See also: Burton

Tim Burton , born Timothy William Burton on August 25th, 1958 with Burbank, California, is a American Réalisateur . Master of the Fantastic and excels Conte ur, strongly influenced by the writer Edgar Allan Poe, one owes him in particular Pee-Wee Big Adventure , Beetlejuice , Batman , Edward with the money hands and Charlie and the chocolate factory . Savage opposing to the numerical fakings, it also wrote the Scénario S of Strange Christmas of Mr Jack and the funeral Weddings , two Cartoon films carried out with Marionnette S evolving/moving in Décor S realities. Its Cinéma is characterized by stories putting in scene marginal characters, and a great influence of the Cinema of the fantastic, Cinéma German expressionnist as well as films of the Hammer Film Productions. It belongs to the Cinéaste S which manage to reconcile critical success and business success.

Biography

De Burbank with the Disney studios

Elder from two wire of Jean and Bill Burton, Tim Burton passes the essence of its childhood as a recluse, being defined itself as an introverted . With the sun of the California, in its birthplace of Burbank, which it defines itself as the anteroom of Hollywood, it prefers the dark rooms of the Cinéma S where it sees and re-examines films of Monstre S like Godzilla , Frankenstein and its many continuations, films of Hammer Film Productions, and especially those with Vincent Price. He has fun to terrorize the child of his neighbors while making him believe that the Extraterrestres prepare to invade the Planet. Very gifted for the Drawing, it gains a contest organized to decorate the trucks with the city. In 1979, it is engaged by the studios Disney. He will say on this subject: “That can appear stupid, but I arrived at one time when the studio was in crisis. The leaders sought at all costs of the personnel”. With all the best will of the world, Burton does not manage to draw what the studio wishes. During this period, he writes a Poème which, ten years later, will be the base of the Scénario of Strange Christmas of Mr Jack .

In 1982, Burton receives: 60000 USD to realize, starting from the scenario which it wrote, Vincent . Julie Hickson, executive at Disney, and Tom Wilhite, person in charge of the creative development, are persuaded of the creative potential of the young man. Icing on the cake, Vincent Price, his idol, are the Narrateur of this small Cartoon. Rick Heinrichs, colleague and specialist in the Animation, work on the project. It will be almost all future films of Burton. The executives of the studio are frightened by the blackness of this Short film of only five minutes, and put it at the wall cupboard. It will leave only in complement program Strange Christmas Mr Jack in 1993. Nevertheless, they recognize in Burton a certain talent. Also, it is selected for to put in scene a short film a little longer, with Acteur S and Décor S realities: Frankenweenie . Even artistic result and even consequence.

A dark and poetic universe

The chance smiles to him in 1985. The firm Cinématographique Warner Bros signed a contract with the Acteur Paul Reubens which incarnates Pee-Wee Hermann, kind of child in a body of adult, to carry out a Film of which it is the high-speed motorboat. Tim Burton manages to take down the station of Réalisateur. It does not enter any more the plans of Disney, and Warner wants a Director which does not pose a problem. With a weak budget, Pee-Wee Big Adventure is not one of the priorities of the studio which turns its attention on Goonies , but which however keeps an eye on this turning record: the film is carried out in less than one month, without any budgetary going beyond. Danny Elfman sign the music; it is the beginning long and profitable collaboration between the Compositeur and the realizer. Success surprised with the Boxoffice, the first Feature-length film of Tim Burton divides criticism.

Lucid, Burton refuses to carry out the continuation of the adventures of Pee-Wee in order not to be catalogued. Three years later, it is indicated to carry out Beetlejuice , of a budget of thirteen million dollars, including one affected with the special Effets. With this film, which is, according to its own words, a parodic version of the Exorcist , it poses a little more the bases of its universe joyeusement morbid, délicieusement poetic and comic. Taken along by the completely removed from rim interpretation of Michael Keaton, the film only cases and collects soixante-treize million dollars in the United States, and receives a Oscar for the Maquillage.

