Kathryn Bigelow

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Kathryn Bigelow

Bigelow, speaking at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival.
Born Kathryn Ann Bigelow
November 27, 1951 (1951-11-27) (age 57)
San Carlos, California, U.S.
Occupation Film director
Spouse(s) James Cameron (1989-1991)

Kathryn Bigelow (born November 27, 1951) is an American film director, working in the science fiction, action and horror genres.

Contents

[edit] Education

Bigelow broke into cinema via the art world, starting her creative life as a painter, first at the California Institute of the Arts, then as a fellow at the Whitney Museum in New York.[1] Bigelow entered the graduate film program at Columbia University, where she studied theory and criticism. Her professors included Vito Acconci and Susan Sontag.[2] Bigelow worked with noted conceptualist Lawrence Weiner and worked with the Art & Language collective.[3]

[edit] Career as director

Bigelow's first short film, The Set-Up (1978), is a 20-minute deconstruction of violence in film. The film portrays "two men (Gary Busey included) fight[ing] each other as the semioticians Sylvère Lotringer and Marshall Blonsky deconstruct the images in voice-over."[2] Her first full-length feature was The Loveless (1982), a biker movie which she co-directed with Monty Montgomery. Next, she directed Near Dark (1987), which she co-scripted with Eric Red. Near Dark attracted interest from both critics and horror fans for its unusual blend of genres, mixing a vampire story with a traditional western.

Her break-through came with Blue Steel (1990), which starred Jamie Lee Curtis as a rookie police officer who is unaware of her own vulnerability.

Bigelow's followed Blue Steel with Point Break (1991), which starred Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent who poses as a surfer to catch the "Ex-Presidents" a team of surfer-armed robbers led by Patrick Swayze who wear Reagan, Nixon, LBJ and Jimmy Carter masks when they hold up banks.

“ I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about what my aptitude is, and I really think it's to explore and push the medium. It's not about breaking gender roles or genre traditions. ”

—Kathyrn Bigelow in 2009[1]

Bigelow's 1995 film Strange Days, was written and produced by her ex-husband James Cameron. However, despite good notices and a unique, surrealistic stylishness[citation needed], it failed to attract a major audience. A neo-noir thriller set in Los Angeles at the turn of the millennium, the film focuses on the effects on society of a new technology that records everything a person experiences, allowing others to relive the sensations when they wear the device and play back the recordings. Set against this backdrop is a murder-mystery plot, culminating in a finale during a New Year's Eve Party involving tens of thousands of extras in and around the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The film, starring Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett, plays against gender stereotypes, making the lead a weak ex-cop who is heavily dependent on a strong woman. Although the action heroine is a clearly visible type in all of Cameron's films, Bigelow made this theme even more explicit, dressing Fiennes in elegant, colorful printed silk shirts while Bassett wears suits and masculine leather outfits.

Based on Anita Shreve's novel of the same name, Bigelow's 2000 film The Weight of Water is a portrait of two women trapped in suffocating relationships. The film is a departure in some ways for Bigelow in that it lacks the kinetic action and technical dazzle of her previous films.[citation needed] Like her other work, The Weight of Water shows her continued fascination with families.

In 2002 she directed K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford, about a group of men aboard the Soviet Union's first nuclear powered submarine. Despite an action-packed storyline and attention to detail, the film tanked at the box office and was received with mixed reactions by critics, gaining an aggregate score of 58 on Metacritic.

In June 2009, The Hurt Locker, a film set in post-invasion Iraq, was released to "universal acclaim" (according to Metacritic[4]) and a 95% "fresh" rating from the "Top Critics" of Rotten Tomatoes[5] The film stars Brian Geraghty, Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, with cameos by Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes.

Her television credits include episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street (1997-1998), the TV series Wild Palms (1993), and several others. She also directed the music video for the New Order song "Touched by the Hand of God."

[edit] Outside of directing

Bigelow has modelled for a Gap ad, and appeared as an actor in Born in Flames (1983).

[edit] Personal life

Bigelow was born in San Carlos, California, U.S., the only child of a paint factory manager and a librarian.[1]

Bigelow was married to fellow director James Cameron from 1989 to 1991.

[edit] Filmography

Year Film Credited as[6] Role
Director Producer Writer Actor
1982 The Loveless Yes Yes
1983 Born in Flames Yes Editor
1987 Near Dark Yes Yes
1990 Blue Steel Yes Yes
1991 Point Break Yes Yes
1995 Strange Days Yes
2000 The Weight of Water Yes
2002 K-19: The Widowmaker Yes Yes
2008 The Hurt Locker Yes Yes

[edit] Television

[edit] External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kathryn Bigelow

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c "Kathryn Bigelow: Road Warrior" - an interview published June 2009 in Newsweek magazine
  2. ^ a b Manohla Dargis, "Action!," New York Times, June 18, 2009. Access date: June 27, 2009.
  3. ^ Nicolas Rapold, "Interview: Kathryn Bigelow Goes Where the Action Is," Village Voice, June 23, 2009. Access date: June 27, 2009.
  4. ^ The Hurt Locker at Metacritic
  5. ^ "The Hurt Locker (2009) "Top Critics"". Rotten Tomatoes. 2009-06-25. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hurt_locker/?critic=creamcrop. Retrieved on 2009-07-08. 
  6. ^ "Kathryn Bigelow > Filmography". Allmovie. http://allmovie.com/artist/kathryn-bigelow-81836/filmography. Retrieved on July 3, 2009. 


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