Adrian Lyne, I feel, is an underrated director. He did a great job with "Fatal Attraction", "Flashdance", "Jacob's Ladder", and "Unfaithful". I wasn't a very big fan of "Indecent Proposal" or "9 1/2 Weeks", but he did give all of his films a certain kind of visual style. He always wanted Hollywood actors to tone down their image and become ordinary people. Is anyone else out there aware of this guy?
I was never a big fan -- although I guess I shouldn't say that since I'd only seen 91/2 Weeks and Jacob's Ladder. I loved Jacob's Ladder up until the end, when it totally fell apart for me. I didn't think the twist worked.
However, Unfaithful really surprised me, and it just keeps getting better the more I think about it, to the point that I might pick up the DVD one of these days. The poster is hanging on the wall at my work, reminding me of it constantly.
His version of Lolita was interesting, but proved that the book works best as a book. Kubrick's adaptation worked wonderfully because he (and Nabakov) took it in a slightly different direction (i.e. black comedy). Lyne was totally faithful, and it was just...well, boring.
Strange director. He seems to straddle the border between adult and trash. The only film of his that really did it for me was Jacob's Ladder. That film had as much impact on me as any film I've ever seen. It was so ahead of its time when it came out. I had to explain it to everybody -- INCLUDING ADULTS! AND I WAS IN 10TH GRADE! I don't think it had a twist ending, cause I had picked up on what was going on long before. At the time I thought it was brilliant. Without this film there would've been no Sixth Sense or Fight Club.
True, I guess its not a twist if you see it coming. My problem with it was that the whole movie was too resolute in its details to make it believable as a ***SPOILER*** dying dream/vision. This wasn't a problem with the Sixth Sense, where there was a lot of overall vagueness.
I think that his best film was really "Jacob's Ladder". I thought that it was a psyhcological cult classic. And I really did buy the ending. It wasn't one of the happiest movies out there, but it was still great. A lot of his other movies were about adultrey. "Fatal Attraction", "Unfaithful", and "Idencent Proposal" were all about the same thing. You should listen to his commentary tracks on DVD. They're really great!
Also, consider when it was made in 1990. Jacob's Ladder was so antithetical to what was being made that it was exhilierating.
That's true.
Duly noted.
i think he could truly make something great one of these days - but he hasnt surprised me yet
Quote from: mutinycoAND I WAS IN 10TH GRADE!
I was a little younger when I saw it for the first time....and I didn't really get it....I have since rented it a couple times, and have sorta grown to like it.. alot.
I am a big fan of Lyne....but more so for his sexual deviance....in say something like Unfaithful, ......this movie works well for me....the scene after the first intimate encounter is a scene I will never forget .....
I dunno about the "trash/adult" thing though...it's hard to make a movie based on sex and not have it be cheesy or raunchy...I think he pulls it off.. I think he is more honest than anything....sex is not always this magical "let's make love, hunny" ordeal....and there is not a single scene in....Unfaithful.... that I feel doesn't take place lotsawheres everyday....
sex is sex....it ain't always sweet....
I saw "Jacob's Ladder" when I was in the 7th grade. Maybe I was a little too young at the time. Too dark and depressing for that age.
I saw "Unfaithful" when it was released into theatres and I never saw any of his others films until they came out on video.
funny this thread was bumped because i just finished seeing Kubrick's Lolita (for the first time) and Adrian Lyne's version shortly afterwards.
i've always like Lyne, and i think he is a superb filmmaker.
i just watched Jacob's Ladder the other day. very haunting images, a great film. i have a question/statement:
SPOILERS
did Jacob have any idea that the government was doing these types of experiments before the "attack" went down? i ask this because this whole idea is revealed while he is in the stage of dying. i don't see how this could be unless the writer thinks that we are shown the wrong that is done to us while we are passing from life unto death.
The Vine: A-list leads eyeing 'Stompanato'
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Keanu Reeves and Catherine Zeta-Jones are circling "Stompanato," a biopic about Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of actress Lana Turner who was killed by her young daughter, Cheryl Crane. Adrian Lyne is attached to direct. Producing the project are Contrafilm's Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson along with Erwin Stoff. The script was written by David and Janet Peoples ("12 Monkeys") and Sebastian Gutierrez ("Snakes on a Plane"). The project has landed on the steps of Warner Bros. Pictures but has not made the studio its home yet as dealmaking has not started. Stompanato, a World War II vet-turned-small-time hood and wannabe actor, was killed on Good Friday 1958 in the Beverly Hills home of Turner by 14-year-old Crane. The death was ruled as justifiable homicide, but rumors flew that Crane and Stompanato had been lovers, while other rumors flew that Turner actually killed Stompanato and let her underage daughter take the rap.
Quote from: macagebut rumors flew that Crane and Stompanato had been lovers, while other rumors flew that Turner actually killed Stompanato and let her underage daughter take the rap.
i wonder which rumor will land on the film.
I really liked the acting and sex scenes in Unfaithful.
i feel embarrassed to ever hav had the same signature as u.
He's a very talented director. "Jacob's Ladder" is by far his best movie, but "Fatal Attraction" and "Unfaithful" weren't bad either.
I've seen unfaithful and fatal attraction and both of them very solid movies. Unfaithful has one of the best proformances by Richard Gere.
