Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
Tonight let’s talk about film directors!
Genius directors who can do no wrong. Once-genius directors, how the mighty have fallen. Genius directors that you can’t bear to watch anymore. Genius directors who screwed the pooch on a particular film, in an otherwise long line of wonderful films. Greatest directors of all time.
Who directed the films that have stayed with you for decades? The films that you just can’t shake, indelibly etched. The Birds, Charade, and Wait Until Dark are some of those movies for me.
Love ’em, hate ’em, or have a love-hate relationship with them, let’s talk all things film directors.
War for Ukraine Day 662: Let’s Clarify Something
raven
Altman, period.
funlady75
The Quiet Man – John Ford – John Wayne & Maureen
piratedan
I’ll start off with Sidney Lumet, who took excellent story material from Reginald Rose and crafted the original 12 Angry Men. He allowed the setting and the story and the actors to tell their story, the actors inherit their characters, but his timely close-ups and shot selection never feel forced as each piece of the ensemble has their part to play.
piratedan
@funlady75: I’ve always considered that John Ford’s love-letter to Ireland as the scenery shots and staging of his actors with those backdrops were a huge boost to a Hallmark Movie of its time.
JoyceH
David Lean.
schrodingers_cat
Gurudutt. He can do no wrong. Genius. Died too soon. His movies are like poetry on celluloid.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: Who the heck is that and what did he direct? :-)
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Tell us more about him and his movies?
schrodingers_cat
@JoyceH: I have found some of his movies a tad orientalist. Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai come to mind. I didn’t see them in the theaters though.
I like his Dr. Zhivago but truth be told that I enjoyed it better as a book.
funlady75
Two for the road – S. Donen – Audrey & Albert Finney
Rose Weiss
Ingmar Bergman, probably the greatest ever.
john (not mccain)
John Huston had the oddest career of any of the big time directors. Unlike Hitchcock or Kubrick, he has no signature style. You can only tell Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the Misfits and Reflections in a Golden Eye are by the same director if you read the credits.
Also, IIRC Annie is the only one of his not based on a novel. Even though he himself wrote screenplays, he always had source material. Hitchcock did a lot of those, too, but with Hitch you’re getting his movie. Huston was trying to bring the books to life.
He’s also responsible for the most overrated classic in cinema history. The African Queen was an impressive technical achievement filmed in grueling conditions. But the story’s a bore, there’s no chemistry between Hepburn and Bogart, and Bogie was just awful. Rob Schneider could have given that same performance.
If you want to try him, I’d start with the Misfits. Marilyn Monroe is amazing, and it’s incredibly moving. Reflections in a Golden Eye is pretty good, too, especially if you’re in the mood to see repressed gay man Marlon Brando get slapped around by Elizabeth Taylor. Also there’s naked Robert Forster so ya got no complaints.
Almost Retired
Great topic! You mentioned Charade, which brings to mind one of my favorite classic Directors, Stanley Donen.
So many of his classic musicals and romantic films still hold up (On the Town, Singing in the Rain, etc). Plus his personal life was soap-worthy (beautiful wives including Yvette Mineaux; feuds with Gene Kelly, etc.).
In 1984 – when I was waiting tables with a bunch of aspiring actors and directors in Marina del Rey – a Donen-obsessed colleague got three passes to a premiere of his latest film. I was thrilled to be included. Unfortunately, it was Blame it on Rio, which was execrable. People mostly laughed in the wrong places. So even the greats have duds, although maybe this film would look better on a fresh viewing?
Suzanne
Fincher. Altman. Campion.
WaterGirl
@Rose Weiss: Tell us why! :-)
WaterGirl
@Suzanne:
Please tell us why! :-)
Memory Pallas
Stanley Kubrick: Clockwork Orange, Dr. Stangelove, 2001 A Space Odyssey (throw in Barry Lyndon and The Shining)
but also Terry Jones: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian
geg6
Rob Reiner. So many of my favorite, forever rewatchable movies! Two of my top five movies, (This Is) Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride. But also Misery, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, Stand By Me and The American President are all just wonderful. He’s my favorite director. I’ll take a chance on anything he makes.
Mike in NC
The other night we watched High Anxiety, the 1977 Mel Brooks tribute to Alfred Hitchcock. Lots of amusing scenes spoofing his work.
Almost Retired
Another more current (i.e not dead) is Pedro Almovodar (I don’t know how to insert the accent mark on my phone). His films are funny, edgy, often complex and have enormous cross-cultural appeal. Plus he casts Penelope Cruz in many of them. He’s reasonably prolific so hopefully there’s great films yet to come.
And Greta Gerwig is going to be studied in film school in 10-15 years.
WaterGirl
@Almost Retired:
Do say more! please :-)
Craig
Alex Cox.
Craig
Howard Hawkes
CaseyL
Almost Retired beat me to it: Greta Gerwig. Barbie, of course; but also Lady Bird and Little Women.
Also – speaking of “Barbenheimer” – Christopher Nolan.
Both of them have very specific and strong ideas about how storytelling works, and how all aspects of making a film should support telling a particular story.;
funlady75
Out of Africa – Sidney Pollack -Streep & Redford
Almost Retired
@WaterGirl: Greta Gerwig is only about 40. She worked as an actress and then transitioned to directing. Her earliest films – Lady Bird and Little Women – were both nominated as best picture. She won the best screenplay Oscar for Lady Bird. Her most recent is, of course, Barbie which should fair well on Academy Awards day (not that this is the ne plus ultra of evaluating talent). Her heroines are empowered, funny, complex and her films have a delightful feminist sensibility.
