Guy Ritchie is a director with whose name the words “style” and “cult” are strongly associated. The creator of the films “Cards, Money, Two Smoking Barrels” and “Rock and Roller” boldly balances on the fine line that distinguishes high-level art from ordinary trash, each Richie film becomes an event in the cinema world, and the characters’ lines instantly diverge into quotes.

Biography of Guy Ritchie. Early years

Guy Ritchie was born in Hertfordshire on September 10, 1968. Guy’s parents belonged to the conservative middle class;

Guy dedicated the following post on Instagram to his father and grandfather:

In the early 70s, Amber Ritchie divorced Guy’s father and, taking her five-year-old son and daughter, moved into the Victorian mansion of her new husband, Sir Michael Leaton.

In the class, Guy was one of the worst students, not only did the boy have a freedom-loving disposition, he suffered from a rare form of neurological disorder, manifested in the inability to master reading. Twice Guy wanted to be expelled from school, but thanks to the intervention of Sir Michael, the teenager somehow completed his primary education and at the age of 15 went to London to fulfill his dream of becoming a director.

Career. “Cards, money, two barrels”

As you can imagine, Guy did not immediately start filming his first film. For several years he worked as a construction worker, as a busboy at a bar, and took on any job to pay for a rented room until he got a job as a courier at a TV studio. Once on television, the young man approached his dream, already in 1991 he became an assistant director.

The beginning of Richie’s creative biography is considered to be the short meter “Hard Business”, released in 1995. Darren Spencer and Benedict Bates played in the twenty-minute tape, the picture was shown as part of the festival of young filmmakers, and was not released. While Richie was shooting commercials and thinking about where to get funds for filming a full-length picture, Trudy Style found out about it, who risked becoming a sponsor of the picture, which was destined to glorify both the young director and the actors who starred in it all over the world.

The tape “Cards, Money, Two Smoking Barrels” did not have the slightest chance of becoming one of the many that appeared after the release of the Danny Boyle tape, similar crime films, generously seasoned with a dose of black humor. The film about four guys who decided to “make money” quickly did not even compete for the title of super-trainspotting, but became a separate phenomenon, moreover, not only in the world of cinema, but also in culture in general.

Little-known actors even in their native Britain were invited to the picture, of which only Dexter Fletcher, Stephen Macintosh and Jason Flemming were English stars, the latter, however, with a negative charge: due to the violent temper and disgusting reputation, very few agreed to work with Flemming. Vinnie Jones was not an actor at all, he had just finished his career as a football player and was a frequenter of pubs and police stations, like the former athlete Jason Statham, who made his living by filming ads for jeans and sports shorts.

Sting, who was Trudy Style’s husband at the time, also appeared in a scene of the film and also said “fuck”, which sounded 125 times in the film in total.

Ritchie’s debut received 12 awards, including the prestigious BAFTA and Edgar, as well as the MTV Award and the British Film Critics Award for Best Film and Screenplay, and immediately acquired the status of a cult film.

Guy Ritchie Style: New Criminal Aesthetics

In 2000, the Big Snatch tape was presented to the audience, repeating the success of the first picture. Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham, who had become friends of the director by that time, played in the crime story about unlucky thieves who now and then find themselves in ridiculous situations. Other roles of bad guys, and there were no good guys in this film, as in the first one, were played by Brad Pitt, Alan Ford, Benicio del Toro and Stephen Graham.

After the failure of “Gone”, which earned several “Golden Raspberries” and a lot of devastating articles from critics, the director returned to the crime genre with the film “Revolver”, in which Jason Statham was accompanied by Ray Liotta, Andrew Howard and Mark Strong.

However, the success of the picture was not enough for revenge, and in 2008 Richie presented the public with Rock and Roll, where London crime bosses pissed each other off to the song of the legendary The Clash. Ritchie’s signature style, dynamics and dialogues, which instantly turned into quotes, as well as the stellar composition of the picture, inscribed the name of the director in huge letters in the annals of world cinema. In this picture, the bad guys were played by Gerard Butler, Tom Hardy, Carl Roden, as well as Tom Wilkinson, who played the tough boss Lenny, and Matt King, who shone as the drug dealer Cookies.

In the most pretentious and unexpected interpretations of the detective stories of Arthur Conan Doyle dearly loved in Britain and not only, released in 2009 and 2011, Sherlock was played by Robert Downey Jr., who managed to recover from chronic alcoholism, and his colleague Dr. Watson was played by Jude Law. Also in the films was Rachel McAdams, who deserved the title of the most exquisite Irene Adler, and Mark Strong, who played the role of Lord Blackwood. Both films had an incredible success, although a small number of admirers of traditions and canons were unhappy with the too free interpretation of the classic English detective novels.

After a four-year hiatus, Richie delighted fans with a new film, Agents of A.N.K.L. Henry Cavill, who played the role of Agent Solo, and Armie Hammer, who played Agent Kuryakin, reincarnated as heroes who risked a deadly battle with world crime.

In 2017, the fantasy film The Sword of King Arthur was named the second worst work of the master after Swept Away. In an interview, Richie noted that despite the commercial failure of the picture and devastating reviews, he does not consider it a failure. Charlie Hunnam, Eric Bana, Annabelle Wallis and Jude Law played in a free interpretation of the famous legend.

Filmography of Guy Ritchie and his best works at this link.

Clips (Guy Ritchie clipmaker)

As much as in films, the director’s masterful style and handwriting can be seen in commercials, such as Madonna’s nine-minute BMV ad, considered the most beautiful and most expensive in the world, and the H&M underwear ad, in which Beckham, who is covered in tattoos, tries to catch up with the car.

Personal life

At the home of Sting and Trudy Style, Ritchie was introduced to Madonna, and after a very short time, the director and pop star got married. The marriage took place at the end of 2000 in Scotland, and in the summer of 2001 the couple had a son, Rocco Ricci. The star marriage existed until 2008, and ended in a divorce, in which both parties equally blamed each other. In all languages ​​​​of the world, the news was full of headlines that Madonna was not satisfied with Richie’s eccentric character and the ability to pawn behind the collar in the best traditions of football fans, and Richie could not understand the beauty of healthy eating and the deep meaning of Kabbalah, which his wife was carried away.

After a year of free-floating, Ritchie met British model Jacqui Ainsley in 2010, whom he married five years later. The couple’s first child, son Rafael, was born before marriage, in 2011; beautiful Jackie gave her daughter Rivka to her husband at the end of 2012, and the third child, son Levi, was born in 2014.

Guy Ritchie now

Guy Ritchie’s latest film to hit the box office is King Arthur: The Sword. At the end of 2018, the director completed work on a remake of the animated film Aladdin, which became the highlight of the entire 2019.

It is also known about the beginning of the creation of the third part of Sherlock Holmes, which is scheduled to premiere in 2020.

Image Source: Guy Ritchie’s Instagram