Furious on Film 08.02.07: Issue 100 - Top 100 Directors #100 - #76
Posted by Arnold Furious on 08.02.2007
A countdown of numbers #100 - #90 on the Top 100 Directors!
Furious on Film 08.02.07 Issue 100
A countdown of numbers #100 - #90 on the Top 100 Directors!
This is the big one. The one I've spent half a year preparing for. I considered a lot of film directors for this particular column. In fact I went out of my way to check out some directors I wasn't familiar with. Some at the suggestion of Chad Webb, some at the suggestion of Mo Sherrifdean and some at the suggestion of random other people. The idea of a Top 50 directors had been playing about in my head for some time. My original intent was to make Furious on Film #50 a special look at the fifty best directors the world had ever seen but it didn't seem like a big enough landmark and I thought about the content far too late to make a good column out of it. End result business as usual. But for #100 it felt like I should make some effort and really go out of my way to produce something I could look back fondly on. The fact the list isn't full of my favourite directors from when I was 15, although some of them make it on there, is an indication of the progress made during my modus operandi for the creation of Furious on Film. Expand those horizons and seek out different cinema to the standard fare. Of course my top five as a 15 year old would probably feature Martin Scorsese, Paul Verhoeven, Nelson Shin, Steven Spielberg and Katsuhiro Otomo. I hope someone gets the Nelson Shin reference.
As it stands that isn't my top five. I've become a little more eclectic with my choice of films. Not everyone could make the top 100 though so I came up with some honourable mentions over the weeks leading into this column in order to show how the column would work. Here's those names again before we hit the list fo' real.
Honourable Mentions; in no particular order
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Sam Peckinpah
Peter Weir
DW Griffith
Guy Hamilton
Hector Babenco
Katsuhiro Otomo
David Cronenberg
Spike Jonze
Steven Soderbergh
William Wyler
OLIVER HIRSCHBIEGEL (Germany)
HONOURS Nominated for Best Foreign Film for 2004's Der Untergang at the Academy Awards. Ended up losing out to the Sea Inside. The picture won three awards in Germany's domestic awards show although Hirschbiegel himself wasn't nominated. He previously won the Bavarian film award for Das Experiment.
TOP FILMS Der Untergang (Downfall) depicting the final days of the Third Reich. In particular focusing on Adolf Hitler. He was played to a tee by Austrian actor Bruno Ganz. He got his break with 2001's Das Experiment (a study of violence in a simulated prison) though and has since been busy going over to Hollywood and filming The Invasion with Nicole Kidman.
DER UNTERGANG
OPINION Sometimes all the pieces fall in the right place. No one has ever dared make a film about Hitler before and attempted to market that film to a mainstream audience without any hint of satire. Hirschbiegel wanted to capture, with as much accuracy as he could, the final days of the Third Reich. His busy camera movements made the audience feel as if they were a part of the film. It also heightened the feeling of claustrophobia that must have been present in Hitler's bunker in Berlin. The closeness of the camera to the people involved actually humanised some of the most evil people in modern history. After a time people who commit great acts of evil can become a popular figure of legend. But while he humanised Hitler he made sure to convey that Hitler was a bad person. Those closest to him couldn't always see it though because they saw him as normal. Time will tell if Hirschbiegel is to become a big star as a director but he's done well for himself so far and now just needs to break out in America like Inarrittu and Meirelles and Salles and he'll be laughing.
SAM PECKINPAH (USA)
HONOURS Nominated for an Academy Award for writing the Wild Bunch. The Directors Guild of America were more generous handing him a DGA Award in 1969 for the same film. Kansas City must have liked Straw Dogs because it persuaded them to name Peckinpah the cities most beloved director in 1971. Most of the rest of the world didn't like it quite that much.
TOP FILMS The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Getaway, Cross of Iron, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Convoy, The Ostermann Weekend.
CROSS OF IRON
OPINION Man, if this list of films doesn't get you into the Top 100 then what the hell does? Peckinpah's blood soaked and violent movies were a staple of growing up for pretty much anyone. I would be surprised if there's someone reading this that's never seen a Sam Peckinpah movie. I personally like Cross of Iron more than most people but I'm not quite so fond of the Getaway although I think that's probably more to do with not really connecting to Steve McQueen. There's one film here though that really pushed Peckinpah close to the Top 100; The Wild Bunch. It's one of those Westerns that actually looks at the end of the West rather than the West at its peak. Like say Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was a look at the West when it was the Wild West. The Wild Bunch was all about showing the decline of the Wild West. An epic end to an epic time. Of modern Western makers only Sergio Leone has produced comparable work and even paid tribute to Peckinpah in the borderline spoof Western My Name is Nobody. Peckinpah's gritty and male dominated films about survival makes him an easy idol for red blooded males the world over. He even lived his life according to the same creed. He indulged in anything and everything that was going living his personal life at 100mph before his heart finally gave out on him aged 59. His gift to the world on leaving is a series of films boasting stunning cinematography and stylised action. Where would John Woo be without Peckinpah's slo-motion inspiration?