ETA: Casey! Jinx!
Anoniminous
Akira Kurisawa. Everybody thinks they’ve seen Seven Samuri but if you haven’t seen the Critiron DVD … you haven’t
SpaceUnit
@geg6:
By any chance have you been following his Who Killed JFK podcast?
It’s pretty interesting . This is really my first deep dive down the JFK rabbit hole though, and I don’t have much reference. I’m curious what others think.
Another Scott
Ed Wood! Fearless! Didn’t waste time!
:-)
With the caveat that I’ve seen less than a dozen movies in theatres in the last 20 years or so…
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like Spielberg – too manipulative in cheap ways. Especially if Williams does the soundtrack. May be a genius director and a master of the craft, but he annoys me.
[/grinch]
Jean-Pierre Jeunet did a fabulous job with Amélie.
I really enjoyed Barbie. I hope that Greta Gerwig continues to grow as a director – that’s another area where old white guys have had too much sway for far too long.
Cheers,
Scott.
john (not mccain)
Kelly Reichardt is my favorite 21st century director. I’ve still got 3 of her movies to see – I’m spacing them out because they are so lovely I want to savor them. They’re like good poetry, really. So powerful and you never know what’s coming. Wendy and Lucy is my current favorite, a lovely meditation on the cost of love.
geg6
@Almost Retired:
Agreed about Greta Gerwig.
zhena gogolia
@funlady75: Such an amazing film.
ETA: Same director as Charade, BTW.
zhena gogolia
It’s Hitchcock for me. I can watch his films again and again. Nobody gave Cary Grant or James Stewart or Ingrid Bergman or Joan Fontaine better showcases.
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: All of them create these incredible atmospheres. Whenever I watch one of their movies, I feel completely immersed and somehow convinced, if that makes sense. That, to me, is the signature quality of good art of any medium…. Movies, literature, painting, music, architecture, whatever. It’s the creation of a world or a mood or an outlook.
funlady75
@zhena gogolia:
me too —-favorite Rear Window & Vertigo & Notorius (sp) with Cary & Ingrid
KSinMA
Ang Lee has made some fabulous movies: The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Crouching Tiger, Sense and Sensibility, etc.
Anoniminous
On the other end of the scale there is D &D (Weiss and Beniof) who managed to turn a potential cultural milestone: Game of Thrones, into an insipid, banal, vacuous POS. I think there are a hundred times the hours of video on YouTube attacking the show’s two ending seasons than the the hours of video of the last two seasons.
Barbara
@WaterGirl: Dr. Zhivago, which I consider to be his best, but also Lawrence of Arabia and others. I still remember seeing Dr. Zhivago as a kid and some of the sweeping scenes of Russia.
Almost Retired
@KSinMA: Yes! Good one. Those are all very different films, but what they have in common is effective filmmaking. You can’t pigeonhole an Ang Lee film by genre.
Brachiator
@piratedan:
One of my choices as well. 12 Angry Men is a top choice for YouTube movie reactions, and consistently impresses younger people who too often believe that “old movies” are slow and creaky.
This 1957 film was Lumet’s debut as a director, and the story had previously been produced for television. But it is marvelous to see how Lumet and his crew bring a cinematic perspective to the material, even though the action largely takes place in a single location, the jury room. The choice of shots that show a group of jurors, alternating with close-ups and medium shots shape and propel the narrative.
Lumet also has a wonderful group of character actors who know how to make the written script sound like human beings speaking.
Of his other wonderful films, I will select the 1982 courtroom drama The Verdict as a quick comparison. Paul Newman is outstanding as a washed out ambulance chasing attorney who may be at the end of his rope when he is given a supposedly easy case which might pull him back from the abyss. Lumet films the action at a deliberately slower pace, and films scenes with muted lighting which reflects the moral exhaustion of his protagonist. Lumet also steals a truck from Hitchcock, a scene that tells a key part of the story without dialog.
Jack Warden, who appeared in 12 Angry Men is also great in The Verdict, playing the Newman character’s former mentor.
moonbat
Genius directions who can do no wrong in my eyes: David Fincher, The Three Amigos (Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro, and Alfonso Cuarón) they are always innovating, always thinking, always getting better. Coen Bros. even their screw-ups are interesting. David Lynch — the only director I’ve ever seen that has captured the look, feel, and sound of dream states on film. Sam Raimi for the sheer joy of film making. Werner Herzog, one of the gutsiest filmmakers to ever walk the earth. And I’m going to mention Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan Wook, and George Miller before his new Furiosa movie has the chance to disappoint me. lol
Once-genius directors, how the mighty have fallen: The number of original directors who got sucked into the Hollywood machine until they were chewed up and began spitting out dreck are too many to number.
“Genius” directors that you can’t bear to watch anymore: Anything by Woody Allen. He ruined every last one of his films for me. I don’t even like to think about him. Scare quotes are intentional.
Genius directors who screwed the pooch on a particular film, in an otherwise long line of wonderful films: Also too many to number. lol But I’d kick myself if I didn’t mention Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather III. What was he thinking? BLERGH!
