Jonathan Glazer

Early life and education

Jonathan Glazer was born on 26 March 1965 in London, England, and is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His ancestors were Ukrainian Jews and Bessarabian Jews who fled the Kishinev pogrom and arrived in the United Kingdom in the 1900s. He said: "My great-grandparents were born in Vilnius and Odesa. One was a tailor. His wife, a seamstress." His family lived in Hadley Wood, near Barnet, and was Reform Jewish: "Synagogue three times a year, and Friday-night dinners every week." His father was a cinephile, with whom he frequently watched David Lean, Sidney Lumet, Sydney Pollack, and Billy Wilder movies.

Glazer attended the Jewish Free School, then located in the borough of Camden. During his childhood, he participated in the Givat Washington programme, spending five months in a religious boarding school in Israel. After finishing high school, he went to art school, saying drawing was the only thing he was good at. After graduating with an emphasis in theatre design from Nottingham Trent University, Glazer began his career directing theatre and making film and television trailers.

Career

1993–1999: Music videos

In 1993, Glazer wrote and directed three short films ("Mad", "Pool" and "Commission"), and joined Academy Commercials, a production company based in Central London. He directed campaigns for Guinness (Dreamer, Swimblack and Surfer) and Stella Artois (Devil's Island).

Glazer directed the music videos for "Karmacoma" by Massive Attack and "The Universal" by Blur, both released in 1995. He worked with Radiohead on their videos for "Street Spirit" (1996) and "Karma Police" (1997). He said "Street Spirit" was a turning point in his work: "I knew when I finished that, because [Radiohead] found their own voices as an artist, at that point, I felt like I got close to whatever mine was, and I felt confident that I could do things that emoted, that had some kind of poetic as well as prosaic value."

Glazer won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 1997 for his work on "Karma Police" and Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" (1996). He was unsatisfied with his "Karma Police" video, saying he had "missed emotionally and dramatically". He described his video for the 1998 single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", by Unkle and the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, as a more successful partner to the "Karma Police" video. Glazer's 1999 television advert "Surfer", for Guinness, was voted the best of all time in a poll conducted by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times the following year.

2000–2011: ''Sexy Beast'' and ''Birth''

Glazer was set to direct the film Gangster No. 1, written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, but was replaced after disagreements with the producers regarding casting. Glazer left the production along with Mellis and Scinto. In 2000, Glazer worked with Mellis and Scinto again, directing his first feature, the gangster film Sexy Beast. Ben Kingsley was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2004, Glazer directed his second feature film, Birth, starring Nicole Kidman.

In 2002, Glazer directed the "Odyssey" spot for Levi Strauss jeans. In 2006, he directed the second Sony BRAVIA TV advertisement, which took ten days and 250 people to film. It was filmed at an estate in Glasgow, and featured paint exploding all over the tower blocks. Later the same year, he was commissioned to make a television advert for the new Motorola Red phone. The advertisement, showing two naked black bodies emerging from a lump of flesh rotating on a potter's wheel, was due to air in September 2006 but was shelved by Motorola. The advertisement was to benefit several charities in Africa.

2013: ''Under the Skin''

In 2013, Glazer directed Under the Skin, a loose adaptation of the 2000 novel by Michel Faber, starring Scarlett Johansson. It premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and received a theatrical release in 2014. The film was named the best film of 2014 by numerous critics and publications, was included in many best-of-the-decade lists, and ranked 61st on the BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century list, an international poll of 177 top critics.

2019–present: ''The Zone of Interest''

Glazer's fourth feature film, The Zone of Interest, based loosely on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to acclaim. It competed for the Palme d'Or, and won the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI Prize. The Zone of Interest won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, becoming the first British film to do so. The film also received three British Academy Film Awards, making it the first film to win both Best Film Not in the English Language and Outstanding British Film.

In his acceptance speech at the 96th Academy Awards, Glazer addressed the ongoing Gaza war:

Personal life

Known to be discreet about his private life, Glazer is married to the visual effects supervisor Rachael Penfold. They live in Camden, North London with their three children. He is Jewish. Glazer named Stanley Kubrick as his favourite director and said he was close to Italian and Russian cinema, citing Ingmar Bergman, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, and Pier Paolo Pasolini as his greatest influences.

Filmography

Feature film

Short film

Music video

Commercials

[[Station identification|Idents]]

• Channel 4 presentation (September 2015)

Awards and nominations

References

References

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2. Forestier, François. (28 January 2024). "Jonathan Glazer : " Le mal était là, à Auschwitz, et il fallait lui faire face "".
3. Collin, Robbie. (24 January 2024). "'These people absolutely could be us': Jonathan Glazer on his film about the mastermind of Auschwitz". [[The Daily Telegraph.
4. Leigh, Danny. (6 March 2014). "Under the Skin: why did this chilling masterpiece take a decade?". [[The Guardian]].
5. Glazer, Jonathan. "He's turned the screen Scarlett after a long and alien journey".
6. Cozens, Claire. (13 March 2003). "Child abuse ad scoops top gong". [[The Guardian]].
7. Cozens, Claire. (6 April 2001). "Guinness unveils new advert". [[The Guardian]].
8. Burgoyne, Patrick. (12 July 2018). "Cheers! A history of beer brands in Creative Review". [[Creative Review]].
9. Cozens, Claire. (2 February 2003). "We're only here for the beer". [[The Guardian]].
10. Cosman, Ben. (2014-04-02). "A Music-Video History of Jonathan Glazer Creeping People Out".
11. Kaufman. (12 June 2001). "Shooting the "Beast"; Jonathan Glazer Tames the Gangster Genre". [[Indiewire]].
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15. Nigel, Andrews. (5 January 2001). "Guinness director grows up: CINEMA: Nigel Andrews meets 'Sexy Beast' Jonathan Glazer as his first feature prepares to open". [[The Financial Times]].
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34. Romney, Jonathan. (12 July 2014). "Jonathan Glazer interview: 'It felt as if we were under siege'". [[The Guardian]].
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38. . (16 November 2006). ["Jonathan Glazer's Motorola Red ad faces chop"](http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/604966/). *[[Campaign (magazine)*.
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40. Sloan, Pat. (12 November 2010). "Volkswagen and DDB UK launch epic new Polo campaign – Jonathan Glazer directs stunning "Last Tango in Compton"". [[DDB Worldwide.
41. "Volkswagen – 'Last Tango in Compton'".
42. "The Audi RS 6 Avant TV commercial".
43. . ["Audi 'The Ring' (Director's Cut) by Jonathan Glazer"](http://www.academyfilms.com/blog/audi-the-ring-directors-cut-by-jonathan-glazer). *Academy Films*.
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