Michael winterbottom

Born on March 29, 1961, in Blackburn, a town in the English county of Lancashire, Michael Winterbottom was an outstanding student from a young age, which allowed him to enroll at the prestigious Oxford University, where he graduated in English. Subsequently he attended various film and television courses in Bristol and the Central Polytechnic University of London.

He began in the audiovisual world as an editor for the Thames Television chain, famous for its quality productions. There he was responsible for two documentaries about the Swedish master Ingmar Bergman, as well as a few chapters in various series. “I started watching movies when I was 14 years old. When I reached an age where I had to choose a profession, I decided to become a director, but I couldn’t find a direct path, so I opted for editing,” recalls the Briton.

In Forget About Me his hallmarks were already present, as the filmmaker approached the documentary, chose numerous pop music themes and let his actors improvise. He recounted the adventures of two young Scottish soldiers who traveled to Budapest to attend a concert by the band Simple Minds, an occasion that they took advantage of to flirt with young Hungarian women. He followed a very similar scheme in Under the Sun , which follows in the footsteps of a young tourist in Spain.

Destined to become a regular at the big festival dates, Michael Winterbottom got himself cast in Berlin with the twisted Butterfly Kisses , with Amanda Plummer , about a lesbian couple who roam the north of England mercilessly murdering who gets ahead of them.

Next Michael Winterbottom directs Go Now! , where Robert Carlyle gives an intense performance as a young soccer player who, after meeting the love of his life, suffers from a degenerative disease. The director would establish himself definitively with Jude , an adaptation of Thomas Hardy ‘s scandalous novel about a torrid romance between a young stonecutter ( Christopher Eccleston ) and his cousin ( Kate Winslet ) in 19th century England.

Thanks to this latest title, the filmmaker is showered with offers to direct major projects in Hollywood. But he rejects titles like Good Will Hunting , preferring to continue in his line. Thus, he goes to the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, where shortly after the end of the siege of the city, he shoots the magisterial Welcome to Sarajevo , about a journalist who covers the war tragedy, and even considers adopting a girl. .

After the experimental I Want You , and the light With You and Without You , the director shoots one of his great films, Wonderland , about the vital confusion of three very different sisters. The film does not avoid showing problems of today’s London society, but Winterbottom manages to endow the characters with great humanity and even allows himself some humor so that the public can get some oxygen. It is followed by El perdón , an interesting foray into the western with intense performances by Peter Mullan , Sarah Polley and Milla Jovovich. “Although I’ve made films that can be classified as genre, they really aren’t. I think most of my work focuses more on the relationships of the characters with each other, with their environment… it doesn’t matter if it’s science fiction, western … It doesn’t matter”, commented the filmmaker.

Apparently, Michael Winterbottom is a clueless guy in real life who frequently loses his briefcase in which he carries the script for his next movie. This is how his ex-wife, Sabrina Broadbent, portrayed him in the novel “Descent”, where the protagonist’s husband is an auteur filmmaker identical to the British one. Before the divorce, the writer had two daughters with him.

After the turn of the century, Winterbottom continues to chain shoots at a good pace. 24 Hour Party People tours Manchester’s contributions to contemporary music, with a script by regular collaborator Frank Cottrell Boyce , who is also behind Code 46 , a disappointing foray into science fiction.

In recent times, Winterbottom is capable of the best and the worst. He won the Golden Bear in Berlin with the poignant, well-rounded In This World , about two Afghan refugees who travel to Europe with the help of smugglers, while the very similar Road to Guantanamo documents the tragedy of three wrongfully detained Muslims. But more or less at the same time, it premieres the bawdy and vacuous 9 Songs and the mediocre Tristam Shandy: A Cock and a Bull Story , a kind of free immersion in Lawrence Sterne’s classic 19th-century British literature.

Brad Pitt himself produced for the director Unbeatable Heart , in which the star’s wife, Angelina Jolie , looked like Mariane Pearl, a real woman, married to a journalist, Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped in Pakistan. Together with Mat Whitecross , the filmmaker composed the documentary on the economic crisis The Shock Doctrine . A widower ( Colin Firth ) tries to get over the loss of his wife with his two daughters, in Genoa. “The old town of this city is as beautiful as it is bewildering; it generates a sense of mystery and emotional turmoil, which fits very well with the inner journey of the characters, who wander through this little limbo in search of something indeterminate,” explained Winterbottom.

One of his film regulars, Steve Coogan , starred in The Trip , about a foodie journey through the north of England. He has even had time to dabble in film noir with The Devil Under the Skin , adaptation of a Jim Thompson novel below the expected level.