Greatest directors of all time: Ford, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Hawks, Chaplin and I will probably think of a few more as soon as I post this.
ETA and I did! Peckinpah
Splitting Image
Terry Jones for one. The Holy Grail and The Life of Brian have both been comfort movies since I was in high school.
Seconding Stanley Donen, although my favourite movie of his is Bedazzled, with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
Carl and Rob Reiner both. The Princess Bride quotes may be as tiresome as Monty Python at this point, but it is endlessly quoted for a reason. Carl’s collaborations with Steve Martin also make up a good body of work, especially Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.
Orlando by Sally Potter is another one that I watch over and over.
Mel Brooks is another go-to whenever I’m in a funk. Take your pick: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, The Producers, etc. etc. Blake Edwards could be hit or miss, but A Shot in the Dark never disappoints. Plus it inspired an REM album.
Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Stan Laurel always work their way back into the rotation, although Laurel generally didn’t get credit for directing. City Lights, Seven Chances, and Sons of the Desert are all masterpieces.
Kubrick is another director I love, although in his case I have to be in the mood for a particular movie. I wouldn’t say Mel Brooks’ movies are all interchangeable, but if I’m in the mood for Brooks, I can choose from several movies which will scratch the same itch. If I feel like watching 2001, I can’t change my mind and watch Barry Lyndon or Dr. Strangelove instead.
delphinium
Have enjoyed some of Peter Weir’s films including Witness, Master and Commander, and The Year of Living Dangerously. Great storytelling and some incredible scenery.
Also, thought Wim Wender did a wonderful job with Wings of Desire, a thought provoking and visually stunning movie.
Craig
@Another Scott: Monsieur Juenet is dope. Had a talk the other day about how the beginning of Poor Things reminds me of Delicatessen.
Craig
@Brachiator: Agree. The Verdict is absolutely top notch.
Citizen Dave
Well I have several but two I’ll add is David Lynch and Yorgos Lathimos. No one has said Scorcese? Spielberg?
frosty
@geg6: I don’t give directors a lot of thought but based on that string of movies you just listed …. Yeah, Rob Reiner for sure.
Craig
George Roy Hill was my favorite director as a kid. He had a hell of a run with Paul Newman. Newman being my favorite actor. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Slapshot. Love those movies.
Brachiator
Of the French New Wave directors, the one I love the most is Truffaut. I love how he and his compatriots were film critics who annoyed the Establishment by blasting tired conventions and stale narratives in mainstream French and world cinema. When challenged to do better, Truffaut and his friends produced masterpieces.
A professor showed Jules and Jim as part of our French language class, and I was able to luxuriate in the film, and focus on narrative sections. I am still floored by the film’s humanity and sadness.
The 400 Blows is a wonderful film that can introduce teens to the possibility of film as something more than popcorn entertainment.
I also enjoyed the book of film criticism Truffaut Hitchcock, two masters discussing their art.
Rose Weiss
@WaterGirl: The Seventh Seal, Through a Glass Darkly, Cries and Whispers. Every one of his movies spoke to me – but I have to admit I’m not sure I could watch them now in my old age. But for decades I considered the 7th Seal to be the best film of all time and my hands-down favorite. These days I’d be more likely to enjoy The Princess Bride or another of Rob Reiner’s good-natured stories.
Miss Bianca
@Craig: Haven’t seen Slapshot, but agree about George Roy Hill anyway! The Sting was my hands-down favorite movie as a kid.
Although speaking of The Sting, another brilliant 30’s-based movie featuring somehow lovable con artists is Paper Moon. Peter Bogdanovich ain’t no slouch either when it comes to creating atmosphere.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Thank you! It’s so interesting to hear the “why” – what someone likes a director or a movie or a TV show.
zhena gogolia
@Splitting Image: Do you like The Twelve Chairs? I saw it when it came out and hated it, but recently rewatched and laughed my ass off.
zhena gogolia
@Splitting Image: Recently watched Eyes Wide Shut, and although it’s absurd, it is obsessively watchable. And I can’t stand Tom Cruise, but still. (Sydney Pollack is the standout.)
Brachiator
Genius Directors
Billy Wilder. Billy Wilder. Billy Wilder.
The top of the pantheon. Drama, comedy or satire.
Craig
@Citizen Dave: I dig Yorgos. Just saw Poor Things. Awesome. I’ve never much cared for Spielberg. The USS Indianapolis speech in Jaws is one of the greatest scenes ever filmed. Rest of his stuff is too manipulative as someone else said. That said, I really enjoy Catch Me If You Can. I wish he could lighten up like that a bit more often.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca: Definitely see Slapshot. Also The World of Henry Orient.
WaterGirl
@KSinMA: Not intended as a criticism, but as more of a question. How should I be phrasing the Medium Cool posts to encourage people to talk about what’s great about a director or movie, or whatever we are discussing?
Often we end up listing things, but that doesn’t engender much discussion. May I ask what makes the movies you listed fabulous? Are they all fabulous in different ways, or are they all fabulous beau the director does x or y or z?
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca: I recently watched What’s Up, Doc? Pretty funny!
UncleEbeneezer
John Singleton, Barry Jenkins, Sophia Coppola, Paul Thomas Anderson, Todd Fields, and of course, Greta Gerwig.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator: Oh, yes.
dexwood
Capra and del Toro. Would say more but off for care of wife’s 95 year old parents.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: That’s like homework!
