Sidney Lumet first proved that he was a master of the courtroom drama with 1957’s Twelve Angry Men. A quarter century later, Lumet – a director still awaiting proper international recognition – gave the one and only Paul Newman the defining role of his career. Newman, the centenary of whose birth comes just after the conclusion the third edition of KVIFF Classics, stars as Frank Galvin, an alcoholic medical malpractice lawyer who long ago stopped caring about his clients harmed by medical errors or negligence. One day, however, an old friend and mentor sets the jaded and tired Frank up with a case that reminds him of the professional oath that had once been his calling.
Sidney Lumet (1924, Philadelphia – 2011, New York) started out as an actor in a Jewish theatre alongside his father. He began directing theatre in the 1950s, when he worked on the first of his more than 100 television shows. He first gained fame with the claustrophobic drama 12 Angry Men (1957), which clearly reflects the typical characteristics of his directing style. Although he was fond of suspense and detective genres, he was drawn more towards ordinary protagonists and unremarkable stories and aimed for realistic portrayals, with a focus on the smallest detail and on the characters’ psychological depth. In terms of style, his thematically diverse range of films share an attempt to show that seemingly simple things are in reality extremely complicated and worthy of thought. Many of his films received numerous awards and nominations; a few examples include The Hill (1965), Serpico (1973), Network (1976), and The Verdict (1982).
