Movies directed by Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander Mendes was born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, England, UK to parents James Peter Mendes, a retired university lecturer, and Valerie Helene Mendes, an author who writes children's books. Their marriage didn't last long, James divorced Sam's mother in 1970 when Sam was just 5 years-old. Sam was educated at Cambridge University and joined the Chichester Festival Theatre following his graduation in 1987. Afterwards he directed 'Judi Dench' (qv) in The Cherry Orchard, for which he won a Critics Circle Award for Best Newcomer. He then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he d ...
show all Samuel Alexander Mendes was born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, England, UK to parents James Peter Mendes, a retired university lecturer, and Valerie Helene Mendes, an author who writes children's books. Their marriage didn't last long, James divorced Sam's mother in 1970 when Sam was just 5 years-old. Sam was educated at Cambridge University and joined the Chichester Festival Theatre following his graduation in 1987. Afterwards he directed 'Judi Dench' (qv) in The Cherry Orchard, for which he won a Critics Circle Award for Best Newcomer. He then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he directed such productions as Troilus and Cressida with 'Ralph Fiennes' (qv) and Richard III. In 1992, he became artistic director of the reopened Donmar Warehouse in London, where he directed such productions as 'The Glass Menagerie' and the revival of the musical 'Cabaret', which earned four Tony Awards including one for Best Revival of a Musical. He also directed 'The Blue Room', starring 'Nicole Kidman' (qv). In 1999 he got the chance to direct his first feature film, American Beauty (1999). The movie earned 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Mendes, which is a rare feat for a first time film director.
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British theatre director Sam Mendes made an astonishing film debut with this sublime black comedy about midlife crises, starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening as a bored couple in suburban America. The sexually frustrated Bening begins an affair with estate agent Peter Gallagher; Spacey, meanwhile, fantasises about Mena Suvari, a teenage friend of his daughter’s. Their disparate needs make for a comic tragedy of misunderstanding that combines acute observations with side-splitting scenarios. This truly outstanding film (on which Steven Spielberg acted as an uncredited producer) deservedly picked up a clutch of Oscars, including best picture, best director and best actor for Spacey.
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The first Gulf War hasn’t yet proved fertile ground for Hollywood film-makers, although David O Russell’s Three Kings did set a caper plot in the aftermath of Saddam’s withdrawal from Kuwait. Director Sam Mendes takes a more literary run at the subject with this adaptation of Anthony Swofford’s memoir Jarhead, in which he relates not only his experiences of the absurdly short war — the ground operation lasted less than 100 hours and he didn’t get off a shot in anger — but also the brutal process of being transformed into a marine. Mendes delivers some stunning imagery, notably the hellish sights that greet the soldiers as they wander among the blazing oil wells of the Kuwaiti desert, and he renders everyday marine-life well, both in its tedium and occasionally unpleasant detail. He also draws good performances from his young cast, particularly Jake Gyllenhaal as our narrator, “Swoff”. But he’s finally hamstrung by a screenplay that delivers an inevitably anticlimactic third act — without any chance to see the characters tested in the combat for which they yearn, the audience becomes curiously uninvolved and almost as frustrated as the marines themselves.
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