Charles Alexandre Rockwell is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and professor.

Life and career

Alexandre Rockwell is best known for his independent films made in NYC with a small group of actors he met on the lower east side in the late 80s. His first films helped launch the careers of well known actors like

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Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing troubled police officer Jason Dixon in ''Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'' (2017). He was nominated i ...

, Peter Dinklage, Stanley Tucci, as well as many other notable indie stars of the time. His filming style is described as purely independent in spirit and poetic in style. He mixes a blend of comedy and drama to create a portrait of outsiders. His influences are wide-ranging, he has been quoted as saying his style is "as much the

Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short-subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical, farce, and slapstick comedy. Six total ...

as it is Tarkovsky". Rockwell was born into a family of artists, the grandson of the Russian animator Alexandre Alexeieff, inventor of the pinscreen, and Alexandra Grinevsky, a renowned artist and illustrator of rare books. His father, Paul Rockwell, met his mother, Svetlana Ludmillia Alexeieff, when he was an American GI in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and they married and relocated to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Growing up in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, Rockwell struggled in school and often skipped class, spending his days playing pinball and sleeping in arthouse movie theaters. He avoided college and instead moved to Paris where he would sneak into the French Cinematheque to watch up to three films a day when he was not assisting his grandfather in his studio. He then relocated to New York City in his early 20s where he drove a taxi and delivered seltzer water. It was when he hocked his saxophone and bought a 16mm Bolex camera that he began making his own films. In 1986 he met and within two weeks married actress Jennifer Beals. Beals introduced

to Alexandre, who has subsequently cast Rockwell in four of his films. They are not related to each other. Rockwell has made a number of New York indie films, most notably '' In the Soup'', which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1992, a seminal year for independent American film that presented the first feature-length films of

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, and

Allison Anders Allison Anders (born November 16, 1954) is an American independent film director whose films include '' Gas Food Lodging'', '' Mi Vida Loca'' and '' Grace of My Heart''. Anders has collaborated with fellow UCLA School of Theater, Film and Telev ...

. Together the four directors made '' Four Rooms'', which opened to mixed reviews and audience response. Rockwell followed up with '' Somebody to Love'', starring Rosie Perez, Steve Buscemi, and

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. Rockwell struggled in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

while making '' Louis and Frank'' and '' Pete Smalls Is Dead''. Both films were met with mixed reviews and he did not make a film for a period of six years. He left the west coast for New York City where he began teaching at NYU and met his present wife Karyn Parsons-Rockwell. Most recently Rockwell has turned to smaller and more independent micro-budget films made with his family, students, and friends to much critical and festival success. His film ''Sweet Thing'' (2020) starred his daughter Lana Rockwell and son Nico Rockwell, and won the Crystal Bear at the 2019

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

, and has been widely released to both audience and critical acclaim. Since February 8, 2003, Rockwell has been married to actress Karyn Parsons (of '' Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'' fame), with whom he has two children. Rockwell currently is head of the directing program at NYU's graduate film school. and resides in Brooklyn, New York. His wife, Karyn, has her own production company, Sweet Blackberry.Sweet Blackberry – Board of Directors
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Filmography

* '' Lenz'' (1982) * ''Hero'' (1983) * ''Sons'' (1990) * '' In the Soup'' (1992) * '' Somebody to Love'' (1994) * '' Four Rooms'' (1995; segment "The Wrong Man") * ''Louis & Frank'' (1998) * ''

13 Moons ''13 Moons'' is a 2002 comedy-drama film directed by Alexandre Rockwell. The title is a reference to the saying of a minor character's mother, who suggested that if nights of the full moon are strange, then "this must be the night of thirteen m ...

'' (2002) * '' Pete Smalls Is Dead'' (2010) * ''In the Same Garden (Omnibus)'' (2015) * '' Little Feet'' (2017) * ''Sweet Thing'' (2020)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rockwell, Alexandre 1956 births Film directors from Massachusetts Film producers from Massachusetts American male screenwriters American people of French descent American people of Russian descent Living people New York University faculty Writers from Boston Screenwriters from New York (state) Screenwriters from Massachusetts Sundance Film Festival award winners