PETER WEIR (Australia)
HONOURS Nominated for several Oscars. For directing he got nominated for Master and Commander: Far Side of the World, the Truman Show, Dead Poet's Society and Witness. He also received a writing nomination for Green Card. I personally think he could have easily won for Dead Poet's Society. Oliver Stone edged him out that year with Born on the 4th of July. The same films, bar Green Card, also got him Golden Globe nominations. AFI (that's Australian Film Institute) were more generous though and gave him best director for Gallipoli in 1981. At the BAFTA's he's won the David Lean Award twice and won best film with Dead Poet's Society in 1990. He was nominated for the Palm D'Or at Cannes for Year of Living Dangerously.
TOP FILMS The Truman Show, Dead Poet's Society, Master and Commander: Far Side of the World, Witness, Gallipoli and the Mosquito Coast.
THE TRUMAN SHOW
OPINION Peter Weir has had one hell of a career. You must be a good director to get four Academy Award nominations. Things like that don't just happen by accident. I remember being deeply effected by Dead Poet's Society growing up and even remember watching it in school for English Literature. It probably helped that Robin Williams picked one of his moments to suddenly go from being slightly unfunny in a film with a bad script to acting everyone off the screen that comes anywhere near him. He has a bad habit of slipping in and out of this ability, which is quite frustrating. Weir also benefited from an acting hungry Jim Carrey turning in one of his better performances in the Truman Show. It was a film that needed a big central character and Carrey provided that. Weir's calm hand in directing allows careful pacing in a world where that normally doesn't happen. It's perhaps his patience that gets dramatic rewards from actors not usually recognised for their acting abilities. If you think about it he not only launched the careers of Carrey and Williams as serious actors but also did no harm to Harrison Ford's portfolio with the Mosquito Coast and Witness. The latter being the first film he really shows any kind of range. In retrospect you could probably look at Harrison Ford and think he'd have become a big crossover star and a successful actor anyway but there was Peter Weir taking the risks and making it happen. With four Oscar nominations he now ties Sidney Lumet for the most nominations without winning, of those directors still alive to complain about it. Maybe Shadow Divers will be his Oscar film in 2009. You heard it here first!
DW GRIFFITH (USA)
HONOURS He was given an honorary Oscar in 1936 and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. DGA made him an honorary lifetime member in 1938. Considered to be the inventor, or at least innovator, of many cinematic techniques.
TOP FILMS Birth of a Nation, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages, Broken Blossoms, Way Down East.
BIRTH OF A NATION
There's something very disturbing about the Klan having hero music'.
OPINION Griffith was ahead of his time as a director and made the first film in Hollywood, In Old California in 1910. He made 450 short films before perfecting his technique on the controversial Birth of a Nation. While the film has aged very badly and comes across and worryingly racist there's no disguising the genius at play. If you ignore the bigoted plot the film making behind it was really quite remarkable. The film became the first ever shown in the White House for then president Woodrow Wilson. Every other major director to come out of the era cited Griffith as an inspiration including the great Charlie Chaplin who referred to Griffith as "the teacher of us all". Griffith invented both the iris shot and the split screen. Not to mention parallel editing, soft focus and the flashback. He was the first director to ever use a close up. To call Griffith innovative would be a huge understatement. I don't think any other one man has changed cinema as much as Griffith. The downside is of course his choice of topics and while Birth of Nation is a remarkable piece of cinema it's also racist and ridiculously hurtful. His follow up Intolerance was to show how other people's attitudes towards his film hurt him and also, of course, how his attitude towards ethnic minorities had damaged race relations in the South in 1915. It was in part thanks to a bigoted upbringing and he didn't realise how wrong he was. It's kind of sad but he was so immersed in film making that he didn't realise how it could hurt people. But then he was the first and greatest obsessive director. Here's a great quote from him; "Move these 10,000 horses a trifle to the right, and that mob out there three feet forward." He invented a lot of techniques but he also invented epic. Intolerance was one of the most costly films ever. It was the equivalent of spending $18M on a film in a time when that was completely unheard of. Griffith was a risk taker and was known as the "man who invented Hollywood" as a result. While he goes down in history as one of it's greatest ever directors there isn't a film of his that stands the passage of time.
GUY HAMILTON (France, birth, UK for citizenship)
HONOURS Nominated for a BAFTA in 1959 for a Touch of Larceny. He was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1957 for Manuela.
TOP FILMS Ok, if everyone is still scratching their heads here's the money shots; Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, Man With the Golden Gun and Force Ten From Navarone. My two favourite Bond films and a few other strong entries.
GOLDFINGER
Choose your next witticism carefully; it may be your last.
OPINION Goldfinger is pretty much the definitive Bond movie. You have Sean Connery, Gert Frobe, Pussy Galore, Oddjob plus the usual Bond supporting crowd. Great scenes especially with Oddjob's hat, the assault on Fort Knox and Frobe's "No Mr Bond, I expect you to die" as the laser works its way towards slicing Bond in half. It's the first Bond film to add the humour of Q into the mix. Also the first Bond film to really push the envelope with innuendo. The title sequence is the kind of thing that most Hollywood producers would kill to think of first. Better still the 30+ year old film still feels relatively fresh thanks to Hamilton using timelessly cool things. Like Bond's suave dress sense, Goldfinger's military dress sense and a sidekick whose hat kills people. While Honour Blackman has aged badly Goldfinger has not. I'm also a big fan of Live & Let Die. Roger Moore needed a vehicle to show off his particular talents and in comes Guy Hamilton to give him his best film too. Great song from Paul McCartney. Deadpan great one liners from Moore delivered expertly. Bond was allowed to look cool despite Moore being somewhat less suave than Connery and was offset by the incredibly goofy JW Pepper (Clifton James). Hamilton knew what worked for what actors and as a result didn't try to push his leading man in the wrong direction. I'm surprised he wasn't really given more chances to run at big budget films because he seemed at ease when dealing with large set pieces. Despite Hollywood's reluctance to give him a shot he remains my favourite Bond director.
