SHORT CUTS
INTRODUCTIONS TO FILM STUDIES
OTHER SELECT TITLES IN THE SHORT CUTS SERIES
THE HORROR GENRE: FROM BEELZEBUB TO BLAIR WITCH Paul Wells
THE STAR SYSTEM: HOLLYWOODS PRODUCTION OF POPULAR IDENTITIES Paul McDonald
SCIENCE FICTION CINEMA: FROM OUTERSPACE TO CYBERSPACE Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska
EARLY SOVIET CINEMA: INNOVATION, IDEOLOGY AND PROPAGANDA David Gillespie
READING HOLLYWOOD: SPACES AND MEANINGS IN AMERICAN FILM Deborah Thomas
DISASTER MOVIES: THE CINEMA OF CATASTROPHE Stephen Keane
THE WESTERN GENRE: FROM LORDSBURG TO BIG WHISKEY John Saunders
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND CINEMA: THE PLAY OF SHADOWS Vicky Lebeau
COSTUME AND CINEMA: DRESS CODES IN POPULAR FILM Sarah Street
MISE-EN-SCNE: FILM STYLE AND INTERPRETATION John Gibbs
NEW CHINESE CINEMA: CHALLENGING REPRESENTATIONS Sheila Cornelius with Ian Haydn Smith
ANIMATION: GENRE AND AUTHORSHIP Paul Wells
WOMENS CINEMA: THE CONTESTED SCREEN Alison Butler
BRITISH SOCIAL REALISM: FROM DOCUMENTARY TO BRIT GRIT Samantha Lay
FILM EDITING: THE ART OF THE EXPRESSIVE Valerie Orpen
AVANT-GARDE FILM: FORMS, THEMES AND PASSIONS Michael OPray
PRODUCTION DESIGN: ARCHITECTS OF THE SCREEN Jane Barnwell
NEW GERMAN CINEMA: IMAGES OF A GENERATION Julia Knight
EARLY CINEMA: FROM FACTORY GATE TO DREAM FACTORY Simon Popple and Joe Kember
MUSIC IN FILM: SOUNDTRACKS AND SYNERGY Pauline Reay
MELODRAMA: GENRE, STYLE, SENSIBILITY John Mercer and Martin Shingler
FEMINIST FILM STUDIES: WRITING THE WOMAN INTO CINEMA Janet McCabe
FILM PERFORMANCE: FROM ACHIEVEMENT TO APPRECIATION Andrew Klevan
NEW DIGITAL CINEMA: REINVENTING THE MOVING IMAGE Holly Willis
THE MUSICAL: RACE, GENDER AND PERFORMANCE Susan Smith
TEEN MOVIES: AMERICAN YOUTH ON SCREEN Timothy Shary
FILM NOIR: FROM BERLIN TO SIN CITY Mark Bould
DOCUMENTARY: THE MARGINS OF REALITY Paul Ward
THE NEW HOLLYWOOD: FROM BONNIE AND CLYDE TO STAR WARS Peter Krmer
ITALIAN NEO-REALISM: REBUILDING THE CINEMATIC CITY Mark Shiel
WAR CINEMA: HOLLYWOOD ON THE FRONT LINE Guy Westwell
FILM GENRE: FROM ICONOGRAPHY TO IDEOLOGY Barry Keith Grant
ROMANTIC COMEDY: BOY MEETS GIRL MEETS GENRE Tamar Jeffers McDonald
SPECTATORSHIP: THE POWER OF LOOKING ON Michele Aaron
SHAKESPEARE ON FILM: SUCH THINGS THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF Carolyn Jess-Cooke
CRIME FILMS: INVESTIGATING THE SCENE Kirsten Moana Thompson
THE FRENCH NEW WAVE: A NEW LOOK Naomi Greene
CINEMA AND HISTORY: THE TELLING OF STORIES Mike Chopra-Gant
GERMAN EXPRESSIONIST CINEMA: THE WORLD OF LIGHT AND SHADOW Ian Roberts
FILM AND PHILOSOPHY: TAKING MOVIES SERIOUSLY Daniel Shaw
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH CINEMA: FROM HERITAGE TO HORROR James Leggott
RELIGION AND FILM: CINEMA AND THE RE-CREATION OF THE WORLD S. Brent Plate
FANTASY CINEMA: IMPOSSIBLE WORLDS ON SCREEN David Butler
FILM VIOLENCE: HISTORY, IDEOLOGY, GENRE James Kendrick
NEW KOREAN CINEMA: BREAKING THE WAVES Darcy Paquet
FILM AUTHORSHIP: AUTEURS AND OTHER MYTHS C. Paul Sellors
THE VAMPIRE FILM: UNDEAD CINEMA Jeffrey Weinstock
HERITAGE FILM: NATION, GENRE AND REPRESENTATION Beln Vidal
QUEER CINEMA: SCHOOLGIRLS, VAMPIRES AND GAY COWBOYS Barbara Mennel
ACTION MOVIES: THE CINEMA OF STRIKING BACK Harvey OBrien
BOLLYWOOD: GODS, GLAMOUR AND GOSSIP Kush Varia
THE SPORTS FILM: GAMES PEOPLE PLAY Bruce Babington
THE HEIST FILM: STEALING WITH STYLE Daryl Lee
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND FILM: SPACE, VISON, POWER Sean Carter & Klaus Dodds
FILM THEORY: CREATING A FILM GRAMMAR Felicity Colman
BIO-PICS
A LIFE IN PICTURES
