Roland Joffé

Roland Joffé (/ˈdʒɒfeɪ/; born 17 November 1945) is an English film and television director, producer and screenwriter. He is known for directing the critically acclaimed films The Killing Fields (1984) and The Mission (1986), earning him Academy Award nominations for Best Director. The latter won the Palme d'Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. Joffé began his career in television, with 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. In the late 1980s, he co-founded the production company Lightmotive with Ben Myron. Description above from the Wikipedia article Roland Joffé, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Works

Production Story: Fat Man and Little Boy

Paramount promotional film about the making of Fat Man and Little Boy (1989).

Release Date1989-09-01

Charactersd Himself

Le Grand Échiquier

Release Date1972-01-12

Charactersd Self

Episode Count1

Vote Count2

Ennio

A portrait of Ennio Morricone, the most popular and prolific film composer of the 20th century, the one most loved by the international public, a two-time Oscar winner and the author of over five hundred unforgettable scores.

Release Date2022-02-17

Charactersd Self

Vote Count341

I Am Patrick Swayze

An inside look at the life of Patrick Swayze as told by the people who knew him best.

Release Date2019-08-18

Charactersd Self

Vote Count28

Super Mario Bros: This Ain't No Video Game

A documentary about the making of the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie.

Release Date2014-11-03

Charactersd Self - Producer

Vote Count9

The Peculiar Memories of Bruce Robinson

A journey through the career of the British writer/director best known for his film "Withnail & I" (1987). Robinson reveals how he writes, reads from his screenplays, and revisits the town of his birth where his first novel "The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman" is set. Interviews include Andy Garcia, Richard E. Grant, Ken Russell and David Puttnam.

Release Date1999-08-02

Charactersd Self

Prisoners of Our Own History: The First Four Films of Roland Joffé

A retrospective of director Roland Joffé’s first four films.

Release Date2022-12-16

Charactersd Self

Sam

Sam is a drama set in the coalfields of Yorkshire in the inter-war period.

Release Date1973-06-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count26

Vote Count1

Texas Rising

A chronicle of the Texas Revolution, the uprising against the tyranny of Mexican dictator Santa Anna, from the battle of the Alamo to the battle of San Jacinto, and the rise of the Texas Rangers.

Release Date2015-05-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count5

Vote Count57

6.3

Bill Brand

Following the death of the sitting Labour Party Member of Parliament, Bill Brand is selected as Labour candidate for a Lancashire textile constituency.

Release Date1976-06-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count5

Vote Count3

Super Mario Bros.

Mario and Luigi, plumbers from Brooklyn, find themselves in an alternate universe where evolved dinosaurs live in hi-tech squalor. They're the only hope to save our universe from invasion by the dino dictator, Koopa.

Release Date1993-05-28

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count1360

The Mission

When a Spanish Jesuit goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region, a slave hunter is converted and joins his mission. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portuguese aggressors.

Release Date1986-09-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1449

The Scarlet Letter

Set in puritanical Boston in the mid 1600s, the story of seamstress Hester Prynne, who is outcast after she becomes pregnant by a respected reverend. She refuses to divulge the name of the father, is "convicted" of adultery and forced to wear a scarlet "A" until an Indian attack unites the Puritans and leads to a reevaluation of their laws and morals.

Release Date1995-10-13

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count491

The Killing Fields

New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg is on assignment covering the Cambodian Civil War, with the help of local interpreter Dith Pran and American photojournalist Al Rockoff. When the U.S. Army pulls out amid escalating violence, Schanberg makes exit arrangements for Pran and his family. Pran, however, tells Schanberg he intends to stay in Cambodia to help cover the unfolding story — a decision he may regret as the Khmer Rouge rebels move in.

Release Date1984-11-23

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count770

City of Joy

Max Lowe is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively decides to leave America and travel to India in the hope of finding himself. Not long after he arrives in Calcutta, Max is attacked by a group of thugs and left without money or a passport.

Release Date1992-04-15

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count158

There Be Dragons

Arising out of the horror of the Spanish Civil War, a candidate for canonization is investigated by a journalist who discovers his own estranged father had a deep, dark and devastating connection to the saint's life.While researching the life of Josemaria Escriva, the controversial founder of Opus Dei, the young journalist Robert uncovers hidden stories of his estranged father Manolo, and is taken on a journey through the dark, terrible secrets of his family’s past.

Release Date2011-03-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count136

Fat Man and Little Boy

Assigned to oversee the development of the atomic bomb, Gen. Leslie Groves is a stern military man determined to have the project go according to plan. He selects J. Robert Oppenheimer as the key scientist on the top-secret operation, but the two men clash fiercely on a number of issues. Despite their frequent conflicts, Groves and Oppenheimer ultimately push ahead with two bomb designs — the bigger "Fat Man" and the more streamlined "Little Boy."

Release Date1989-10-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count152

Captivity

The sought-after images of top model Jennifer adorn magazine covers and billboards worldwide. When alone at a club, she is abducted and incarcerated in a cell with another prisoner. When their captor subjects the two to torture, they commit to escaping the chamber of horrors before they're killed.

