Mike Figgis

June 10, 1996

Home About TMC Brothers and Sisters Directors Alphabetic Index Guest Critics Hall of Flame Other Film Sites Feedback

Here is a director who has recently been discovered by America, Figgis was born in Kenya in 1949, but went to England in the 70's to start a career in the entertainment world. He began by performing in a rock band called The Gas Board, then spent nearly ten years with a theater group called The People Show. He attempted to apply for the National London film School in 1976, but failed at that. A decade later, after years of film studies somewhere else, he debuted with the TV-movie, House. This film attracted the attention of various film producers, David Puttnam being the main one.

Since then, he has worked on such moody thrillers as Stormy Monday (1988) and his first American movie, Internal Affairs (1990). The movies did modest success, but were followed by the stale Liebestraum (1991) and the box-office failure Mr. Jones (1993) with a totally miscast Richard Gere. Finally, in 1995, Figgis made a name for himself with the highly praised (but highly depressing) alcoholic tale, Leaving Las Vegas. Figgis is not a fantastic director, but he has a certain skill with actors that most directors have trouble finding themselves. He has potential, but let's wait a while before we put him in the "10 Best Directors" category.

My rating on a scale of 1 to 10: 6

Back to Home Page

The Dream Machine --- Network Services

...the best independent ISP in the Twin Cities