EDWARD BURNS:INDEPENDENT SPIRIT

Edward burns is an actor and director from New York which is known in our country because of his roles in films like “Save private Ryan” or “15 minutes”. However, most people don´t  know that he started his career as an actor starring in his first film, and also as scriptwriter and director : “McMullen Brothers”, with which he won the jury grand prize of the Sundance Film Festival in 1995, and got Robert Redford to produce his following film with Cameron Díaz and Jennifer Aniston.



EDWARD BURNS IN "CONFIDENCE"

 As a result of these films, Burns obtained more and more important roles in other people´s films, as “Confidence” or “The Holidays”. Currently, he has a production company with his brother, Irish Twins, and combines his works as an actor, as a scriptwriter and as a director. He’s a convinced filmmaker and holds talks about the Seventh Art. He films and uploads videos to Youtube with didactic lessons, and answering his fans’ and facebook followers’ questions.

His works as a director have grown till reaching 11 films. He’s an independent director, tireless, sincere, intimate and close, who tells daily stories, and gives them class and elegance. In each one, he moves us to different places in NY, and immerses us in daily tales that, with the permission of Woody Allen, makes him the director of the Big Apple.

ITEx:Cristinaf you still haven’t watched any Burns’ film, or you haven’t watched everything, here is some information about his filmography, and we recommend you these ones:

The Brothers McMullen
Burns shot his first film when he worked as an assistant in the “Entertainment tonight” TV show. The script is about three brothers who face decisions of maturity, fidelity, engagement and even religion. In the cast (nearly unknown then) there are some of Burns’ favourites actors: Maxine Bahns (his girlfriend then), Michael Mcglone and Connie Britton.  

In this film, Burns uses some of his main matters: fear of engagement,  brotherhood and parents’ after effects. In this case, father and mother are equally absent, but in the other films, the father role will become more and more important, and mother will be absent or undefined part in Burns’ Filmography.

The data: Burns asked their family for money so that he could shoot it. He raised 25.000 dollars and earned near 10 millions in EEUU. This made the film the most profitable film of the year, and made him the new independent cinema up and coming talent.

Prizes: “best first featurefilm” in the Independent Spirit Prizes.  The Jury Gran Prize in the Sundance Film Festival.

The Best: its freshness; in a world that all we know, he pleasantly achieve his purpose of surprising us.

She´s the one

The economic hardship of his debut was not repeated in his second project with the intervention of the great (and we not get tired of saying) Robert Redford. With a good budget and a better cast of actors, Burns wrote, directed and starred in "She's the One", falling two co-stars in the aforementioned McGlone (who embroiders his brother role here ambitious and competitive) and Bahns, which joined Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz (after the boom of "the Mask") and John Mahoney secondary label.
The story revolves around two brothers (Burns and McGlone) very different untimely fall in love the same woman (Diaz).

The director deals again with matters like the relationship between brothers, between parents and sons (with a colorful character played by Mahoney) and love relationship.

The data: the musician Tom Petty composed the Soundtrack of this film.

The best: the actors (Mcglone and Díaz), every dialogue and sequence of Mahoney (the best role in his career, according to our opinion).

The curious data: If we had the chance, we would ask Burns if he likes the Norman Jewison film “Moonstruck”(one of our favourite films), because  a great part of the supporting cast is the same in both films , “Moonstruck” and “The Brothers McMullen”: John Mahoney, Anita Gillette and Robert Weil).

   Recommendation of LASDELCINE

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No Looking Back

We notice a lot of changes in his third film in comparison with the previous ones. Here, Burns risks going from oral comedy to a drama in which the main character is a woman (Lauren Holly) who struggles between staying in her small town with her boyfriend (John Bon Jovi), or run away with her teen love (Edward Burns) who returns after a long absence.

Texto: Cristina Martín
Traducción:Eva Sánchez

Burns plays here a minor role, and returns to the crossroads dilemma, the courage, the parents’  after effects and love, but this time from a dramatic point of view. For the very first time, he moves away from his loved New York, but it is still beating in this world beyond the border of the little town.

Although this film hadn’t the previous success, maybe because public expected another comedy, it is a good story with a clear message, consistent and valiant.

The data: Bruce Springteen makes the soundtrack with suitable themes for this little story, which could be the lyric of some of his songs. There is a song composed by Bruce’s wife, Patty Scialfa, too.

The Best: The Soundtrack ( the song as well as the score), and the script, for the risk it assumes in its simplicity.

Here ends today’s article about one of our favourite directors. In the following post, we’ll talk and recommend the rest of his films.

Have a good week!! 

Texto:Cristina Martín
Traducción: Eva Sánchez Segura