Release Date2007-03-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count437

The Lovers

The Lovers is an epic romance time travel adventure film. Helmed by Roland Joffé from a story by Ajey Jhankar, the film is a sweeping tale of an impossible love set against the backdrop of the first Anglo-Maratha war across two time periods and continents and centred around four characters — a British officer in 18th century colonial India, the Indian woman he falls deeply in love with, an American present-day marine biologist and his wife.

Release Date2015-03-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count71

Vatel

In 1671, with war brewing with Holland, a penniless prince invites Louis XIV to three days of festivities at a chateau in Chantilly. The prince wants a commission as a general, so the extravagances are to impress the king. In charge of all is the steward, Vatel, a man of honor, talent, and low birth. The prince is craven in his longing for stature: no task is too menial or dishonorable for him to give Vatel. While Vatel tries to sustain dignity, he finds himself attracted to Anne de Montausier, the king's newest mistress. In Vatel, she finds someone who's authentic, living out his principles within the casual cruelties of court politics. Can the two of them escape unscathed?

Release Date2000-05-01

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count172

The Forgiven

After the end of Apartheid, Archbishop Desmond Tutu meets with a brutal murderer seeking redemption.

Release Date2018-03-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count94

Goodbye Lover

Police investigate when a man having an affair with his brother's wife disappears suddenly.

Release Date1999-04-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count64

You and I

Janie Sawyer, an American teenager, is forced to live in Moscow because of her father's job. Janie is trying to escape her lonely life in Moscow through her deep love of music and the internet. Janie and Lana Starkova meet on a fansite for the pop-band t.A.T.u. Trapped in a small Russian town, Lana wants desperately nothing more than to flee her mundane life causing the two girls to develop an instant connection through their love of t.A.T.u.'s music.

Release Date2011-02-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count46

The Stars Look Down

Mini series about a Northumberland mining village - the daily lives of the inhabitants and the tragedies and disasters that befell them.

Release Date1975-09-04

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count6

A Lover Scorned

Trapped in a loveless marriage, Brooke begins an affair with Jake a young, hotshot insurance-agent.

Release Date2019-08-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count8

'Tis Pity She's a Whore

Lord Sorenzo marries the beautiful young Annabella, but unbeknownst to him, she is pregnant as a result of an incestuous relationship with her brother Giovanni. Sorenzo discovers the truth, and his ambitious, scheming servant Vasques, resorts to murder (and worse) to ensure that the whole affair ends in a heart rending tragedy! The original 17th century play was set in Italy, this version the action takes place in Victorian England.

Release Date1980-05-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

November 1963

Unfolds within the intense 48-hour period surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The film sheds light on crime group the Chicago Outfit’s alleged involvement in the assassination and draws directly from first-hand accounts, including insights from the family of crime boss Sam Giancana.

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Blood on the Crown

How the citizens of Malta fought for independence from Britain in 1919. When the Army was sent to quell the riots and the British government covered up the bloody encounter, more than 100 Maltese were accused of instigating the violence and jailed.

Release Date2021-03-09

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count7

L'Inverno

A tale of torn loyalty and love between SS officer Nikolaus Fuhrich and his first love, Jewish violinist Elisabeth Soloviechik. From two befriended Austrian families, one Jewish, one "Germanic," the fates of these two young characters intersect and intertwine prior to the First and after the Second World War.

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

A Taste of Freedom

Covers six weeks of the lives of Sasha Politkovsky, a prominent TV journalist, and his family. Chronicles the events of 1990 as glasnost and perestroika lift the lid of totalitarianism in the Soviet Union.

Release Date1991-11-01

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Swimming to Cambodia

Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film 'The Killing Fields'. At the same time, he gives a background to the events occurring in Cambodia at the time the film was set.

Release Date1987-03-13

DepartmentCrew

JobThanks

Vote Count26

The Legion Hall Bombing

The story of the trial of Willie Gallagher, convicted of bombing the Strabane British Legion Hall in Northern Ireland, 1976. The transmission of this film was postponed by the BBC several times, and when it did finally air, it was shown with cuts; the writer, Caryl Churchill, and director, Roland Joffé, had their names removed from the credits in protest.

Release Date1978-08-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Spongers

In the days leading up the Queen's Silver Jubilee, Pauline, a recently separated single mother, receives a visit from a bailiff and is given 15 days to address her overdue rent payments. Meanwhile, the local council is under pressure to cut expenditure, and their decisions result in Pauline's mentally handicapped daughter Paula being transferred from a care home for special needs children to an old people's home, where she is all alone.

Release Date1978-01-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Twelve Off the Belt

Grand Challenge pie-eating contest : ' Winner finishes most whole pies off the belt in half-an-hour. Ties decided on a raw cabbage '. The Bedworth Hog faces tough competition.

Release Date1977-05-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

United Kingdom

Incendiary 1981 Play for Today, written by Jim Allen and directed by Roland Joffé that tells the story of a group of housing estate residents who attempt to organise against persistent rent rises.

Release Date1981-12-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

No Mama No

After giving birth to her second boy, Jodie recognises a growing dissatisfaction in all areas of her life.

Release Date1979-03-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector