Sam mendes

Born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, Berkshire, Samuel Alexander Mendes is an only child. His mother, Valerie Helene, writes children’s books, while his father, Jameson Peter Mendes (from a Portuguese family, hence his last name), worked as a university professor. After their divorce when Sam was 5 years old, he almost completely lost contact with his mother.

While graduating in English Literature at Cambridge, apart from becoming a brilliant cricketer, the Englishman began directing his first theatrical productions to be performed on campus. He had such a level that at the age of 24 he made his debut in the mecca of the British stage, London’s West End, with “The Cherry Orchard”, the latest work by Anton Chekhov , with an exceptional protagonist, none other than Judi Dench , one of the great ladies of the local scene.

Since then his prestige as a stage director has not stopped growing. He directed numerous productions of works by William Shakespeare , with The Royal Shakespeare Company, and with other companies from texts by Tennessee Williams or Harold Pinter . He garnered the most recognition for him with his particular reviews of great musicals, such as “Gypsy,” “Oliver!” and above all “Cabaret” (he even filmed a version of his montage, in the form of a telefilm, in 1993).

This latest production would play an important role in Sam Mendes ‘ jump to the big screen, since it so enthused Steven Spielberg that he decided to meet him. He offered her carte blanche to produce a film project for her, a collaboration that finally materialized in American Beauty , based on a script by Alan Ball (future creator of the series Six Feet Under ).

The caustic tape had as narrator a deceased, Lester Burnham, who tells that he led a mediocre and routine life with his wife and daughter. While he is dazzled with the latter’s best friend, a “lolita”, he tries to radically change his life. He won 5 Oscars in the categories of film, director, screenplay, leading actor (a huge Kevin Spacey) and photography.

Despite this grand entrance on the big screen, Mendes thought a lot about getting back to shooting. He preferred to spend three years again involved in theatrical projects, before going back behind the cameras. Finally he signed Road to Perdition , about a mob thug who must flee from his former boss with his son. It featured Tom Hanks, accompanied by veteran Paul Newman , and all-rounder Jude Law . It was adapted from a comic by Max Allan Colnlis, although the film takes on more depth by focusing on parent-child relationships (Hanks’s character with his son, and the gangster with his). “I’m drawn to morally mixed characters,” commented Sam Mendes, referring to the role of Tom Hanks ., who like the Lester Burnham that Spacey had incarnated, earns the sympathy of the respectable, although some of his actions are dubious.

He came to consider adapting a musical to the cinema, a genre that had taken so much advantage of it on stage. Specifically, he worked for a long time on Stephen Sondheim ‘s Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street , whom he had performed on stage. But he finally abandoned the project (it would be Tim Burton who filmed the tape), because he allowed himself to be seduced by a war story, Jarhead , about a group of American soldiers during the invasion of Kuwait at the hands of Saddam Hussein. Despite the great work of Jake Gyllenhaal , the film is not as interesting as the director’s previous films.

After having numerous romances, some famous (with Cameron Díaz , Calista Flockhart or Rachel Weisz ), Sam Mendes seemed to have settled down after marrying Kate Winslet on May 24, 2003. At the end of that same year, she gave gave birth to the director’s first child, Joe Alfie Winslet-Mendes (the actress already had a daughter from a previous marriage). But finally, the couple announced their divorce, in 2010.

Before the final split, Sam Mendes had tapped into his wife’s talents in Revolutionary Road , where he was again pairing her with Leonardo DiCaprio , a decade after Titanic .. Based on a novel by Richard Yates, it documented the sentimental shipwreck of a married couple with serious communication problems (an autobiographical element), although she thinks they can solve the situation if they start a new life in Paris. “We all have our Paris, an escape route, an Eden,” says the filmmaker. “There comes a time in life when you think everything is within your grasp. And that’s what she’s trying to get back. At any time it’s hard to wake up in your thirties and realize you’re not living the life you want. If you life is underpinned by disappointment, how to get rid of it?

In the filmography of Sam Mendes , A Place to Stay stands out , also about the family, since its protagonists are a couple (great work by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph ) who projects a life together, after she has become pregnant. Both will tour the towns where various acquaintances live, in search of the ideal city in which to live.

Sam Mendes ‘ career took a 180-degree turn when he agreed to direct Skyfall , the 23rd official installment of the James Bond saga. On the one hand, he took advantage of his experience to describe credible characters, getting a lot out of the actors (the Spaniard Javier Bardem composed one of the franchise’s most memorable villains). But in addition, he maintained the frenetic pace and the spectacularity that the franchise is supposed to have. Although he resisted at first, Mendes has agreed to repeat in the next adventure of agent 007.

It is obligatory to cite the fruitful work of Sam Mendes as producer of valuable titles, such as Comets in the Sky , adaptation of the famous novel by Khaled Hosseini , directed by Marc Forster , and Things We Lost in the Fire , the Hollywood debut of Danish actress Susanne beer . For television, Mendes has served as executive director of Penny Dreadful , an ambitious series created by John Logan (writer of the Bond film), which mixes characters from the classic novels. The pilot is directed by the Spanish Juan Antonio Bayona .