Roland Joffé

Roland Joffé
Born	17 November 1945 (1945-11-17) London, England, UK
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1960–present
Spouse	Jane Lapotaire (m. 1974–1980) «start: (1974)–end+1: (1981)»"Marriage: Jane Lapotaire to Roland Joffé" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Joff%C3%A9)
Children	Rowan Joffé, Nathalie Lunghi
Website
RolandJoffe.com

Roland Joffé (born 17 November 1945) is an English-French film director who is known for his Oscar nominated movies, The Killing Fields and The Mission. He began his career in television. His early television credits included episodes of Coronation Street and an adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada. He gained a reputation for hard-hitting political stories with the series Bill Brand and factual dramas for Play for Today.

Education

Joffé was educated at two independent schools: the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London, and Carmel College in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, which was Europe's only Jewish boarding school, until it closed in 1997. He completed his formal education at the University of Manchester.

Career

BBC/MI5 Blacklisting

In the early 1970s, Joffé had attended Workers’ Revolutionary Party meetings, but he never became a party member, and by 1977 he had long severed his association with it: “I was very interested in politics at that time. But I was interested in what all the political parties were doing, not just the WRP, and I was never actively involved.”

In 1977, Joffé was commissioned by the BBC to direct a play The Spongers. However, Joffé had been blacklisted: the play's producer, Tony Garnett, was informed that MI5 files listed Joffé as a “security risk” due to his left wing views. Only after Garnett threatened he would “go public”, was the veto on Joffé's appointment withdrawn. Joffé’s play The Spongers went on to do very well, winning a prestigious Prix Italia award.

Film Director

His first two feature films (The Killing Fields, 1984, and The Mission, 1986) each garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Joffé worked closely with producer David Puttnam on each film. The Killing Fields detailed the friendship of two men, an American journalist for The New York Times, and his translator, a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge in Communist Cambodia. It won three Academy Awards (for Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing) and was nominated for four more (including Best Picture and Best Director). The Mission was a story of conflict between Jesuit missionaries in South America, trying to convert the Guaraní Indians, and Portuguese colonials, who want to enslave the natives. It won the Palme d'Or and Technical Grand Jury Prize at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. The film achieved six Academy Awards nominations – including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Ennio Morricone's acclaimed Best Original Score – and won one, for Best Cinematography.

Since his initial acclaim, Joffé's film career has been less successful. In 1993, he produced and partially directed a big budget adaptation of the video game Super Mario Bros.. The film struggled to make back its budget. His 1995 adaptation of The Scarlet Letter was a critical and financial disaster, and his 2007 horror film Captivity drew controversy with its advertising billboards, perceived as exploitative and misogynistic. He received Razzie Nominations for Worst Director for The Scarlet Letter and Captivity.

His latest release, There Be Dragons, has already garnered press attention as it deals with and is largely funded by the Catholic organisation, Opus Dei. A movie about faith and forgiveness, There Be Dragons is a project that Joffé says has a message he's proud to say on film. In an interview with CBN.com, he stated, "I have a very deep emotional investment in this film. I feel that I really want to stand behind what it says to us as human beings."

Joffé is currently in post-production of the Anglo-Indian historical epic romance time travel adventure film, Singularity. The film will be showcased at the 65th annual Cannes International Film Festival in May 2012.

Filmography

• The Stars Look Down (1975) (6 episodes)
• The Killing Fields (1984)
• The Mission (1986)
• Fat Man and Little Boy (1989)
• City of Joy (1992)
• Super Mario Bros. (uncredited, 1993)
• The Scarlet Letter (1995)
• Goodbye Lover (1999)
• Undressed (1999–2002)
• Vatel (2000)
• Captivity (2007)
• You and I (2010)
• There Be Dragons (2010)
• Singularity (2011)

Awards and Nominations

Academy Awards:

• 1985: Best Director (The Killing Fields, nominated)
• 1987: Best Director (Mission, nominated)

BAFTA Awards:

• 1985: Best Direction (The Killing Fields, nominated)
• 1987: Best Direction (Mission, nominated)
• 1987: Best Film (Mission, nominated)

Berlin International Film Festival:

• 1990: Golden Bear (Fat Man and Little Boy, nominated)

Cannes Film Festival:

• 1986: Golden Palm (Mission, won)
• 1986: Technical Grand Prize (Mission, won)

Golden Globes:

• 1985: Best Director (The Killing Fields, nominated)
• 1987: Best Director (Mission, nominated)

Prix Italia:

• 1978: The Spongers

Personal life

Joffé is of Jewish descent. He is not related to the French film director Arthur Joffé as often wrongly stated. Joffé's adopted grandfather was the renowned sculptor Jacob Epstein. He is an agnostic.

Joffé was formerly married to actress Jane Lapotaire and had a relationship with actress Cherie Lunghi. He has a son, Rowan Joffé (b. 1973), with the former, and a daughter, Nathalie Lunghi (b. 1986), with the latter.

Joffé is a board member of the nonprofit organization Operation USA. He was the Official Patron of the 2011 Cambodia Volleyball World Cup held from July 23 to July 29 at the National Olympic Stadium Phnom Penh.

External links

• Official website
• Roland Joffé at the Internet Movie Database
• Roland Joffé on Twitter