Bob Swaim
Encyclopedia
Robert F. "Bob" Swaim is an American film director
, born in Chicago
on November 2, 1943. He grew up in the Reseda area of Los Angeles and graduated from Reseda High School
in 1961 and with a degree in anthropology from California State University, Northridge, then called San Fernando Valley State College, in 1965.
Bob then went to France to work on his doctorate in ethnology
. He studied at the Collège de France
with Claude Lévi-Strauss
and Georges Ballandier at L'École des Langues Orientales. However, spending most of his free time at the French Cinématheque, he quickly caught the "film bug" and dropped out of his doctoral program and entered l'École Nationale de la Cinématographie et la Photographie on the rue de Vaugirard, later known as l'Ecole Louis Lumière
.
After graduating from "Vaugirard" in 1970, Swaim spent most of the seventies writing and directing documentaries and commercials. Unable to break into the closed world of feature film
s, he founded, along with several other young filmmakers, a film company to produce their own films. During the few years of their existence, they produced over fifty theatrical short films of young debutant filmmakers including 3 short films that Swaim wrote, directed and produced. The three films won numerous international prizes and awards and enable Swaim to write and direct his first feature film, La Nuit de Saint Germain des Prés (1977) starring Michel Galabru, Mort Shuman
, and for the first time on screen, a young talented actor named Daniel Auteuil
. The film also marked the re-discovery of a long forgotten French writer, Leo Malet
and introduced his character, Nestor Burma
, to a new generation of mystery fans.
The La Nuit de Saint Germain des Prés, shown at the Director's Fortnight (la Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) at the Cannes Film Festival
, was a critical success but a box office flop and it was four years before Swaim was to direct his next feature, La Balance
. The film was not only one of the biggest box offices successes in the history of French cinema but went on to change the face of the French "polar". Le Monde wrote, "Avec La Balance, Bob Swaim a réinventé le film policier." The film had 8 César
nominations, winning Best Picture, Best Actor (Philippe Léotard), and Best Actress (Nathalie Baye).
The film became an international success and led to Swaim's first Hollywood contract. In 1985, Swaim wrote and directed Half Moon Street, adapted from Paul Theroux
's award winning novel Dr. Slaughter. The film starred Sigourney Weaver
and Michael Caine
, and introduced for the first time on the big screen, a young French actor, Vincent Lindon
.
Swaim, now in Hollywood, signed a contract with MGM as a director, writer, and producer. There he developed several projects for MGM and directed Masquerade
for the studio in 1988, starring Rob Lowe
and Meg Tilly. Disenchanted with Hollywood and the studio system, Swaim returned to France where he set up a company to develop European projects for American producers.
In 1989, Swaim left for Rome where he spent two years writing and directing the French classic novel; l'Atlantide for the Italian producer Roberto Ciccuto. The 19th century adventure drama, shot in the legendary Studio 5 at Cinecittà
in Rome and in the southern desert of Morocco
, starred Tchéky Karyo
, Jean Rochefort
, Anna Galiena and the Oscar winning actor, Fernando Rey
.
After the film, Swaim came back to Paris and for the next few years developed a ground-breaking television series for France Télévisions
, Police-Secrets. The series, consisting of twelve 90-minute films, were one of the first realistic police dramas (polar) on French television. It set the tone and pace for the numerous French cop shows to come. Apart from writing and producing the series, Swaim also directed several 90 minute films for France Télévision and Canal+.
In 1997, Bob Swaim returned to the cinema, directing The Climb (1997–1998) starring John Hurt
and David Strathairn
. The film was one of Swaim's most critically acclaimed films, winning prizes in numerous festivals including the prestigious UNICEF Prize for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival.
Swaim then adapted Giovanni's Room
, the American cult novel by James Baldwin
for James Ivory
and Ismail Merchant
. Then in 2001, Gerard Mortier
, director of the Salzburg Festival
, asked Swaim to direct the Janáček
opera, Jenůfa
with Hildegard Behrens
and Karita Mattila
and Sir John Eliot Gardiner
conducting. The opera was the critical and popular success of the festival.