I think people like to throw out names and see if anyone else agrees, rather than having to defend their choices. But that’s just me, I guess.
zhena gogolia
@dexwood: See, objectively I can understand why someone likes Capra or thinks he’s a great director. But I find watching his movies a chore — unlike Hitchcock or Lumet or Wilder.
Craig
@zhena gogolia: I was just going to mention Sydney Pollack. He screwed down early Tom Cruise and got a great performance out of him in The Firm. Three Days of the Condor was another eye opening film for me as a kid.
Anotherlurker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roI56_c_E6o
Herbert Wise created a masterpiece with a very limited budget.
For those of you who remember “I Claudius”, please enjoy this and share master class in directing with all who are interested.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia:
LOL. Feeling like homework is not what I was going for!
MattF
I’m astonished that there’s been no mention of the Coen brothers. I can think of three or four great movies from them just off the top of my head. And, speaking of Greta Gerwig, Barbie is now streaming on Max. Go watch it.
billcinsd
I’ll add two
Craig
@Brachiator: The Master
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: I don’t think there’s a problem with the way you raise topics. In my case, any of the examples that I think are great (or annoying) are from 20 years ago so I’m unwilling to trust my memory of the details. ;-)
I liked it == Great!
I didn’t like it == Terrible!!
It’s great that experts and buffs can fill in lots of details in these threads.
Thanks for all you do.
Cheers,
Scott.
Andrew Abshier
I’m surprised Terence Malick hasn’t been mentioned yet. The Thin Red Line was one of the best films of the 1990s and as I recall, many of the prominent actors of the day were begging for roles on the film.
SpaceUnit
I think Scorsese is a good director but a lot of his subject matter just doesn’t interest me. Too much mob stuff. I think it’s easy for directors and actors to feel they’re exploring a morally inverted universe when a film is about mafia stuff, but I really don’t see it that way. It’s just exploring the most depressing aspects of human nature.
OTOH I can watch Hugo anytime. I thinks it’s brilliant!
Rose Weiss
@Brachiator: The 400 Blows is an under-appreciated masterpiece! Back in the day. any new Truffaut film would be on my must-see list because of The 400 Blows.
Chetan Murthy
Wong Kar-Wai? In The Mood For Love, Fallen Angels (!) Others too, but those jump to memory immediately.
Pyrienise
I saw Guillermo del Toro mentioned so I’ll chime in calling his name out too. As for why – well, I’m one of those people that can never remember names and I don’t tend to rewatch a lot of movies, but Pan’s Labyrinth was just so dark and faerie that I had to watch it several times. I’m also a notorious noncryer but it gets me to shed a tear or two. He does a great job going back and forth between the faerie and the real world and I think did a great job with the cinematography (I say as an uncultured buffoon when it comes to movies).
Barbara
@SpaceUnit: Agreed. I think Scorsese is most effective when he captures the “mob like” essence of non-mafia subjects or social settings. “Age of Innocence” comes to mind.
piratedan
@Craig: would agree with Pollack as well, with Three Days of The Condor, his faceless first shots of The Major when Redford first calls on the panic line was a wonderful tone setter without being too heavy handed. The exposition was handled deftly as conversation by some very capable actors and his shots of the city while Redford is on the run and plays into the seamy underside of all of these intelligence affairs taking place as a backdrop to a city that is much too busy with other affairs.
He made the violence into a duality, at times personal and at others… less so….
dm
I’m a little surprised to be the first to suggest Hayao Miyazaki. I’ve not seen his latest — The Boy and the Heron, but I’ve heard it’s very good. Many commentators have said it’s his envoy — lots of subtle and not so subtle allusions to Miyazaki’s life and legacy. But the man made two of the greatest children’s movies ever: My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s delivery service (in the case of the latter, the sub and the dub are both great, but are different movies due to Phil Hartman’s ad-libbing as Jiji the cat).
Plus the magnificent Princes Mononoke and Spirited Away. He also does great comedy: Castle of Cagliostro and Porco Rosso (with the unforgettable line: “I’d rather be a pig than a Fascist”). Plus there’s almost a half-dozen other films he’s directed that are worth multiple looks.
But, I’d be remiss to leave out Miyazaki’s partner, the late Isao Takahata. I’d say his Princess Kaguya is a tour-de-force of animation technique and storytelling. His Only Yesterday (about growing up in the 60s and trying to find yourself as an adult) is also notable for technique. Takahata’s films tend to run long, though.
Others not yet mentioned: the late (too young) Satoshi Kon, who is a master of the match cut (https://otakuusamagazine.com/satoshi-kons-editing-technique-explored/). Watch this opening to his film Paprika: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjalQjAomH0
SpaceUnit
@Barbara:
He’s definitely a great director.
Although I have little interest in watching it again Taxi Driver is an impressive work. He created a world in which everyone is constantly talking past one another and unable to make real connections – a very subtle but spot on way to set his stage.
Rose Weiss
Well, reaching back to my parents’ era, movies still on my frequent watchlist are Frank Capra classics like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Wonderful Life (which I love despite it’s utter smarminess), You Can’t Take It with You, and Arsenic and Old Lace. He usually managed to deliver his message in very entertaining ways, although his tendency to be heavy handed was often a problem.
moonbat
@dm: Ashamed to say I am only now getting familiar with his entire canon. I saw Howl’s Moving Castle a few months back and watched Spirited Away last night. Still processing everything in it (it’s a lot!). Have yet to see My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service, but I look forward to them. So far though, massively impressed.
