The British director Guy Ritchie never finished school and didn't attend film school either but by the time he was 28 he was on his way to making cinematic waves. His short film The Hard Case (1995) attracted the attention of financiers and his debut feature Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) was a scrappy success. Sudden fame for new directors is usually somewhat invisible since it's their names rather than faces that get the publicity. Not so for Guy Ritchie. His rise went meteoric via a marriage to global household name Madonna before people had even really learned his name. They famously wore each other's new products on t-shirts; he pushed her album "Music" across his chest in 2000 as she paraded Snatch, his second film, around on hers.
The marriage soured but his movies got bigger and bigger if not always more successful. Like any regularly working director he's had both hits and misses. His 9th feature King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is now open in theaters everywhere.
Let's look at all his movies via posterized after the jump. How many have you seen?
WHIRLWIND RISE (1998-2002)
BECOMING A BRAND (2002-2009)
POST-MADONNA FRANCHISE FOCUS (2011-2017)
(Sad that his best recent film (The Man From UNCLE) was his biggest flop)
Beyond those features there's his off-feature Madonna work. He directed his then wife to self-deprecating comic heights in the wonderful BMI short film "Star" with Clive Owen and he also helmed her crime spree video "What It Feels Like For a Girl"
What do you think of his filmography?
Will you be seeing King Arthur: Legend of the Sword? Given the violent lad pictures he's so well known for what do you think Disney saw in him when they hired him for their forthcoming live action treatment of Aladdin?