Twenty Great Directors, Past and Present

Yeah, it's that Central European cynicism leavened with a large dollop of humanity. Want a message? Be a mensch.... a human being! For Sunset Blvd., The Apartment, Some Like it Hot, Double Indemnity, Ace in the Hole, and much, much more.

The Master of Suspense, sure. But he was a master FILMMAKER, whether it was working out his own psychosexual obsessions in Vertigo, or indicting his audience in Rear Window, or playing Holy Hell with story line expectations in Psycho. For those movies, and Notorious, Shadow of a Doubt, Rebecca, and more.

His best movies are almost too painful to rewatch - literally for me with Taxi Driver. They have a brutal resonance that can leave you exhausted. Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and underappreciated Gems like After Hours and King of Comedy, and The Last Temptation of Christ.

And Ethan, of course. The two headed director. No one's movies since Wilder's connect with me, at the top of their game, like the Coens. And they are our best technical directors today as well - thanks be to Deakins and Livesay and Burwell. Fargo, No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, and many more.

And Joel!

Oh, for him to have had the studio backing to have the career he deserved! He brilliantly understood how to take the methods of others and weld them into something that summed up everything and pointed the way forward. Citizen Kane, of course. But Chimes at Midnight - crappy version of it and all - is my favorite Shakespeare adaptation. Also Touch of Evil, The Magnificent Ambersons.

"By Old Masters I Mean John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford." - Orson Welles. He created our Western myth, and exploded it. And his visual style was impeccable. Every time you see one of Welles's low angled ceiling shots, that's Ford. The Searchers, Stagecoach, Grapes of Wrath, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Man Who shot Liberty Valance, Fort Apache.

He'd be here for Dekalog alone. His handling of the shifts and turns of modern morality is stunnign in its beauty, complexity, and thoughtprovokingness. Which might not be an actual word, but screw it. He's also here for Red, Blue, White, The Double Life of Veronique, and Blind Chance.

I admit to only seeing three of his movies to date, but they are all stunningly beautiful meditations on the lives of us poor sinners - and, of course, our donkeys. All is grace. The World in 90 minutes - i.e., Au hasard Balthazar - Diary of a Country Priest, Mouchette.

What, no picture? Can I at least get Balthazar?

Yes, there's the last 30 years of mediocrity occasionally rising up (Hello, Peggy Sue) but more often sinking down. (Goodbye, Jack!) But there is also The Godfather, its almost as good first sequel, Apocalypse Now!, The Conversation.

What a generous film maker Altman was, for us in the audience and for his casts. His movies seemed to amble on, spinning off threads this way and that, but that shambling ambiance was part of their beauty. Nashville is the Best English Language Movie of My Lifetime. M*A*S*H*, The Player, Gosford Park.

Like Wilder, to an extent, Woody Allen is a great director because of his close connection with a great screenwriter whose work he films: himself. I admit to not watching much of what has done in the last 20 years and being kind of meh about what I have seen, but before that he did Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Manhattan. Not to mention his funny movies.

I've always felt he was essentially a - a technical film maker. Granted, La Strada was a great film. Great in its use of negative imagery more than anything else. But that simple, cohesive core...Like all that Juliet of the Spirits or Satyricon, I found it incredibly indulgent. You know, he really is. He's one of the most indulgent filmmakers. He really is. Fellinin is carefully placed here to be in range of Woody and his large sock with horse manure in it. La Strada, Nights of Cabniria, 8 1/2.

I think I'm just going to list and add thoughts later. Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds, Katyn, Man of Iron.

No, not just because he planked a 12 year old! For Knife in the Water, Chinatown, Repulsion, The Pianist.

For his great collaborations with Bogart - The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, African Queen. And Prizzi's Honor.

Picture in my Oxford Desk Dictionary next to "Epic." Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Passage to India, Great Expectations (not an actual epic).

Like Bresson, another director who makes my list with very few movies - 2. But Andrei Rublev and Stalker are flat out brilliant masterworks.

Also like Bresson, another director with no picture. What gives?

Note: List not in order! Roshomon, Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo.

No, not for his "serious" movies which suffer from his inability to avoid weilding the emoptional hammer. For the movies where the emotional hammer is the raison d'etre. Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Readerman is right! Directed two of my favorite Grant screwballs, and brought the steam out of the relationship between Bogie and Becall twice! His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, To Have and To Have Not, The Big Sleep, Rio Lobo.