escape of a group of prisoners of war from a Siberian prison camp during the Second World War is told.

Peter Weir met his future wife, Wendy Stites, on a ship passage to Europe. Back in Australia, the couple married in 1966. The daughter Ingrid Weir was born in 1973. The couple celebrated a great success when Wendy Stites provided the costumes for the adventure film Master & Commander, starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany . She received an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Costume Design for her husband's film, who served as director, screenwriter and producer . She also played a key role in the success of the 2010 film The Way Back with Jim Sturgess , Ed Harris and Colin Farrell with her work as a costume designer. After 50 years of marriage, in 2016, Peter Weir and Wendy Stites separated without ever getting divorced.

Filmography

Nominations and Awards

Peter Weir received six Oscar nominations for his seven American films . 

  • 1985: Best Director (The Only Witness)
  • 1990: Best Director (The Dead Poets Club)
  • 1991: Original screenplay (Green Card - sham marriage with obstacles)
  • 1998: Best Director (The Truman Show)
  • 2003: Best Director & Best Film (Master & Commander - To the End of the World)
Awards
  • BAFTA Award 1999: Best Director (The Truman Show)
  • BAFTA Award 2004: Best Director (Master & Commander - To the End of the World)

literature

  • Matthias Wörther: Peter Weir: Everyday transgressions. In: Thomas Bohrmann, Werner Veith, Stephan Zöller (Eds.): Handbuch Theologie und Popular Film. Volume 1. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-72963-7 , pp. 231-242.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wendy Stites . in: Ben Goldsmith, Geoffrey Lealand Australia and New Zealand. , Intellect Books, 2010, p. 37
  2. ↑ Peter Weir and his wife, Wendy Stites, who have been married since 1966 getting divorced? hubmesh.com, accessed January 17, 2017.
  3. ^ Awards for Peter Weir in the IMDb
personal data
SURNAME Weir, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weir, Peter Lindsay (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian director
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney , New South Wales , Australia