Michael Feeney Callan has written the definitive “Biography” of the American actor and director, a well-documented portrait.
French fans of Robert Redford can rejoice at the French publication of his “Biography” by Michael Feeney Callan (Editions La Trace/22€). The author, who has already biographed Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery, has written a 750-page book, a huge work, necessarily a reference, which traces everything about the life and work of the Hollywood star: “his broken family, his troubled youth , his difficult beginnings, his political commitment, his loves and friendships”.
This book is a meticulously documented portrait of a sixty-year career, with an accumulation of anecdotes, memories, and testimonies, since Michael Feeney Callan interviewed hundreds of people in Redford’s world, including Sydney Pollack, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Arthur Penn, and Paul Newman. He also became close to his subject through interviews with the actor, director, producer, and creator of the Sundance Festival, which has become a worldwide reference for independent cinema.
Throughout the pages, film lovers will review his complete filmography, many masterpieces, his most outstanding roles, “Out of Africa”, “Butch Kassidy and the Kid”, “The President’s Men”, “Jeremiah Johnson”, “The Three Days of the Condor”, “The Great Gatsby”, “Spy Game”, “The Merciless Pursuit”, “Vote McKay”, “The Sting”, “The Electric Rider”, “Brubaker”… and the films he directed, ” And in the middle flows a river”, “The man who whispered in the ear of horses”, “Quiz Show”…
Intense, sincere, Robert Redford (86 years old this year) is a legend, a myth, an American symbol, a glamorous actor in spite of himself, but whose convictions (political, ecological…) have been more important than his film career. Through his roles, his films, sometimes imbued with a tragic melancholy, he has often evoked the American malaise, raised awareness. “I don’t think that films change much, except for fashion or looks”, he said in Paris, at the time of the release of his film “Lions and Lambs”.
“If all artists would agree to use film as a journalistic weapon, and give just one year of their lives to show what America has lost or is losing, and if the studios would agree to distribute such films, maybe film would change the world. But I don’t think that’s likely to happen,” added Robert Redford.
- “Robert Redford – Biography”, by Michael Feeney Callan (Editions La Trace/22€).