Sam Mendes: A Life In Pictures

Director Sam Mendes on his BAFTA-nominated first film (!) American Beauty, helming Bond (and ignoring the hype) and why new directors should just "get out there and do it."
Sam Mendes is one of the UK’s most commercially successful and critically acclaimed film directors. His film projects have won 10 BAFTAs, including the award for Outstanding British Film in 2013, eight Oscars and five Golden Globes.
A renowned theatre director, Mendes made his cinematic directorial debut with American Beauty, which received a total of 14 BAFTA nominations and won six, including Best Film, Actor in a Leading Role for Kevin Spacey and Actress in a Leading Role for Annette Bening. In 2002, Mendes’ second film Road to Perdition won two BAFTAs and received six Oscar nominations, while Revolutionary Road, directed by Mendes in 2008, received four BAFTA and three Oscar nominations.
In 2010 Mendes took over the helm of the James Bond franchise, directing Daniel Craig in Skyfall and Spectre. 2012’s Skyfall grossed over $1 billion worldwide and won numerous awards, including a BAFTA for Outstanding British Film. It currently holds the record for the most commercially successful film of all time in the UK. And 2015's Spectre
awards.bafta.org/keyword-searc...
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[@MRLUCCH]

Great director and down to earth guy

[@babalaord]

I liked revolutionary road

[@vaishalipawar4292]

Unluck man Sam missing beautyful diva kate winslet.

[@michaelmccenna1378]

did she say revelation road?

[@ReemHaqqi]

lol I also came here for that part!😂 Listen from 11:05 to 14:10

[@ReemHaqqi]

revolutionary* though

[@miatreaton159]

How did he get Kate? Like She Was Alot of Peoples Hollywood Crush In the 90s Kate's 42 now her birthday was yesterday and he's like 60 he let a good girl go I'm a Kate supporter i love kate

[@firstblessings8777]

Kate who f**ks every Jack and Jill on the screen? You must be a great person viewing the people you admire.

[@roathripper]

The directors I respect WRITE their own material.

[@WarSwan]

So you dont respect Scorcesse or Speilberg

[@roathripper]

if you know your film history, you'll know both Scorsese and Spielberg having writing credits against films they've directed. The director who directs a property he has not originated is really just an artisan. Mendes is schooled in his craft of course but the visionary who creates the story (the hardest of all the cinematic crafts) and has the practical skill set to bring it to life is accorded greater respect for that dual accomplisment.

[@MacSmithVideo]

"The director who directs a property he has not originated is really just an artisan." lol, ok buddy. Artistry is not found solely in the screenplay. Writing is not a prerequisite for good directing in the slightest. Simply being able to do two different jobs does not make you a visionary, and one can be a visionary solely by directing.

[@roathripper]

Mac Smith Directing is an interpretive art and the director's role is separate to the writer's role. The director's function is to mount the screenplay. If it ain't on the page it ain't on the stage, as the old saying goes. The screenwriter has envisioned the whole film experience and documented it, scene by scene. The tendency in our culture to aggrandise the director above the writer is a long running injustice to the writer.

[@MacSmithVideo]

"If it ain't on the page it ain't on the stage, as the old saying goes." umm no that isn't true at all. And no, the screenwriter has NOT envisioned the whole film experience and documented it, scene by scene. No screenwriter would even agree with you. Screenplays by design aren't capable of fully describing a movie. They can never be instructions on how to assemble a movie that a director dutifully and slavishly copies with a camera. Writing "EXTERIOR: NIGHT" doesn't give the director all the info he needs, lol. This is by design. There are mountains of artistic film making decisions that are not found in the script.
Do writers not get enough credit? Yeah probably, but to reduce the director's role to that of an artisan who simply "mounts the screenplay" is silly.

[@focuspulling]

Hack.

[@diegopisfil614]

He is one of the worst directors of the world

[@BigTulsa]

I think that Oscar and other awards he has would say otherwise.