1960s In the 1960s, after three years of editing documentaries in Paris, Hudson headed a documentary film company with partners
Robert Brownjohn and David Cammell. The company produced, among others, the documentaries
A for Apple, which won a Screenwriters' Guild Award, and
The Tortoise and the Hare, which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. The company emerged with much success in the 1960s, winning many awards and pioneering a new graphic style for documentary and advertising films. Hudson then began a career in advertising, producing and directing many television commercials. He worked alongside
Alan Parker,
Ridley and
Tony Scott for Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), a British film and commercial production company founded in 1968. His first filmmaking job was as a second-unit director on Parker's
Midnight Express (1978).
1970s–1980s Between 1973 and 1975, Hudson wrote and directed
Fangio, A life at 300 km/h, a documentary film about motor racing seen through the eyes of
Juan Manuel Fangio, five times the world
Formula One Champion. From 1979 to 1980, Hudson directed his first and most successful feature film,
Chariots of Fire (1981), the story of two British track runners, one a devout Christian and the other an ambitious Jew, in the run-up to the
1924 Olympic Games. The film is said to have revitalized the fading British film industry, and it won four Academy Awards, including
Best Picture; Hudson earned a nomination for
Best Director. His friend and colleague
Vangelis created an Academy Award-winning score for the film.
Vincent Canby of the
New York Times wrote in 1981 "It's to the credit of both Mr Hudson and Mr Welland that
Chariots of Fire is simultaneously romantic and commonsensical, lyrical and comic. ... It's an exceptional film, about some exceptional people." In 2017, some 37 years after its showing at the
1981 Cannes Film Festival, it was shown to a large audience at the Classic Screenings beach cinema to help support the
bid for the
2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris. Hudson had rejected numerous feature film offers before
Chariots of Fire's success. His next production was
Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984) which received four Oscar nominations, and was
Ralph Richardson's last screen performance, for which he was nominated in the
1985 Oscars as Best Supporting Actor. It was a success at the box office and with critics. In 1985, Hudson directed
Revolution, which depicted the American War of Independence, and which was released before it was a fully completed film. The film was a critical and commercial failure at the box office and earned Hudson a
Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Director. Hudson's next theatrical feature film was
Lost Angels (1989), nominated for the
Palme d'Or at the
1989 Cannes Film Festival. The film was an American-based drama starring
Donald Sutherland and
Ad-Rock of the
Beastie Boys and dealing with disaffected youth in California.
1990s onward In the early 1990s,
David Lean named Hudson as a possible replacement director on
Nostromo, his adaptation of
Joseph Conrad's
novel, which he never shot because he died beforehand. Hudson subsequently worked on the project for eight years, but it never saw the light of day. "It was an impossible film to make," he later said. "We tried, though, with French producer
Serge Silberman. A silver mine and five characters, all destroyed in their search for the treasure it contains: Hollywood wasn't ready to finance that." In 1999, Hudson directed
My Life So Far.
Jean-Claude Carrière wrote of it, "Hugh Hudson's film
My Life So Far is a delightful bittersweet film, which covers the start of a boy's life during the first part of the 20th century – from his last baby's bottle to his first cigar. A film which sadly is not known as well as it should be. It is a variation on a universal theme which will never end. There will always be men and women, old people and youngsters, horses and dogs." Hudson next directed
I Dreamed of Africa (2000), which was the closing film of the
Cannes Film Festival of that year. In 2006, Hudson was reported to be working, together with producer
John Heyman, on an historical epic based on the life of the monotheistic Egyptian Pharaoh
Akhenaten and his wife
Nefertiti. The film was to center around their tempestuous relationship. In 2008, Hudson re-edited
Revolution, giving the film a narration by
Al Pacino. The
Observer film critic
Philip French writing about the new version said, "
Revolution was misunderstood and unjustly treated on its first appearance twenty years ago. Seeing it again in the director's slightly revised version it now strikes me as a masterpiece – profound, poetic and original. Hudson's film should take its place among the great movies about history and about individual citizens living in times of dramatic social change. One hopes it will finally find the wide audience it deserves." In 2009, he was in active development on
Catalonia, a drama set against the backdrop of the
Spanish Civil War based on
George Orwell's memoirs, and was preparing to shoot it the next year. Described as a "three-sided story", the film was to have starred
Colin Firth as Orwell, alongside
Geoffrey Rush and an unknown female actress. Hudson co-produced
Chariots of Fire, the 2012 stage adaptation of the film of the same title. The stage adaptation was his idea, for the London Olympic year. Also in 2012, it was announced that Hudson would direct
Midnight Sun, a feature film about a child who tries to help a family of polar bears on the shrinking polar ice cap. Hudson co-wrote the script as well. The script became
The Journey Home with directors
Roger Spottiswoode and
Brando Quilici replacing Hudson. In 2016, he staged his debut as an opera director with
Robert Ward’s setting of
The Crucible at the
Staatstheater Braunschweig. The sets and painted backdrops were designed by British artist
Brian Clarke. The second run of the opera was to sold-out audiences. In 2016, Hudson directed the period drama
Altamira, about the discovery of the famous
Spanish cave paintings. The film stars
Antonio Banderas and
Rupert Everett.
The New York Times gave the film a glowing review. Released in two U.S. cities the film then was distributed by Netflix in USA/Canada and Sky in the UK. The Spanish release was very successful. == Advertisements ==