Tim Burton celebrates his 68th birthday on August 25. The director and screenwriter is known as the «master of dark fairy tales».

Burton’s films are instantly recognizable from the very first frames: gloomy sets, eccentric characters, black humor, a touch of absurdity, themes of death, and heroes who seem to have accidentally found themselves in a world that is completely foreign to them.

Today, the director is regarded as the king of Gothic cinema. His filmography includes more than 25 feature films and 13 shorts, while his best-known works include «Beetlejuice», «Batman», «Edward Scissorhands», «Sleepy Hollow», «Charlie and the Chocolate Factory», «Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street», «Alice in Wonderland» and the series «Wednesday».

Burton’s love of dark stories began in childhood. Tim was born in Burbank in August 1958. His parents owned a small business called Cats Plus, a shop selling cat-themed goods. The family lived comfortably, but that did little to make the future director’s childhood any less gloomy.

While other children played outside, Burton chose a very different place for his walks. Instead of running around with the neighborhood kids, he would head to Valhalla Cemetery, not far from his family home.

There, the boy would sit on the graves and talk to himself about death, the dead and the difficult fate of gravediggers. When his parents discovered these excursions, they were horrified. To stop their son from escaping to the cemetery, they even boarded up the windows of his room, leaving only a small opening.

As a result, Burton’s childhood became even more secluded. He spent much of his time in his room, drawing his own strange characters and inventing entire worlds for them. Those drawings would later become a kind of foundation for his distinctive artistic style.

Burton began his career as an animator at Disney. He later created his own unmistakable cinematic universe, where darkness coexists effortlessly with humor, and Gothic aesthetics blend with fairy-tale elements. His characters became part of pop culture, while Burton himself became one of the few directors whose style can be recognized from just a handful of frames.

That is why, on his 68th birthday, we are looking back at some of the director’s most interesting quotes.

On himself

«I was always misunderstood. You know, I could dress up as a clown and laugh along with a cheerful crowd, and people would still say I was a gloomy guy.»

«I liked thinking that I perceived everything differently from other people.»

«If I had a choice between going to a meeting with studio executives or changing diapers, I would choose the diapers.»

«They told me you can’t kill Jack Nicholson. So I had to give him two roles and kill him twice.»

On cinema

«Making movies is an expensive form of therapy for me.»

«You have to feel like you’re creating the greatest masterpiece, even if it’s complete nonsense.»

«Actually, I don’t have a single film that would fit the classic «horror movie» category. And that’s rather funny, because I probably prefer that genre to all the others.»

«I think the ending will feel much more life-affirming if the audience is left to work it out for themselves. Artificial happy endings have always seemed like a form of psychosis to me.»

On freedom

«When you don’t have too many friends, you feel a strange kind of freedom.»

«Madness is, in some terrible way, the greatest freedom available to a person, because then they are no longer confined by the boundaries of society.»

On Hollywood and technology

«In Hollywood, they think hand-drawn animation is no longer needed and that everything should be done by computers. Pixar makes its animated films using computers, and everyone else tries to copy them. Everyone relies on technology and forgets about the artists.»

Photo: Depositphotos, Instagram @timburton

Actress Monica Bellucci and director Tim Burton have ended their relationship, according to the Italian outlet ANSA. The stars announced their decision publicly in a statement sent to the news agency AFP.

«We have decided to part ways with great respect and mutual affection,» journalists quoted the former couple as saying.

Bellucci and Burton had been together for two years. Rumors of their romance first surfaced in March 2023, when the French newspaper Paris Match featured a cover photo of the two on a date. At the end of June, Bellucci gave an extensive interview to Elle France, where she confirmed the relationship with the filmmaker and openly declared her love for him.

Before her romance with Burton, Bellucci had been married twice — first to photographer Claudio Carlos Basso, and later to actor Vincent Cassel. Burton, in turn, spent 13 years in a relationship with dancer and model Lisa Marie, and another 13 years living with actress Helena Bonham Carter.

Monica has two daughters with Cassel: 21-year-old Deva and 15-year-old Léonie. The couple was married for nearly 14 years before quietly divorcing in 2013, without scandals or public statements. Bellucci has never stood in the way of her daughters’ relationship with their father.

Lady Gaga has unveiled her new track The Dead Dance. The electropop song was released to mark the second part of the latest season of Wednesday, where the singer makes a cameo appearance as Rosalina Rothwood – the legendary and enigmatic mentor of the Nevermore Academy.

Alongside the single came the music video, directed by none other than Tim Burton. This marks the filmmaker’s first musical project in 13 years; his last was the 2012 video for Here With Me by The Killers.

The video opens with Gaga standing on a wall, surrounded by doll-like infants, before she begins to dance. Masked dancers soon join her, while the dolls nod their heads in rhythm with the upbeat melody.

Just days earlier, New York hosted the Spotify Graveyard Gala, organized by Netflix in celebration of the second season of Wednesday. Among the attendees were members of the production team.

On the red carpet, Jenna Ortega appeared in a custom «charcoal» dress by GapStudio, designed by Zac Posen, while Gaga embraced a gothic look from Anton Femia’s The Fly Witch collection, complete with a Jenny Beattie Millinery hat.

 

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Photo: Instagram @wednesdaynetflix

The 21st Marrakech International Film Festival has officially begun, featuring the premiere of The Silent Brotherhood, a feature film directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Zach Baylin.

The event attracted numerous high-profile guests, including Monica Bellucci, who was accompanied by her partner, the renowned director Tim Burton.

The couple posed for cameras in monochromatic black ensembles. Monica stunned in a long Dior gown, complemented by Cartier jewelry, while Burton opted for a classic black suit.

Monica Bellucci and Tim Burton’s relationship emerged after viral photos of the pair on a date circulated online. Rumors suggest they grew close in October 2022 at the Lumière Film Festival.

In the summer of 2023, Bellucci confirmed the romance in an interview with Elle, saying: «I’m happy to have met him. It’s one of those rare encounters in life».

Photo: @monicabelluccioff