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: His early movies were of the film noir genre. Aar Par and Baazi come to mind.
Pyaasa : Thirsty ( Set in post independence India, through the eyes of an out of work poet. After the heady days of independence were replaced soul crushing reality of the task ahead)
(Jinhe Naaz hai Hind per who kahan hai?, (where are those who are proud of Hind)
Kagaz ke Phool (Paper Flowers) About the transitory nature of fame. The lead is the successful and popular director.
Dekhi Zamane ki yaari ichde sabi bari bari ( I have seen what the world means by friendship, I lost all, one by one)
He also produced Sahib, Bibi or Gulam set in Bengal during the waning British Empire and he doesn’t have the direction credits for the movie but the movie has his stamp on it.
The protagonist of that movie is a woman who has all the riches she could want but not her husband’s love. It is commentary on the changing mores, the decadent landowning classes of Bengal and the more modern, educated liberal elite replacing them.
All the movies have great music and unforgettable poetry.
Chale Aao (Come back..)
from Sahib (Boss), Biwi (Wife) aur Ghulam (slave/servant)
moonbat
@Pyrienise: If you were moved by Pan’s Labyrinth you should see his first Spanish Civil War era film The Devil’s Backbone. He was supposed to make a trilogy set in that era seen through the eyes of children, but has yet to come out with the third.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: OMG, how could I have forgotten The World of Henry Orient? Possibly my *second* favorite movie as a kid! Just love how he got into the girls’ world and then was able to move seamlessly into Henry Orient’s. Peter Sellers at his best, imo, matched only by Clouseau and Dr Strangelove.
Rose Weiss
I’ve enjoyed some of Spielberg’s work, but as others have mentioned, he tends to be very manipulative. For me the effect is totally lost if it’s an obvious manipulation.
I’ll definitely second and third Kurosawa. Rashomon is an absolute classic
Another Scott
@dm: The last link seems to be something else. Is this what you meant for Paprika?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=padZIetY36o
That’s some wild stuff!
:-)
Thanks for the pointer.
Cheers,
Scott.
SpaceUnit
Is anyone else here a fan of the animated movies The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, both directed by Tom Moore? I think they’re both amazing.
Although with films like those I think you have to extend credit not just to the director but to the whole creative team.
Wyatt Salamanca
John Cassavetes, Robert Kramer, John Sayles, Charles Burnett, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Satyajit Ray., and Alain Resnais
Great list from the Experimental Film Society
http://www.experimentalfilmsociety.com/12-favourite-filmmakers/
phein64
I’ll throw in two British directors who were very good at exposing characters inner lives: Bill Forsyth (Local Hero, Gregory’s Girl, Comfort and Joy, Breaking In), and Mike Leigh (Life is Sweet, Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake).
What I like about the movies they make is that conflict doesn’t depend upon mean or bad faith actors.
And no one has mentioned Michael Curtiz?: We’re No Angels (the original with Peter Ustinov, Humphrey Bogart, and Aldo Ray, a real Christmas movie if ever there was; I envy you if you haven’t seen it because it awaits you), Mildred Pierce, Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, etc. A Hungarian expat who may have been the best of the studio system directors.
...now I try to be amused
I like Richard Linklater’s slice-of-life films where the action takes place in a single day, like Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and the “Before” trilogy. Like real life, there are laugh-out-loud moments but they are not comedies.
My favorite Linklater films:
Before Sunrise — The only film I’ve seen that depicts the way I fall in love. It starts with a long conversation.
Waking Life — Gave me a lot to think about, and the rotoscoping is cool. Using nuevo tango for the soundtrack was an inspired choice — an emotional base for an intellectual film. I didn’t realize how affecting it was until I listened to the soundtrack album and watched the film a second time.
TEL
@Rose Weiss: I was going to suggest Bergman as well. Absolutely beautiful cinematography and such a light touch, even with heavy material. I first discovered him by stumbling on The Seventh Seal and I couldn’t stop watching. How he was able to find bits of humor in a story about a medieval knight fighting death while traveling through the countryside during the black plague, I don’t know.
dm
Everything Satoshi Kon touched was gold, but I think his best film was Millennium Actress, a film about a fictional interview with a great (but fictional) Japanese actress who grew up with the Japanese film industry in the 20th Century.
In it, Kon switches from scenes from the actress’ life to scenes from her films to the interview … in his match-cut style.
Oh! And it’s almost Christmas! Check out Kon’s film Tokyo Godfathers about three homeless Tokyo magi and a miracle child!
SpaceUnit
@SpaceUnit:
That’s Tomm Moore. Two M’s.
Thanks for nothing autocorrect.
moonbat
@phein64: LOVE Bill Forsyth!
“I’m still here, Happer, and you’re still a #&**%$*@!”
HAR!
RSA
One of my favorite movies and favorite directors, though I haven’t kept up with him since then. I’ll have to take a look.
He and Marc Caro have a way of suggesting a world that goes far beyond the bounds of the movie in their fantasies, Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, and Amélie. Their work conveys a whimsical vision that’s enormously appealing.
