Norman Jewison

Directing

Norman Jewison

Born 1926-07-21 · Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Norman Frederick Jewison, CC, O.Ont (July 21, 1926 - January 20, 2024) was a Canadian film director, producer, actor and founder of the Canadian Film Centre. Highlights of his directing career include In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Moonstruck (1987), The Hurricane (1999) and The Statement (2003). Jewison addressed important social and political issues throughout his directing and producing career, often making controversial or complicated subjects accessible to mainstream audiences.

Acting credits

No artwork available
NR

Documentary about Stanley Kramer, included on the 40th anniversary edition of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

Stanley Kramer: A Man's Search for Truth

2008

Jesus Christ Superstar poster
7.1

As played out by a theatre troupe, the last days of Jesus Christ are depicted from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus' following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene.

Jesus Christ Superstar

1973

The Stupids poster
4.8

An incredibly dull-witted family unknowingly stumble upon an illegal weapons deal while on the trail of their "stolen" garbage.

The Stupids

1996

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn poster
3.9

Filmmaker Alan Smithee finds himself the unwilling puppet of a potentially bad big budget action film, for which he proceeds to steal the reels, and leaves the cast and crew in a frenzy.

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn

1998

I Am Steve McQueen poster
6.1

A walk through the incredible personal and artistic history of legendary actor, race car driver and cultural icon Steve McQueen (1930-80).

I Am Steve McQueen

2014

No artwork available
8.0

illustrates how directors pushed boundaries and altered the art of filmmaking during the turbulent, swinging 1960s. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, "Reel Radicals" features clips from such seminal films as Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967); Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" (1967); Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" (1969); John Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962); Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968); John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" (1969); Richard Brooks' "Elmer Gantry" (1960) and "In Cold Blood" (1967); and Norman Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) and "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968). Frankenheimer, Jewison, Hopper, Schlesinger, Penn, Buck Henry, Paul Mazursky, Roger Corman and Arthur Hiller are among the filmmakers who discuss the decade.

Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film

2002

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions: America's Greatest Love Stories poster
7.7

A look at one hundred years of romance in American cinema.

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions: America's Greatest Love Stories

2002

Canadian Pacific poster
5.2

A surveyor for the Canadian Pacific Railroad must fight fur trappers who oppose the building of the railroad by stirring up Indian rebellion.

Canadian Pacific

1949

Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool poster
5.9

Friends, family, co-stars and admirers of actor Steve McQueen talk about his life and his movie career.

Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool

2005

Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs poster
3.0

Ekchart Schmidt examines the machinery behind the dream factory; the Hollywood myth is unmasked. How does the studio industry work? What role does marketing and the hype surrounding the stars play?

Mythos Hollywood - Das Geheimnis des Erfolgs

1998

Sid & Judy poster
7.4

Explore the dramatic career and personal struggles of the talented and tragically short-lived entertainer Judy Garland through rare concert footage, never-heard-before voice recordings and personal photos.

Sid & Judy

2019

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster poster
6.3

Beginning just before his debut as Frankenstein’s creation, this documentary compellingly explores the life and legacy of a cinema legend, presenting a perceptive history of the genre he personified. Karloff's films were long derided as hokum and attacked by censors, but his phenomenal popularity and pervasive influence endures, inspiring some of our greatest actors and directors into the 21st Century – among them Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman, Roger Corman, and John Landis, all of whom and many more contribute their personal insights and anecdotes.

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster

2021

Steve McQueen: Man on the Edge poster
7.0

Abandoned by his father, he was a reform school kid with nothing going for him and a giant chip on his shoulder. He joined the Marines but never stayed far from trouble. Then he discovered acting — and the woman who would be with him for most of his meteoric career. He was Steve McQueen, one of Hollywood's highest paid stars — and one of its most difficult, most rebellious and, when he wished, most charming.

Steve McQueen: Man on the Edge

1990

No artwork available
7.3

Editing is more than just assembling shots in a certain order, it's an art form, and this documentary celebrates the craft and how it has grown and evolved through the history of the cinema. Edge Codes.com: The Art of Motion Picture Editing traces this story from the world of pioneering silent auteurs such as Georges Méliès and D.W. Griffith through the bold stylings of the masters of the French New Wave to the technical and creative innovations of films like The Matrix, Memento, and The Sixth Sense. Edge Codes.com includes interviews with noted directors George Lucas and Norman Jewison, as well as top editors Thelma Schoonmaker, Zach Staenberg, Dody Dorn, Andrew Mondshein, and many more.

