3 questions for... Patrick Brion 

Posted on september 27,2018

Film historian, creator and host of Midnight Cinema (France 3), Patrick Brion will participate in the Richard Thorpe retrospective, a highlight of the 2018 Lumière festival. A specialist of the American director, whose work he has defended for years, Brion contributed to composing our Richard Thorpe program. We asked him three questions to lift the veil on a director who remains relatively unknown, despite an extremely rich filmography.

Little is known about the genesis behind tireless director Richard Thorpe. How did he become one of the pillars of MGM?

Richard Thorpe began in 1923 in small studios (Mascot, Chesterfield, etc.) before joining the prestigious MGM, the largest studio of the time, in 1935. In total (before and after MGM), he shot at least 180 films, in addition to various contributions to other films. He remained at MGM for about thirty years. Thorpe was happy to find a studio that worked well and could provide a filmmaker with what he needed, from directors of photography to decorators, from actors to costumers. For MGM, Thorpe was a safe bet because he churned out films fast enough, and respected their budgets...

Richard Thorpe made over 130 feature films at a fast pace. Where do you think his genius and style came from?

Richard Thorpe - let's be clear - was not an "auteur" like Hitchcock, Mankiewicz or Billy Wilder, for example, but he was an excellent technician, capable of bringing out the best of all elements placed at his disposal, not unlike how a conductor is, perhaps not a composer!

What films would you recommend to a novice moviegoer who would like to discover Richard Thorpe's cinema?

Must-see (or see-again) films include The Prisoner of Zenda, Above Suspicion, Three Little Words or Black Hand.

Click here for the full program of Richard Thorpe films.