Furious on Film 08.23.07: Issue 102 - Top 100 Directors #50 - #26 Part 1
Posted by Arnold Furious on 08.23.2007
I guess if you direct a sequel to Alien youre in!
Furious on Film 08.23.07: Issue 102 - Top 100 Directors #50 - #26
I guess if you direct a sequel to Alien you're in!
Another long column last week. Over 12,000 words. So I've written 29,000 words over two weeks. That's over a third of a novel. And I'm only halfway. And the reward for my hard work; hate mail! I love writing for a hobby. It's so rewarding. There's also every chance that with the higher up numbers I'll find myself writing even more so there's a chance that next week will see #25 - #11 and the week after will see this whole shindig finally come to a conclusion. This week's run down includes a few interesting names. Legends, animators, newcomers, Oscar winners and a few controversial figures. No doubt someone will disagree with me. That seems to be swiftly becoming a theme. But that's what lists are for! Chances are I won't agree with it in two months time. Hell, I wish I'd gotten Jean Renoir in there somewhere and I've not even finished writing yet.
50. FERNANDO MEIRELLES (BRAZIL)
HONOURS Nominated for an Academy Award for his debut film Cidade de Deus or in English; City of God. He was nominated for two BAFTA's the other for the Constant Gardener. That film was also nominated for a Golden Globe although he's yet to win any of the majors.
RT FRESHNESS RATING Seeing as he only has two rated films there's not enough for a rating.
TOP FILMS City of God, Constant Gardener.
CITY OF GOD
OPINION City of God is the best film released in the past decade. I would say bar none. Whenever I ask someone what the last great film they saw was and they reference back before City of God then I recommend they watch it. It was originally pitched to me as "Goodfellas in Brazil". Sold! Goodfellas is probably my favourite film. City of God did not disappoint. It has a real sense of epic about it while staying true to it's roots as a ghetto movie. It's a film about poor people and their attempt at organised crime. It was incredibly successfully critically. Even the usually calm Roger Ebert gushed over it saying it "churns with furious energy", is "visually alive and inventive" and "breathtaking". Other critics were the same; "startling", "gritty", "brilliant" they raved. There's a theory about true greatness. That is comes from a hard background. You have to suffer and see suffering to be truly brilliant. To create gritty realism you have to come from there. Meirelles' observations of Brazil allowed him to create an amazing vision. He was smart about choosing a follow up project as well eventually selecting the Constant Gardener. It's not a good name but it's a rivetting thriller that crosses continents and forces a normal man to make extraordinary decisions because of the unfortunate death of his wife. Meirelles clearly enjoyed moving out of his comfort zone and proved that a good film maker can make a film anywhere he pleases. Shooting in Africa gave him a sense of perspective anyway as he was from Brazil, another poor nation, so he was able to take everything in his stride. His next film, Blindness, details a small town where everyone mysteriously goes blind apart from Julianne Moore who has to find out the cause. It sounds unfilmable but if there's one thing Meirelles can do its choose the right things to do so we'll see how this latest decision goes for him. I'm almost relieved he's not picked something mainstream as it means he'll have a degree of creative say. I have high hopes for Meirelles. He's one of the up and coming directors with the potential to achieve something truly meaningful at every step of his career. Anyway, if you've not seen City of God do yourself a favour and pick up a copy. There's a great documentary about gangs in Rio on it as well.
49. ROBERT WISE (USA)
HONOURS Winner of four Oscars including the Irving G. Thalberg award. He won best director Oscars for the Sound of Music, West Side Story and the Sand Pebbles. He won the AFI lifetime achievement award in 1998 and the DGA lifetime award ten years earlier. He won an award at Cannes for the Set Up back in the 40's. Nominated for four Golden Globes but he never won one. The 4th was for the Haunting. He has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 81%
TOP FILMS Sound of Music, West Side Story, the Day the Earth Stood Still, Star Trek: the Motion Picture,the Haunting, the Andromeda Strain, the Magnificent Ambersons.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
OPINION While it has to be said I have more than a little contempt for the musical as an artform (I hate Chicago, Moulin Rouge and pretty much any other straight up musical you can name) I have to give it up for Robert Wise's method handling the musical. The Sound of Music has a bad rap for example because a lot of the music in it is so saccarin but when you remember the backdrop it was shot against (Nazis) and it was a method of distracting from all of that. There are still times when holding back the vomit is tricky but Wise really knew what he was doing. The proof? Oh, I dunno, $163M at the US Box Office? Another $80M in rentals? And all this in spite of the enormous near three hour run time. People make epics and people make musicals but they don't do both at the same time. They certainly don't use Nazis in the process and this never, ever, becomes a success. Wise knew different. Rest is history. After all he was an editor on Citizen Kane. That has to count for something. He worked after that in horror and sci-fi and musicals. An interesting combination certainly but it worked for him. He's made several of my favourite sci-fi films including the timeless Day the Earth Stood Still and the Andromeda Strain. Oddly enough the latter is the first Michael Crichton novel to make it to the big screen. It's success lead to a string of Crichton releases including Westworld and eventually Jurassic Park. The Andromeda Strain is still relevant so there's a TV mini-series coming out based on it next year. It's amazing how many times while I've been writing Furious on Film where I've gone back into the past and discovered that re-makes and re-do's of everything is in the works. I guess that's Hollywood. Or Bollywood. After all Bollywood has green lighted a Casablanca remake.
