Alan Parker

For other uses, see Alan Parker (disambiguation).

pirations to become a lm director, nor did anyone in his

family have any desire to be involved in the lm industry.
The closest he ever came, he says, to doing anything related to movies was learning about photography, a hobby
inspired by his uncles: That early introduction to photography is something I remember.[4]

Sir Alan William Parker, CBE (born 14 February

1944) is an English lm director, producer and screenwriter. Parkers early career, beginning in his late teens,
was spent as a copywriter and director of television commercials. After about 10 years doing commercials, many He attended Dame Alice Owens School, concentrating
of which won awards for creativity, he began screenwrit- on science in his last year. Instead of enrolling in college,
ing and directing lms.
however, he left school when he was eighteen to work in
Parker is noted for having a wide range of lmmaking the advertising eld, attracted partly by the expectation
[3]
styles and working in diering genres. He has directed that advertising would be a good way to meet girls. His
musicals, including Bugsy Malone (1976), Fame (1980), rst job was oce boy in the post room of an advertisPink Floyd The Wall (1982), The Commitments (1991), ing agency. But more than anything, he says, he wanted
[4]
and Evita (1996); true-story dramas, including Midnight to write, and after work he would write essays and ads.
Express (1978), Mississippi Burning (1988), Come See the Parker was also encouraged by others in the agencies to
Paradise (1990), and Angelas Ashes (1999); family dra- stay with writing, which led to be assigned a more submas, including Shoot the Moon (1982), and horrors and stantial position:
thrillers including Angel Heart (1987), and The Life of
David Gale (2003).

I ended up getting a job as a copywriter.

The great thing about advertising from a British
point of view, is that it didn't have a kind of
class distinction as other jobs had. If you were
half bright, they gave you a chance. I was very
fortunate that they gave me that chance.[4]

His lms have won nineteen BAFTA awards, ten Golden

Globes and ten Academy Awards. Parker was appointed
a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by
Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the British lm industry and knighted as a Knight Bachelor in 2002. He
has been active in both the British cinema and American
cinema, along with being a founding member of the
Directors Guild of Great Britain and lecturing at various 2 Television advertising
lm schools. In 2013 he received the BAFTA Academy
Fellowship Award, the highest honour the British Film
Over the next few years, after having become procient
Academy can give a lmmaker. Parker dontated his
in copywriting, he took jobs with dierent agencies. One
personal archive to the British Film Institutes National
such agency was Collett Dickenson Pearce, in London,
[1]
Archive in 2015.
where he rst met future producers David Puttnam and
Alan Marshall, both of whom would later produce many
of his lms. Parker credits Puttnam with inspiring him
and talking him into writing his rst movie script, Melody
1 Early years
(1971)[3]
Parker was born into a working-class family in Islington,
North London, the son of Elsie Ellen, a dressmaker, and
William Leslie Parker, a house painter.[2] He grew up in
an Islington council estate and as a result has always been
able to relate to average people. According to British novelist and screenwriter Ray Connolly, Parker remains almost deantly working-class in attitudes. Parker says of
his early life that although he had his share of fun growing up, he nonetheless always felt he was studying for his
high school exams while his friends were out having a
good time.[3]

By 1968 Parker had moved from copyrighting to successfully directing numerous television commercials. And in
1970, he partnered with Alan Marshall and established
his own company to make commercials. That company
eventually became one of Britains best commercial production house, winning nearly every major national and
international award open to it.[5] Among their award winning commercials were the UK Cinzano vermouth advertisement (starring Joan Collins), and a Heineken commercial, noted for using one hundred actors.[6]

Parker credits his years in writing and directing commerHe adds that he had an ordinary background with no as- cials for his later success as a lm director:
1

3
Looking back, I came from a generation
of lmmakers who couldn't have really started
anywhere but commercials, because we had
no lm industry in the United Kingdom at
the time. People like Ridley Scott, Tony
Scott, Adrian Lyne, Hugh Hudson, and myself. So commercials proved to be incredibly
important.[4]