Warner proposes in Tim Burton to carry out Batman , with a budget of thirty five million dollars. The firm acquired, in 1979, the rights of adaptation of the character created by Bob Kane in 1939 and put nearly ten years to develop the project. Allured since always by the hidden side, the double personality of Batman, Burton accept. It leaves to London, with the studios Pinewood where Stanley Kubrick put in scene Full Metal Jacket . Anton Furst, Decoration ator of film of Kubrick, is engaged to carry out Gotham City. Burton wishes to move away a little the madness which surrounds this project. Despite everything, it is unceasingly under pressure: its choice to take Michael Keaton to interpret the masked dispenser of justice is disputed. The Costume out of blue fabric of the series becomes black, with a false musculature. Warner is flooded of more than fifty thousand letters of protests. But the Cinéaste wants nothing to release, constant by its main actors. He wants to carry out a return to the sources which lends to discussion, even with Polémique at certain fans. Vincent Price, with which it is in contact since Vincent , writes to him to testify its support to him. The film gains four hundred million dollars on a worldwide scale, and the Oscar of the best decorations. Burton from now on the bent frank ones, but turning morally emptied it. It wishes to return to a film plus intimist. It will be Edward with the money hands .

The square of ace

Burton requests the studio 20th Century Fox to finance its Film. Warner wants imperatively to make him carry out the continuation of the adventures of Batman, and does not express any interest for this Scénario based on a drawing of man with hand-scissors which, without wanting it, break-in all that it touches. It chooses the Florida to largely put in scene this film Autobiographique. It is also the meeting between Burton and the actor Johnny Depp. As well for one as for the other, alchemy is perfect. New cinematographic meeting between the fan and the god, Vincent Price holds the role of the inventor of Edward, his last role with the screen. An interpretation upsetting according to Burton. True plea for the tolerance, magnifié by the inhabited interpretation of Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, as well as the music of Danny Elfman, this fourth Feature-length film is greeted by the whole of criticism like a Chef-d'oeuvre. Commercial triumph, it remains today still one of the tops of the catalog of films of Tim Burton.

In 1992, it agrees to produce the second shutter of the adventures of Batman. This time, the masked dispenser of justice is confronted with Catwoman and the Penguin, played respectively by Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito. The leaders of Warner bit the fingers to have refused Edward with the money hands ; they thus give a whole artistic freedom to Burton which places turning at Burbank, its birthplace. Still blacker and more tortured than the first, this new opus poses problem once again, because Warner receives new letters of protests, not of the fans but of the parents who consider film too alarming for their children. But the film triumphs with the boxoffice. Moreover, it translates the influence of the cinema expressionnist on Burton, and more particularly Friedrich Murnau and its Nosferatu . Indisputable mark of this relationship, Christopher Walken incarnates a véreux business man called max Shreck, the name of the interpreter of the vampire in film of Murnau.

The following year, a surprise of size arrives on the screens: Strange Christmas of Mr Jack . The scenario is based on a poem written by Burton at the time where it was at Disney. He points out Grinch of the Dr. Seuss, one of the favorite poets of the scenario writer. It is about a Cartoon film image by image, an artisanal technique for which Burton has a great passion. The setting in scene will require three years. It is Henry Selick which is charged with the Réalisation, but Burton supervised it very narrowly. The film is produced by Disney, owner of the poem. The contract that Burton signed by integrating the studio in 1979 includes/understands a clause specifying that any creative activity of a member of Disney is the property of the “Police force of the thought”: in light, this would be only to carry out a scenario starting from the poem, it is necessary to negotiate with Disney. But the success of their former employee makes the leaders more accommodating. A budget of eighteen million dollars is released, that is to say one the third of the usual budget of a Disney film. For the third consecutive time, the action proceeds at the time of Christmas. Tim Burton gives free course to its passion for the festival of Halloween. Danny Elfman composes the melodies, but also of the songs which transform the poem into a Musical comedy. Burton and Elfman often dispute because, if the songs form part very well of the history and do not slow down it, they require installations scenaristic. That causes that the two friends are annoyed; an estrangement which will last three years.

In 1994, Burton puts in scene ED Wood , account of the eccentric life of Edward Davis Wood Junior, realizer affublé in a posthumous way of the title of “worse realizer of all times”. He solicits Johnny Depp to incarnate new Edward which, like the precedent, maintains many connections with its universe and its life. With however a nuance of size: Burton is adulated whereas Wood was disparaged. The relation between Lugosi and Wood is a mirror of that between Price and Burton. The scenario concentrates over the “sumptuous” period of Edward Wood. One sees it putting in scene, not without evil, three films of which legendary the Plan 9 from Outer Space . For the circumstance, it is surrounded by many last or scorned actors as Bela Lugosi, the presenter of films of Vampira horrors and the fighter Tor Johnson. All this troop saw many adventures in their cinematographic course worthy of a film Hollywood IEN, but precisely the reverse of the “American Rêve” expensive in Hollywood which prefers the stories with success. Moreover, the film is made in black and white. All these choices probably explain the failure of the one of best films of Tim Burton which is exceeded like seldom. It turns over certain sequences, with identical, of films of Wood with a precision of goldsmith. Generous, it offers two superb gifts to ED Wood: the meeting with Orson Welles (which never took place), and first triumphal for Plan 9 from Outer Space . Howard Shore composes the music instead of Elfman. The film gains two Oscar S: Martin Landau takes down the Oscar of the best supporting role for its interpretation of Bleated Lugosi, and Rick Baker that of the make-up, but the film is not registered with the boxoffice. Tim Burton knows its first commercial failure.