To me, at least, but maybe to other directors as well. Some critics have noticed the obvious influence on Scorseses’s Hugo, for example, which has been mentioned here already.
phein64
@moonbat: “There’s a madman on the roof. You’d better call the police to get some marksmen over here. Shoot him down. Shoot to kill.
This is Burt Lancaster, an extremely wealthy man, somewhat guiltily instructing his staff to ask the Houston cops to shoot his therapist.
dm
@Another Scott: Youtube had jumped to the next thing in its queue before I grabbed the link. Thanks.
This is what I meant (it actually comes about two minutes after the end of the scene in your link). It’s the opening credits for Paprika:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW0v-NuudQw
moonbat
@phein64: Hahahahahahahahaha!!
That was one of several late career Burt Lancaster movies that made sense of the whole human enterprise.
Rocket Gibraltar and Atlantic City being the others.
Brachiator
@Anoniminous:
I have made my peace with the terrible final seasons because so much of what came before was so good.
dm
@Wyatt Salamanca: John Sayles’ Matewan was a great film about a coal strike in West Virginia. My father grew up with stories about that strike, and was hesitant to see the film when it came out, but thought it was great.
And Sayles’ Brother from another planet, about an alien who lands on Ellis Island, and connects with others of his kind through finding messages in alleyway graffiti is wonderful. He hooks up with an alien Virgil who takes him on a tour of the urban hellscape. It’s set in 70s New York (of “Ford to city: drop dead” fame), so is from another world, now.
BretH
I’d have to put Tarantino up there. Love him or hate him I think he creates things that otherwise we’d never see.
And speaking of animated films Brad Bird – The Iron Giant is absolute masterpiece.
El Muneco
Scorsese, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Ron Howard, Spielberg, and Hitchcock all had legitimately great films in five different decades.
If Mount Rushmore involves a combination of “peak value” and “career value” my shortlist starts there.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Seconded. I too love Hitchcock movies! Which is your favorite Hitchcock?
dm
… and, as to why one should check out Isao Takahata’s films, check out this short scene from his last movie, The Tale of Princess Kaguya: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtc-PP2GWPo
Strangely for an animation director, Takahata couldn’t really draw. In a way, this seemed to give him freedom to ask his animators for genuine creativity. Unlike the standard in the Japanese animation industry, Takahata and Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli reportedly treated and paid its animators well (Takahata had led a strike at Toei, which probably meant the only way he could get work was to start his own studio).
Jack Canuck
I’ll throw some names in that I don’t think have been mentioned yet:
1. Wes Anderson. I get that he seems to be a love or hate kind of director, but I definitely fall on the ‘love’ side. Visually he’s got such a distinct style, from settings and camera placement to colour palette, and his approach to his films just works for me – explorations of people, feelings, and situations that are small but not banal and boring. Just saw Asteroid City this week and really liked it, though it needs another viewing to look for the details and links that I probably missed the first time around.
2. Guy Ritchie. Do I think he makes great art? Maybe not. Do I think he consistently makes distinctive, stylish (and I mean that in a good way), quirky movies that really get the best out of some amazing casts? Yes I do. Operation Fortune from earlier this year was hysterically funny (especially Hugh Grant as the arms dealer); before that the last one I saw was The Gentlemen (2019) – again, very funny (and again, a great performance from Hugh Grant, who has matured into a very enjoyable character actor).
3. Christopher Nolan. Okay, he has been mentioned, but I’ll put him here anyway. His films are complex, intriguing, brilliantly cast, visually (and often aurally) gorgeous, and they make you think. I love that. I was wondering how he’d work his weirdness with timelines into Oppenheimer, and I wasn’t disappointed.
I will go see a movie knowing nothing else about it if one of those three directed it. Can’t give a higher compliment than that.
Honourable mentions:
– Jim Jarmusch. Sometimes his stuff doesn’t work for me (Dead Man, anyone?), but sometimes it’s amazing. Just saw Only Lovers Left Alive, which I can’t recommend strongly enough – Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton, Mia Wasikowska, and John Hurt in a very intimate, compelling (and almost completely non-violent and casualty-free) vampire movie set in Detroit and Tangier. It was beautiful, and so well-done.
-Steven Soderbergh. This is more by way of my wife than myself – she’d put Soderbergh in with the three I listed above. I don’t rate him that highly, but he can be great.
Directors I don’t like and don’t understand why they get so much praise: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick. I’ve just seen very little from any of them that rises above a level that I would call ‘workmanlike’ at best. Maybe I just don’t get them, but I’d have to be convinced to go see one of their films these days. (Edit: Maybe that’s a bit harsh. I’ve seen a few from them that I thought were excellent, but I do think they’re over-hyped and over-praised.)
moonbat
Should have also mentioned Jim Jarmusch (Mystery Train, Dead Man, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Down by Law). He’s a favorite in this house whose films get quoted daily. Particularly, “Stupid fucking white man,” accompanied by a sad shake of the head.
If American culture ever produced a film auteur, he is definitely it.
RSA
I’ll put in a word for Jim Jarmusch. His films (I’ll list my entry points from the 1980s and ’90s: Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, Night on Earth, Dead Man, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai) have a dry sense of humor and style to die for. They tend to tell counterculture stories, from an outsider perspective. For someone who’s made just a dozen or so not-especially-mainstream movies, he’s worked with superb actors.
geg6
@WaterGirl:
For me, it’s that Reiner makes mainstream friendly films that are not in any way pretentious or precious but are extremely well written, well acted and just beautifully directed. There is a bit of familiarity and relatability to the characters and situations that feels real, even in the most absurd films. I just love him.