HECTOR BABENCO (Argentina)
HONOURS Nominated for best director for Kiss of the Spider-Woman in 1985. Won a tonne of awards for prison drama Carandiru in Latin countries.
TOP FILMS Carandiru, Kiss of the Spider-Woman, Ironweed, Pixote
CARANDIRU
OPINION Babenco is perhaps not the most well known of my near misses in terms of great direction but I was sufficiently impressed with his handling of Carandiru to give him the nod. It's one of the best prison based films in a long, long time and creates a well crafted atmosphere throughout. It's both gritty and poignant at the same time. Carandiru's mixture of warmth and violent realism made it essential cinema. For me it's his best film to date and certainly reached a sizeable global audience. I get the feeling Babenco is going to be in great demand and could follow other 3rd world directors into the American mainstream. Like Fernando Meirelles, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Walter Salles.
KATSUHIRO OTOMO (Japan)
HONOURS For all it's global success Akira only ever won one award; the Silver Scream Award at Amsterdam. Memories and Steamboy have won other minor honours but amazingly Otomo has won nothing major despite all his groundbreaking.
TOP FILMS Akira, Steamboy, Memories and as a writer Metropolis
AKIRA
OPINION If it wasn't for Otomo I may never have started to branch out into Eastern cinema or manga or develop a fascination with Japan in general. Akira, like with many other people, was my first venture into a more adult world of animation. I saw it on late night TV, I think on Channel 4, as a teenager and was hooked. While I didn't go out of my way to track down other films like Akira the images were clear in my mind for years to come and I saw the film whenever it was on TV acquiring a videotape copy the second time it made an appearance late at night. I think Steamboy may have been one of the most anticipated films I've ever encountered. For some reason Otomo chose to remain in the background while other animators had their big successful pay days. When he finally followed up Akira with a big solo project in Steamboy I couldn't help but feel disappointment. That said Steamboy is hugely epic in every sense of the word and features action sequences that run for 30 minutes. Memories is also a big achievement for Otomo. He gathered together the finest in Japanese animation for a three part animated film. His piece featured no cuts at all. It was 20 minutes long. Like Alfred Hitchcock's Rope it rather felt like Otomo was doing something just because he could. But like Hitchcock's experiment it was a big success. It seems that everything Otomo touches turns to gold, which might explain his reluctance to make regular forays into film making. Perhaps he believes that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I certainly think that having had time to digest Steamboy that I'd happily watch another Otomo picture. After all he gave me, and the world, Akira and opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed. For that I thank him with an honourable mention.
DAVID CRONENBERG (USA)
HONOURS Amazingly Cronenberg has never been nominated for an Oscar or a Golden Globe. He does have nominations elsewhere though; three Saturn nominations, two Golden Bear nominations as well as three nominations for the Palm D'Or at Cannes. His only major honour being a special jury prize at Cannes in 1996 for Crash.
TOP FILMS A History of Violence, eXistenz, The Fly, Crash, Videodrome, Dead Ringers, Scanners, the Naked Lunch and Rabid .
RABID
Be sure and watch this clip to the end!
OPINION Often regarded as a cult favourite Cronenberg would almost certainly make a Top 100 directors list for most people. In fact he came very close. I've always been a big fan of his older more underground work. Especially Rabid, which was a favourite of mine growing up. I starting getting truly disturbed by Cronenbourg's work with the Naked Lunch and Videodrome, which I saw within a few months of each other. I've never seen Crash and I didn't like eXistenz (although that may be down to the star, Jude Law, who I detest). His most recent and highly regarded picture; A History of Violence, didn't really connect well with me either. I thought it lost its way despite a great performance from William Hurt and to a lesser extent Viggo Mortensen. It seems the older I get the more turned off I am by Cronenberg's sexually violent films. While Rabid enthralled me in my teens his work since has slowly driven me away. Although if I had to single out one moment as defining for Cronenberg's career it'd be the head exploding in Scanners. A moment so truly iconic that it's referenced in Wayne's World. Hard to argue with that kind of coverage. Cronenberg started out as a small underground director but as time has passed he's become progressively more and more mainstream. While many of his followers are happy with this turn of events lavishing praise upon A History of Violence I'm less convinced his mainstream work is worthy of such plaudits. He is getting to work with better actors and if Hurt is anything to go by getting great performances out of them but he's still the guy who filmed James Woods piercing Debbie Harry with a rusty needle.
SPIKE JONZE (USA)
HONOURS Oscar nominated for Being John Malkovich in 1999 and for a Golden Globe in 2003 for Adaptation
TOP FILMS Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Although he's also made a serious of terrific music videos including my favourite of all time; Sabotage by the Beastie Boys.
SABOTAGE!
