Tim Burton

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tim Burton, 2012

Timothy "Tim" Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958 in Burbank , California ) is an American writer , producer and film director .

Life

Tim Burton showed drawing talent as a child. He made his first film, The Island of Doctor Agor , in 1971 at the age of 13. With a scholarship from Disney Studios , he studied animation for three years at the California Institute of the Arts . He got a job at Disney after working as a draftsman for intermediate phases in the 1978 fantasy cartoon The Lord of the Rings . He worked on the cartoons Cap and Capper and Taran and the Magic Cauldron and shot his first successful and award-winning short film Vincent in 1982 as a writer and director on behalf of Disney .

His first feature film was the 1985 film Pee-Wee's crazy adventure . His breakthrough came in 1988 with the film Beetlejuice . Since then he has been one of the most successful directors and producers in Hollywood .

In 1985 he met the film composer Danny Elfman . Their first film together was Pee-Wee's Crazy Adventure . A friendship developed from the acquaintance that continues to this day. Elfman also acted in all other films Burton, with the exception of Ed Wood , Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and earlier than Broadway - Musical composed Sweeney Todd , as a composer.

Burton also appeared as an author, for example in some of his early works or on the Internet, where he offers Stainboy as a sequel (see link on the fan page). The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy is a book of stories, poems and drawings about characters beyond the norm .

Tim Burton, 2008

At the Venice International Film Festival in 2007 Tim Burton was honored for his life's work with the Golden Lion , which he received from Johnny Depp , leading actor in his films Edward Scissorhands , Ed Wood , Sleepy Hollow , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Corpse Bride , Sweeney Todd , Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows .

The MoMA in New York dedicated a large retrospective to him in 2009/2010, which was later shown in Melbourne, Toronto, Prague , Tokyo , Osaka and in the Max Ernst Museum in Brühl. In 2010, Burton headed the Competition Jury at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival . Burton had already been a member of the jury in 1997 .

Private life

From 1989 to 1991 Burton was married to the German painter Lena Gieseke . In the 1990s he had a relationship with actress Lisa Marie Smith , whom he described as his muse and who appeared in most of his films of the period. While directing the filming of Planet of the Apes (2001), he met British actress Helena Bonham Carter , with whom he was dating until 2014 and has two children. A longtime friend of Tim Burton's, Johnny Depp is the children's godfather.

Reflections on his work

Tim Burton's trademarks are mostly “weird” but multi-layered films with sometimes comical or morbid to bizarre accents, actions and actors. The motifs and characters are either taken from the comic world (see the Batman film adaptations) or set in the horror genre . Burton likes to cite elements of the Gothic and underground scene , whereby he mainly specializes in horror comedies. It is also noticeable that he likes to use elements of films from the German Expressionist era (“Max Shreck” as the villain in Batman's return ) . Burton's more recent works play with surreal subjects (Big Fish) and always convince with detailed stage designs, be it the creepy, playful characters and scenarios of his puppet cartoons or the elaborate structures and costumes of the Batman films. He also dared to put a black and white film in cinemas with Ed Wood .

Vincent Price in a supporting role (one of the actor's last appearances with Edward Scissorhands ) and the role of Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood (played by Martin Landau ) are, as he said in an interview, “an homage to the films and actors that already inspired him in his childhood ”.

Burton's films fascinate either with their dark scenarios ( Batman ), bizarre humor (e.g. Mars Attacks / Nightmare before Christmas / Frankenweenie ) or shrill, brightly colored elements (for example the kitschy buildings of the suburban housing estate in Edward with the scissor hands or almost everything in Charlie and the chocolate factory ). In the film scores, Burton's pronounced weakness for songs from the 1960s / 1970s stands out - for example Tom Jones , whom he lets sing in the background in several films and who also played a supporting role in Mars Attacks .

Burton's more recent projects are based on childlike fascination and imagination: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is based on a classic children's book by Roald Dahl , while Corpse Bride - Wedding with a Corpse ( Oscar nomination 2006), like Nightmare Before Christmas , is a stop-motion -Puppet cartoon is.

In 2007, Burton filmed the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd - The Devilish Barber from Fleet Street . This film was awarded the Golden Globe in the category of best film (comedy or musical) in 2008 and an Oscar on February 24, 2008 in the category “Best Art Direction”.

In 2008/2009, Burton filmed the classic children's book Alice in Wonderland in 3D . At the end of December 2009, the Burton-produced animated film # 9 , which is about nine little characters in a gloomy future, was released on Blu-ray and DVD.

In late 2009, Burton published The Art of Tim Burton with over 1,000 of his own illustrations.

His film Dark Shadows was released on May 10, 2012. In the second half of the year, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (Burton as producer) and Frankenweenie also appeared . Other projects such as Monster Apocalypse are in the planning phase.

