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Michael James Radford (born 24 February 1946) is an English film director and screenwriter. He began his career as a documentary director and television comedy writer before transitioning into features in the early 1980s.
His best-known credits include the 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four starring John Hurt and Richard Burton (in his final role), the Shakespeare adaptation The Merchant of Venice, the true crime drama White Mischief, and the 1994 Italian-language comedy drama , for which he won the BAFTA Awards for Best Direction and Best Film Not in the English Language, and earned Academy Awards nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Between 1976 and 1982, Radford worked as a documentary film maker, mostly on projects for the BBC, covering subjects such as Scottish islanders on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides who believe in the literal truth of the Bible: The Last Stronghold of the Pure Gospel; the soprano Isobel Buchanan: La Belle Isobel; the singer songwriter Van Morrison: Van Morrison in Ireland; and the self-explanatory The Making of The Pirates of Penzance. On the last two of these Radford worked with the cinematographer Roger Deakins, who would later shoot two of Radford's feature films; Nineteen Eighty-Four and White Mischief. Another notable early work was Another Time, Another Place (1983), a feature film set in Scotland during World War II and centred on a love story between a local woman and an Italy POW.
Radford's next film, released in 1987, was White Mischief, a period drama set in Kenya during the 1940s. Radford again wrote the screenplay, an adaptation of the novel by James Fox also called White Mischief.
Michael Radford is most widely known as the writer and director of the 1994 film , which Radford adapted from the novel Ardiente Paciencia by Antonio Skármeta. The massive international success of the film (for many years it was the largest grossing non-English language film ever made) led to international acclaim for Radford and the star of the film Massimo Troisi. Tragically Troisi died, aged 41, the day after the filming of Il Postino was completed. The film won many international film awards including the 'Best Film Not in the English Language' BAFTA for Radford, who was also nominated for the Best Director and Adapted Screenplay Academy Awards.
In 2000, Radford's film Dancing at the Blue Iguana was released. In a departure from his more usual development technique, namely adapting novels, this film was largely improvised, although Radford shared the screenwriting credit with David Linter.
In 2004, Radford directed The Merchant of Venice (2004). He adapted the William Shakespeare play (see: Shakespearean comedies), and the film stars Al Pacino as Shylock and Jeremy Irons as Antonio. In 2007, he reunited Demi Moore and Michael Caine (who had already been together in 1984 for Blame it on Rio) in Flawless, a diamond heist story set in 1960. His most recent film is Elsa & Fred (2014), a romantic comedy starring Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer.
Radford directed his first play in 2000, a West End production of The Seven Year Itch. This was an adaptation of Billy Wilder's 1955 film starring Marilyn Monroe.
In addition to English (his first language), he speaks fluent Spanish, French, Italian, and some Mandarin.
In September 2013, he took part in the Clipper Round the World Sailing Race, in which he raced one of 12 identical 70-foot racing yachts from London to Rio. Clipperroundtheworld.com
Personal life
Radford has a son, Felix (born 1991), from his first marriage to Iseult Teran. He also has a daughter, Amaryllis (born 2005), and a son, Linus (born 2010), with his current wife Emma Tweed.
Filmography
+ Film
! rowspan="2" Year
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! colspan="2" Functioned as
! rowspan="2" Notes 1973 Concerning the Surface NFTS student film 1974 Cold Night 1976 Sugar Documentary film 1978 Mountain Days Documentary film 1980 The White Bird Passes TV film 1981 Van Morrison in Ireland Documentary film 1982 La Belle Isobel TV film 1982 The Making of 'The Pirates of Penzance' Documentary film 1983 Another Time, Another Place Taormina Golden Charybdis
Nominated – David di Donatello for Best Foreign Film1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Film
Istanbul Golden Tulip
Nominated – Fantasporto1987 White Mischief 1994 BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
BAFTA Award for Best Direction
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Director
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominated – Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film1998 B. Monkey Replaced Michael Caton-Jones 2000 Dancing at the Blue Iguana 2002 Segment: "Addicted to the Stars" 2004 The Merchant of Venice Nominated – David di Donatello for Best European Film 2007 Flawless 2011 Michel Petrucciani Documentary film
Nominated – César Award for Best Documentary Film2013 The Mule Radford walked away and cut ties with the film in the wake of a litigation over its finances, renouncing to any credit in the cut released in 2013 2014 Elsa & Fred 2017 The Music of Silence +Television
! rowspan="2" Year
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! rowspan="2" Notes 1979 Everyman Episodes: "The Last Stronghold of the Pure Gospel" & "La Belle Isobel" Scotch and Wry 3 episodes 1976–77 Omnibus Episodes: "Unita" & "The Madonna and the Volcano" 1980 The Two Ronnies 3 episodes The White Bird Passes Television film 1981 A Kick Up the Eighties 5 episodes Three of a Kind 3 episodes 1981–82 Crackerjack! 10 episodes 1982 The Late, Late Breakfast Show 11 episodes 1996 Episode: "Justice: Part 1"
Awards and nominations
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!Result 1983 Taormina Film Fest Golden Charybdis Another Time, Another Place 1985 Fantasporto International Fantasy Film Award Nineteen Eighty-Four International Istanbul Film Festival Golden Tulip Evening Standard Best Film 1986 Accademia del Cinema Italiano Best Foreign Film Another Time, Another Place 1995 Ciak Best Film Il Postino: The Postman Rome Foreign Press Association Best Film Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Foreign Language Film São Paulo International Film Festival Best Feature 1996 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay Norwegian International Film Festival Best Foreign Feature Film London Film Critics' Circle British Director of the Year British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Adapted Screenplay Best Direction Best Film Not in the English Language Argentine Film Critics Association Best Foreign Film Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievements in Motion Pictures Radio Nacional de España Best Foreign Film Radio Nacional de España Rosa de Sant Jordi Audience Award 1997 Académie des Lumières Best Foreign Film Danish Film Academy Best Foreign Film Kinema Junpo Best Foreign Language Film 2004 London Film Critics' Circle British Director of the Year The Merchant of Venice 2005 Accademia del Cinema Italiano Best European Film 2012 italic=no Best Documentary Film Michel Petrucciani 2014 Bari International Film Festival Platinum Award for Cinematic Excellence Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival International Audience Choice Award Elsa & Fred 2017 El Gouna Film Festival Golden Star – Feature Narrative Competition The Music of Silence Montecarlo Film Festival Career Award
External links
Categories: 1946 Births, Alumni Of Worcester College, Oxford, Alumni Of The National Film And Television School, Best Director Bafta Award Winners, Living People, English Jews, English Film Directors, English Screenwriters, English Male Screenwriters, English-language Film Directors, English People Of Austrian-jewish Descent, Mass Media People From New Delhi, British People In Colonial India, People Educated At Bedford School, Filmmakers Who Won The Best Foreign Language Film Bafta Award
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