British director Alan Parker
On the evening of July 31, 1905, local time, the British Film Institute (BFI) confirmed that Alan Parker, the top filmmaker in the British film industry, died of illness at the age of 76. As one of the world's most famous directors, Alan Parker has been nominated for oscars, cannes film festivals and 19 British Academy Film Award nominations in the United Kingdom. In 1985, he won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes for Birdy.
Birdman won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival
Alan Parker was born in Islington, London in 1944. He started his career as an advertising copywriter and quickly became an advertising choreographer. In 1974, Alan Parker began dabbling in feature films, and in 1975 he wrote and directed his true debut feature film, Abba the Little Devil and the Thief, which was nominated for eight BaFTA nominations and won five awards, as well as being shortlisted for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Alan Parker's second film was Midnight Express, which received two Oscars and six Oscar nominations, and eventually Parker won best director. In 1979, Alan Parker directed Fame, a cheerful song and dance film about eight New York high school students, which won two Oscars and was a box office success, and two years later it was adapted into an American drama of the same name.
In 1981, Alan Parker teamed up with legendary rock band Pink Floyd to direct the groundbreaking, epic musical film The Wall. In 1984, Alan Parker directed Birdman, based on the novel by William Wharton, starring Nicolas Cage and Matthew Mordin, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. In 1986, he filmed the thriller Angel Heart, starring Micky Locke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet, which was rated "X" by the MPAA when it was released in the United States, causing an uproar. In 1988, Alan Parker directed the civil rights film Mississippi Burning, starring Gene Hackman and William Dafoe, which received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Director, and won Best Cinematography and the Berlin International Film Festival Silver Bear.
Alan Parker's masterpiece "The Wall"
Alan Parker's most familiar film for domestic audiences is 1996's Mrs. Perón. The film is based on an Andrew Lloyd Weber stage play, starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas, and the strong lineup made global headlines that year. In 1999, Alan Parker directed Angela's Ashes, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoirs of Irish-American writer Frank McCourt, starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlisle, about a slum child, growing up and struggling. Alan Parker's last film was 2003's The Life of David Gore, a political thriller about the American death penalty system, starring Kate Winslet and Kevin Spacey.
Stills of Madonna from "Madame Perón"
In addition to his work as a director, Alan Parker has also made great achievements in administrative work. In 2000, he became founding chairman of the British Film Council, a position he held for 5 years, before which he was president of the British Film Society. He was awarded the Order of the CBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1995 and the Knight's Medal in 2002, as well as the recipient of the French Art and Literature Prize.