James Gray Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Director , Screenwriter , Producer more
Nationality American
Birth April 14, 1969 (Queens, New York, United States))

BIOGRAPHY
Watching the films of Francis Ford Coppola and in particular Apocalypse Now in 1979 when he was only ten years old had a profound impact on James Gray. He who intended to paint turned to cinema, which he studied at the University of South California. After a remarkable graduation film, recognition was not long in coming.

In 1994, when he was only 25 years old, his first feature film Little Odessa received the Silver Lion at Venice ( tied with Celestial Creatures by Peter Jackson ). This harsh and virtuoso work focuses on the psychological conflict of a solitary killer ( Tim Roth ), at odds with his family and the Russian community in New York. Then refusing to direct several scripts (including Close Enemies ), he wrote an adaptation of Paycheck by Philip K. Dick , which no studio wanted to finance. His second feature film, The Yards , written between 1995 and 1997 and produced by Miramax, was released in 2000. Selected at Cannes, this film noir with the appearance of an ancient tragedy brings together great veterans ( James Caan , Faye Dunaway ) and promising young shoots. ( Mark Wahlberg , Joaquin Phoenix , Charlize Theron ).

Although he has fervent admirers (including Claude Chabrol ), Gray will have to wait seven years to sign his third opus, La Nuit nous belongs , presented on the Croisette in 2007. The New Yorker plows his furrow with this dark work which takes up his favorite themes (family, the Mafia) and the actors of the previous film (Wahlberg, Phoenix). James Gray surprised his world by making a new film only a few months later, Two Lovers , in which – another novelty – there was no question of the underworld. But we easily recognize the touch of its author, through the darkness of the subject, the beauty of the photography or even the presence in the casting of Joaquin Phoenix (in the role of a tormented man shared between two women, Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw ). In the running for the Palme d’Or, Gray once again leaves empty-handed.

After having released two films in two years, the director once again took his time before returning to theaters with The Immigrant in 2013, his fourth consecutive film to be presented in competition at Cannes without winning any distinction. With this film, he returns in a more historical way to the subject of the immigrants of Ellis Island after having presented them in a contemporary way in his previous films. Marion Cotillard plays the main role alongside Jeremy Renner and – for the fourth time in a Gray film – Joaquin Phoenix. The director met the actress during a dinner with the Cotillard-Canet couple after signing the script for Blood Ties – which came out the same year – directed by Guillaume Canet .

James Gray then changed register and in 2017 book The Lost City of Z centered on the adventures of the famous British explorer Percy Fawcett who mysteriously disappeared in the Brazilian jungle while seeking to find a lost city dating from Atlantis. The film, starring the athletic Charlie Hunnam , was a failure at the box office despite glowing press reviews. Two years later, the filmmaker tackled science fiction with Ad Astra and offered Brad Pitt the leading role, that of an astronaut venturing to the confines of the solar system in search of his father.

After these forays into the jungle and space, James Gray undertakes a return to basics in 2022 with Armageddon Time . This autobiographical story set in Queens, where he grew up, retraces America during the Reagan years through the eyes of a little boy and focuses on the systemic racism that is corroding the country. Carried by Jeremy Strong , Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins , this intimate drama leaves the Cannes Film Festival empty-handed, where it is presented in official competition.