Farewell to the Canadian director Norman Jewison, who directed memorable films such as «In the Heat of the Night», «Fiddler on the Roof», «Jesus Christ Superstar», «Rollerball», «Agnes of God» and «Moonstruck». He passed away in his Los Angeles home at the age of 97 on Saturday, January 20, as announced by publicist Jeff Sanderson on behalf of the family. Between the Sixties and Eighties, Jewison - a progressive author of a cinema of civil commitment and technically very innovative - collected a series of well-deserved successes and seven Oscar nominations, in addition to the Silver Bear for directing in 1988 at the Berlin Festival for «Moonstruck» and the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg award, awarded to him as part of the Academy Awards in 1999 in recognition of his career.
Who he was
Born in Toronto on July 21, 1926, after graduating in 1950 Norman Jewison moved to London, where in two years he learned the rules of the television author's trade at the BBC. Returning to his hometown, he worked at the Canadian TV CBC from 1953 to 1958, then directed and produced various musical shows in New York, including some episodes of «The Judy Garland show» (1962-63). He made his directorial debut in Hollywood with the Disney film «40 Pounds of Trouble» (1962), followed by some comedies, two of which starred Doris Day: «The Thrill of It All» (1963) and «Send Me No Flowers» (1964). He established himself as an innovative filmmaker with his fifth film «Cincinnati Kid» (1965), where he metaphorically analyzes social dynamics and their conflict, presenting poker games between the young challenger (Steve McQueen) and the older and now established opponent (Edward G. Robinson) as authentic duels. This film was followed by «The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming» (1966), the first work to be also produced by the director and first Oscar nomination for Best Film. Since then, the world torn by racism became a constant in Norman Jewison's filmography, with an ideal trilogy on intolerance towards African Americans in the United States: the anti-racist police «In the Heat of the Night» (1967), for which he received an Oscar nomination for directing, a film based on the character of an African American detective played by Sidney Poitier; «A Soldier's Story» (1984), again nominated for an Oscar for Best Film; and «The Hurricane» (1999), which transforms the story of boxer Rubin Carter into an indictment of the American police and judicial system.
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