This weekend, film director Sidney Lumet passed away the age of 86. The influential filmmaker succumbed to lymphoma on Saturday morning in New York City.
As news of Lumet's passing went around the entertainment and film community, a quote of his made the rounds, a sort of self-prescribed epitaph: "Good style, to me, is unseen style."
What else can you say about a guy who could direct two of Al Pacino's best acting clinics, Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico, and also helm an urban kitsch remake of The Wizard Of Oz in 1978's The Wiz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson as his stars.
We haven't even brought up 1976's Network, a film about media manipulation and the state of our sad sick world, which continues by the year, hour, and minute to become extremely prophetic in scope.
He was able to wrangle one of the gruffest casts in film history with 1957's 12 Angry Men, managing the talents of Henry Fonda, Jack Warden, and E.G. Marshall in the jury duty tour de force.
"Sidney Lumet was one of the greatest directors in the long history of film. Compelling stories and unforgettable performances were his strong suit," said director Steven Spielberg, no stranger to directing wildly varied features over a career. Lumet understood characters, people, places.
What else can you say about a guy would could bring us both the suicidal Howard Beale and Michael Jackson's Scarecrow? We assembled a few of his best films and their trailers to look back on some of Lumet's assorted masterworks.
12 Angry Men
Serpico
Dog Day Afternoon
Network
Murder On The Orient Express