3
3.1

Film director
1970s

In 1973 Parker made his rst ctional lm, No Hard Feelings, for which he wrote the script. He describes the lm
as a bleak love story set against the Blitz on London during World War II, when the Luftwae bombed the city
for 57 consecutive nights.[7] Parker, who was born during
one of those bombing raids, says the baby in that [lm]
could well have been me.[5]

FILM DIRECTOR

escape from a Turkish prison, where he was conned for

trying to smuggle hashish out of the country while visiting as a student. Parker took on the lm in large part to
do something radically dierent from Bugsy Malone, and
thereby widen his range of lmmaking style.[9]
The script was written by Oliver Stone, his rst screenplay, for which he won his rst Academy Award. The
music was composed by Giorgio Moroder, who similarly
won his rst Oscar for the lm. Midnight Express established Parker as a front rank director, and both he and
the lm were Oscar nominated. The success of the lm
gave him the freedom from then on to direct lms of his
own choosing.[10]

3.2 1980s
Fame (1980), was Parkers next lm, very dierent from
Midnight Express, which follows the lives of eight students
through their studies at the New York Citys High School
of Performing Arts. It was a huge box-oce success and
led to a spin-o TV series of the same name.

But with no feature lm directing experience, he could

not nd nancial backing, and decided to risk using his Parker states that after doing a serious drama like Midown money and funds from mortgaging his house, to pay night Express, he wanted to do a lm with music, but very
[9]
for it.[5] The lm impressed the BBC, which bought the dierent from typical musicals of the past:
lm and showed it on television a few years later, in 1976.
BBC producer Mark Shivas had, in the interim, also conI didn't want this sort of classy MGM musitracted Parker to direct the TV lm, The Evacuees (1975),
cal where you stop and then theres the musical
a World War II story written by Jack Rosenthal. The lm
number. I wanted it to come out in real situwas based on true events which involved the evacuation of
ations, which it kind of does ... I went to the
school children from central Manchester for protection.[8]
school and I hung out with the kids for quite a
That latter lm won a BAFTA for best TV drama and also
few months ... I think so much of the stu I
an Emmy for best International Drama.
put into the lm came out of the kids.[4]
In 1975 Parker wrote and directed his rst feature lm,
Bugsy Malone, a parody of early American gangster Actress Irene Cara recalls that the nice thing about the
lms and American musicals, but with only child actors. way Alan works with everyone is that he allowed us to reParkers desire in making the lm was to entertain both ally feel like classmates.[4] However, Parker was refused
children and adults with a unique concept and style of permission to use the actual school portrayed in the lm,
lm:
the High School for the Performing Arts, because of the
I'd worked a lot with kids and I had four
very young children of my own at the time.
When you do have young children like that
you're very sensitive to the kind of materials thats available for them ... The only kind
of movies they could see were Walt Disney
movies ... I thought it would be nice to make a
movie that would be good for the kids, and also
the adults that had to take them. So to be absolutely honest, Bugsy Malone was a pragmatic
exercise to break into American lm.[9]

notoriety he achieved from his previous lm, Midnight

Express. The head of the school district told him, Mr.
Parker, we can't risk you doing for New York high school
the same thing you did for Turkish prisons.[4]
Shoot the Moon (1982) is the story of a marital breakup that takes place in Northern California. Parker calls it
the rst grown-up lm that I'd done.[9] Like his previous
lms, he again took on a subject distinctly dierent from
his previous lm, explaining, I really try to do dierent
work. I think that by doing dierent work each time, it
keeps you creatively fresher.[4]

He describes the theme of the lm being about two

The lm received eight British Academy Award nomina- people who can't live together but who also can't let go
tions and ve Awards, including two BAFTAs for Jodie of one another. A story of fading love, senseless rage,
Foster.
and the inevitable bewildering betrayal in the eyes of the
His next lm was Midnight Express (1978), based on a children.[11] Critics considered the lm to be Parkers
true account by Billy Hayes, about his incarceration and best, brilliantly scripted and acted. Its stars, Albert

3.3

1990s

Finney and Diane Keaton, were Golden Globe-nominated

for their performances.

