Stephen Frears

Stephen Frears is one of those who says that his dedication to cinema is a kind of coincidence, a planetary conjunction, since he is not one of those who, since he was a child, walked around with a movie camera telling his own stories. Born in Leicester in 1941, his father was a GP and his mother a social worker. And when thinking about a professional dedication, he chose to study law at the University of Cambridge, and indeed, he obtained a degree there. At first he was the typical average Englishman, educated in Anglicanism, although his first surprise-discovery came at the age of twenty, when he found out that his mother was of Jewish origin.

He had no formal film studies, but learned from two teachers, working as an assistant director. They were Karel Reisz , on the set of Morgan, a clinical case (1966) and Lindsay Anderson , while filming If… (1968). He also attended a very common “school” in the forging of British filmmakers: television, as Frears participated in various BBC and LWT productions. Meeting Albert Finney in the theater also facilitated his debut in directing feature films, with the actor he filmed Detective without a license (1971), a film indebted to film noir, but with a very “British” touch of humor.

But the truth is that Frears’ film star did not shine until he visited My Beautiful Laundromat (1985), an interracial love story shot in 16 millimeters, with a realistic air in marginal environments, and in which an actor who also rose to fame starred. fame from that very moment: Daniel Day-Lewis . Hanif Kureishi ‘s screenplay was nominated for an Oscar, and the director would repeat with this script writer in Sammy and Rosie Get It On (1987), another love story between different ethnic groups, although its impact was less. Before that, he had directed another film that helped cement his fame, Open Your Ears (1985), with a script by playwright Alan Bennett ., and another actor who would give a lot to talk about, Gary Oldman , this to tell the true story of the writer Joe Orton –played by Oldman–, who was hammered to death by his homosexual lover Kenneth Halliwell –he was given life by another great actor, Alfred Molina– .

Inevitably, Hollywood knocked on his door, but he was able to continue dealing with risky stories inhabited by complex characters, with their folds and folds. Dangerous Liaisons (1988), backed by Warner, adapted the novel by Choderlos de Laclos , with its palace intrigues and crooked guys bent on spreading their corruption to supposedly innocent people who may not be so innocent. Christopher Hampton wrote the script from his own adaptation for the stage. The film won 3 Oscars, out of 7 nominations, one of them for best film. In those juggling games with which the cinema always manages to surprise, Valmont was filmed at the same time , based on the same novel and directed by the CzechMilos Forman , who despite comparable quality did not achieve the same impact, as he arrived late, a year later.

Simulation games and devious types became regular characters in Frears’ cinema, as could be seen in his following films The Con Men (1990), a film noir based on Jim Thompson , and Accidental Hero (1992), where irony about a shabby real hero and another false one from the media, it was filtered by a Caprian air. In any case, this film burned the director a bit, having stars like Dustin Hoffman did not make him feel comfortable. Although the clearly failed film The Secret of Mary Reilly (1996) must have been harder , about the creator of Frankenstein, with an insecure Julia Roberts as the protagonist, and that the nothing dangerous friend repeated with himJohn Malkovich . It is clear that he feels more comfortable with relatively small films, and better without divas, like Irish Coffee (1993) .

From this moment on, a constant career was articulated, where Frears did not stop working, and in which interesting tapes alternated with other failed or bland ones, almost always shot in Europe. Among the former are The Truck (1996), High Fidelity (2000), The Queen (2006), Tamara Drewe (2010), Philomena (2013), Muhammad Ali’s Great Fight (2013), The Program (2015). Among the latter are more or less disappointments Hi-Lo Country (1998), Hidden Business (2002), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), Chéri (2009).

It is enough to go through Frears’ filmography to observe the breadth of his thematic interests, although he always subscribed to portraying people of flesh and blood. He has never wanted to write his movie scripts, he thinks that others will do that task better than him.

His films may be liked more or less, but no one will ever say that they are banal. It can be said that he always starts from reality, and that he is interested in showing the authentic face and the masks with which human beings move through life. He is attracted by the setting and social extraction, together with the abnormal normality of ordinary characters who are not; and frequently deals with the lives of people who exist (athletes like Lance Armstrong or Muhammad Ali, Queen Elizabeth II, the writer Mary Reilly, the opera singer Florence Foster Jenkins, etc.), or part of literary sources where the writers have determined to dive into human nature. It is not surprising that his actors have often been nominated for Oscars, and even the case of Helen Mirrenthey have won it. He has been nominated for the golden statuette on two occasions ( Los timadores and La Reina ), but without such an honor materializing in the desired award.

Stephen Frears has been married twice, to the literary journalist Mary-Kay Wilmers and currently to the painter Anne Rothenstein. In each marriage he has had two children, who have also worked in the artistic and film world, but without standing out as the father. Frears humorously assures that being a father four times has helped him a lot to treat his actors, especially the divas, who often “are like children”.