Lumet, Sydney

Born June 25, 1924 in Philadelphia ( Pennsylvania , USA ) in a family of Jewish actors from Poland ^[1] who immigrated to America the year before his birth (father - , 1898 , Warsaw - 1992 ; mother - Eugenia Gitl Vermus, 1898 -?) ^{[2] [3]} . He made his debut as an actor on WLTH radio in the soap opera Grandpa from Brownsville (Yiddish: Der Brownswiller Zeide , 1929) at the age of 4 with his father and older sister Feiga, at the theater at the age of five ^[4] . As a teenager, he played with his parents at the Yiddish Jewish Art Theater on Second Avenue and Broadway in New York . Early left without a mother.

In 1935 , at the age of eleven, he starred in the short film 's Papyrosn (Yiddish: Cigarettes ), produced by composer German Yablokov (1903-1981), where his famous song Papyrosn sounded. At the age of 15, he and his father first starred in the full-length film "One Third of a Nation" ( 1939 ). Baruch Lumet subsequently starred in two of his son's paintings - The Moneylender ( The Pawnbroker , 1964) and The Group ( The Group , 1966).

He graduated from Columbia University in the class of dramatic literature. During World War II, he served as a repairman for radars in India and Burma (from 1942 to 1946 ). In 1946 , returning home, he created an acting group independent of Broadway, and became its director. Lumet began his directorial career on television where he directed many performances and films, some together with Frankenheimer , who was his assistant and where he gained invaluable experience.

The debut of Sidney Lumet in the movie as a director was the judicial drama " Twelve Angry Men " (1957) - the only film of the decade in the top ten IMDb . According to him, no technical mistakes were made in him, as the previous television experience was very useful. Then he transferred to the cinema screen several successful performances, in particular, “ From the breed of fugitives ” (based on Tennessee Williams 's play “Orpheus Goes to Hell”), “The Seagull ” (according to A.P. Chekhov ), “A Long Day Goes to Night ” ( by Eugene O'Neill ) and others. In his adaptations, he does not put himself in the forefront - directing is not striking. In many ways, he acts as an interpreter - striving for stylistic authenticity and the exact atmosphere of every thing. Taking care of the text, Lumet is looking for a cinematic equivalent, which follows from the characteristics of the play, its structure and spirit. “They say,” said Lumet, “that theatrical drama is not suitable for cinema. It's a delusion. Cinema needs above all good literature. I really believe in the power of the word on the screen. " So, speaking of the play “Orpheus Goes Down to Hell”, according to him, “he wanted to convey her high feelings to moviegoers, to make her rich language sound from the screen”.

Subsequently, Lumet became the director of another 53 films (the last - “Getting Out”, 2009 ), in six he acted as a screenwriter, in four - as an actor, in 11 he played himself, produced 10 films and television series. Films he shot more than 50 times were nominated for an Academy Award (including 18 times for the work of the actors employed in them).

He shot many paintings in New York, believing that independence from Hollywood companies provides creative advantages, and also because of the ability to use real actors as extras. Lumet was brought up in black and white cinema, and many of his paintings were black and white ^[5] . In the films of Lumet, as a rule, there are few characters and events. And these events often occur in the same place and are not distant from each other in time. According to him: “From the very beginning it became clear to me that although the cinema is moving towards scope, staging, mass scenes, I am interested in particular problems, small stories with a small number of characters.” So, for example, in his opinion, the film: “A Long Day Goes to Night” is all that you can dream of. With the help of only four characters, a thorough study of life as a whole is carried out ” ^[5] .

He attached great importance in choosing a suitable place and minimizing work with scenery on nature, which is largely explained by the cost and time savings.

Sidney Lumet died of lymphoma on April 9, 2011 in his New York apartment at the age of 86 ^[6] .

The first marriage - with actress Rita Gam - ended in divorce.

Subsequently, he was married to socialite Gloria Vanderbilt , from whom she had two children, and to Gail Lumet Buckley.

Directing

Screenwriter

• 1981 - “ Prince of the City”
• 1990 - Questions and Answers (Q & A)
• 1997 - " Night Falls on Manhattan" ("Night Falls on Manhattan")
• 2006 - Confess Me Guilty (Find Me Guilty)

Acting

• 1935 - Cigarettes (Cigarettes, short in Yiddish)
• 1939 - One Third of a Nation
• 2004 - The Manchurian Candidate (The Manchurian Candidate)

• 1976 - The Golden Globe
• 1957 - The Golden Bear for the best film of the Berlin Film Festival
• 2005 - Honorary Oscar

• Filmography, awards at kinopoisk.ru
• Biography on videoguide.ru
• Fedorov A.V. Sidney Lumet: work without downtime (1999)