OPINION Although Spike Jonze has only made two films as a director there's no denying the critical success of these films and the innovative nature of both entries. A check on Rottentomatoes.com has Being John Malkovich at 92% fresh and Adaptation as 90% fresh. It's one thing to make different films. That part isn't hard. There are plenty of weird and wonderful films out there but there's a world of difference between taking the Vincent Gallo route and making Brown Bunny and Spike Jonze making different yet strangely enticing films. Richard Kelly was another guy I considered mentioning because of his hit film Donnie Darko. I think Spike has dispelled his one hit wonder' tag by avoiding the sophomore jinx and carefully picking his second project. Having two scripts from the phenomenally talented Charlie Kaufman hasn't hurt him. The reason he didn't make the top 100 is that while I like both Being John Malkovich and Adaptation and think Jonze is already a very successful film maker in his own right I'd like to see him work over a longer period of time. Kelly ultimately didn't get a look in at all because he's only directed one movie. Jonze gets a mention for having two films out there. He's working at a third presently the animated Where the Wild Things Are. Should that prove a hit also then Jonze could see himself cracking lists like this one on a regular basis. Also it'll help me determine whether he's a great director if people are still talking about his pictures ten years after they're made. If Being John Malkovich is still making waves in two years time then it'll have weathered a decade of praise. Adaptation is certainly a film I'll carry with me for a very long time. I think it has one of the best trailers I've ever seen, which helps the film stay fresh in the memory. If I want to remember the great script then all I need to do is check out the trailer. Honestly I felt Adaptation was one of the most innovative and different films there has ever been. And I'm not just saying it because I was half toying with the idea of something similar. I had this concept where I'd write a book about not being able to write a book. It got about six chapters in and was really getting my creative juices flowing at the point where I saw Adaptation and realised Kaufman had written something ten times better.
STEVEN SODERBERGH (USA)
HONOURS Won the Oscar for best director in 2001 for Traffic. Had the pleasure of being nominated the same year for Erin Brokovich. Eleven years earlier he was Oscar nominated for writing Sex, Lies and Videotape. That film won him the Palm D'Or at Cannes and the audience prize at Sundance. The same three films also gave him Golden Globe nominations.
TOP FILMS Oceans Eleven, Traffic, Erin Brokovich, Out of Sight, Sex Lies and Videotape.
SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE
OPINION Making both Traffic and Erin Brokovich in the same year is a hell of a way to introduce yourself to the world. Bagging the huge critical acclaim with one film and the popular vote with the other. Erin Brokovich, while the second best film, is perhaps the biggest achievement as it actually made Julia Roberts entertaining again. That's something I thought was impossible. She's appeared in an absolute string of shit since Pretty Woman made her into a star. It almost felt like she was seeing just how a film she could make and still continue to get work. And yet it seems I was totally alone in my contempt for her films. I threw up in my mouth a little during I Love Trouble. Countless chick flicks followed including the hideous cash in on the Richard Gere history with Runaway Bride. And yet Erin Brokovich proved to be her salvation in my eyes. She dragged herself up out of the gutter of cinema to make her second big impact. She's been living off it ever since. I really don't get what people see in her but those two films are an exception to the rule (Erin & Pretty Woman). Soderbergh had actually been working just outside the Hollywood system for quite some time. It was actually his first big budget FLOP that won people over. While 1998's Out of Sight lost money it gained Soderbergh a great deal of attention for his work with George Clooney. It seemed that Clooney wanted to bring Soderbergh with him on his way to the top and in the process Soderbergh happened to make the two best films of his career and then teamed up with George again for the huge blockbuster Oceans Eleven. Of course he's since ruined his reputation with the snoozer Solaris, a terrible Oceans sequel and the art house disaster the Good German. He presently has four films in production. Chances are one of them will be decent and he'll avoid the hack reputation he's quickly on his way to getting. Oceans Thirteen? Do me a favour. I believe it's actually Oceans Twelve that lost him a spot on the top 100.
WILLIAM WYLER (Germany)
HONOURS Now we're talking. I left this guy till last on the honourable mentions because he's brimming with success. He won three Oscars for Ben Hur, the Best Years of Our Lives and Mrs Miniver. He was also nominated for The Collector, Friendly Persuasion, Roman Holiday, Detective Story, The Heiress, the Little Foxes, The Letter, Wuthering Heights and Dodsworth. He got the Irving G. Thalberg award in 1965. The award is rarely handed out and is given to the producer who makes the consistently great films. The three to win after Wyler were Robert Wise, Alfred Hitchcock and Ingmar Bergman. Only ten have been handed out since 1980. Wyler is in a select group.
TOP FILMS As listed above plus Funny Girl and How to Steal a Million.
ROMAN HOLIDAY
OPINION If I'd seen more Wyler films I could almost guarantee his spot in the top 100. Sadly I've only ever seen his epic Ben Hur. I'm hoping to add a few others to that list before I attempt another venture of this scope. If there's one thing doing a list like this does it's point out the shortcomings in my cinematic knowledge. Often considered second only to John Ford among his peers Wyler was one of the most well respected film makers of his or any generation. He was the 4th recipient of the AFI's lifetime achievement award. His career as a director spanned 45 years from silent pictures to the 1970's. Amongst his works is the blockbuster to end all blockbusters in Ben Hur. Not only that he's credited with making Bette Davis a star, turning Lawrence Olivier into a film actor and had 31 of his actors and actresses nominated for Academy Awards. That's more than any other director in history. Roman Holiday and How to Steal a Million have now gone onto my rental list so hopefully I'll be getting more coverage of William Wyler's glittering career shortly. Until then he'll have to make do with an honourable mention.
