North America, Central America

In the late 1950s, Mike Nichols (1931–2014) and Elaine May (b. 1932) soared to superstar status as a sketch comedy duo in live shows and television. After their 1962 breakup, both went on to long and …

Spanning five decades and twenty-four films, director Michael Haneke’s career is one of the most significant in the history of European art cinema. However, critical reception has long lagged behind …

With her gripping film The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow (b. 1951) made history in 2010 by becoming the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director. Since then she has also filmed history with her m …

The legendary Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) had many identities. He first broke into Hollywood as a fresh-faced young actor in the 1950s, redefined himself as a rebel director with Easy Rider in the late …

Abraham Polonsky (1910–1999), screenwriter and filmmaker of the mid-twentieth-century Left, recognized his writerly mission to reveal the aspirations of his characters in a material society structure …

In 1971, Newsweek heralded The Last Picture Show as ‘the most impressive work by a young American director since Citizen Kane.’ Indeed, few filmmakers rivaled Peter Bogdanovich’s popularity over the …

More than four decades after the premiere of his first film, Steven Spielberg (b. 1946) continues to be a household name whose influence on popular culture extends far beyond the movie screen. Now in …

Margarethe von Trotta (b. 1942) entered the film industry in the only way she could in the 1960s—as an actress. Throughout her career, von Trotta added thirty-two acting credits to her name; however, …

Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) is the only popular American dramatic star to have shaped his own career almost entirely through films of his own producing, frequently under his own direction; no other dram …

Ingmar Bergman’s 1963 film The Silence was made at a point in his career when his stature as one of the great art-film directors allowed him to push beyond the boundaries of what was acceptable to ce …