Stephen Frears is a very versatile British director across a range of film genres. At university he worked with Footlights and then at the Royal Court Theatre. His first film as a director was Gumshoe British film noir with a feel of Briitish kitchen sink films. He then worked for many at the BBC before returning to films in 1984 with The Hit a stlish crime thriller with a Spanish setting. This was followed by My Beautiful Laundrette. This was the film that made his name as a director on the world stage. His first American film was the historical drama Dangerous Liasons. THis is differnt in the that it is less gritty than his other films. He gets good performances afrom a strong cast and aldo brings through an underlying comedy. He returned to thrillers with The Grifters that was produced by Martin Scorsese. Frears was nominated for Best Director and Anjenica Huston and Annette Bening also got Oscar nominations. Accidental hero was his first big budget Hollywood film, though he was not so happy about the big budget air crash. His next film, Mary Reilly was not a critical success. High Fidelity was his next successful film based on the Nick Hornby novel. Dirty Pretty Things was more of a social drama set in the underclass of London. Mrs Henderson Presents was change in genre as Judi Dench runs the Windwill theatre during the war. The Queen is probably his biggest hit and most successful film. Cheri isan historical romantic drama. He then returned to comedy with Tamara Drew. Philomena is the story of Judi Dench searching for the child who taken away from her. Florence Foster Jenkins was another period film that has a light entertaining touch. More recently he has returned to working on television.
