Rebecca Frayn
Rebecca Frayn is an English documentary film maker, screenwriter, novelist and actress.
Rebecca Frayn | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | filmmaker screen writer novelist actress |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Spouse | Andy Harries (1992–present) |
| Children | Finn Harries, Jack Harries, Emmy Lou Harries. |
Career
Rebecca Frayn is a film maker and screen writer. She has directed a wide variety of quirky documentary essays for the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV on subjects that range from Tory Wives to the Friern Barnet Mental Asylum and identical twins.[1]
She played the role of June in the 1979 TV movie One Fine Day, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Robert Stephens and Dominic Guard. She appeared uncredited as the photograph image by Denis O'Regan of Liam Neeson's character's dead wife, Joanna, in the film Love Actually (2003), directed by Richard Curtis.
She made her drama debut as a director with Whose Baby? for ITV,[2] a TV drama that tackled father's rights, starring Sophie Okonedo and Andrew Lincoln. A screenplay she wrote for the BBC, Killing Me Softly explored the true story of Sara Thornton, whose conviction for murder helped bring about a reform of the law on domestic violence. She has written and/or directed a number of films about prominent women, including Leni Riefenstahl, Annie Leibovitz and Nora Ephron. Her screenplay about Aung San Suu Kyi, The Lady,[3] directed by Luc Besson and starring Michelle Yeoh and David Thewlis was awarded the Amnesty International Human Rights Film Award in 2011.[4]
Her first novel, One Life, dealt with the complex emotional and ethical landscape of IVF. Her second novel, Deceptions, is a psychological thriller, inspired by a true story; it explores the impact on a family when a child goes missing.
After making a short film in 2008 opposing the proposed expansion of London Heathrow Airport,[5] Frayn co-founded We CAN, a group who lobbied the government to take action on climate change in the run up to the 2010 Copenhagen Conference.[6]
Frayn wrote the screenplay for the 2020 film Misbehaviour, that deals with the controversy surrounding the 1970 Miss World competition, and the birth of feminism.[7]
Personal life
The daughter of playwright and novelist Michael Frayn and his first wife, Gillian (née Palmer),[8][9][10] Frayn grew up in North West England. She graduated from the University of Bristol in 1984. She married film producer Andy Harries in July 1992 and they have three children: twin sons, Jack Harries and Finn Harries, and a daughter Emmy. Frayn had to undergo IVF to have her daughter, an experience which inspired her novel One Life.[11] She has served as chair of Turnham Green Friends, a group that helps to care for the park of that name in Chiswick.[12]
Credits
As novelist
| Year | Name | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | One Life | Simon & Schuster |
| 2010 | Deceptions | Simon & Schuster |
As drama director
| Year | Film | Broadcaster |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Single – Episodes 1 to 3 of 6 | Tiger Aspect for ITV1 |
| 2004 | Whose Baby? | Granada ITV1 |
As documentary director
| Year | Film | Broadcaster |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | The Ghosts of Oxford Street | Channel 4 / Middlemarch Films |
| 1993 | Annie Leibovitz – South Bank Show | ITV / Middlemarch Films |
| 1995 | Talk Radio – Naked News | Channel 4 / Oxford TV |
| 1995 | Nora Ephron – South Bank Show | LWT / Middlemarch Films |
| 1995 | Tory Wives – Modern Times | BBC 2 / Middlemarch Films |
| 1997 | Identical Twins – Cutting Edge | Channel 4 / Middlemarch Films |
| 1998 | Bare – Modern Times | BBC 2 / Middlemarch Films |
| 1999 | Asylum – Cutting Edge | Channel 4 / Compulsive Viewing |
| 2000 | Space X3 episodes | BBC 2 / Middlemarch Films |
| 2003 | The World According To Parr – Imagine | BBC One |
As documentary producer
| Year | Film | Broadcaster |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | The Wonderful Horrible World of Leni Riefenstahl – Without Walls Special | Channel 4 / Middlemarch and Omega Films |
| 1999 | Upstarts x 3 episodes | Channel 4 / Middlemarch Films |
As screen writer
| Year | Film | Broadcaster | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | The Last Laugh He Play/She Play | Channel 4/ Middlemarch Films | Betsan Morris Evans |
| 1991 | The Ghosts of Oxford Street | Channel 4 / Middlemarch Films | Rebecca Frayn and Malcolm McLaren |
| 1996 | Killing Me Softly – Screen on One | BBC Two/Middlemarch Films | Stephen Wittaker |
| 2011 | The Lady | Europacorp and Left Bank Pictures | Luc Besson |
| 2020 | Misbehaviour | Pathé and Left Bank Pictures | Philippa Lowthorpe |
As actress
| Year | Film | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | One Fine Day | June | Stephen Frears |
| 2003 | Love Actually | Joanna (photo image) | Richard Curtis |
References
- ^ "Rebecca Frayn – Profile". The Guardian. 12 January 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
- ^ "Rebecca Frayn – Film maker, screenwriter and novelist". Intelligence Squared. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
- ^ Frayn, Rebecca (11 December 2011). "The untold story of Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ "Human Rights Film Award for Aung San Suu Kyi". Human Rights Film Network. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
At the Cinema for Peace Gala in Berlin the International Human Rights Film Award has been presented to Aung San Suu Kyi, portrayed in Luc Besson's film The Lady.
- ^ Topham, Laurence; Frayn, Rebecca (13 January 2009). "Heathrow picnic and protest". The Guardian.
- ^ Frayn, Rebecca (12 January 2009). "How I became an eco-warrior". The Guardian.
- ^ Brew, Simon (20 December 2019). "Misbehaviour: first trailer for a must-see 2020 movie". Film Stories. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ Brandreth, Gyles (27 June 2002). "A closed book opens".
- ^ "The ultimate twinset: Jack and Finn Harries!". 5 March 2013.
- ^ Rainey, Sarah (14 September 2012). "YouTube videos funded our gap year travels".
- ^ Frayn, Rebecca (30 August 2009). "Rebecca Frayn: I just wanted a baby". The Independent.
- ^ Osborne, Bridget (24 November 2020). "Rebecca Frayn re-elected as Chair of Turnham Green Friends". Chiswick Calendar. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
External links
- Official website
- Rebecca Frayn at IMDb
- Rebecca Frayn at SimonAndSchuster.com
- Rebecca Frayn speech at Intelligence Squared