Adrian Brunel

Who was Adrian Brunel?

Adrian Brunel was an English film director and screenwriter. Brunel's directorial career started in the silent era, and reached its peak in the latter half of the 1920s. His surviving work from the 1920s, both full-length feature films and shorts, is highly regarded by silent film historians for its distinctive innovation, sophistication and wit. With the arrival of talkies, Brunel's career ground to a halt and he was absent from the screen for several years before returning in the mid-1930s with a flurry of quota quickie productions, a majority of which are now classed as lost. Brunel's last credit as director was in a 1940 wartime propaganda short film, although he worked for a few years more as a "fixer-up" for films directed or produced by friends in the industry.

After decades of neglect, Brunel's work has latterly been rediscovered and has undergone a critical re-evaluation. His "lost" films are eagerly sought, and the British Film Institute includes two on its "75 Most Wanted" list of missing British feature films.