Stephen Frears
FameRank: 6

"Stephen Arthur Frears" is an English film director. Frears directed several critically acclaimed British feature films since the 1980s including My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity (film)/High Fidelity, The Queen (film)/The Queen, and Philomena (film)/Philomena.

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I grew up with those MGM musicals, so I have an idea what I like from a musical. It helped to read a book about making musicals, however.

These were women who did not make a habit of taking their clothes off in public before they began performing at the Windmill. I suppose we could view all of this as politically incorrect, but the truth is that what happened at the Windmill brought many people together as a means of escaping the tragedy that was surrounding them.

By putting a girl in there you immediately get a much more modern sensibility so you avoid making it a Victorian melodrama.

I've tried to draw a line between my films and identify the themes that keep returning, but I can't. I wish sometimes I could identify the type of films I do, but so far I have not. Whatever strikes me, is about as analytical as I can get.