With that out of the way here comes the list.
100. KRZTSZTOF KIESLOWSKI (Poland)
HONOURS Nominated for Three Colours Red in 1995. In both best directing and best writing categories. The same film garnered three BAFTA nominations. The Double Life of Veronique won several awards at the Cannes film festival in 1991. Three Colours Blue won the Golden Lion at Venice.
Rotten Tomatoes Freshness Rating 90%
TOP FILMS The Three Colours trilogy all released with a year or so of each other. The only one not mentioned above is Three Colours White the middle film in the trilogy.
BLUE
OPINION Sadly Kieslowski only really got a few years of fame. After the huge success of the Three Colours trilogy he fell ill and died of a heart attack in 1996. It seems his insane drive to complete the trilogy in a ridiculously short period of time was due to him knowing he didn't have much time left and wanted to get his masterpieces done. It's a pity Kieslowski never had the chance to get his hands on a big budget or make films outside of his adopted France. I've seen and reviewed for Furious on Film all three of the Three Colours trilogy. It was part of my expansion into foreign cinema. I must admit I wasn't a big fan of Blue, the first film, but both of the subsequent films were very good. His style is perhaps too slow for Western audiences but I found, with White especially, that patience really pays off. Kieslowski probably isn't held in the highest of regard because of his early death/retirement and the resultant lack of films in his repertoire. I didn't even consider him for the list until emailing the contents to Chad Webb and getting a few suggestions of him of potential candidates. I looked at the list and Kieslowski just jumped out at me. I noticed a few names on my existing list that weren't as good as directors as Kieslowski was. Oddly enough Kieslowski's hero in directing terms was Andrei Tarkovsky who doesn't make the cut. His best known work was probably Solaris. I must admit his style has never been something I've been into. Tarkovsky himself was said to dislike Solaris considering it his weakest film. Kieslowski wrote films about moral and metaphysical issues, which puts him in a category of film makers that are somewhat inaccessible to the general public. I consider him more of a gateway to harder to access Eastern European directors like Tarkovsky and Sergei Eisenstein. If you like his work then this is the route for you. While I'm not fond of Blue you kind of have to see it in order to appreciate the trilogy properly as there's a thematic backbone to it. Plus you get to recognise little connections between the three films as the events in each supposedly happens at the same time. It's kind of sad we kick this count down off with a director who died before his time.
99. HAL ASHBY (USA)
HONOURS He won an Academy Award for editing In the Heat of the Night. As a director he was nominated for Coming Home in 1978. He received four Palm D'Or nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.
RT Freshness Rating 82%
TOP FILMS - Being There, Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Coming Home and Shampoo
HAROLD AND MAUDE
OPINION Never one to be chained to a certain style Ashby was considered a maverick and most of his films are the very definition of off-beat'. I'm torn between Harold and Maude and the Last Detail in terms of a favourite Ashby movie. In Harold & Maude, his second feature film, he made a love story between a rich teenager obsessed with death and a kleptomaniac pensioner with an unusual zest for life. The vehicle of choice in the film being a converted hearse. Unusually touching Harold & Maude took a bizarre swipe at the rules and regulations that apply to most people. Maude was almost an anti-hero in the sense that she never once followed the rules and yet had a rich and full life. Her teachings to Harold were almost a sermon to the viewer. Ashby's atypical approach to film making continued when he directed Jack Nicholson in the Last Detail. Given the job of taking a young Randy Quaid to military jail Jack decides that seeing as Randy will be locked up for eight years he might as well live life to the max while he still has the chance. There's a thematic similarity to Harold & Maude but the approach is considerably more blue. His career was littered with great reviews and awards nominations but his private life was a disaster. His strong reliance on drugs made him unpredictable and after collapsing whilst directing a Rolling Stones concert documentary in 1983 his career collapsed just as badly. The only notable film of his 80's crash was the atrocious Eight Million Ways to Die. Just as his career was about to pick up in the late 80's he was diagnosed with liver and colon cancer and he passed away. There's already a worrying trend developing here. Two directors who achieved success despite rejection (Kieslowski was rejected by three film schools while Ashby couldn't land a directing gig until Norman Jewison gave him one) and both died as their careers were potentially reaching new highs. And if you think that's bad wait for #98.
98. MICHAEL CIMINO (USA)
HONOURS Best director and best picture wins for the Deer Hunter and narrowly missed out on a trio after also being nominated for best screenplay. The film also won a Golden Globe. Nominated twice at Cannes for Heaven's Gate and The Sunchasers. Has the dubious honour of bagging himself a Razzie for the former in 1982.
RT Freshness Rating 61%
TOP FILMS The Deer Hunter, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Year of the Dragon.