End of century in half-tone

Its new project is Attacks Mars! . Jonathan Gems, collaborator of Burton since Batman , also Scenario writer and author of parts of Theater, writes a scenario based on a card deck representing of the Martien S and of the Dinosaure S. Burton voluntarily gives to its Film an old-fashioned aspect, in the style of science fiction films to small budget of the Années 1950. Very far away from the Gothic style , expressionnist or even coloured ( Pee-Wee Big Adventure , Beetlejuice ) that one knows to him, the claw of Burton recognizes itself with its Humor. They are children who save the Planet invaders while the president faces journalists who wonder whether the Martians have a sex. Surprising version of the War of the worlds of H.G. Wells. In spite of a pleiad of stars, the film packs neither criticism, nor the public which prefers to him Independence Day , treating film of the same subject but on a more dramatic tone, and with great blows of special effects.

Nevertheless, this second commercial failure has a positive point: the return of Danny Elfman to the music. Burton explained the reasons of this estrangement: “Danny, Henry Selick and me we often disputed on the plate of Strange Christmas of Mr Jack , because of the songs of Danny. Caroline Thompson and me were without stop to refit the scenario to insert them. One acted all like kids. But not to see us during a certain time made us good to both. ” The two artists will not be left any more. Burton found its during musical.

One proposes to him to carry out a new episode of Superman, with Nicolas Cage in the main role, more centered on psyché of the character. Burton accepts but after one year, the project is stopped. It is found fully in the scenario of Sleepy Hollow : dark and Gothic environment, Corpse S decapitated in series, black humor, demon without head… Kevin Yagher, person in charge of the special effects of the series the Tales of the crypt , joins Andrew Kevin Walker, author of the scenario of Seven , to adapt the news éponyme Washington Irving. Turning is done in England, and several collaborators of Batman are solicited. Always not very inclined with the numerical special effects, which are limited to the strict minimum for a film of this kind, Burton concentrates all the attention of its artistic team on the decorations, going until carrying out itself certain trees of the forest. Supported by Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Michael Gough, Christopher Lee and Christopher Walken in the role of the rider without head, the scenario writer joins again with critical and commercial success, in spite of a prohibition with the children of less than 13 years to the the United States. Elfman composes for the occasion a dark and tortured music. Left in 1999, the film seems to be a summary of the work of Burton: pumpkin, black humor, Gothic environment, mill on fire, démoniaque medieval legend…

New millenium and new obsessions

The 21e century opens in an ambivalent way for Tim Burton. The success of Sleepy Hollow , however very far from its first Film S, enables him to find the final cut , in other words the final assembly, lost after ED Wood . Nevertheless, Burton is still not in strong position. In 2001, it agrees to carry out a remake of the Planet of the monkeys . During turning, it separates from the actress LISA Marie whom it married eight years before, and meets Helena Bonham Carter which will become his wife. It also loses his father. The film obtains good performances, reaching the hundred soixante-treize million dollars of benefit on the American ground. Two years later, the studio Columbia contacts it to put in scene Big fish . Meanwhile, his wife gave him a son. A man who will become father but who also will lose to it his; Tim Burton can only be found in this history whose events are very synchronous with its life. Ewan McGregor holds the first role. The style of the scenario writer changes orientation, but its claw is visible: witch, werewolf, giant, dwarves…

It concretizes in 2005 an old project of more than fifteen years: to put in scene the masterpiece of Roald Dahl, Charlie and the chocolate factory . For the fourth time, Johnny Depp is at the head of the distribution. He camps Willy Wonka completely boosted, pointing out the demon Beetlejuice, and whose appearance resembles, in certain connections, with the character Alex of Clockwork orange of Stanley Kubrick. This last is quoted with the scene of the televisual chocolate bar: the film in which the bar is projected is 2001: the odyssey of space . The scenario writer settles, for the second time, with the studios Pinewood of which it uses almost all the plates. As anecdote, a hundred and twenty thousand liters of a mixture color chocolate are provided by Nestlé. Danny Elfman sign the music and lends its voice for the chorus of Oompas-Loompas. If usual Gothic esthetics makes place with a universe more coloured, it does not remain about it less than the Poésie suitable for Burton remains: the final plan with the house of Bucket sprinkled by guns with Snow.