Edge Codes.com: The Art of Motion Picture Editing

2004

The Landlord poster
6.0

At the age of twenty-nine, Elgar Enders "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his intention is to evict the black tenants and convert the building into a posh flat. But Elgar is not one to be bound by yesterday's urges, and soon he has other thoughts on his mind.

The Landlord

1970

Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light poster
6.7

Actor/director Sidney Poitier discusses his life and career. He tells of his upbringing in Jamaica; the difficulties he encountered in New York City at the start of his career; his involvement in the US civil-rights movement; and efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. Friends and acquaintances, as well as other performers, give their insights about what makes him so special.

Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light

2000

Judy Garland: By Myself poster
8.3

As Hollywood biographies go, Judy Garland's story is one of the saddest success stories you'll ever hear. The sanitized studio version of her life presented a smiling kid with the big voice, who, alongside Mickey Rooney, just wanted to put on a show. But drugs, overwork, even psychological abuse at the hands of the studio is now part of the Garland legend. But despite the number of Garland books and documentaries, one account has always been missing -- Garland herself never managed to write a memoir. She did make several attempts at an autobiography, often recording stories on a tape recorder. Judy Garland: By Myself (2004), finally fills in the blanks - using Judy's personal recordings to tell the story in her own words.

Judy Garland: By Myself

2004

No artwork available
10.0

Boris Karloff: The Rest of the Story takes a deeper look at the life and career of Boris Karloff, from 1931 to 1969, exploring films such as The Ghoul, The Walking Dead (1936), Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), the Mr Wong series, The Climax (1944), Lured (1947), The Strange Door (1951), Grip of the Strangler and Corridors of Blood(1958), The Comedy of Terrors (1963), The Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968), the Mexican quartet, some of his major TV appearances (The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Wild Wild West, I-Spy) as well as taking a deep look at his often ignored Broadway career in the 1940s and 50's. There is also much time devoted to Karloff's more personal side and his relationship with his daughter, Sara.

Boris Karloff: The Rest of the Story

2022

Hal poster
6.6

Hal Ashby's obsessive genius led to an unprecedented string of Oscar®-winning classics, including Harold and Maude, Shampoo and Being There. But as contemporaries Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg rose to blockbuster stardom in the 1980s, Ashby's uncompromising nature played out as a cautionary tale of art versus commerce.

Hal

2019

Tell Them Who You Are poster
6.2

The son of acclaimed cinematographer Haskell Wexler confronts his complex father by turning the camera on him. What results is a portrait of a difficult genius and a son's path out of the shadow of a famous father.

Tell Them Who You Are

2004

Pablo poster
6.9

Pablo blends documentary and animation elements to tell the saga of "famous unknown" Pablo Ferro, a man with a personal journey that spans from Havana, during the pre-Cuban revolution to his current home, in the garage behind his son's house.

Pablo

2012

Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen poster
6.0

The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called "the most powerful movie musical ever made." Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, FIDDLER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison's quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director's chair and in Jewison's heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol (Tevye), composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small (Tevye’s daughters). The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul.

Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen

2022

The River of My Dreams poster
NR

Director Brigitte Berman profiles Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent, who left Newfoundland in the late 1940s to launch a storied, seven-decade career as one of the leading actors and most beloved figures in Canadian film and television.

The River of My Dreams

2017

Once Upon a Time Michel Legrand poster
6.7

Michel Legrand, jazz musician and composer extraordinaire, has left his mark on the history of cinema, including the films of Jacques Demy, especially The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, the 60th anniversary of which is being celebrated in Cannes. Using never-before-seen archives and personal accounts, the film looks back on a lifetime dedicated to music, and the career of a man who served it masterfully to the very end.

Once Upon a Time Michel Legrand

2024

Behind the camera

Moonstruck poster
6.8

37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.

Moonstruck

1987

Moonstruck poster
6.8

37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.

Moonstruck

1987

Only You poster
6.7

Two childhood paranormal incidents have convinced schoolteacher Faith Corvatch that her true love is a guy named 'Damon Bradley', but she has yet to meet him. Preparing to marry podiatrist Dwayne in ten days, Faith receives a phone call from Dwayne's old classmate Damon Bradley, who is on his way to Venice. She impulsively decides to fly to Italy with the hope of finally encountering the man of her dreams. Accompanying her on the trip is her sister-in-law and best friend Kate, who has just left her husband, Faith's brother Larry.

