Bille August

Highest Rated: 100% Chacun Son Cinema (2007)

Lowest Rated: 32% The House of the Spirits (1993)

Birthday: Nov 9, 1948

Birthplace: Brede, Denmark

A graduate of the Danish Film Institute, Bille August began his career in television and entered film production as a cinematographer on "Hemat i Natten/Homeward in the Night" (1977). The following year saw his first work as a director; he made both a short film, "Kim G.," and the feature "Honning Maane," which he also wrote. The latter was a generally well-received if small-scale study of a young couple which suggested a way with actors and an attention to character detail. August did not direct another feature, though, for five years, during which he worked in television and shot such features as "Man kan inte Valdtas/Manrape/Men Can't Be Raped" (1978), directed by Jorn Donner, and "The Grass Is Singing" (1981), a British-Swedish co-production about a woman having problems adjusting to Africa's bush country.