By Chloe Sarnoff
Syndey Pollack is a cinematic icon. Over the course of his lifetime, he was a soldier, teacher, actor, writer, producer and Academy Award winning director. Mr. Pollack was born in Indiana, in the early 1930’s. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants and had absolutely nothing to do with the world of entertainment. As a young man, Mr. Pollack moved to New York to study acting, and even eventually taught acting, after he returned from fighting overseas. In one of his earliest films, War Hunt, Mr. Pollack acted alongside Robert Redford, and the two established a friendship that would last a lifetime. Robert Redford even starred in two of Mr. Pollack’s most successful movies, Out of Africa and The Way We Were. Out of Africa received eleven Academy Awards nominations and an astonishing seven awards, including Best Direction for Mr. Pollack’s work. Mr. Pollack also proved that he could give the audience a few laughs when he directed and acted in Tootsie, which received ten Academy Award nominations. Mr. Pollack went on to produce popular films like The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. Mr. Pollack is particularly interesting to the Forum because he directed the complex and thrilling film, Absence of Malice, which will be shown in our 2011 Forum Film Festival.
Tags: Film Festival, Sydney Pollack
[...] men understand the power they hold. They also know what can happen if they abuse it. As seen in Sydney Pollack’s Absence of Malice, when prosecutor Eliot Rosen (Bob Balaban) unnecessarily investigated an [...]