Craig
@Chetan Murthy: also a master of the art, Wong Kar-Wai. The Grandmaster is beautiful. The story of Bruce Lee’s teacher. His early films like Chunking Express and Days of Being Wild really set a new tone in cinema. Simple stories, well executed on a small canvas. Happy Together about a pair of gay Chinese star crossed lovers stuck in Buenos Aries is lovely and helped me sort out a love affair that was on the skids. I’ve always loved his Mallick like voice over style, real poetic and sad. In The Mood for Love is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Tragic and lovely. He’s gotten so many great performances out of Tony Leung. Truely one of the greatest actors on Earth.
Shana
@Citizen Dave: I’m probably going to get a lot of shit for this, but Spielberg is overrated.
Chetan Murthy
@Craig:
I loved him in Infernal Affairs.
SpaceUnit
I thought Tomas Alfredson’s low-budget film depiction of Let the Right One In was a goddamn masterpiece. Beautiful. Dark. Uncomfortable. Touching. At the end you were left so conflicted as to turn yourself inside out. I have no familiarity with that director’s other work, but that movie was a horror gem.
I saw the remake by American director Whatshisname but didn’t see the point.
geg6
And just to show how much I love Reiner’s perspective ( and several others, to be fair), I am sure Kubrick will get a lot of love on this post. But he gets none from me. AFAIC, the worst, most overrated filmmaker of all time. Never made a film I could sit through. Just terrible. But I know I am in the minority. But I’m right. ;-)
Shana
@dm: John Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus 7 is far superior to The Big Chill with similar subject matter.
geg6
@Shana:
Love that film! But I also love The Big Chill.
Craig
@piratedan: Mystery Train is a seriously underrated film. Down By Law is brilliant. And Ghostdog is one of a kind genius. Never cared for Dead Man though.
@moonbat:
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: It changes all the time. I guess I’d have to say Vertigo. But I love Notorious, Suspicion, Rebecca, Rear Window, Rope, Family Plot, Marnie, To Catch a Thief. I know I’m forgetting some. Foreign Correspondent.
ETA: Frenzy.
Anotherlurker
@Shana: Spielberg actually is a very good director.
When you speak of over rated, the first name you should come up with is James Cameron of “Titanic” and “Aliens”.
The director who has recently impressed me is Takashi Yamazaki go the new Godzilla.
moonbat
@Craig: Gary Farmer is the best thing about Dead Man. Him and the improvised scene between Iggy Pop, Billy Bob Thornton, and Jared Harris.
ETA: And Crispin Glover being absolutely freaky on the train.
phein64
No love for Ken Russell? All original, all off-beat, all somewhat shocking:
Tommy, The Lair of the White Worm, Gothic (these last two are party-film night musts), Lisztomania, Crimes of Passion (Kathleen Turner even sexier than in Body Heat), Altered States, Women In Love.
Rose Weiss
Kubrick made a lot of dreck, but Dr Strangelove makes up any other missteps. That’s always in my top 10 movies.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Ed Wood.
Brilliant visionary with a social conscience who used cutting edge special effects to make the landmark epic “Plan 9 from Outer Space”
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@phein64: you left out “Billion Dollar Brain” which was prophetic in it’s Trump like depiction of General Midwinter
moonbat
@Anotherlurker: Agreed re: Cameron. I can only hope that I die before he inflicts all eight of the Avatar sequels he’s planning to foist on us with the apparent goal of proving that he can produce as many computer animated special effects centered blockbusters as the Marvel franchise.
prostratedragon
@Citizen Dave:
I’m watching The Color Purple now for the fisrt time in years, and I’ll mention him.
I don’t do superlatives as a rule, and even have a hard time narrowing down a small set of favorites, but certainly Lynch, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Fellini, Scorsese, and Kurosawa. Not exhaustive, but you get the idea. Probably should also mention Powell and Pressburger as no one has, and some elusive thing about their movies that is unique.
Craig
@moonbat: Aliens is an excellent film. Cameron is a mediocre film director overall
Barbara
@phein64: Women in Love was a wild movie, but I think Russell is generally a bit too self-indulgent to be considered great. IMO
Barbara
@zhena gogolia: North By Northwest. Which I actually think is his best, along with Rear Window. The James Mason character is creepy as all get out.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
A 130 comments and no love for Oliver Stone, Costa-Gavras, Polanski, John Sturges?
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
directors who filmed a broad range of genres:
Peter Yates (Bullitt, The Hot Rock, Friends of Eddie Coyle, For Pete’s Sake, Breaking Away, The Deep, Eyewitness, The Dresser)
Michael Ritchie (The Candidate, Bad News Bears, Fletch, Diggstown, Cool Runnings)
prostratedragon
@Chetan Murthy: 2046. Remunds me I should have my annual rewatch soon.
2046 theme as rhumba
Barbara
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I’m happy to leave Polanski to the judgment of history.
NotMax
Skimming down the thread, gonna add a smattering I haven’t seen mentioned above.
