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Barry Gifford is a Scriptwriter American born on 18 october 1946 at Chicago (USA)

Barry Gifford

Barry Gifford
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Nationality USA
Birth 18 october 1946 (78 years) at Chicago (USA)

Barry Gifford (born October 18, 1946) is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness.

Gifford is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Perdita Durango was adapted into film by Alex de la Iglesia. Gifford also writes non-fiction.

Biography

Barry Gifford nait à Chicago en 1946. Il grandit entre La Nouvelle-Orléans et Chicago, suivant les déplacements de son père qui travaillait pour la pègre. Son père meurt alors qu'il a douze ans. Après de courtes études, il s'engage dans l'armée puis s'oriente vers l'écriture. Il exerce divers métiers (marin, vendeur, journaliste …) avant de rencontrer le succès, d'abord comme poète puis comme écrivain. Dans le roman The Phantom Father: A Memoir traduit par Rivages en 1997 sous le titre Le Père fantôme, Barry Gifford mêle fiction et souvenirs et raconte la relation qui le liait à son père.

En 1990, il écrit le roman Wild at heart : The Story of Sailor & Lula, C'est le premier roman de la série Sailor & Lula. David Lynch l'adapte la même année et réalise le film Wild at Heart, connu en France sous le titre Sailor & Lula. Il obtient la Palme d'or à Cannes et Barry Gifford obtient alors une reconnaissance mondiale. En parallèle à sa carrière d'auteur, il devient scénariste et travaille avec David Lynch sur la mini-série Hotel Room en 1993 puis sur le scénario du film Lost Highway en 1997. Il participe à l'adaptation de son roman 59° & Raining : The Story of Perdita Durango pour Álex de la Iglesia qui le tourne sous le titre Perdita Durango en 1997. Il collabore avec Matt Dillon pour l'écriture du film City of Ghosts en 2002.

En France, Barry Gifford est d'abord publié dans la collection Rivages/Noir ou l'on trouve l'intégralité de la série Sailor & Lula. Cette série qui compte sept titres à l'origine est publié en France en cinq romans, l'éditeur regroupant Sailor's Holiday et Sultans of Africa (Jour de chance pour Sally en 1995) puis Consuelo's Kiss et Bad Day for the Leopard Man (Le Baiser de Consuelo en 1996). Rivages réédite également Les Carnets intimes de Francis Reeves et publie Port Tropique, Baby Cat-Face et La Légende de Marble Lesson (Arise and Walk regroupé avec Night People en 2001). En 2002, Gallimard publie à la Série noire Sinaloa Story puis le roman pour la jeunesse Wyoming dans la collection Haute Enfance. À partir de 2009 , Barry Gifford intègre le catalogue de la maison d'édition 13e Note.

Critique de cinéma pour le magazine Mystery Scene de San Francisco, il publie dans le recueil Out of the Past: Adventures in Film Noir (Pendez-moi haut et court … et autres chroniques sur le film noir) une sélection de chroniques et avis sur le cinéma noir.

En 2012, il participe à l'adaptation de son roman The Phantom Father: A Memoir réalisé sous le titre Tatal Fantoma (The Phantom Father) et dans lequel il joue.

Best films

Wild at Heart (1990)
(Novel)

Usually with

David Lynch
David Lynch
(2 films)
Mary Sweeney
Mary Sweeney
(2 films)
Eric Da Re
Eric Da Re
(2 films)
Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon
(1 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Barry Gifford (4 films)

Display filmography as list

Scriptwriter

City of Ghosts, 1h56
Directed by Matt Dillon
Origin USA
Genres Thriller
Actors James Caan, Matt Dillon, Stellan Skarsgård, Natascha McElhone, Gérard Depardieu, Rose Byrne
Rating59% 2.950272.950272.950272.950272.95027
Jimmy (played by Matt Dillon) is a conman who's been working for a fake insurance company in New York City that is being investigated by the FBI after it cannot pay claims that have poured in after a hurricane. Discovering that his mentor and the mastermind of the scheme, Marvin (James Caan), has skipped the country and gone to Thailand, Jimmy boards a plane with the intention of trying to collect his money.
Lost Highway, 2h14
Directed by David Lynch, Mary Sweeney
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Noir, Crime
Themes Medical-themed films, Psychologie, Films about psychiatry
Actors Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Loggia, Robert Blake, Jack Nance
Roles Writer
Rating75% 3.7999053.7999053.7999053.7999053.799905
After the opening credits, which show a highway's dividing lines at night while blaring techno music plays in the background, Fred Madison (Bill Pullman), a Los Angeles saxophonist, receives a message from an unknown man on the intercom of his house. The voice says that "Dick Laurent is dead." When he looks out his window, the streets outside his house are empty, and faint police sirens are heard in the distance.
Dance with the Devil, 2h6
Directed by Álex de la Iglesia
Origin Mexique
Genres Thriller, Horror comedy, Action, Adventure, Horror
Themes Transport films, Films about automobiles, Road movies, Comedy horror films
Actors Rosie Perez, Javier Bardem, Harley Cross, Aimee Graham, James Gandolfini, Demián Bichir
Rating63% 3.152453.152453.152453.152453.15245
Perdita (Rosie Perez) is a tough, no-nonsense lady clad in a Tura Satana-style black outfit. She meets Romeo Dolorosa (Javier Bardem), a maniacal criminal who also happens to be an even more maniacal witch doctor. Romeo robs a bank but risks getting caught in order to force the Bank Teller to strip her shirt and reveal her large breasts. Once in the street, he hides his face from the cops by grabbing and french kissing a random woman on the street. Crossing the border into Mexico together, Perdita and Romeo become lovers and partners in crime as they kidnap a random Anglo-Saxon teenage couple in order to sacrifice them. Along the way they also hijack a truckload of human fetuses and try to evade a determined Drug Enforcement Administration officer (James Gandolfini).
Wild at Heart, 2h4
Directed by David Lynch
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Crime, Romance
Themes Transport films, Films about automobiles, Road movies
Actors Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Crispin Glover, Diane Ladd, Isabella Rossellini
Roles Novel
Rating71% 3.598373.598373.598373.598373.59837
Lovers Lula and Sailor are separated after he is jailed for killing a man who attacked him with a knife; the assailant, Bobby Ray Lemon, was hired by Lula's mother, Marietta Fortune. Upon Sailor's release, Lula picks him up at the prison where she hands him his snakeskin jacket. They go to a hotel where she reserved a room, make love and go to see the speed metal band Powermad. At the club, Sailor gets into a fight with a man who flirts with Lula, and then leads the band in a rendition of Elvis Presley's "Love Me". Later, back in the room, after making love again, Sailor and Lula finally decide to run away to California, breaking Sailor's parole. Marietta arranges for private detective Johnnie Farragut – her on-off boyfriend – to find them and bring them back. Unbeknownst to Farragut, however, Marietta also hires gangster Marcellus Santos to track them, and kill Sailor. Santos's minions capture and kill Farragut, sending Marietta into a guilt-fueled psychosis.