Sidney Lumet
Influential Directors: Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet’s career had lasted for over 50 years and yielded countless classics, most set in his hometown, New York City, and two of his very best starring Al Pacino.
His first feature was 12 Angry Men, one of the most confident and powerful debuts ever, a powerful courtroom drama starring and produced by Henry Fonda.
He hit his stride in the 1970s with several consecutive masterpieces, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network to name a few.
Lumet is a director’s director. He cares about the craft, which is obvious if you’ve read his seminal book “Making Movies.”
He’s also an actor’s director: just check out the large number of performers who have been nominated for or have won the Oscar Awards.
Few directors have shown as much range or as much love for the medium as Lumet did.
He is a quintessentially New York director, sand a Jewish one at that, albeit in a different manner than this younger colleagues–most notably Woody Allen and Paul Mazurski–have been.