3
I wanted to do this lm because I identied
with the kids in the lm. They came from the
north side of Dublin, a working class area, and I
came from the north of London, a very similar
working class area. I suppose deep down that
the dreams and aspirations I had when I was a
kid are very close to theirs.[13]

The lm also had a personal signicance for Parker, who

says he was forced to examine his own marriage: It was
a painful lm to make for me because there were echoes
of my own life in it. It was about a breakup of a marriage,
and the children in the story were quite close to my own
children in age. Shoot the Moon was very, very close to
my own life.[4] He spent days with writer Bo Goldman Movie critic David Thomson observes that with this lm,
on developing a realistic story, and states that his marriage Parker showed an unusual fondness for people, place,
and music. It was as close as Parker has come to
became innitely stronger as a result of the lm.[5]
optimism.[14] Parker says that it was the most enjoyable
Birdy (1984), starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas
lm he ever made.[4]
Cage, was the story of two school friends who returned
from the war in Viet-Nam and were both psychologi- Evita (1996), was another musical, starring Madonna,
cally and physically injured. After reading the book by Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce. Andrew Lloyd
William Wharton, Parker called it a wonderful story, Webber and Tim Rice wrote the score, which had also
but felt he had no idea how to make it into a movie: I been used for the successful 1978 Broadway musical of
didn't know if you could take the poetry of the book and the same name. Parker remembers Madonnas strong demake it cinematic poetry, or if an audience would actually sire to play the role of Evita, that as far as she was concerned, no one could play Evita as well as she could, and
want it.[9]
she said that she would sing, dance and act her heart out,
The lm was a critical success however. Richard Schickel
. . . and thats exactly what she did.[15] Evita was nomisaid that Parker had transcended realism ... [and]
nated for ve Academy Awards, winning for Best Original
achieved his personal best, while Derek Malcolm conSong, which was sung by Madonna.
siders Birdy to be Parkers most mature and perhaps his
best movie.[5] The message of the lm, according to Parkers next lm, Angelas Ashes (1999), again very difcritic Quentin Falk, is joyously life-arming, which he ferent from his previous one. The lm is the dramafeels is common to much of Parkers work, adding that tised story of Frank McCourt and his childhood after his
Parkers lms manage to achieve a blend of strong story family are forced to move from America back to Ireland
and elegant frame, a style which he says typically eludes because of nancial diculties, and familys subsequent
other directors who rely too much on the purely visual.[12] problems caused by his fathers alcoholism.
Mississippi Burning (1988) gave Parker his second
Academy Award nomination for Best Director. The lm
is based on a true story about the murders of three civil
rights workers in 1964, and stars Gene Hackman and
Willem Dafoe. Hackman was nominated for Best Actor, while the lm was nominated for ve other Oscars,
including Best Picture. It won for Best Cinematography.

3.3

1990s

Noticing the dramatic shift in theme and style, Colm

Meaney, who acted in The Commitments, says its the
variety of his work that sort of staggers me. He can go
from Evita to Angelas Ashes. Meaney adds that when
Alan starts a project, its going to be something very interesting and completely out of left eld.[4] Parker explains that doing a story like Angelas Asheswas simply
his reaction against a big lm like Evita.[4] He says that
he tries to avoid the obvious movies":[4] You want the
lm to stay with people afterwards ... It just seems to me
that the greatest crime is to make just another movie.[9]