Tim Burton's latest film is a live remake of the animated classic Dumbo for Disney, which was released in March 2019.

style

Tim Burton, 2007

Recurring motifs

Death and afterlife
A recurring theme in Burton's films is the world between life and death . The film Beetlejuice addresses the death of the two protagonists, who at first do not even notice it and only become aware of it when they are asked in the afterlife about their cause of death. In the film Ed Wood , Bela Lugosi lives on the verge of death: Ed Wood brings him back to life twice in the film (on the screen) - the first time before his physical death, when he enables the forgotten actor to make a comeback (first meets he Lugosi while trying to lie in a coffin), the second time after Lugosi's death, with the help of a body double. In Sleepy Hollow, various mysterious murder cases run through the entire course of the plot, which in turn are carried out by a decapitated rider. In Corpse Bride , the main character from the world of the living is confronted with an undead bride from the world of the dead, with the realm of the dead appearing to be much more vital. In Sweeney Todd is about a barber who wants revenge assume a judge and then a lot of people cutting open the throat on the way. At Nightmare Before Christmas , too , death is a theme through bizarre, but lovingly designed corpses that Jack Skellington helps prepare for Christmas in the style of Halloween . The motif of this in-between world can already be found in his early works: in Frankenweenie, for example, a boy's dog is run over, but he mends him again and lets him awaken to new life with an electric shock.
Father-son relationships
For example, found in Edward Scissorhands , Ed Wood (Ed Wood adopts Bela Lugosi as a father figure), Big Fish , Mars Attacks! and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .
Relations between two worlds
Found in Planet of the Apes , Nightmare Before Christmas , Corpse Bride , Mars Attacks! , Beetlejuice and Alice in Wonderland .
Opening credits style
In most of Tim Burton's films, the opening credits are structured in such a way that the camera (often with multiple cuts) tracks or skims something as the names of the participants scroll. Most of the time the camera just drives (or flies) forward.
Chases: Batman's Return (Penguin Stroller Through Sewers), Corpse Bride (Butterfly), Mars Attacks! (UFOs from Martians to Earth), Sleepy Hollow (carriage through the wilderness), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (various chocolate bars during processing), Sweeney Todd (flowing blood), Dark Shadows (train through lonely landscapes).
Camera ride: Beetlejuice (camera flies over the city), Batman (flight through dark canyons that turn out to be the angle of the bat symbol), Edward scissorhands (ride through several scenes and things in the castle), Planet of the Apes (ride about parts of General Thade's armor), Ed Wood (driving through weird and sometimes trashy backdrops of the Wood films, including UFOs and octopus).

Regular cast

Tim Burton regularly uses the same actors for his films, with Johnny Depp being considered the most frequently with eight collaborations.

Burton has also worked with composer Danny Elfman on all of his films except Ed Wood , Sweeney Todd, and The Devil Barber of Fleet Street, and The Isle of Special Children .

Filmography

As a director

As a producer

As a screenwriter

As an actor

Awards

literature

  • Tim Burton: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and other Stories. Faber & Faber, London 2005, ISBN 0-571-22444-X .
  • Leah Gallo, Holly C. Kempf: The Art Of Tim Burton. Steeles Publishing, Los Angeles 2009, ISBN 978-1-935539-01-8 .
  • Natascha Graf: Dark images, bizarre characters and fairytale worlds - three films by Tim Burton in comparison. Tectum, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8288-2087-6 .
  • Christian Heger: Magic nights with moonlight. Tim Burton's cinema. Schüren, Marburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89472-554-9 .
  • Christian Heger: Colorful gloom. Tim Burton's color visions. In: Ders .: In the shadow realm of fictions. Studies on the fantastic history of motifs and the inhospitable (media) modernity. AVM, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-86306-636-9 , pp. 107-124.
  • Christian Heger: New ways to old myths. Tim Burton's adaptation of Washington Irving's 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'. In: Ders .: In the shadow realm of fictions. Studies on the fantastic history of motifs and the inhospitable (media) modernity. AVM, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-86306-636-9 , pp. 125-149.
  • Helmut Merschmann: Tim Burton. Bertz & Fischer, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-929470-75-6 .
  • Mark Salisbury (Ed.): Tim Burton. The melancholy magician. Quadriga, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86995-036-5 . (Includes interviews with Tim Burton from the past 20 years and illustrations by Tim Burton)

Web links

Commons : Tim Burton  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Bradshaw: Tim Burton to head Cannes film festival jury. at guardian.co.uk, January 26, 2010 (accessed January 29, 2010)
  2. ↑ Reviews on filmstarts.de
  3. ↑ Tim Burton: Johnny Depp e Michelle Pfeiffer protagonist in “Dark Shadows” on mondocinemablog.com
  4. ↑ Dark Shadows - Tim Burton wants Bellatrix Lestrange and Catwoman  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on movie-infos.net@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.movie-infos.net  
  5. ↑ Exclusive: Tim Burton Developing Monsterpocalypse, Full Details Revealed on slashfilm.com
  6. ↑ Award on empireonline.com
personal data
SURNAME Burton, Tim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burton, Timothy William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer, film producer, and film director
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Burbank , California