The following year, Swaim began working on his first comedy, Cheap Shot. The film went into production in 2003 and was released in the summer of 2004 under the name of Nos Amis les Flics. The film, starring Daniel Auteuil
, Frédéric Diefenthal
and Lorant Deutsch
, won the Grand Prix du Festival de Saint Malo
that year.
Aside from writing, directing and producing, Bob Swaim has acted in several films including John Landis
' Spies Like Us, Caroline Huppert
's J'ai Deux Amours
, James Ivory's Soldiers' Daughters Never Cry, and most recently, Florence Quentin's Ole starring Gérard Depardieu
and Gad Elmalech.
In the 1990s, it became obvious to many in the French film industry that one of the industry's biggest problems was the lack of qualified screenwriter
s so in 1993, Swaim joined the Association Équinoxe, a screen writing workshop, founded by Jeanne Moreau
. These workshops were designed to give an international profile and resonance to selected French and European projects, allowing them to reach a variety of audiences in a more direct way. Since 1993, there have been almost 8000 screenplays submitted and over 200 writers selected, 135 international advisers, and a record 65 films produced and released. In 2003, Swaim was elected to the Board of Directors of Équinoxe.
He has also been an adviser-consultant at the Performing Arts Lab for Screenwriters in Kent
, England and, most recently, at the Australian Film Commission
's workshop in Sydney. Additionally, he has been a guest lecturer at New York University
and Columbia University
. He has also taught acting at Andreas Voutsinas' Theatre des 50 "L'Atelier" and the VO/VF Acting School.
Currently Bob Swaim is writing his next feature film, Pigalle-Barbès (provisional title) – a thriller that takes place in Paris during the French-Algerian War. He is also preparing a documentary for France Télévisions on the First Congress of Black Writers and Artists
that took place in Paris in 1956 as part of the "Année des Cultures Francophones-2006".In 2007, he will return to the stage, to direct a "Blues Odyssey" at the Théâtre du Châtelet. This "blues opera" will be "un périple musical à travers la musique première de l'Amérique noire". – Sebastian Danchin
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, born in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
on November 2, 1943. He grew up in the Reseda area of Los Angeles and graduated from Reseda High School
Reseda High School
Reseda High School, established in 1955, is located in the Reseda section of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.The school currently is home to the Reseda High School Science Magnet HS and the Reseda Police Academy Magnet HS, in addition to Reseda High's four small learning...
in 1961 and with a degree in anthropology from California State University, Northridge, then called San Fernando Valley State College, in 1965.
Bob then went to France to work on his doctorate in ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
. He studied at the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
with Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
and Georges Ballandier at L'École des Langues Orientales. However, spending most of his free time at the French Cinématheque, he quickly caught the "film bug" and dropped out of his doctoral program and entered l'École Nationale de la Cinématographie et la Photographie on the rue de Vaugirard, later known as l'Ecole Louis Lumière
Louis Lumiere College
Louis Lumière College offers theoretical, practical as well as technical and artistic education and training for those wishing to go into the various branches of the audiovisual industry....
.
After graduating from "Vaugirard" in 1970, Swaim spent most of the seventies writing and directing documentaries and commercials. Unable to break into the closed world of feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s, he founded, along with several other young filmmakers, a film company to produce their own films. During the few years of their existence, they produced over fifty theatrical short films of young debutant filmmakers including 3 short films that Swaim wrote, directed and produced. The three films won numerous international prizes and awards and enable Swaim to write and direct his first feature film, La Nuit de Saint Germain des Prés (1977) starring Michel Galabru, Mort Shuman
Mort Shuman
Mort Shuman was an American singer, pianist and songwriter, best known as co-writer of many 1960s rock and roll hits, including "Viva Las Vegas"...
, and for the first time on screen, a young talented actor named Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil is a French film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Algiers, French Algeria.-Career:...
. The film also marked the re-discovery of a long forgotten French writer, Leo Malet
Léo Malet
-Biography:Leo Malet was born in Montpellier. He had little formal education and began work as a cabaret singer at "La Vache Enragee" in Montmartre, Paris in 1925....
and introduced his character, Nestor Burma
Nestor Burma
Nestor Burma is a fictional character created by French crime novelist Léo Malet. In the series of crime novels featuring him one can isolate a subset of novels each set in a different quarter of Paris which Malet dubbed the "New Mysteries of Paris", homaging the most famous feuilleton of the 19th...
