Known for Directing
Sam Taylor-Johnson (born Samantha Louise Taylor-Wood; 4 March 1967) is an English director and producer. She is best known for directing the films Nowhere Boy (2009), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), and Love You More (2008).
Born
March 4, 1967 (age 59)
Birthplace
London, England, UK
Filmography
44 films, 5 shows
Back to Black
2024 · 2h 2m
country: United Kingdom
The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.
A Million Little Pieces
2019 · 1h 53m
country: United States
A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.
Fifty Shades of Grey
2015 · 2h 5m
country: United States
When college senior Anastasia Steele steps in for her sick roommate to interview prominent businessman Christian Grey for their campus paper, little does she realize the path her life will take. Christian, as enigmatic as he is rich and powerful, finds himself strangely drawn to Ana, and she to him. Though sexually inexperienced, Ana plunges headlong into an affair -- and learns that Christian's true sexual proclivities push the boundaries of pain and pleasure.
James Bond Supports International Women's Day
2011 · 2m
country: Unknown
This short film is made by 'We Are Equals' to celebrate International Women's Day. James Bond video for international women's day shows 007's feminine side. Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench team up for two-minute film highlighting the need for gender equality. 007 star Daniel Craig undergo a dramatic makeover as he puts himself, quite literally, in a woman's shoes.
Nowhere Boy
2009 · 1h 38m
country: United Kingdom
A rebellious teenager, future Beatle John Lennon lives with his Aunt Mimi in working-class mid-1950s Liverpool, England. Mimi's husband suddenly dies, and John spies his mother Julia at the funeral. Despite Mimi's misgivings, John intends to have a real relationship with his mother. Julia introduces him to popular music and the banjo and, though a family conflict looms, young John is inspired to form his own band.
Love You More
2008 · 15m
country: United Kingdom
Two teenagers are drawn together by the Buzzcocks' single 'Love You More' during the summer of 1978.
Three Minute Round
2008 · 3m
country: Unknown
Three Minute Round depicts the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, in the moments after defeating their rivals in separate championship boxing matches in Las Vegas and Berlin in 2008. Sam Taylor-Johnson isolated the world-famous Ukrainian boxers, known for their brute strength, speed and athleticism, in their dressing rooms immediately after each fight. She asked them to sit idly while she videoed their still bodies for 3 minutes. The brothers breathe rhythmically and slowly, in an almost meditative state, and we see them away from their public persona as all-conquering fighters. The vulnerability and humanity of the Klitschko brothers is allowed to come through in a way that echoes the depiction of another famous athlete by Taylor-Johnson, David Beckham. Dual screen projection.
Sigh
2008 · 9m
country: Unknown
Sigh was made in collaboration with the BBC Concert Orchestra and features a score made especially for it by Academy-Award winning composer Anne Dudley. Dudley comments, 'When I was composing this piece I had in mind Sam's wonderful large photographs from her series Wuthering Heights. This gave me the sense of loss that would transform onto the members of the orchestra as they played without their instruments. I knew that the sound of each section had to come from the right screen and this allowed me to think about the music travelling around the room. Also, I wanted the listener to be able to move around the room and experience a different perspective of sound – very much like strolling through an orchestra. All the sections rely on each other to complete the soundscape and avoid a greater loss.' Eight-screen projection.
That White Rush
2007 · 3m
country: Unknown
Sam Taylor-Wood says she can't believe the silly questions that people keep asking about her latest work, presented in the Ukrainian pavilion. That White Rush is a video of a young woman lying naked with a white swan decomposing on top of her; her toe twitches as the swan's internal liquids spew out. It is made up of two seamlessly integrated films, one taken of the girl over four minutes and one of the swan over four weeks. "People actually ask me if the girl lay there for four weeks," says Taylor-Wood.
The Servant
2007 · 4m
country: Unknown
The figures in this piece are the fashion designer Bella Freud, daughter of Lucian and granddaughter of Sigmund, and her husband, the writer James Fox. Fox has written about Taylor-Johnson's work on more than one occasion. Single-screen projection.
The Last Century
The Last Century
2006 · 7m
country: Unknown
In her film The Last Century (2006), what appears to be a static image of a group of people slowly reveals itself to be a real, filmed take, timed to the length of a burning cigarette: the film is entirely static apart from the involuntary blinking, twitching and barely-visible breathing of four motionless actors, all arranged around a central figure as if in a group portrait painted by Rembrandt or Caravaggio.
Destricted
2006 · 1h 56m
country: United Kingdom
A compilation of erotic films intended to illuminate the points where art meets sexuality.
Death Valley
2006 · 8m
country: Unknown
Death Valley is recognised as the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and one of the hottst places on earth. The rocks tell a story of endless changes in the earth’s crust - vast depositions, contortions, alternate risings and lowerings, faultings, intense heats and pressures. It is here director Sam Taylor-Wood and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey chose to frame the ‘Death Valley’. The story of a man exploring the experience of self-stimulation, pleasuring, the erotic satisfaction and possibilities with oneself.
After Van Halen
2005 · 5m
country: Unknown
The graceful, ephemeral longing highlighted in this work is brought back down to earth with the title – after Van Halen's Jump. Single-screen projection.
David
2004 · 1h 4m
country: Unknown
Simply lit from one light source (the lamp in the Madrid hotel room where it was shot) and shot in a single long take after Beckham finished training, David joins Sam Taylor-Johnson's other intimate portraits of male vulnerability. Single-screen projection.