Quote from: SiliasRuby on April 23, 2006, 08:33:57 PM
I've seen unfaithful and fatal attraction and both of them very solid movies. Unfaithful has one of the best proformances by Richard Gere Diane Lane.
fixed.
Lyne recruited to mastermind WB's 'Thieves'
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Adrian Lyne is attached to direct an adaptation of Chuck Hogan's "Prince of Thieves," which will be written by Sheldon Turner. Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group optioned the book and is producing for Warner Bros. Pictures.
"Thieves" is the tale of four men -- thieves, rivals and friends -- being hunted through the streets of Boston by a tenacious FBI agent and a woman who might destroy them all. The book won the 2005 Hammett Prize for excellence in crime writing.
Lyne brought the book to King, who then took it to the studio. Kevin McCormick will oversee for Warners.
King's producing credits include the Oscar-winning biopic "The Aviator" and the upcoming Martin Scorsese-directed crime thriller "The Departed." King also is a producer on Ed Zwick's "Blood Diamond," starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
CAA-repped Turner, who wrote the Adam Sandler hit "The Longest Yard" as well as the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" prequel, wrote a draft of "Two Minutes to Midnight," a thriller Lyne was attached to direct for 20th Century Fox. Lyne recently dropped out of "Midnight," but "Thieves" allows for the two to work together again.
Lyne, a provocative filmmaker who was nominated for an Oscar for 1987's "Fatal Attraction," most recently directed 2002's "Unfaithful." Other credits include "Indecent Proposal, "Jacob's Ladder," "Nine 1/2 Weeks" and "Flashdance."
Abstinent A Decade, Adrian Lyne Beds Down With Fox 2000 On Adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's Sexy Thriller 'Deep Water'
BY MIKE FLEMING JR | Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: After directing the steamy, sexy hits Flashdance, 9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, and Lolita, Adrian Lyne has found nothing to get excited about since 2002′s Unfaithful. Finally, he has found a project that has him hot and bothered. Lyne last night closed a deal to direct Deep Water, a Zach Helm-scripted adaptation of the classic thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith, the late author of Strangers On A Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Lyne is making the film with Fox 2000's Elizabeth Gabler, with whom he teamed on Unfaithful, the study of infidelity that starred Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Olivier Martinez. Deep Water will be mounted as a co-production between Film Rites and Film 360.
The contemporized Deep Water tells the story of Vic and Melinda, an attractive young married couple whose mind games with each other take a twisted turn when people around them start turning up dead. There is already a conversation with a big star, and if it pans, scheduling will dictate start of production. This project is a long time coming: Ben Forkner, who with Film 360 cohort Guymon Casady is producing alongside Fox-based Film Rites' Garrett Basch and Steve Zaillian, went to Zurich eight years ago to court the Highsmith estate, and came away with rights from the iconic author's family. They and Film Rites have been working on it ever since and finally got a script they liked from Helm, who scripted Stranger Than Fiction and wrote-directed Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Lyne is repped by WME's Robert Newman.
The Profound Schlock of Adrian Lyne's 'Jacob's Ladder' (https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/8/21/20826389/jacobs-ladder-adrian-lyne-tim-robbins-remake-bruce-joel-rubin) by Mani Lazic
QuoteJacob's Ladder, however, is not an erotic thriller. The bodies here are foreign, repulsive, and perhaps not even human—allowing Lyne to take his fascination with flesh further into morbid territory. For what Jacob first takes as a trick of the light and a sign of fatigue on the subway soon returns and becomes too tangible to be dismissed: Creatures and physical deformities keep appearing around him. A nurse seems to have a strange growth on her head; at a party, he finds what looks like a rotting cow skull in the fridge; and although all these disturbing things appear furtively at first, they progressively take up more and more physical space. There seems to be no way for Jacob to be the only person experiencing visions, and yet no one else appears to notice them. Later, Jacob joins Jezzie on the dance floor and catches a glimpse of a couple making out intensely on a couch. After some awkward dancing, Jacob moves away and lets Jezzie dance with another man. Looking over at the couple kissing again, they seem to be going way too far for such a public setting. While the funky music of the party keeps playing, Lyne begins to emphasize the closeness of the bodies around Jacob and presents him in tight close-ups. Returning toward Jezzie, he sees that the stranger dancing behind her is turning into a winged, Lovecraftian creature, wrapping itself around Jezzie as she gesticulates more and more aggressively and ecstatically, taking off her skirt as it feels her up with a set of tentacles. Lyne uses all the visual elements at his disposition to make the violence of the scene ever more palpable: the sweat on Jezzie's face reflects the flashing party lights, the darkness keeps Jacob (and the spectator) peering at her despite his repulsion to try to understand what he is seeing, and fast cutting heightens the tension. Finally, further pushing the reference to the similar intercourse between a woman and a disgusting creature in Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 film Possession, Lyne takes the scene to a crisis point: The monster seems to impale Jezzie with some sort of gigantic fang, which sends Jacob into a full-blown panic attack. From the beginning of the scene, sex and horror are intermingled. Lyne makes the vulnerability of desire dangerous, an opening into the ghastliest turn of events. In several sequences, Jacob's Ladder is an erotic horror film.