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Biography: Alexander Payne

Director and screenwriter Alexander Payne made his big-screen debut directing one of nine vignettes about love and relationships in the 1992 film Inside Out. Four years later, he gained praise and recognition for Citizen Ruth, a bitingly satirical look at the abortion debate which starred Laura Dern as its amoral anti-heroine. In 1999, Payne wrote (with Jim Taylor) and directed Election. A wickedly funny look at American politics through the lens of a high school student council election, the film won rave reviews and further established Payne as one of the current cinema's most cutting directors and satirists. After writing Jurassic Park III, he teamed up with Taylor again for About Schmidt, based on the novel by Louis Begley. A comedy drama about Warren R. Schmidt (Jack Nicholson), a man in his sixties, About Schmidt received several award nominations and won a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. While About Schmidt may have polarized audiences - some of whom saw it as a meaningful and humorous meditation on ageing while others saw it as little more than a depressing glimpse into the life of an morose old cynic - positive reaction to Payne's subsequent film Sideways was near universal. As with his previous efforts, Payne's scope remained limited in a noteworthy attempt to keep his characters both identifiable and three-dimensional, but audiences just seemed to have a much easier time connecting with an embittered middle-aged writer/wine connoisseur and a sex-crazed has-been actor than they did with an aged and embittered divorcee. If Thomas Hayden Church's loss of the "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar to Morgan Freeman at the 77th Annual Academy Awards coupled with Paul Giamatti's previous loss at the same year's Golden Globes ceremony left fans of the film somewhat cold, they could at least take solace in the fact that Sideways did earn Payne an Oscar for "Best Adapted Screenplay" (an award which the writer/director shared with co-writer (Jim Taylor). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide less

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Downsizing (2010)
Tags: Comedy Drama
Length: min
Paul Giamatti re-teams with his Sideways' director Alexander Payne in this comedy drama co-starring Reese Witherspoon and Sacha Baron Cohen. The plot details a couple that decides to join a little person union in order to retire early. ~ Jeremy...
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Paris, Je T'Aime (2006)
Cast: Gérard Depardieu Ethan Coen Wes Craven Joel Coen
Tags: Romantic Drama Drama
Length: 120min
Twenty acclaimed filmmakers from around the world look at love in the City of Lights in this omnibus feature. Paris, Je T'Aime features 18 short stories, each set in a different part of Paris and each featuring a different cast and director (two...
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Père-Lachaise (2006)
Tags: Romance Romantic Fantasy
Length: 5min
Master of horror Wes Craven offers a lighter and more whimsical take on the supernatural in this short film, which transpires in the Pere-Lachaise cemetery. It concerns a young man who receives romantic advice from a most unexpected source. Part of...
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14ème Arrondissement (2006)
Tags: Romantic Drama Romance
Length: 5min
This short film was director Alexander Payne's contribution to the anthology film Paris, Je T'Aime. Focusing on the area of the City of Lights called Montparnasse, it stars Margo Martindale as an American visiting Paris alone. ~ Matthew Tobey, All...
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Sideways (2004)
Tags: Comedy Drama Road Movie
Length: 126min
Directed by Alexander Payne, Sideways follows Miles (Paul Giamatti), who is distressed about his lack of success as a novelist, and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), an equally unsuccessful actor with a rapidly approaching wedding. In a last-ditch effort to...
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The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004)
Cast: George Lucas Martin Scorsese Steven Spielberg Quentin Tarantino Jodie Foster Ridley Scott James Cameron Lawrence Kasdan
Tags: Film, TV & Radio Film & Television History
Length: 97min
The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Editing teaches the viewer how editors compile strips of film in order to create memorable moviegoing experiences. In addition to interviews with a variety of respected and award-winning editors, the movie offers clips...
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About Schmidt (2002)
Cast: Jack Nicholson Kathy Bates
Tags: Tragi-comedy Comedy of Manners Comedy Drama
Length: 124min
Jack Nicholson plays retiring insurance actuary Warren Schmidt in Alexander Payne's About Schmidt. Schmidt has settled into a dormant life. He has an unfulfilling marriage to Helen (June Squibb), and conspires to spend as much time away from her as...
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Election (1999)
Cast: Matthew Broderick Reese Witherspoon
Tags: Comedy Satire Americana
Length: 103min
In this satirical comedy, a hotly contested high school election becomes a metaphor for the current state of American politics. Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is a popular and well-respected instructor at George Washington Carver High School in...
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Citizen Ruth (1996)
Cast: Alexander Payne
Tags: Political Satire Comedy Satire
Length: 102min
The divisive issue of abortion is at the center of Citizen Ruth, a political satire that attempts to subject both pro-choice and pro-life forces to equal ridicule. Laura Dern portrays Ruth Stoops, an irresponsible, unemployed woman who's addicted to...
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Alexander Payne

Biography: Alexander Payne

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