Returning to the musical genre, Parker directed The Com- Parker says its important to carefully choose which lms
mitments (1991), a comedy about working class Dubliners to write and direct:
who form a soul band. The lm was an international success and led to a hit sound track.
My mentor was the great director, Fred
Zinnemann,
whom I used to show all my lms
In casting the lm, Parker visited most of the estimated
to
until
he
died.
He said something to me that I
1,200 dierent bands then playing throughout Dublin,
always
try
to
keep
in my head every time I deeventually meeting with over 3,000 dierent band memcide
on
what
lm
to
do next. He told me that
bers. Rather than pick known actors, Parker says he chose
making
a
lm
was
a
great privilege, and you
young musicians, most of whom had no acting experi[4]
[13]
should
never
waste
it.
ence, in order to remain truthful to the story. I cast
everybody to be very close to the character that they play
in the lm. They're not really playing outside of who they
are as people.[4] Parker says he wanted to make the lm
because he could relate to the hardships in the lives of
young Dubliners:

For that reason, when Parker visits lm schools and talks

to young lmmakers, he tells them that the new lm technology available for making lms and telling a story is
less important than conveying a real message: If you

haven't got something to say, I don't think you should be

a lmmaker.[16]

5 Filmography

British lm critic Geo Andrew describes Parker as a

natural storyteller who gets his message across using
dramatic lighting, vivid characterisation, scenes of violent conict regularly interrupting sequences of expository dialogue, and an abiding sympathy for the underdog
(he is a born liberal with a keen sense of injustice).[17]

6 References

3.4

2000s

In 2003 Parker produced and directed The Life of David

Gale, a crime thriller, starring Kevin Spacey and Kate
Winslet. It tells the story of an advocate for the abolition
of capital punishment who nds himself on death row after being convicted of murdering a fellow activist. The
lm received generally poor reviews, mostly because of
its less than believable attempt to present a political message about the death penalty. Roger Ebert did not like the
lm, calling the story silly, although he said the acting
was splendidly done.[18]

Honours and awards

Parkers lms have won nineteen BAFTA awards, ten

Golden Globes and ten Oscars. He is a founding member
of the Directors Guild of Great Britain and has lectured
at lm schools around the world. In 1985, the British
Academy awarded him the prestigious Michael Balcon
Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema.
In 1995 Parker was awarded as Commander of the Order
of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for
his services to the British lm industry.[4]

EXTERNAL LINKS

[1] Sir Alan Parker donates personal archive to British Film

Institute, Belfast Telegraph, 24 July 2015
[2] Alan Parker prole. Filmreference.com. Retrieved 9
April 2012.
[3] Connolly, Ray. The Observer, 30 May 1982
[4] Emery, Robert J. The Directors, Allworth Press, N.Y.
(2003) pp. 133154
[5] Wakeman, John, ed. World Film Directors, Vol. II, H.W.
Wilson Co., N.Y. (1988) pp. 740743
[6] Jets, jeans and Hovis. The Guardian. 13 June 2015.
[7] Parker, Alan. Making of No Hard Feelings
[8] The Evacuees, Alan Parker Biography
[9] Gallagher, John Andrew. Film Directors on Directing,
Praeger (1989) p. 183-194
[10] Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia, HarperCollins
(1998) p. 1064
[11] Parker, Alan.The Making of Shoot the Moon
[12] Hillstrom, Laurie C. ed. International Dictionary of Films
and Filmmakers: Directors 3rd ed., St. James Press (1997)
p. 744
[13] The Making of the Commitments, 2004, DVD supplement
[14] Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of
Film, Alfred A. Knopf (2002) p. 667
[15] Parker, Alan.The Making of 'Evita'"

In 1999 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement [16] Bafta: Director Sir Alan Parker on fellowship award,
BBC interview, 8 February 2013
Award by the Directors Guild of Great Britain. He became chairman of the Board of Governors of the British [17] Andrew, Geo. The Directors Vision, Cappella (1999) p.
Film Institute (BFI) in 1998 and in 1999 was appointed
166
the rst chairman of the newly formed Film Council.[4]