, to a new generation of mystery fans.
The La Nuit de Saint Germain des Prés, shown at the Director's Fortnight (la Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, was a critical success but a box office flop and it was four years before Swaim was to direct his next feature, La Balance
La Balance
La Balance is a 1982 French film directed by Bob Swaim and starring Nathalie Baye, Philippe Léotard, Tchéky Karyo, Maurice Ronet and Jean-Paul Comart...
. The film was not only one of the biggest box offices successes in the history of French cinema but went on to change the face of the French "polar". Le Monde wrote, "Avec La Balance, Bob Swaim a réinventé le film policier." The film had 8 César
César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
nominations, winning Best Picture, Best Actor (Philippe Léotard), and Best Actress (Nathalie Baye).
The film became an international success and led to Swaim's first Hollywood contract. In 1985, Swaim wrote and directed Half Moon Street, adapted from Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his...
's award winning novel Dr. Slaughter. The film starred Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
and Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
, and introduced for the first time on the big screen, a young French actor, Vincent Lindon
Vincent Lindon
Vincent Lindon is a French actor who has been active for more than 25 years.Lindon was a lover of Princess Caroline of Monaco from 1990 to 1995. He is currently separated from his wife, the French actress Sandrine Kiberlain.-Selected filmography:-External links:...
.
Swaim, now in Hollywood, signed a contract with MGM as a director, writer, and producer. There he developed several projects for MGM and directed Masquerade
Masquerade (1988 film)
Masquerade is a 1988 film; a psychological thriller starring Rob Lowe and Meg Tilly. It is directed by Bob Swaim.-Plot:The story centres on the unfolding relationship between Hamptons heiress Olivia and yacht skipper Tim who are introduced soon after the death of Olivia's mother, which has left...
for the studio in 1988, starring Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe
Robert Hepler "Rob" Lowe is an American actor. Lowe came to prominence after appearing in films such as The Outsiders, Oxford Blues, About Last Night..., St. Elmo's Fire, and Wayne's World. On television, Lowe is known for his role as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and his role as Senator Robert...
and Meg Tilly. Disenchanted with Hollywood and the studio system, Swaim returned to France where he set up a company to develop European projects for American producers.
In 1989, Swaim left for Rome where he spent two years writing and directing the French classic novel; l'Atlantide for the Italian producer Roberto Ciccuto. The 19th century adventure drama, shot in the legendary Studio 5 at Cinecittà
Cinecittà
Cinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
in Rome and in the southern desert of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, starred Tchéky Karyo
Tchéky Karyo
-Early life:Karyo was born in Istanbul to a Greek mother and Sephardic-Jewish father and raised in Paris, France. He studied drama at the Cyrano Theatre and later became a member of the Daniel Sorano Company, playing many classical roles.-Career:...
, Jean Rochefort
Jean Rochefort
Jean Rochefort is a French actor, with a career that has spanned over five decades.Rochefort was born in Paris, France. He was educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen He was 19 years old when he entered the Centre d'Art Dramatique de la rue Blanche. Later he joined the Conservatoire National...
, Anna Galiena and the Oscar winning actor, Fernando Rey
Fernando Rey
Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...
.
After the film, Swaim came back to Paris and for the next few years developed a ground-breaking television series for France Télévisions
France Télévisions
France Télévisions is the French public national television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the bringing together of the public television channels France 2 and France 3 , later joined by the legally independent channels France 5 , France Ô , and France 4 France Télévisions ...
, Police-Secrets. The series, consisting of twelve 90-minute films, were one of the first realistic police dramas (polar) on French television. It set the tone and pace for the numerous French cop shows to come. Apart from writing and producing the series, Swaim also directed several 90 minute films for France Télévision and Canal+.
In 1997, Bob Swaim returned to the cinema, directing The Climb (1997–1998) starring John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
and David Strathairn
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
. The film was one of Swaim's most critically acclaimed films, winning prizes in numerous festivals including the prestigious UNICEF Prize for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival.
Swaim then adapted Giovanni's Room
Giovanni's Room
Giovanni's Room is James Baldwin's second novel, first published in 1956. The book focuses on the events in the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men in his life, particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni who he meets...
