Roland Joffé (born 17 November 1945) is a British director and producer of film and television, known for the Academy Award-nominated films The Killing Fields and The Mission. He began his career in television, his early credits including episodes of Coronation Street and an adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada. He gained a reputation for hard-hitting political stories with the series Bill Brand and factual dramas for Play for Today.

Education
Joffé was educated at two independent schools: the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London, and Carmel College in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, which was Europe's only Jewish boarding school, until it closed in 1997. He completed his formal education at the University of Manchester.

Career

TV director
After university, Joffé joined Granada Television as a trainee director in 1973, where he directed episodes of  Coronation Street, Sam, The Stars Look Down, Crown Court, Bill Brand, and Headmaster.

In 1977, producer Tony Garnett was commissioned by the BBC to direct the play The Spongers within BBCs Play for Today series. He informed the BBC drama department that he wanted to hire Roland Joffé as director, but was told that Joffé did not possess BBC clearance and was regarded a "security risk" (see: "Christmas tree" list). The reason was that Joffé had attended some Workers' Revolutionary Party meetings in the early 1970s, although he never became a party member. He explained around 1988: "I was very interested in politics at that time. But I was interested in what all the political parties were doing, not just the WRP, and I was never actively involved." Only after Garnett threatened he would "go public", was the veto on Joffé's appointment withdrawn. The Spongers won the prestigious Prix Italia award.

Joffé also directed an episode in BBC's Second City Firsts in 1977 and later directed two more plays for Play for Today: The Legion Hall Bombing (1979) and United Kingdom (1981). In 1979, he directed the TV play No, Mama, No by Verity Bargate for the ITV Playhouse series, and in 1980 he made a version of 17th century dramatist John Ford's play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore as a TV film for the BBC.

Film director
Roland Joffé's first two feature films (The Killing Fields, 1984, and The Mission, 1986) each garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Joffé worked closely with producer David Puttnam on each film. The Killing Fields detailed the friendship of two men, an American journalist for The New York Times, and his translator, a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge in Communist Cambodia. It won three Academy Awards (for Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing) and was nominated for four more (including Best Picture and Best Director). The Mission was a story of conflict between Jesuit missionaries in South America, who were trying to convert the Guaraní Indians, and the Portuguese and Spanish colonisers, who wanted to enslave the natives. In an interview with Thomas Bird, Joffé says of The Mission, "The Indians are innocent. The film is about what happens in the world... what that innocence brings out in us. You would sit in a cinema in New York, or in Tokyo, or Paris, and for that point of time you would be joined with your companions on this planet. You would come out with a real sense of a network.". The film won the Palme d'Or and Technical Grand Jury Prize at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. It achieved six Academy Awards nominations—including for Best Picture, Best Director, and Ennio Morricone's acclaimed Best Original Score—and won one, for Best Cinematography.

In 1993, he produced and partially directed a big budget adaptation of the video game Super Mario Bros.. The film struggled to make back its budget. His 1995 adaptation of The Scarlet Letter was a critical and financial disaster, and his 2007 horror film Captivity drew controversy with its advertising billboards, widely regarded as exploitative and misogynistic. He received Razzie Nominations for Worst Director for The Scarlet Letter and Captivity.

His 2011 release, There Be Dragons, garnered press attention as it dealt with the Catholic organisation Opus Dei. A movie about faith and forgiveness, There Be Dragons is a project that Joffé says has a message he's proud to say on film. In an interview with CBN.com, he stated, "I have a very deep emotional investment in this film. I feel that I really want to stand behind what it says to us as human beings."

In 2013 Joffé directed the Anglo-Indian historical epic romance time travel adventure film, The Lovers.

Personal life

Joffé is of Jewish descent but has described himself as a "wobbly agnostic". He is not related to the French film director Arthur Joffé, as is often incorrectly stated.  

Around 1950, Roland's father Mark Joffe began a relationship with the daughter of Jacob Epstein and Kathleen Garman, Esther Garman, who helped raise Roland. After Esther's suicide in 1954, Roland lived with her parents. Portraits of Roland as a child by Jacob Epstein and Esther's brother Theodore Garman are part of the Garman Ryan Collection at The New Art Gallery Walsall.

From 1974 to 1980, Joffé was married to actress Jane Lapotaire; they have a son, screenwriter and director Rowan Joffé (b. 1973). Later, he and actress Cherie Lunghi were in a longterm relationship; they have a daughter, actor Nathalie Lunghi (b. 1986). 

Joffé is a board member of the nonprofit organization Operation USA. He was the official patron of the 2011 Cambodia Volleyball World Cup held from 23 to 29 July at the National Olympic Stadium Phnom Penh. Roland Joffé lives on the island of Malta and is an active member of the team organising the Valletta Film Festival.

Filmography

Film

Television

Accolades

References

External links
 
 
 
 
 BOMB Magazine interview with Roland Joffé by Thomas Bird (Winter, 1987) 

1945 births
Living people
Directors of Palme d'Or winners
English agnostics
English expatriates in France
English film producers
British people of Jewish descent
English television directors
Film directors from London
French agnostics
French film directors
French film producers
French television directors
Jewish agnostics
Naturalized citizens of France
People educated at Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle
Prix Italia winners
British emigrants to France
롤랑 조페(Roland Joffé, 1945년 11월 17일 영국, 런던 출생)는 영화 감독으로서 텔레비전에서 처음 선을 보였다. 그의 처음 텔레비전 작품들은 'Coronation Street'와 'adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada'의 에피소드였다. 그는 'Bill Brand' 시리즈 같은 충격적인 정치적 이야기들과 'Play for Today' 같은 실화 드라마로 명성을 얻어나갔다. 롤랑 조페는 Marc Joffe(Riga 출생)의 아들로서 흔히 틀리게 언급되는 프랑스 영화 감독 Arthur Joffe와는 관련이 없다.