[18] Ebert, Roger. The Life of David Gale review, Rogere-

He was knighted in the 2002 New Year Honours in Ausbert.com 21 February 2003
tralia and in 2005 he received an Honorary Doctorate of
Arts from the University of Sunderland of which his long- [19] 26th Moscow International Film Festival (2004)". MIFF.
Retrieved 6 April 2013.
time associate Lord Puttnam is chancellor. In 2004 he
was the Chairman of the Jury at the 26th Moscow Inter- [20] Alan Parker Receives BFI Tribute, Donates Working
national Film Festival.[19]
Archive, Variety, 27 July 2015
In 2013 he was awarded the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award in recognition of outstanding achievement
in the art forms of the moving image, which is the highest honour the British Academy can bestow.[16]
The British Film Institute (BFI) planned to pay tribute to
Parker in late September 2015 with an event titled Focus
on Sir Alan Parker. The event coincides with his decision
to donate his entire working archive to the BFI National
Archive.[20]

7 External links
Alan Parker at the Internet Movie Database
Ocial Alan Parker Website

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Alan Parker Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Parker?oldid=673386714 Contributors: Youssefsan, Olivier, Michael Hardy,

Zanimum, TakuyaMurata, Bueller 007, Rossami, Jihg, DJ Clayworth, Tpbradbury, Maximus Rex, Secretlondon, Robbot, Pigsonthewing,
Matty j, Magicker71, SpellBott, Aomarks, Icenine0, Wwoods, Niteowlneils, Greyfedora, SimonArlott, TonyW, Sam, GNU, D6, Guanabot, Hhielscher, Bender235, Philip Cross, Sean3000, Suruena, The JPS, Mutt, Dowew, Floydgeo, Magister Mathematicae, BD2412, Ted
Wilkes, CustardJack, Leithp, FlaBot, JdforresterBot, Jaraalbe, Hall Monitor, RussBot, Sojambi Pinola, Ziel, Tony1, ZhaoHong, Davidpatrick, Pegship, FF2010, Pb30, Rms125a@hotmail.com, GrinBot~enwiki, SmackBot, Verne Equinox, RobotJcb, Hmains, MalafayaBot,
Colonies Chris, Rlevse, MisterHand, Duiel, JackO'Lantern, RomanSpa, SQGibbon, Halaqah, Dl2000, Courcelles, Ksb3214, W guice, Cydebot, Lugnuts, Mafmafmaf, Nicholas0, Kbthompson, Kmisra, Wildhartlivie, Easchi, Johnelwaq, Murgh, VoABot II, Hullaballoo Wolfowitz, Waacstats, Stoneygg, Pern, Katalaveno, Donmike10, VolkovBot, Lexein, Bovineboy2008, TXiKiBoT, Rei-bot, Dormskirk, Richcoopa, Tony45allen, Msw1002, Lemonwho, thelwold, SimonTrew, Nford24, ClueBot, Fyyer, All Hallows Wraith, Trivialist, Light show,
DumZiBoT, Xavierhussain, WikHead, Addbot, Manuel Trujillo Berges, Luckas-bot, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Rubinbot, Emiglex, DSisyphBot, Heslopian, Tiller54, FrescoBot, Anna Roy, Slobodan Grasic, LMDHands, Dooba, Tbhotch, Regge robban2, EmausBot, And we
drown, John of Reading, Gfoley4, Christopherknowles, Htanna, GoingBatty, Twix1875, Gfurny, Yeepsi, ZroBot, DeWaine, , Hallows
Horcruxes, ClueBot NG, Asalrifai, SchroCat, BattleshipMan, RaresPaul, Chie one, Khazar2, 14GTR, Herve Reex, Epicgenius, DuviGM,
Charge2charge, P-123, KasparBot, Fcb 1019 and Anonymous: 80

8.2

Images

8.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0