Chuck Jones
Bob Clampett
Robert McKimson
Buster Keaton
Yasujirō Ozu
James Whale
Jacque Tati
Ida Lupino
Wim Wenders
Abel Gance
Masahiro Shinoda
Rak Kapoor
Luis Estrada
Agnieszka Holland
dm
@Shana: oh, I’d forgotten about The return of the Seacaucus 7. Yes, that was a fine film.
Sayles is also a fine writer. The anarchist convention and other stories is a prize in my library.
dm
@delphinium: I’ve been a Weir fan since Picnic at Hanging Rock.
NotMax
Following up on your recent call for topics.
Stretching the Medium Cool designation a mite but conversation is a medium, right?
Fantasy dinner party guests.
Craig
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: no love at all for Oliver Stone.
prostratedragon
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Ang Le: The Wedding Banquet; The Ice Storm; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Lust, Caution; The Life of Pi.
prostratedragon
@dm:
His The Last Wave is a desert island-class movie for me.
stinger
Kenneth Branagh has directed different types of films: Shakespeare — Hamlet, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing; comedy-drama — Peter’s Friends; straight drama — Belfast; thriller — Dead Again, Sleuth, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit; superhero — Thor; fantasy — Artemis Fowl, Cinderella.
billcinsd
@NotMax: You want Steve Allen’s “Meeting of Minds”
NotMax
@billcinsd
Loved that program.
dm
@prostratedragon: Thanks for reminding me about that wonderful film.
UncleEbeneezer
@Andrew Abshier: Nobody makes nature such a part of the cinematography the way Malick does. I actually love The New World, just for that epic first 45 minutes of incredible footage of the Virginia coast. marshes etc.
UncleEbeneezer
@…now I try to be amused: I saw Waking Life on shrooms and it was freakin’ wild. I had no idea what the film was gonna be about or look like before we walked in.
Roberto el oso
@prostratedragon: same here. The final shot …..
Roberto el oso
So far I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen by both Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman) and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Ex Machina) and am looking forward to what they do next.
I especially like Eggers’ approach, where each film is different from what came before (once there’s a longer filmography it might be possible to see echoes and patterns, of course).
I haven’t seen Rainer Werner Fassbender mentioned, but his early death seems like a huge loss (although it’s possible he would have been one of those enfantes terribles who don’t age well).
Alain Resnais is another great one, from Night & Fog, to Last Year At Marienbad, to Providence (which, for my money captured both John Gielgud and Dirk Bogarde in absolutely top form).
I was a huge fan of Bernardo Bertolucci, but the later movies seemed to be a little overripe and his earlier provocative approach to sexual matters seems to have devolved to standard older man lechery.
Roberto el oso
Oh, I should have added Ken Russell (who someone mentioned earlier), although the films of his which I prize are Women In Love, The Devils, The Boyfriend, and Salome’s Last Dance.
cursorial
@WaterGirl: I also want to know more about the why of recommendations. But the back-and-forth seems to fill it in often, so I love the info I get from the Sunday Medium Cool threads.
I don’t know much about the moviemaking process. For a given script and cast, what films did the director make the difference between something terrible (or unexceptional) and riveting, amazing, mindblowing. For me, something like Alien, which could have been a forgetten B-movie, turns into something genre-defining in Ridley Scott’s hands. Until I watched that, I didn’t really understand what directors did.
raven
No love for Krzysztof Kieślowski?
Kosh III
I’ve not gone to a theater in years and I don’t pay much attention who the director or producer is so I’ll just list my 5 Favorite movies in no particular order.
Babette’s Feast
Sunset Boulevard
Porkys
Blazing Saddles
Donovan’s Reef
Miss Bianca
@Craig: No love for Dead Man? I loved it! I loved the cinematography, I loved the acting, and I loved the soundtrack, which became its own character in the movie.
Now, how well it holds up, I don’t know – I saw it again a few years ago and wasn’t quite as smitten with it as I’d been the first few times through – but I will never, never, not love Johnny Depp’s delivery of “I’m William Blake. Perhaps you’ve heard of my poetry.”
AM in NC
@raven: Came here to say exactly that.
Hannah
My favorite directors are John Ford, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Michael Curtiz, Max Ophüls, William Wyler, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Sirk, King Vidor, Charlie Chaplin, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese. I’m sure I left someone out. My two favorite are Ford and Wyler:
John Ford: The Searchers; My Darling Clementine; The Grapes of Wrath; The Hurricane; How Green Was My Valley; She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
William Wyler: Dodsworth; Dead End; Wuthering Heights; The Westerner; The Letter; The Little Foxes; The Best Years of Our Lives; Friendly Persuasion; The Big Country
I highly recommend a documentary adaptation of Mark Harris’ wonderful book, Five Came Back. It’s on Netflix. It’s about 5 directors (Ford, Wyler, Frank Capra, John Huston, George Stevens) whose WWII experiences altered their lives and the movies they would make after they “came back.” Very well written with excellent movie scenes, narrated by Meryl Streep. Each classic director has a modern director talk about them. Ford=Paul Greengrass; Wyler=Steven Spielberg; Capra=Guillermo del Toro; Huston=Francis Ford Coppola; Stevens=Lawrence Kasdan. Great stuff.
L’auteur
No argument with any of the great directors already mentioned, but here’s a director who doesn’t get enough recognition: Herbert Ross!
My Blue Heaven, Footloose, Pennies from Heaven, The Turning Point, The Sunshine Boys, The Last of Sheila . . . and many more.