Jodie Foster life and biography

Jodie Foster (Also known as: Alicia Christian Foster, Alicia Foster) born November 19, 1962 in Los Angeles, California is an American actress and movie director .

A wunderkind stage-managed by a pushy mother who enrolled her in a French-speaking school for gifted children and succeeded in bringing her to the notice of fledgling director Martin Scorsese, Jodie Foster has in many ways lived up to her early promise, winning Academy Awards for her performances in The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs and graduating with honors from Yale. After notable appearances as a child actress in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Taxi Driver (the only performance to inspire a would-be presidential assassin?), Foster suffered through the reactionary and overly conventional 1980s with few real opportunities to display her acting talents. Both The Accused and Silence of the Lambs, however, afforded her the opportunity once again to make an impression on mainstream cinema with finely crafted portraits of morally ambiguous women who, though victimized, maintain their integrity and self-respect.

Though urged by talent and inclination toward the director's chair, Foster by 2006 had released only two of her directorial undertakings, and was involved in a third--a drama called Flora Plum Perhaps too much was expected of her maiden effort (Foster appeared on the cover of Time immediately upon the release of Little Man Tate, which the magazine enthusiastically reviewed). Critics and audiences alike, however, generally did not like the film. Foster was undoubtedly attracted to the project to some extent by the subject matter, which has a strong resonance with her own life and experiences. Fred Tate is also a wunderkind, whose only problem is that he needs more stimulation than his loving, though terribly low-brow, mother (played by Foster) is able to provide. Enter Jane Grierson, head of a school for gifted children, who wants to take charge of Fred's education. Dede Tate reluctantly agrees, and the remainder of the film treats the struggle between these two mothers, with their different parenting styles, for control of Fred.

Never a fan of mainstream cinema's glitz and fascination with (particularly) violent spectacle, Foster seems to have found in this story by Scott Frank the material for a dramatically effective small film. And yet Foster's handling (not discounting the problems in Frank's screenplay) does not do the material justice. Because Fred has no conflicts, except for finding a proper environment, he is rightly displaced from the story's center. And yet the conflict between the two women is not adroitly handled. Dede's decision to let Jane have Fred is not clearly dramatized; in fact, a number of scenes that begin with some promise of illuminating the similarities and differences of the two women end confusingly. Lacking the essential Aristotelian elements of a linear movement toward a conclusion and clearly drawn characters, the film becomes tedious and pointless; it is not rescued by an improbable conclusion and out-of-place melodramatic touches along the way. If Foster's goal was to make some point about a mother's need to combine career aspirations for her child with unconditional elemental love and respect, the film only confusingly endorses such a position.

Foster waited four years before directing her follow-up effort, Home for the Holidays, in 1995. Continuing with the theme of parent-child relationships, the film stars Holly Hunter as the estranged daughter of a dysfunctional family who returns home to attempt to make peace. Home for the Holidays received mixed reviews, with some critics praising its dark humor and on-target picture of family life, while others claimed that the repeated clashes between parents and siblings made it difficult to watch.

Although she has not directed any films since then, Foster continued to act in films, playing roles that she carefully chose. Never one to take roles that portrayed women as weak, Foster took roles that could easily have been played by male actors without changing the way they were written. Notable and most recent among these is her performance in the 2006 Spike Lee film, Inside Man, in which she played "a fixer. If something goes wrong in the upper circles, she comes in and cleans up the mess or negotiates between parties," as she described the role to Belinda Luscombe in Time. When Luscombe remarked on the fact that many of the roles Foster has played could easily have been played by tough men, without changing a line, Foster remarked, "I think it's that here we are in 2006 and women get to play humans. We've reached that place in movie history, and it's not that I'm a pioneer, but I feel I was there at the beginning."


PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born: Alicia Christian Foster in Los Angeles, 19 November 1962; children: Charles and Kit Foster. Education: Attended Lycée Français, Los Angeles; Yale University, B.A., 1985. Career: Acted in TV commercials from the age of three; 1969--acting debut on TV in Mayberry R.F.D.; 1972--feature film acting debut in Napoleon and Samantha; 1991--directorial film debut with Little Man Tate. Awards: U.S. National Film Critics Award, and Los Angeles Film Critics Award, for Taxi Driver, 1976; BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer, for Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone, 1976; Academy Awards for Best Actress, for The Accused, 1988, and for The Silence of the Lambs, 1991; Chevalier dans l'Orde des Arts et de Lettres, 1995; Governors Award, American Society of Cinematographers, 1996; Women in Film Crystal Award, 1996; Berlinale Camera, Berlin International Film Festival, 1996; Audience Award, European Film Awards, 1997; Douglas Sirk Award, Hamburg FilmFest, 1997; Life Achievement Award, Golden Satellite Awards, 1997; Rembrandt Audience Award for Best Actress, for Contact, 1998; Saturn Award, 1998, for Contact; American Cinematheque Award, 1999.

WORKS
* Films as Director

* 1991: Little Man Tate (+ ro as Dede Tate)
* 1995: Home for the Holidays (+ co-pr)

* Films as Actress

* 1970: Menace on the Mountain (McEveety--for TV) (as Suellen McIver)
* 1972: Napoleon and Samantha (McEveety) (as Samantha)
* 1972: Kansas City Bomber (Freedman) (as Rita)
* 1973: Tom Sawyer (Taylor) (as Becky Thatcher)
* 1973: One Little Indian (McEveety) (as Martha)
* 1973: Rookie of the Year (Elikann--for TV)
* 1974: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Scorsese) (as Audrey)
* 1974: Smile Jenny, You're Dead (Thorpe--for TV) (as Liberty)
* 1976: Echoes of a Summer (The Last Castle) (Taylor) (as Deirdre Striden)
* 1976: Freaky Friday (Nelson) (as Annabel Andrews)
* 1976: Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker) (as Tallulah)
* 1976: Taxi Driver (Scorsese) (as Iris Steensman)
* 1977: The Little Girl Who Lives down the Lane (Gessner) (as Rynn Jacobs)
* 1977: Candleshoe (Tokar) (as Casey Brown)
* 1977: Il casotto (The Beach House) (Citti) (as Teresina)
* 1978: Moi, Fleur Bleue (Stop Calling Me Baby!) (as Fleur Bleue)
* 1980: Foxes (Lyne) (as Jeanie)
* 1980: Carny (Kaylor) (as Donna)
* 1983: O'Hara's Wife (Bartman) (as Barbara O'Hara)
* 1983: Le Sang des autres (The Blood of Others) (Chabrol) (as Hélène)
* 1983: Svengali (Harvey--for TV) (as Zoe Alexander)
* 1984: The Hotel New Hampshire (Richardson) (as Franny Berry)
* 1986: Mesmerized (Shocked) (Laughlin) (as Victoria, + co-pr)
* 1987: Siesta (Lambert) (as Nancy)
* 1988: Five Corners (Bill) (as Linda)
* 1988: The Accused (Kaplan) (as Sarah Tobias)
* 1988: Stealing Home (Kampmann) (as Katie Chandler)
* 1989: Backtrack (Catchfire) (D. Hopper--released in U.S. in 1991) (as Anne Benton)
* 1991: The Silence of the Lambs (J. Demme) (as Clarice Starling)
* 1992: Shadows and Fog (W. Allen) (as prostitute)
* 1993: Sommersby (Amiel) (as Laurel)
* 1993: It Was a Wonderful Life (Ohayon--doc) (as narrator)
* 1994: Nell (Apted) (title role, + co-pr)
* 1994: Maverick (R. Donner) (as Annabelle Bransford)
* 1997: Contact (Zemeckis) (as Dr. Eleanor Arroway)
* 1999: Anna and the King(Tennant) (as Anna Leonowens)
* 2001: Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys(Care) (as Sister Assumpta)
* 2005: Flightplan, (Schwentke) (as Kyle Prattt)
* 2006: Los Angeles, (Lee) (as Madeline White)

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