Happy Birthday, Samuel Fuller! Born today in 1912 as Samuel Michael Fuller, this American novelist, screenwriter and film director is known for low-budget, understated genre films with controversial themes, often made outside of the conventional studio system.
Fuller wrote his first screenplay in the mid-1930s. This was for the 1936 American black and white musical/comedy film 'Hats Off'.
In the late 1940s, Filler made his directorial debut with the 1949 American black and white Western/drama film 'I Shot Jesse James'. Fuller would continue to direct several other Westerns and war thrillers throughout the 1950s.
Fuller shifted from Westerns and war thrillers in the 1960s. Most notably, this included writing, producing and directing his low-budget 1963 American black and white drama/thriller film 'Shock Corridor'.
One year later, this was followed by the 1964 American black and white neo-noir melodrama film 'The Naked Kiss'.
However, Fuller was inactive in filmmaking for most of the 1970s. This was before writing and directing the epic 1980 American war/action film 'The Big Red One'.
In the late 1970s, Fuller made a cameo appearance in German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer Wim Wenders' 1977 West German/French neo-noir thriller/crime film 'Der amerikanische Freund' ('The American Friend'). Fuller was credited as The American.
Two years later after the release of 'The Big Red One', Fuller had co-written and directed the 1982 American drama/thriller film 'White Dog'.
It had also been co-written by American film director, screenwriter, and producer Curtis Hanson ('L.A. Confidential').
Too often dismissed as little more than a genre filmmaker, Fuller was instead one of the earliest and most uncompromising forces in American independent cinema.
Fuller was known for using intense close-ups, off centered framings, and shock editing in many of his films, which were often about men facing death in combat. These scenes were both violent and tragic.
Noted for his tabloid-influenced storytelling style, breathless camera work, and extreme close-ups, Fuller was a pugnacious, tough-as-nails man whose features reflect a uniquely personal vision.
Obsessed with themes of falsehood and deception, his films illuminated the cultural divisions at the heart of American society, depicting a grim, immoral world far removed from the placid surface typically on display in more mainstream fare.
Celebrated as a genius by his fans -- and denounced as a sensationalist by his detractors -- Fuller was a deeply patriotic man quick to criticize his country's flaws, as well as a raw, anarchic filmmaker capable of moments of inexpressible beauty.
These included such contradictions that fueled and ultimately defined both him and his body of work. Even today, these qualities continue to exert tremendous influence over such prominent filmmakers as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Jim Jarmusch.
It was Fuller's His visual style and rhythm were seen as distinctly American, and praised for their energetic simplicity. Scorsese praised Fuller's ability to capture action through camera movement.
The French New Wave claimed Fuller as a major stylistic influence, especially French film critic and filmmaker Luc Moullet.
In the 1996 American biographical documentary film 'The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera', Tarantino and Jarmusch credited Fuller as influential upon their works.
Most recently, Fuller's second wife, German-American film and television actress and screenwriter Christa Lang, produced a documentary.
It had been written and directed by their daughter, American actress Samantha Fuller, about her father and his career. This was the 2013 American historical documentary film 'A Fuller Life'.
The film uses footage he captured himself with celebrities such as James Franco reading from his autobiography.
In 2018, 'Pickup on South Street' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Although Fuller's films were not considered great cinema in their times, they gained critical respect in the late 1960s.
Fuller welcomed the new-found esteem, appearing in films of other directors and associating himself with younger filmmakers.
Fuller had been active from 1936–1994.
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