IF YOU were to switch television channels and happen upon a Paul Greengrass film, you could tell within a few seconds that it was directed by him. Mr Greengrass, 60, made the hugely acclaimed “Captain Phillips”, “United 93” and “Green Zone”, but he is better known for “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004) and “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007), a pair of spy thrillers, starring Matt Damon, which reinvented the Hollywood action sequence. A typical Greengrass chase scene or fight scene—and there isn’t much else in the Bourne films—is a hurly-burly of bone-jarring impacts, dynamic hand-held camerawork and stroboscopically fast editing. They create the breathtaking illusion that they were shot on-the-hoof in real locations, and that the camera operators were only just keeping up with the chaos exploding around them.
Prospero | Film
Paul Greengrass, the shaky-cam, quick-cut director who redefined action
The director of the “Bourne” films has influenced Bond and much else in the world of gritty big-screen heroism
More from Prospero
An American musical about mental health takes off in China
The protagonist of “Next to Normal” has bipolar disorder. The show is encouraging audiences to open up about their own well-being
Sue Williamson’s art of resistance
Aesthetics and politics are powerfully entwined in the 50-year career of the South African artist
What happened to the “Salvator Mundi”?
The recently rediscovered painting made headlines in 2017 when it fetched $450m at auction. Then it vanished again