Paul Auster – writer (“New York Trilogy”), screenwriter (“Smoke”), director (“Lulu on the Bridge”), died at the age of 77. The sad news was revealed to the media by his friend, journalist and writer Jacki Lyden.
Who was Paul Auster? The beginnings of his career
Paul Auster was born on February 3, 1947. After graduating from Columbia University, he moved to Paris, where he made a living as a translator. In the mid-1970s he returned to the United States. In 1982, he published his debut book – “Inventing Solitude”, consisting of two essays. He gained fame and critical acclaim for his “New York Trilogy”, originally published in three parts: “Glass City” (1985), “Ghosts” (1986) and “Closed Room” (1986). “Music of Chance”, published in 1990, served as the basis for the script for the action drama “The Magic of Chance”.
Paul Auster’s most important films
Paul Auster made his debut as a filmmaker with the comedy-drama “Smoke” made with Wayne Wang. The film, regarding the fate of several New Yorkers whose paths cross in a small drugstore in Brooklyn, won him the Independent Spirit Award. We remind you of its trailer:
The fate of Auggie Wren, played by Harvey Keitel, was wrapped up in the comedy “Brooklyn Boogie.” Auster and Wang presented this film together with “Smoke” at the Berlin festival.
In 1998, the melodrama “Lulu on the Bridge”, written and directed by Paul Auster, was released. He met Wang once more as the screenwriter of his erotic drama “The Center of the World”. In the following years, he focused on his writing career (he published, among others, the novels “Timbuktu”, “The Book of Illusions” and “In the Country of Last Things”, adapted for the screen by Alejandro Chomsky), and occasionally worked on scripts for short films (“Fluxus” by László Csáki, “It Was Mine” by Kajsia Næss).
Years later, Auster made a comedy-drama with fantasy elements called “The Inner Life of Martin Frost”. His achievements conclude with the novel “4321”, published in 2017.