Only You

1994

Only You poster
6.7

Two childhood paranormal incidents have convinced schoolteacher Faith Corvatch that her true love is a guy named 'Damon Bradley', but she has yet to meet him. Preparing to marry podiatrist Dwayne in ten days, Faith receives a phone call from Dwayne's old classmate Damon Bradley, who is on his way to Venice. She impulsively decides to fly to Italy with the hope of finally encountering the man of her dreams. Accompanying her on the trip is her sister-in-law and best friend Kate, who has just left her husband, Faith's brother Larry.

Only You

1994

The Hurricane poster
7.4

The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

The Hurricane

1999

The Hurricane poster
7.4

The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

The Hurricane

1999

In the Heat of the Night poster
7.7

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

In the Heat of the Night

1967

The Thomas Crown Affair poster
6.8

A debonair, adventuresome bank executive believes that he has pulled off the perfect multi-million dollar heist--until he must match wits with an insurance investigator who will do anything to get her man.

The Thomas Crown Affair

1968

The Thomas Crown Affair poster
6.8

A debonair, adventuresome bank executive believes that he has pulled off the perfect multi-million dollar heist--until he must match wits with an insurance investigator who will do anything to get her man.

The Thomas Crown Affair

1968

Rollerball poster
6.3

In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.

Rollerball

1975

Rollerball poster
6.3

In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.

Rollerball

1975

Fiddler on the Roof poster
7.7

In a pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish milkman struggles with the challenges of a changing world as his daughters fall in love and antisemitism grows.

Fiddler on the Roof

1971

Fiddler on the Roof poster
7.7

In a pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish milkman struggles with the challenges of a changing world as his daughters fall in love and antisemitism grows.

Fiddler on the Roof

1971

...And Justice for All poster
7.1

An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is forced to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial under the threat of being disbarred.

...And Justice for All

1979

...And Justice for All poster
7.1

An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is forced to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial under the threat of being disbarred.

...And Justice for All

1979

Jesus Christ Superstar poster
7.1

As played out by a theatre troupe, the last days of Jesus Christ are depicted from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus' following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene.

Jesus Christ Superstar

1973

Jesus Christ Superstar poster
7.1

As played out by a theatre troupe, the last days of Jesus Christ are depicted from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus' following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene.

Jesus Christ Superstar

1973

Jesus Christ Superstar poster
7.1

As played out by a theatre troupe, the last days of Jesus Christ are depicted from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus' following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene.

Jesus Christ Superstar

1973

Iceman poster
6.2

A team of Arctic researchers find a 40,000 year-old man frozen in ice and bring him back to life. Anthropologist Dr. Stanley Shephard wants to befriend the Iceman and learn about the man's past while Dr. Diane Brady and her surgical team want to discover the secret that will allow man to live in a frozen state.

Iceman

1984

The Cincinnati Kid poster
7.0

An up-and-coming poker player tries to prove himself in a high-stakes match against a long-time master of the game.

The Cincinnati Kid

1965

A Soldier's Story poster
6.8

In a rural town in Louisiana, a black Master Sergeant is found shot to death just outside the local Army Base. Military lawyer, Captain Davenport—also a black man—is sent from Washington to conduct an investigation. Facing an uncooperative chain of command and fearful black troops, Davenport must battle with deceit and prejudice in order to find out exactly who really did kill the Master Sergeant.

A Soldier's Story

1984

A Soldier's Story poster
6.8

In a rural town in Louisiana, a black Master Sergeant is found shot to death just outside the local Army Base. Military lawyer, Captain Davenport—also a black man—is sent from Washington to conduct an investigation. Facing an uncooperative chain of command and fearful black troops, Davenport must battle with deceit and prejudice in order to find out exactly who really did kill the Master Sergeant.

A Soldier's Story

1984

The Thrill of It All poster
7.1

A housewife's sudden rise to fame as a soap spokesperson leads to chaos in her home life.

The Thrill of It All

1963

Bogus poster
5.8

Recently orphaned, a young boy is taken in by his godmother who is shocked to realize that she can see the boy's imaginary friend: a flamboyant, French magician named Bogus.

Bogus

1996