HEAVEN'S GATE
OPINION Cimino makes this list for the Deer Hunter alone. The film made Christopher Walken a star and won five Oscars. It's one of the most insanely tense films ever made. Cimino was a lunatic and was working with two of the most committed actors of all time in Walken and Bobby DeNiro. In some of the Russian Roulette scenes a live round was placed in the gun to help with the realism. A LIVE ROUND! No wonder the acting is so horrifically believable. The guns were checked so there was never any danger of someone being shot but A LIVE ROUND. The Deer Hunter did a terrific job of making normal life dull and then slamming the contrast of Vietnam against it and then driving home how even the potentially fatal can become humdrum. It's about as good a war movie that's been made about Vietnam from the perspective of America. Oliver Stone has made better films about the actual war but the Deer Hunter shows the entire range of emotions from before the war to during the war to after the war where lives have been altered forever. There are better war films but not from that war. If we're talking about self destruction though there's none more self destructive than Michael Cimino. With the world at his feet following the enormous success of the Deer Hunter his studio United Artists had so much belief in the man's ability they just threw money at him to make another film. It cost them as the film was such an absolute disaster, and an unmitigated one at that, the resultant loss for UA forced them to sell to MGM. United Artists keep in mind was formed by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, DW Griffith and Charlie Chaplin. It had existed pumping out films for sixty years until Cimino took it down practically on his own. The spiralling budget ended up as $44M. It took $12,000 in it's opening weekend of release after disastrous reviews and horrible screenings. It got pulled and re-cut but still only made $3.4M at the box office. The original budget was $11.6M. By the 5th day of filming they were already four days behind thanks to Cimino's perfectionism. One notorious example had him specifically draw up plans for a street to be built then ordered the entire thing torn down because it didn't look right and be re-built for a sum of $1.2M. Apparently the spacing was all wrong even though the original plans were drawn up by Cimino himself. Then he demanded both sides of the street by torn down even though he could have just taken down one side and re-spaced it for half the cost. The original cut was over five hours long. Cimino couldn't even show his face for five years afterwards and his career, once the most promising in all of Hollywood, has never recovered. That said he'll always have the Deer Hunter and another decent Western showing Thunderbolt and Lightfoot starring Clint Eastwood and a young Jeff Bridges. Cimino is thankfully not dead and is presently filming part of To Each His Cinema, his first work in eleven years.
97. WALTER SALLES (Brazil)
HONOURS While he's not received any major nominations as yet the BAFTA's handed him two gongs for the Motorcycle Diaries and Central Station. The former also won two prizes at Cannes although not the Palm D'Or for which it was nominated.
RT Freshness Rating 73%
TOP FILMS Motorcycle Diaries, Central Station, Dark Water.
MOTORCYCLE DIARIES
OPINION Salles is one of the new breed of 3rd world directors making films of genuine substance that had been lacking in a lot of mainstream movies. Along with the likes of Fernando Meirelles and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu he's come out of South America to make an impact. His love story relationship with his native Brazil produced the film that got him noticed globally; the acclaimed Central do Brasil. I saw the film as part of Furious on Film and remember taking note of the director's name. He's one to watch I thought to myself. Central Station is a remarkable film in many respects. The story sees a middle aged spinster teaming up with a homeless boy, who she originally intends to sell, to find his missing father and her own redemption. The performance of the central character Dora by Fernanda Montenegro was so powerful the unknown performer received an Academy Award nomination for best actress. I think what I liked best about Central Station was that it was tremendously moving without being sentimental and using tricks to get the audience to love the characters. Naturally I kept an eye out for future Salles projects and was happy to discover the Motorcycle Diaries. While I preferred Central Station as it had a more personal feel to it there's no mistaking that Salles took what he learned on Central Station and used it in the sweeping story of Che Guerrera's early life. It's a film that's visually stunning thanks to some fantastic backdrops and intellectually stimulating as well. The story follows a young Che Guerrera as he travels around South America and learns about his people. It was this journey that launched Che's desire to make a difference. Of course the actual Che was a revolutionary and the Motorcycle Diaries tends to romanticise his character and personality somewhat. I guess that would be artistic licence. Of course there's every chance Che didn't become radical until after his exploration of South America lead him to believe that Communism was the answer to the continent's problems. Considering that Che Guerrera is such a controversial figure I think the Motorcycle Diaries made a good stab at keeping politics at a minimum and making it a road trip movie that everyone could enjoy while at the same time still making you think. Salles has only made one venture into North America to date; the lamented horror flick Dark Water. Although his next project will be based on Jack Kerouac's book On The Road. It's questionable whether Salles can live up to both high expectations of his work and the high expectations of Kerouac fans. If he does then he'll probably cement himself onto lists like this one for many years to come.
96. GORE VERBINSKI (USA)
HONOURS A couple of minor nominations for Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
RT Freshness Rating 58%
TOP FILMS Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, The Ring, The Mexican, The Weather Man.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
Trying to find a decent clip on You Tube is a nightmare. All the good Jack Sparrow clips have Guns n Roses or various ballads playing over them in fan made clip-fests.
OPINION Verbinski wasn't a well known director prior to beginning the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy but during the course of it he's become a very well known name indeed. His near perfect Curse of the Black Pearl set the standard for modern blockbusters with an excellent combination of action, comedy and fantasy. It seemed to hit every button perfectly. It's one of the most satisfying blockbuster's I've ever had the good fortune to see and I think it'll remain very popular for many years to come. I see the Jack Sparrow character drawing favourable parallels to other great action heroes like James Bond, Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker. And why not. The character is so well written that the Pirates series couldn't help but succeed. Verbinski was the man who pushed it to another level though with spot on directing skills that kept the film at the right pace delivering laughs and thrills at precisely the right moments. I would personally love to see Verbinski continue on this line of thinking and keep making action films because he shoots action so well. Compare his action scenes to those of Doug Liman or even Paul Greengrass. It takes skills to make a flat out action film and get the mix right. Verbinski is already a good hand and could go on to be one of the all time greats in the genre. Of course I don't think he will. He seems dead set on making different and unusual films. The Weather Man being an example of that. In a break from the Pirates saga he made this quirky and offbeat story about a TV weather man who has food thrown at him on the street. Who knows what the future holds for Verbinski as he's not got anything lined up. I think his early career has been interesting and varied. The Ring was probably his hardest project to date. Re-making a beloved and creepy Japanese horror film when it wasn't fashionable to do so. He set standards with The Ring that haven't been met by other directors attempting to re-do Japanese horror in an American setting. I don't think it's even fair to compare The Ring with Ringu because of the changes involved. The bigger budget made the effects easier to achieve but getting such a film out to a wider audience was tricky. Verbinski handled it very well and I personally prefer the American version because it tends to appeal to Western audiences more and the ending is better. Or rather the route to the ending is better. I pretty much prefer the entire final third of The Ring although the films are pretty close up to that point. Verbinski was smart enough to know what an American audience would want. Verbinski has always had his finger on the pulse of pop culture. He invented the concept behind the Budweiser croaking frogs for example. It seems when he wavers from films that the public want to see to films that he wants to make (the Mexican or the Weather Man) the box office falls off completely. In time you'd think the name of Verbinski will be enough to sell a film.
95. PAUL VERHOEVEN (Netherlands)
HONOURS Received his first BAFTA nomination this year for Zwartboek. He's probably more famous for winning a Razzie for Showgirls, which he collected.
RT Freshness Rating 70%
TOP FILMS Robocop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Basic Instinct, Zwartboek.
ROBOCOP
Can you fly Bobby?
OPINION Verhoeven is much maligned for making one dimensional uber-violent films. What's overlooked is the added depth and humour that some of these films have. Robocop had a really nice thread of dark humour about it. It was one of my favourite films growing up and one of the most quotable flicks I've ever seen. Hell, I created a segment in my column named after one of the lines from the film. I've even considered using another line as a sign off. That being; "Excuse me, I have to go. Somewhere there is a crime happening". I know a lot of other people who grew up with Robocop and it's one of those films that elicits pleasant memories. The futuristic nature of the film appeals to the inner sci-fi nerd. It took a gigantic performance from Peter Weller to make Robocop, a ridiculous concept, believable. I think Weller's performance is up there with Christopher Reeve making Superman believable. Following that Verhoeven worked on Ahnolt's most successful attempt at breaking away from his standard no-brainer action vehicle (Conan/Commando) with Total Recall. Ahnolt was so enamoured with attempting to repeat the success that he bought the rights to the film Crusade from Carolco hoping he could team up with Verhoeven again on a $150M epic. You can blame Renny Harlin (hack) for that not happening as his dodgy pirate film Cutthroat Island tanked the company. Verhoeven has had his fair share of controversy and pretty much made Showgirls because he liked tits. Hey, who doesn't? Basic Instinct is a piece of shit. Showgirls isn't much better and possibly has even worse acting from Elizabeth Berkley. Verhoeven has never really paid attention to his critics though and made all of his American films with the intention of making money. Result. Robocop turned a $40M profit at the box office alone. Not to mention the action figures, books, video games, the TV show, the two sequels and assorted other money spinning side ventures. Total Recall, which had a considerably larger budget made more than $50M. Basic Instinct's profits were pushing the $70M mark. Showgirls tanked thanks to a terrible Joe Esterhas script and really bad reviews. It seems T & A alone is not enough to sell a movie. Which is odd because that's how they sold Basic Instinct. The only major difference being the lack of artistic flair behind Showgirls and the lame dialogue. Amazingly Starship Troopers didn't recoup it's budget. I didn't even realise that until I checked the facts and figures. I know it was costly but it was so much fun and happily held back a higher level of film using the basics of the plot as a metaphor for something entirely different. Now he's out to show America he can direct respectable films too with Zwartboek becoming a crossover hit.
94. ALEXANDER PAYNE (USA)
HONOURS Won an Oscar for best screenplay in 2005 for Sideways. The same film garnered a best director nomination. He was also nominated for the screenplay award in 2000 for Election. About Schmidt was nominated for the Palm D'Or at Cannes. About Schmidt and Sideways won screenplay awards at the Golden Globes.
RT Freshness Rating 68%
TOP FILMS Sideways, About Schmidt, Election.