BBC/MI5 블랙리스트에 오름 
1970년대 초반 '조페'는 영국 노동혁명당(Workers' Revolutionary Party) 회의에 참가하였으나, 결국 구성원이 되지는 않았고, 1977년엔 모든 관계를 끊었다.: "나는 당시에 정치적인 것에 무척 관심이 많았다. 그러나 모든 정당에 관심이 있었던 것이며 WRP(Workers' Revolutionary Party)에만 국한된 것이 아니었고 깊게 관여된 적도 없다"고 언급했다.
1977년에 '조페'는 BBC에 'The Spongers'란 작품을 연출하게 되는데, '조페'는 블랙리스트에 오르게 된다. 연극 연출가, Tony Garnett은, MI-5(1909년 독일스파이 색출을 위해 새로 조직된 영국정보기관, 체포권은 없다함) 문서에 '조페'가 그의 좌파적 시각으로 인해 '안보위협인물(security risk)'로 등록되었다는 것을 알게 된다. Garnett이 대중에게 폭로하겠다며 위협하자, '조페'의 사의표명(辭意表明)으로 이어지게 된다. '조페'의 작품인 'The Spongers'는 꽤 성공하여 영예의 'Prix Italia'를 수상하게 된다.

감독 경력 
그의 초기 두 개의 작품('킬링 필드', 1984, 와 '미션', 1986)은 각각 최우수 감독상으로 아카데미상 후보에 오르게 된다. '조페'는 이 두 영화에서 연출가 '데이빗 퍼트냄(David Puttnam; 1941년 2월 25일 영국, 런던 출생, 영화제작자, 정치인)'과 밀접하게 일하였다. '킬링 필드'에서는 두 남자의 우정이 잘 그려졌는데, 뉴욕 타임즈의 미국기자로서, 통역사로서, 또 캄보디아 크메르루주(Khmer Rouge)의 죄수로서 그러했다. 이 영화는 아카데미상 3개 부문을 수상(최우수 조연상-행 S. 느고르, 최우수 촬영상, 최우수 편집상)하고, 4개 부문에 후보(최우수 영화상, 최우수 감독상)로 오른다.
'미션'은 남아메리카 대륙에 예수회 선교사들 사이의 갈등들을 다룬 영화로, 과라니(Guarani) 인디언들을 개종하고, 포르투갈 식민지인으로 바꾸려 하다가, 원주민들에게 오히려 동화되는 선교사들의 이야기이다(실화에 기반). 이 영화는 최우수 영화상, 최우수 감독상 등 아카데미상 6개 부문 후보에 오르는데 엔니오 모리코네의 'Garbriel's Oboe'가 최우수 영화음악상을, 그리고 최우수 촬영상을 수상한다.
이러한 그의 초창기의 찬사들에 반해 '조페'의 영화인생은 성공적이지는 못했다. '패트릭 스웨이지'가 캘커타의 의사로 나와 다시 한번 인도와 인도인들의 자비와 우정의 한계를 시험했던 '시티 오브 조이 City of Joy(1992)'는 여전한 '백인 우월주의'적 시각에 입각한 영화라는 비판과 함께 '킬링 필드'의 아류작으로 취급됐다. 1993년 거대 예산을 투입한 '슈퍼 마리오 형제(Super Mario Bros.)' 비디오 게임을 영화로 제작, 부분 연출했으나 예산도 건지기도 버거운 영화였다. 그의 '주홍 글씨 1995년판'에서는 '데미 무어'와 '게리 올드먼'이라는 부적절한 캐스팅과 함께 온갖 평단의 부정적 평가와 심각한 재정적 파탄을 겪게 되고, 2007 공포영화 'Captivity(한국 4.4.4.로 개봉)'는 비평글에서 실험적(exploitative)인 작품이라는 평가와 여성협오적(misogynistic)이라는 평가에 대한 논쟁을 일으켰다.

가족 
‘조페’는 저명한 조각가 'Jacob Epstein'을 할아버지로 입양되었다. '조페'는 여배우인 제인 라포타이르(Jane Lapotaire; 1971. 결혼 - 1980. 이혼/ 아들 1명, Rowan Joffé, 1972년생, 영국, 극작가, 감독)와 Cherie Lunghi(딸 1명, Nathalie Lunghi, 1986년생, 영국, 배우)와 결혼한 바 있다. 그는 비영리단체인 'Operation USA' 상임이사(board member)이다.

작품 목록 
감독 (총 10편)

 킬링 필드(The Killing Fields, 1984)
 미션(The Mission,1986)
 멸망의 창조(Fat Man and Little Boy, 1989)
 시티 오브 조이(City of Joy,1992)
 Super Mario Bros. (uncredited, 1993)
 주홍글씨(The Scarlet Letter, 1995)
 굿바이 러버(Goodbye Lover, 1999)
 바텔(Vatel (about François Vatel), 2000)
 4.4.4.(Captivity, 2007)
 유 앤 아이(You and I, 2008)
 Singularity (2010) (pre-production)
 There Be Dragons (2010) (pre-production)

참조 문헌 
 Mark Hollingsworth; Richard Norton-Taylor (1988), "MI5 and the BBC – Stamping the 'Christmas Tree' files", Blacklist: The Inside Story of Political Vetting, London: Hogarth Press, p. 104,  (pbk.) /
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1945년 출생
살아있는 사람
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