Celebrity Biographies
Bryan Singer
In 1995, a director made each of the main actors in his film believe that his character was the hand in the shadow, the true protagonist of the story. We don’t know if it was because of this, but “The Usual Suspects” was a success and Bryan Singer became a great movie promise. Since then he has shown that he is a man as talented as he is irregular, capable of generating both quality blockbusters and empty wrappers.
Bryan Singer grew up in New Jersey in a Jewish foster home. From a young age he showed a sensitivity for the image that led him to study Visual Arts at the University of New York. Later, when he understood that the cinema was his true vocation, he went to Los Angeles to study Film and Television. After graduating he made a short called “Lion’s Den”, but it would take a few years before he could create a feature film. Making its debut on the big screen was not, as usually happens, a bed of roses.
Bryan had to go to a low-budget Japanese production company to get his Public Access project off the ground . It was a film made between friends: he co-wrote the script with Christopher McQuarrie , a former high school classmate, and the music was provided by his colleague John Ottman , the director’s regular composer. Its premiere in 1993 was modest – it did not have the diffusion it deserved – but successful: the film received the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. It was a daring and original film that told the story of an idyllic town that is disturbed by the arrival of a stranger.
As early as 1993 McQuarrie was mulling over a story in which five criminals met at a lineup. Singer did not take long to join the interesting project. The result was The Usual Suspects , a thriller film in which police investigate the origin of a ship fire that killed 27 people. Its premiere in 1995 was a resounding success and today it is considered an essential cult film on the shelves of film noir lovers.
His next film was Summer of Corruption , a psychological thriller adapting Stephen King ‘s novel of the same name . The best of this tape were the performances of its leading duo formed by Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro . Like its two predecessors, the work was original and unpredictable. This time Singer dared to approach Nazism from a new perspective, that of a boy who discovers that his neighbor had been in the concentration camps. She would return to the Nazi theme in the conspiracy film to kill Hitler Valkyrie .
When Bryan agreed to direct X-Men , many didn’t get it. Due to his career, this filmmaker seemed to be called to do less conventional and more original things, but what his detractors did not know is that he had two good reasons for accepting this job. The first was of a personal nature: his Jewish and homosexual condition made him very interested in the subject of mutants as a social minority. The second had to do with his conception of cinema. Following in the wake of Jaws , he sought to create entertainment that would reach the general public without sacrificing quality. Visually powerful, thematically simple films. Stories for everyone. Thus, he saw in superhero movies a way to achieve this goal.
The X-Men saga has been the most noteworthy thing he has done after Summer of Corruption . He managed to transfer the universe of the comic to the cinema, with a great cast that repeats installment after installment. His best virtues are the spectacularity and effectiveness of the scripts. With him began a regeneration of the superhero film subgenre that would reach its maximum expression with the Batman trilogy made by Christopher Nolan .
It is true that there are setbacks in his career – Superman Returns , Jack the Giant Slayer – but this director is having a more than worthy career in Hollywood. He has made quality independent films and later has managed to create a saga of blockbusters that never ends. Spectacularity and precision in the scripts, interconnection between films separated by several years. The X-men universe is yours and no one can take away this merit. Could he have done more interesting things? Maybe yes. Could you do it with more heart? Hardly.