SIDEWAYS
OPINION All of Payne's films have been a huge success to date. He made his name with underground hit Citizen Ruth starring Laura Dern, which did well at Sundance in 1996 before embarking on a Hollywood career. He made the very fresh and profitable Election in 1999 to widespread critical acclaim. The biggest problem most directors have is following up a big hit but Payne took his time and after three years teamed up with Jack Nicholson to produce the downbeat About Schmidt. A huge success it made New Line cinema $30M. It's his third major film that really won me over on what a great director he is. Sideways is a film I took very personally. I even took steps to alter my life the same day as seeing it at the local cinema. It's safe to say I found the story quite affecting. Paul Giamatti starred as a bitter, frustrated writer (you see how I took it personally) struggling to deal with his past romantic failings. "Did you drink and dial?" is a line I can seriously relate to as well. In an even more unusual twist of fate on the evening of watching Sideways where I made positive change and moved forward with my life I just happened to be contacted by my ex-girlfriend. It's odd because she'd really distanced herself from me and I've not even spoken to her since then. It was almost as if the Sideways experience had spilled over into my real life and taken hold. It's been a long time since I felt that connected to a film because of it's content. Sideways is the grown up film that fans of Kevin Smith should be moving on to. It's the next logical step. It deals with far more adult situations in a more mature and realistic fashion. It's Chasing Amy for thirtysomethings. I think I liked that Miles was principled but totally unreasonable about it. The line about leaving the restaurant if anyone ordered Merlot cracked me up. It's made worse by my own connection to wine in that I used to manage a wine shop and had a crippling drink problem that hung around just below the surface. There's a line in Sideways that clicked with me and it was; "Do not drink too much. Do you hear me? I don't want you passing out or going to the dark side. No going to the dark side!" I've been to the dark side, many times. You find yourself spilling your soul to strangers or phoning old girlfriends to complain about something that pissed you off three years ago. Sideways perfectly encapsulates what it's like to be a drinker. In Sideways it's wine. I'm a common man. For me it's beer and whisky. But the attitude remains the same. Once again Payne is taking his time regarding future projects, which seems to work fine for him. If he ever manages to hit another high like Sideways he'll leap very quickly up this list.
93. JAMES WHALE (UK)
HONOURS Won a special recommendation at the Venice film festival for The Invisible Man. A few years later he was nominated for the Mussolini Cup for Show Boat.
RT Freshness Rating 98%
TOP FILMS Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, the Invisible Man.
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
OPINION It's not so much for the quality of his films that James Whale makes this list but rather for the lasting influence they've made on the film making landscape. Where would horror movie fans be without these modern myths and legends? Frankenstein was made as a full length feature film for the first time in 1915 by Joseph Smiley. It was 70 minutes long and given the name "Life Without a Soul". But the monster didn't even exist as taboos at the time prevented such horrors from being made. It was instead penned as a dream sequence. So the first REAL adaptation of Mary Shelley's work was Whale's 1931 film with Boris Karloff as the monster. It's this rendition of the character that will probably go down in history as the most famous. Karloff's portrayal lasted three films including Whale's Bride Of, considered by many to be the greatest horror film of all time, before being replaced by Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Glenn Strange in later spin offs. Universal made a lot of horror movies in the 30's and others including Tod Browning's Dracula have also aged well. The success of the giant monster in Frankenstein paved the way for King Kong in 1933. Whale's success with Frankenstein led to the Invisible Man and then the Bride of Frankenstein. The latter featured a character named Mary Shelley who became the titular Bride'. The creator marries the creation. And all under the watchful eye of Whale. His groundbreaking work in horror produced several of the most iconic and lasting images in the history of cinema. Like many of the great visionaries he had a troubled personal life. More so than most. His hedonistic lifestyle surrounded huge homosexual orgies and caused him to suffer several strokes before he drowned in his own swimming pool. His suicide note said; "The future is just old age and illness and pain.... I must have peace and this is the only way".
92. LUC BESSON (France)
HONOURS Nominated for a BAFTA for Subway in 1985. He's had many small wins especially in his native France but no major victories.
RT Freshness Rating 57%
TOP FILMS Leon, the Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita, Joan D'Arc, Le Grand Bleu. .
LEON
OPINION Although he's only directed 10 films over his illustrious career Besson has constantly worked with film and has produced 86 pictures including four that are filming as I write this. Not only that but he's also written 35 films including the hit French series Taxi, actioner The Transporter and Jet Li's Unleashed. Besson first came to my attention when I saw La Femme Nikita in the early 90's. It was at a time when my film viewing universe was just starting to expand beyond mainstream films and I was shocked at the level of violence. It helps that Anne Parillaud's performance as Nikita is phenomenal. When they remade the film in the United States Bridget Fonda took over the central role and was nowhere near as convincing. Shortly after I saw La Femme Nikita on TV the follow up Leon (or the Professional as it's known in the USA) was released at the cinema. I didn't go to see it because that was a time in my life where I didn't really go anywhere or do anything. I went very introverted for a few years. The timing of Leon couldn't have been better. It featured a loner played by Jean Reno who is a hitman but ends up taking a teenage Natalie Portman in to save her life after the young girl's family are all killed. I could relate to Leon, the character, who was quiet and preferred his own company (hard to imagine this part of my life even from my own perspective now). I could relate to his situation and how the girl's arrival threw his world into chaos. The film was absolutely stolen by a scene chewing Gary Oldman though playing a doped up renegade cop with wild eyes intent on finishing off the job and killing everyone connected to the homicide his men carry out in one of the opening scenes. The whole crazy storyline follows Oldman's crazy cop against Portman's idealistic young girl with Leon caught in the middle. The insane shoot out that ensues in a tiny apartment building shows Besson as the great director he can be. Lots of explosions and bullets and tension and at the crucial moment silence. And then more explosions.