Four months later, the funeral Weddings arrive on the screens. This new Cartoon film was turned in parallel of Charlie and the chocolate factory . For the circumstance, Burton is surrounded by his/her usual collaborators: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Lee, Albert Finney and Michael Gough in particular lend their voices to the Marionnette S. the scenario of Burton is based on a Russian Conte that one of his/her collaborators told him, during the turning of Strange Christmas of Mr Jack . But, this time, not of argument between Elfman and Burton. The two artists retained the lesson. The scenario writer benefits from it to scratch the Bourgeoisie a little, presented like tern, cynical and go-getter, and to post his preference for the world of the Mort S, definitely more colourful and more animated. The end result is seizing, very near to works of Jean Cocteau and Bertolt Brecht. For the anecdote, Burton acknowledged to be astonished itself, because it has Dessin E its principal characters without thinking of EPD, Helena Carter, Christopher Lee.

Of Vincent with ED Wood , Tim Burton was made the cantor of marginal, the recluses, alleged the Monstre S containing of the treasures of kindness. With Attacks Mars! , it passes to a whole group. Sleepy Hollow mark a new cycle: that of the family. Big fish , Charlie and the chocolate factory and the funeral Weddings proceed in this way. The solitary child, alleged abnormal, probably regulated his accounts and now thinks of founding a family.

Its work and its style

Its achievements

Tim Burton is a realizer, in love with the images, playing as well with the Technicolor Kitsch of the Années 1950 as with the black and white of the Gothic or nostalgia, but also in love with the attaching Monstre S which populate its be delirious visual, as in Pee-Wee Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward with the money hands (1990), Batman, the challenge (1992), Strange Christmas of Mr Jack (1993), ED Wood (1994), Attacks Mars! (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), the planet of the Monkeys (2001), Big Fish (2003), Charlie and the chocolate factory (2005) and funeral Weddings (2005). In an interview, he says: “… my trick with me they are the monsters. Already, kid, I liked them. I felt near to them: in margin of the company and misunderstood, like them. Moreover, I always had weak for the outsiders , those which one thinks malicious whereas, in fact, they are not it. They are attaching characters, very interesting to explore. ”

It appears in the prize list of the realizers who pay more to the world Cinématographique in terms of benefit. It is however one of the rare American realizers to reconcile large figures with the Box-office with a very personal universe and a style and an artistic ambition some, by its enchanted stories, in which it works the colors enormously (Décor S and Costume S). It is also one of the last large realizers to use the artisanal method of the Animation as we can see it in Strange Christmas of Mr Jack (which it did not carry out, contrary to a well anchored common belief, but that it narrowly supervised) or more recently in the funeral Weddings .

Tim Burton and Edgar Poe

Edgar Allan Poe strongly influenced Tim Burton. The attraction that the Cinéaste tests for him comes on the one hand discovery from the work of the cursed poet when Burton is 10 years old and, on the other hand, of the Film S that Roger Corman realized according to the work of Poe. It is advisable to specify that Vincent Price, his idol, was the principal high-speed motorboat of this cycle.

The Scénario of Strange Christmas of Mr Jack was written starting from a poem of Tim Burton. That reinforces a little more it parallel between Burton and Poe, the most famous work of this last being a poem: the Corbel . Moreover, the poems of Poe and Burton are used each time basic for the development of the respective scenarios which, certainly respect the spirit of the authors, but involve the history in a new direction. The original poem of Poe is transformed into a true visual and burlesque fireworks between Price, Karloff and Lorre, while that of Burton becomes a musical comedy melancholic person and macabre.

Trademarks

Tim Burton leaves on each one of its works several recurring prints, among which:

American boxoffice

Catalog of films

Realizer

Short films

  • 1971 : The Island off Doctor Agor
  • 1979: Stalk off the Celery Monster
  • 1982: Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp (in the emission Shelley Duvall' S Faerie Bruises Theater )
  • 1982: Vincent
  • 1982: Hansel and Gretel
  • 1982 : Luau corealized and coscenarized with Jerry Rees
  • 1984: Frankenweenie
  • 1985 : The Gravel bank (in the emission Alfred Hitchcock presents )

Feature-length films

Actor

Scenario writer

Producer

Artistic director

Visual animation and effects

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