Jonathan demme

Born in Baldwin, New York, on February 22, 1944, Robert Jonathan Demme graduated from the University of Florida. He began in the cinema, like other members of his generation, in the factory of Roger Corman , the king of series B, to whom he directed the films Hot Jail (1976), Crazy Mama (1975) and Fighting for my rights ( 1976). He finished consecrating himself with Melvin and Howard (1980), a low-budget film about the relationship of an individual with the millionaire Howard Hughes .

After simultaneously filming numerous video clips, with the discreet comedy Girls on the Warpath , he picked up the live music of Talking Heads , in Stop Making Sense , a cult film for music lovers. Then comes the best period of his career, with the old-style comedies Something Wild and Married Everybody , and above all the thriller The Silence of the Lambs , which in 1991 took home five major Academy Awards (film, directing, screenplay, actor for Anthony Hopkins and actress for Jodie Foster). The fearsome Hannibal the Cannibal would be one of the great influences of the genre in the following years.

He dealt with the subject of AIDS in a film from a large studio, Philadelphia , with Tom Hanks as a homosexual lawyer affected by the disease, who had Antonio Banderas as a partner . After the drama about slavery Beloved , he played completely with its remakes, especially with Charade , entitled The Truth About Charlie , a little less with The Messenger of Fear . He got back into shape a bit with Rachel’s Wedding and Heart of Gold , again a music documentary, in this case about Neil Young . He’s also connected to the scene, Ricki , withMeryl Streep as a guitarist who left her family to become a star; It was her last job.

Uncle of fellow director Ted Demme , who died in 2002, he divorced fellow director Evelyn Purcell to join Joanne Howard, who worked as a producer on some of his films. He is survived by his children Ramona, Brooklyn and Josephine,