ELLEN CHESHIRE
A Wallflower Press Book
Wallflower Press is an imprint of
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York, Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright Ellen Cheshire 2015
All rights reserved.
E-ISBN 978-0-231-85068-1
Wallflower Press is a registered trademark of Columbia University Press.
Cover image: Lincoln (2012) Dreamworks/20th Century Fox
A complete CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-0-231-17205-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-85068-1 (e-book)
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at .
CONTENTS
The one duty we owe history is to re-write it.
Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist (1891)
Definition: Bio-pic aka Biographical Picture a film that depicts the life of a real person, past or present.
Studios have looked to the ever-increasing obsession with celebrity and justifiably assumed it translates to, if not guaranteed success then at the very least a big head start. They have some great figures to back that up too.
Giles Hardie, Sydney Morning Herald (25 October 2013)
A quick survey of one weeks film stories for the national UK newspaper The Guardian (26 August1 September 2014) revealed six bio-pic related features: a review of the bio-pic on Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi which opened at the Venice Film Festival; rumours that Martin Scorsese is to make a film about the Ramones; news and clips on the new Jimi Hendrix bio-pic, Jimi: All Is by My Side; an interview with actor John Hamm on sporting bio-pic Million Dollar Arm; a news story on a court case surrounding the 2013 Linda Lovelace bio-pic and news on Lifetime TVs forthcoming The Brittany Murphy Story.
As the Economist stated:
Its that time of year again the time when the Oscars and the BAFTAs are within sniffing distance, and every major studio releases the prestige pictures which may just snag a few awards. Inevitably, several of those films are biopics. Oscar voters love them because the based on a true story tag gives them a veneer of seriousness, and because its easy to judge whether or not the central impersonation is any good. (NB 2011)
The 2014 award season featuring films from 2013/14 was once again a whos who of screen whos whos: 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, The Wolf of Wall Street, Behind the Candelabra, Captain Phillips, American Hustle, Saving Mr Banks, The Butler, The Invisible Woman, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Rush and Good Vibrations were all nominated in major categories at the BAFTAs and/or Academy Awards. At both ceremonies, all five Best Supporting Actors were nominated for playing real people. Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips, Bradley Cooper in American Hustle, Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave, Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street and Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club.
Despite the incredible popularity of the bio-pic both at the box office and at award ceremonies, surprisingly there has been very little critical writing on them just two books. The first, George F. Custens Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History (1992) focuses on films produced in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s. In his introduction he declared that at the time he was writing, in 1991, the genre was in decline:
The biopic seems since the 1960s to have faded away to a minor form. Today, it is seen most frequently on cable channels, in rare contemporary form like
