- Bruce Beresford was born in Australia and graduated from Sydney University in 1962. He served as Film Officer for the British Film Institute Production Board from 1966-1971 and as a Film Advisor to the Arts Council of Great Britain. Beresford has also directed several operas including Girl Of The Golden West (Puccini), staged for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston and Spoleto (Italy) and Elektra (Strauss), which was staged for the State Opera Company of South Australia and performed in Adelaide and Melbourne. It won the Award for Best Opera Production of 1991. Immediately prior to starting production on PARADISE ROAD, Beresford directed SWEENEY TODD for the Portland Opera in Oregon.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpousesVirginia Duigan(1985 - present) (2 children)Rhoisin Patricia Harrison
- Children
- ParentsLeslie BeresfordLona Warr
- His favorite films according to the 'Sight and Sound' Top Ten poll: Chimes at Midnight (1965), The Apu Trilogy (Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), The World of Apu (1959)), Ludwig (1973), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), My Darling Clementine (1946), Fanny and Alexander (1982), The Rules of the Game (1939), Odd Man Out (1947), The Road (1954) and Black Hawk Down (2001).
- Directed 6 different actors in Academy Award-nominated performances: Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Tess Harper, Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman and Dan Aykroyd. Tandy and Duvall won for their lead performances.
- Brother-in-law of Nammi Le.
- Australian film director, at his best with period pieces and small-scale dramas. Considered one of Australia's "New Wave" directors.
- Brother-in-law of John Duigan.
- [on Tender Mercies (1983) and lead actor Robert Duvall] Duvall was strange. First of all he was and is a great actor. You could ask him to do a scene five, six times and he'd do it exactly the same way every time. But, on the other hand, there would be delays, like we had to wire up a whole house and he'd just get restless. He'd get mad.
- [on the distribution history of his classic Breaker Morant (1980)] When we actually finished it, they had no plans to release it in Australia. Nobody wanted to put it out there. Then, a French guy from the Cannes Film Festival came to Australia and insisted on seeing every Australian film made that year. I ran into him at a cocktail party, and he said, "I'm here seeing all the Australian films." And I said, "Oh, you must have seen my film." He said, "What's your film?" I said, "It's one called "Breaker Morant", but it hasn't been released." And he said, "I told them to show me every Australian film, including the unreleased ones!" Then he insisted on seeing it, and picked it for Cannes. After Cannes, it was shown in Australia. But it was not successful: It got mostly good reviews, but people didn't go. But that film still gets me work. People still call me and say, "Oh, we saw "Breaker Morant", and we're wondering if you might want to film this script we've got." It's amazing how much work that film has got me - for a film that was seen, statistically, by very few people. (...) ...the film didn't do that well in America either. I found out it was shown on the plane between New York and Los Angeles, as an in-flight movie. So a lot of the executives were basically forced to see it! When I started to get all these calls, I asked, "Where on Earth did you see this film?" They'd seen it on the flight. [2015]
- I read the novel of Mister Johnson (1990) when I was quite young, and it struck me then that it was a great story. And when [producer] Michael Fitzgerald got in touch with me to tell me about this project, I was immediately very interested - especially as I'd lived in Nigeria for a while when I was younger. I was 24 when I first went there. I was the only white man in an African film unit. It was interesting to me to be thrown into that culture headfirst. I think it gave me a lot of insights. [2015]
- [on the Criterion Collection] They just got in touch with me and said, "We're putting out two of your films." And I said, "Which two?" And they said, "Breaker Morant (1980) and Mister Johnson (1990)." And I said, "Well, that's nice. Those are two of my best films." I'm glad Criterion did them, because they always do such a wonderful job and go through so much trouble cleaning up the negatives and so forth. Especially because I don't think "Mister Johnson" has ever been available on DVD. It got good reviews when it came out, but nobody went to see it. [2015]
- [on Tender Mercies (1983)] The script was sent to me in Australia, after it had been sent to almost every director in America - I think they'd been to about 30 other directors. When I read it, I remember saying to my wife, "I just read one of the most beautiful, moving scripts anyone has ever written." And I couldn't get on the phone quickly enough to tell them I'd do it. (...) He [Robert Duvall] was already attached when I got the script. He was linked as producer as well. No, he's not the easiest guy in the world to get on with. The really difficult ones are the ones who show up drunk, or don't show up at all, or they don't remember the dialogue - and he wasn't one of them. He turned up, he did the lines. We never argued over the interpretation of the character or anything like that. But he was just one of those people who was hostile to just about everybody. He's a strange man. One day he wanted to take all the lighting equipment away. Another day, he wanted all the sound equipment taken away. It was very bizarre. But he gave a fantastic performance. On the very first day of shooting, I said, "If this guy doesn't get an Academy Award for this, I'm a monkey's uncle." [2015]
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content