Many of Sidney Lumet's movies have social themes. "Network" is an eerily prescient satire of corporate media and television as a vehicle for demagoguery. "Serpico" explores police corruption and the real-life assassination attempt on the incorruptible officer Frank Serpico. This political conscience goes right back to Lumet's debut, "12 Angry Men." This story about a hung jury in a murder trial isn't just a great ensemble drama, but a powerful testament to civic duty.
However, Lumet wasn't out to make a statement when directing "12 Angry Men," he was just trying to prove himself. The film's producers took a chance on Lumet, who had only theater and television credits to his name at the time, and he wasn't about to let them down and blow his big break in the process.
Lumet's Big Break
Interviewed by Marc Levin for the Director's Guild of America, Lumet recalled how he got...
However, Lumet wasn't out to make a statement when directing "12 Angry Men," he was just trying to prove himself. The film's producers took a chance on Lumet, who had only theater and television credits to his name at the time, and he wasn't about to let them down and blow his big break in the process.
Lumet's Big Break
Interviewed by Marc Levin for the Director's Guild of America, Lumet recalled how he got...
- 8/20/2022
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– Exclusive: Maxine Street LLC will release Alex Grossman’s teen workplace comedy “Hickey” for an La theatrical run on January 6, followed by a North American DVD/Tvod release from Gravitas Ventures on January 10. The film is Grossman’s first feature film and stars Troy Doherty, Flavia Watson, Raychel Diane Weiner and Tommy “Tiny” Lister Jr. Grossman wrote and directed and Lije Sarki produced.
The film is “a day in the life of math whiz and recent high school graduate Ryan Chess (Doherty) who has spent the entire summer dithering over his choice of colleges. On the one hand, he has a full ride to his dream school, MIT but he’s also hopelessly in love with co-worker...
– Exclusive: Maxine Street LLC will release Alex Grossman’s teen workplace comedy “Hickey” for an La theatrical run on January 6, followed by a North American DVD/Tvod release from Gravitas Ventures on January 10. The film is Grossman’s first feature film and stars Troy Doherty, Flavia Watson, Raychel Diane Weiner and Tommy “Tiny” Lister Jr. Grossman wrote and directed and Lije Sarki produced.
The film is “a day in the life of math whiz and recent high school graduate Ryan Chess (Doherty) who has spent the entire summer dithering over his choice of colleges. On the one hand, he has a full ride to his dream school, MIT but he’s also hopelessly in love with co-worker...
- 12/9/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Unveiled at Cannes last spring, By Sidney Lumet shows the director, who died in 2011, telling his own story in a never-before-seen interview shot in 2008 and produced by the late Daniel Anker. With candor, humor and grace, Lumet reveals what matters to him as an artist and as a human being. The documentary features clips from Lumet's 44 films made during a career that spanned half a century – including Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, 12 Angry Men, Network and Before…...
- 3/30/2016
- Deadline
Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies who have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Mary Anderson (1918-2014) - Actress. She's best known for playing Maybelle Merriwether in Gone with the Wind and was also one of the ensemble players in Hitchcock's Lifeboat (see her as Nurse MacKenzie below). Other movies include The Asphalt Jungle, The Women and Cheech and Chong's Next Movie. She died on April 6. (THR) Daniel Anker (1964-2014) - Documentary filmmaker who received an Oscar nomination for Scottsboro: An American...
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- 5/2/2014
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
Sad to share the news that documentary filmmaker Danny Anker died Monday morning of lymphoma, at the age of 50. He was an Oscar-nominated director (Best Documentary Feature) for "Scottsboro: An American Tragedy" (2000), which was a selection of the Sundance Film Festival and won a Primetime Emmy in 2001. Many of his other productions were Emmy nominated and/or screened at prestigious film festivals, such as "Icebound" (2012). He is perhaps best known for "Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust," which won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2004 Hamptons Film Festival. Narrated by Gene Hackman, it featured interviews with directors including Steven Spielberg. Anker was in post-production on "Sidney Lumet: The Moral Lens," and had directed nine other documentaries, including "Voices Unbound: The Story of the Freedom Writers" (winner at the 2010 Valladolid Film Festival), "Through My Eyes: The Charlie Kelman Story" (2010), as well as...
- 4/22/2014
- by Annette Insdorf
- Thompson on Hollywood
Everett Collection Director Sidney Lumet (center) directing Al Pacino (back right), on set, 1975
Legendary New York film director, Sidney Lumet, who had been nominated for five Academy Awards before winning one for lifetime achievement in 2005, died this past Saturday at the age of 86.
He directed over 50 films and another 200 teleplays during Television’s Golden Age in the 1950s, but for many he will be remembered most for his iconic films about the legal system: “12 Angry Men,” “The Verdict,” “Daniel,” “Find Me Guilty...
Legendary New York film director, Sidney Lumet, who had been nominated for five Academy Awards before winning one for lifetime achievement in 2005, died this past Saturday at the age of 86.
He directed over 50 films and another 200 teleplays during Television’s Golden Age in the 1950s, but for many he will be remembered most for his iconic films about the legal system: “12 Angry Men,” “The Verdict,” “Daniel,” “Find Me Guilty...
- 4/11/2011
- by Thane Rosenbaum
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
AFI Fest 2004 has rolled out an eclectic roster for its 18th annual Los Angeles International Film Festival, ranging from The Assassination of Richard Nixon, directed by Niels Mueller and starring Sean Penn, to Yesterday, directed by Darrell James Roodt. In addition to Assassination, this year's special screenings include Tim Daly's Bereft, Christophe Barratier's Les Choristes, Ray McKinnon's Chrystal, Robert Lepage's Far Side of the Moon, Asia Argento's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, Terry George's Hotel Rwanda, Daniel Anker's Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust, Ariel Vroman's Rx, Mark Wexler's Tell Them Who You Are, Nicole Kassell's The Woodsman and Yesterday.
- 10/7/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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