, the American cult novel by James Baldwin
James Baldwin (writer)
James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...
for James Ivory
James Ivory (director)
James Francis Ivory is an American film director, best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included both Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
and Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant was an Indian-born film producer, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
. Then in 2001, Gerard Mortier
Gérard Mortier
Gerard Alfons August, Baron Mortier is a Belgian opera director and administrator of Flemish origin.Mortier has served as general director of La Monnaie and of the Salzburg Festival...
, director of the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
, asked Swaim to direct the Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
opera, Jenůfa
Jenufa
Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...
with Hildegard Behrens
Hildegard Behrens
Hildegard Behrens was a German soprano with a wide repertory including Wagner, Weber, Mozart, Richard Strauss, and Alban Berg roles.-Biography:...
and Karita Mattila
Karita Mattila
Karita Marjatta Mattila is a leading opera soprano. She was born in Somero, Finland.Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco...
and Sir John Eliot Gardiner
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...
conducting. The opera was the critical and popular success of the festival.
The following year, Swaim began working on his first comedy, Cheap Shot. The film went into production in 2003 and was released in the summer of 2004 under the name of Nos Amis les Flics. The film, starring Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil is a French film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Algiers, French Algeria.-Career:...
, Frédéric Diefenthal
Frédéric Diefenthal
Frédéric Diefenthal is a French actor and director.-Biography:Diefenthal began acting in the early 1990s; he held a main role in the French television series Le juge est une femme , where he first gained a degree of notoriety...
and Lorant Deutsch
Lorànt Deutsch
Laszlo Matekovics, aka « Lorànt Deutsch » , is a French actor and writer.Born at Alençon, his father was Hungarian and his mother was French....
, won the Grand Prix du Festival de Saint Malo
Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...
that year.
Aside from writing, directing and producing, Bob Swaim has acted in several films including John Landis
John Landis
John David Landis is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for his comedies, his horror films, and his music videos with singer Michael Jackson.-Early life and career:...
' Spies Like Us, Caroline Huppert
Caroline Huppert
Caroline Huppert is a French film director and screenwriter. She is the sister of French actress Isabelle Huppert and has directed 20 films since 1977.-External links:...
's J'ai Deux Amours
J'ai Deux Amours
J'ai Deux Amours is a 2005 album by Dee Dee Bridgewater. This was Bridgewater's first album of French music; she lived in France for more than two decades and speaks French.-Track listing:...
, James Ivory's Soldiers' Daughters Never Cry, and most recently, Florence Quentin's Ole starring Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu is a French actor and filmmaker. He is a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite and has twice won the César Award for Best Actor...
and Gad Elmalech.
In the 1990s, it became obvious to many in the French film industry that one of the industry's biggest problems was the lack of qualified screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
s so in 1993, Swaim joined the Association Équinoxe, a screen writing workshop, founded by Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
. These workshops were designed to give an international profile and resonance to selected French and European projects, allowing them to reach a variety of audiences in a more direct way. Since 1993, there have been almost 8000 screenplays submitted and over 200 writers selected, 135 international advisers, and a record 65 films produced and released. In 2003, Swaim was elected to the Board of Directors of Équinoxe.
He has also been an adviser-consultant at the Performing Arts Lab for Screenwriters in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England and, most recently, at the Australian Film Commission
Australian Film Commission
The Australian Film Commission was an Australian government agency with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a production arm responsible for production and commissioning of films for government...
's workshop in Sydney. Additionally, he has been a guest lecturer at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He has also taught acting at Andreas Voutsinas' Theatre des 50 "L'Atelier" and the VO/VF Acting School.
Currently Bob Swaim is writing his next feature film, Pigalle-Barbès (provisional title) – a thriller that takes place in Paris during the French-Algerian War. He is also preparing a documentary for France Télévisions on the First Congress of Black Writers and Artists
Congress of Black Writers and Artists
The Congress of Black Writers and Artists is a meeting of leading black intellectuals for the purpose of addressing the issues of colonialism, slavery, and Négritude...
that took place in Paris in 1956 as part of the "Année des Cultures Francophones-2006".In 2007, he will return to the stage, to direct a "Blues Odyssey" at the Théâtre du Châtelet. This "blues opera" will be "un périple musical à travers la musique première de l'Amérique noire". – Sebastian Danchin