"God save Cannes"
The 60th Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27, 2007) jury will be presided over by British director Stephen Frears. The designation places the famous event "under a lucky star, that of intelligence, spirit and a certain impertinence" according to Festival President, Gilles Jacob, and was commented on by the director with an ironic "God save Cannes".
Born in Leicester in 1941, Frears made his debut feature (Gumshoe) in 1971 before going on to work exclusively in television for 10 years. He made his return to the big screen in 1984 with The Hit, before coming to public attention with My Beautiful Laundrette the following year.
The director’s rise to fame was confirmed two years later with Prick Up Your Ears, which was selected in the official Cannes line-up.
In 1988, with Dangerous Liaisons the filmmaker widened his audience and headed to the US to shoot The Grifters (1990), which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director, and Hero (1992).
Exploring all film genres, he then made Mary Reilly (1996, in competition at Berlin), The Van (1996, in competition at Cannes), The Hi-Lo Country (1999, Silver Bear winner), High Fidelity (2000), Liam (2000) and Dirty Pretty Things [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2002), both of which competed at Venice, and Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), without neglecting TV productions such as The Snapper (1993) and The Deal (2003).
His latest film, The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile] (see Focus), picked up the Best Actress and Best Screenplay awards for Helen Mirren and Peter Morgan, respectively, at the 2006 Venice Film Festival.
(Translated from French)
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