Ascension
2003 · 5m
country: Unknown
2003 Sam Taylor-Wood video art work featuring a tap dancer
Strings
2003 · 9m
country: Unknown
A string quartet, dressed in black tie, seated in an arc that curves away from the viewer, play part of Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 2 in F major Op. 22. The piece is titled Andante ma non Tanto (which, crudely translated, means faster, but not too much). They sit in the sumptuous surroundings of the Crush Room at the Royal Opera House, London. Above them suspended by wires, which flick in and out of view as the light catches them, is a ballet dancer. He is naked apart from shorts and the harness. The dancer rests just above the musicians' heads as they play Tchaikovsky's melancholic piece. The dancer moves rhythmically and slowly, his feet almost brushing their bows as they play. 35mm film. Single-screen projection.
Prelude in Air
2002 · 6m
country: Unknown
2002 Sam Taylor-Wood short video art piece featuring a man playing an imaginary string instrument.
A Little Death
A Little Death
2002 · 5m
country: Unknown
Taylor-Johnson updates traditional still life imagery. What seems at first to be a quiet arrangement of a dead hare and peach on a table starts to decompose before our eyes. Rather than attempting to capture a moment in time, the viewer is put face to face with a speeded up decomposition of the subject matter. Taylor-Wood brings home the transience of biological life, and the viewer's mortality. This work explores the issue of temporality, an idea which permeates the artist's oeuvre, where a course of action can change radically even within the space of a few seconds.
Mute
Mute
2001 · 7m
country: Unknown
2001 Sam Taylor-Wood video art work featuring a man praying in silence
Pieta
2001 · 2m
country: Unknown
2001 Sam Taylor-Wood video art short
Still Life
2001 · 4m
country: Unknown
2001 Sam Taylor video art piece featuring rotting fruit in time lapse
Breach (Girl & Eunuch)
2001 · 11m
country: United Kingdom
Reminiscent of Warhol, Breach depicts a girl in ever-heightening grief, but with the sound of her tears removed. The person inflicting her agony is also unheard and unseen, but has a tangible presence in the film. As emotion is taken out of context, the viewer is almost placed in the position of the aggressor. The tangible melts into the intangible and the other way around.
Hysteria
1999 · 8m
country: Unknown
1999 Sam Taylor-Wood video art piece featuring a dancer in agony
Third Party
1999 · 10m
country: Unknown
As Harold Pinter famously said, Taylor-Johnson is 'the weasel under the cocktail cabinet' at this particular party. The erotic undercurrents between the various people at the party are given further resonance with the use of multiple screens to portray them. Marianne Faithfull is given a starring role, and the viewer is the 'third party' of the title. 16mm film. Seven-screen projection.
Method in Madness
Method in Madness
1998 · 10m
country: Unknown
1998 Sam Taylor-Wood video art piece featuring a dude goin' nuts
Noli Me Tangere
1998 · 4m
country: Unknown
The title of this piece is the well-known warning of Jesus to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. It translates to Touch me not. This biblical scene gave birth to a strong iconographical tradition in Christian art, from late antiquity to present. Here, the denial of hope and redemption is removed from its religious context. 16mm film. Dual-screen projection.
Atlantic
1997 · 11m
country: Unknown
In Sam Taylor-Johnson's words, 'I wanted (Atlantic) to feel like you could be coming in, as you say, at any point, not necessarily at the beginning, or the end, but somewhere towards the middle where something is about to happen. It could be the beginning of an argument or an argument petering out … the only thing those people have in common is the space they occupy. They are totally isolated within their own activity or mental space … you are looking at two people interacting but you project what the discussion or argument is about. The viewer is put in the position of the people in the restaurant who are onlookers. And as an onlooker you're straining to understand what exactly is taking place. I want people to construct their own narrative, so they're looking at it and giving it endless possibilities.' 16mm film. Three-screen projection.
Knackered
1996 · 5m
country: Unknown
1996 Sam Taylor-Wood video art piece focusing on a naked singer
Misfit
Misfit
1996 · 4m
country: Unknown
The brink of 2000. The misfits refuse to get krunk.
Travesty of a Mockery
1995 · 10m
country: Unknown
A 10 minute film that depicts a man and a woman having an argument. This domestic drama is enacted simultaneously on two separate projected screens—the man’s space is described by a chair standing against a blank wall, the woman’s by a fridge and a fragment of kitchen sideboard. Each participant is isolated within his and her own screen, the borders from one to the other being crossed by thrown objects such as a glass of milk or a frying pan and, occasionally, by one of the participants, who, unable to contain their rage, launches an attack across the divide. A soundtrack of tuning into a series of different radio stations accompanies the film, seeming to articulate the switching emotional tenor of the scenario as it moves through confusion, anger, sadness and resignation.
Brontosaurus
Brontosaurus
1995 · 10m
country: Unknown
Informed by cinematic and documentary traditions, Taylor-Johnson has been working with photography, film and video in London since the early 1990s. She presents characters in situations of isolation and self-absorption, their familiar, even mundane, surroundings and poses belying more or less hidden states of emotional crisis. This piece explores the difficult distinctions 'between reality and unreality, life and theatre', public and private, by putting the viewer in the uncomfortable position of deciding whether the action is genuine or staged. This discomfort persists with Brontosaurus, which is clearly taking place in a private space.
Killing Time
1994 · 49m
country: Unknown
As four people lip-synch to the grand, passionate sounds of the Richard Strauss opera Elektra, the contrast between the banality of modern life and the primal desires that swirl beneath the surface is heightened. Four-screen projection. Video.
Pent-Up
1994 · 10m
country: Unknown
The interior monologues of five characters are made audible, giving way to a host of efforts on the part of the viewer to create connections or manufacture logic and pattern where, ultimately, there is none. 16mm film. Five-screen projection.