48. HOWARD HAWKS (USA)
HONOURS Only Oscar nominated once for Sergeant York in 1942 but eventually won an honourary Oscar in 1975. He has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 89%
TOP FILMS - The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, Rio Bravo, Red River, Scarface (1932), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
THE BIG SLEEP
OPINION Howard Hawks started out in silent films before transitioning into talkies. He was also quite the thrill seeker racing cars and flying planes as early careers. Those probably set him up to be on friendly terms with his producer on one of his biggest hits Scarface, millionaire recluse Howard Hughes (later subject for Martin Scorsese's biography "The Aviator"). Scarface wasn't without controversy. It was released without the approval of the American censors after numerous cuts from the original film didn't satisfy them. Hawks tagged on "the Shame of a Nation" to the title in order to reflect how unpleasant the film was. Unpleasant perhaps because it was based on the career of legendary gangster Al Capone. The man himself loved the uncut version and owned his own copy of the film. His reputation helped him churn out a series of hit films throughout the 1930's culminating in one of his most popular films; Bringing Up Baby starring Cary Grant. The lightweight comedy was a million miles from the violence of Scarface but was just as successful. Whenever a critics list of all time great comedies' is released Bringing Up Baby is guaranteed to be involved and often near the top. Another two collaborations with Cary Grant, Only Angels Have Wings and His Girl Friday, were big hits. The year after His Girl Friday he made Sergeant York, which garnered him his only Oscar nomination. The film won two other Academy Awards and was the highest grossing film of 1941. Hawks success wouldn't end there though as he paired up Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall for the first time in 1944 for To Have and to Have Not and followed that with his most famous film, also starring the duo, in 1946; the Big Sleep. One of the best film noirs ever made it's part of the US Film Registry as an integral part of American cinematic history. Hawks was always considered to be a versatile director equally happy in any genre. He moved into Westerns later in life striking up a partnership with John Wayne on both Red River and Rio Bravo. The latter he liked so much he remade it 7 years later. Rio Bravo was the inspiration for John Carpenter movie Assault on Precinct 13. He continued making Westerns into his 70's before eventually retiring. He died a few years after picking up his honourary Oscar but remains an inspiration for film makers to this very day. Quentin Tarantino among those who cite Hawks as an inspiration.
47. VICTOR FLEMING (USA)
HONOURS Won the Academy Award for Gone With the Wind. The previous year he was nominated for the Palm D'Or at Cannes for the Wizard of Oz. Just a couple of small pictures. Has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 94%
TOP FILMS As above.
GONE WITH THE WIND
OPINION So there's this guy right. He makes two films the same year. The total length of them both put together exceeds nine hours. One of which is a musical. The other is essentially a pretty looking soap opera. The lengthy soap opera grossed $400M globally (in 1939) and the musical currently sits at #105 on the Internet Movie Database's top films of all time. In terms of musicals it's second only to Singin' in the Rain. You could say that was a good year to be Victor Fleming. Oddly enough Fleming didn't use his incredible year as a stepping stone to greater things. Although much of the credit for both of his famous films went to the original director of each, George Cukor, who set everything up and put it in place before being shitcanned and replaced by Fleming. Imagine if Cukor had remained director on both projects? Not only would he be above Fleming on this countdown but he'd be pushing the top ten easily. Fleming's career after 1940 wasn't too bad. He made an ok version of Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde before bringing John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat to the big screen. His final effort was 1948's Joan of Arc, which won two Oscars and was nominated for seven. Sadly Fleming wasn't around to enjoy his continued success as he died of a sudden heart attack shortly after the film was complete. Fleming had the kind of man's man attitude that makes his biggest films seem really unusual. Apparently he was requested by Clark Gable for Gone With the Wind for that very reason. Perhaps he was just a fan of Fleming's work in silent film with Douglas Fairbanks that made him a star director in the first place. In case you were wondering I pretty much hate Gone With the Wind but there's no escaping how pretty it looks and despite the huge budget that's also down to Fleming's handling of the project. He had that Blockbuster feel about him and was ahead of his time as a director. Nowadays he'd probably get those $150M budgets and all sorts of exploding stuff to have fun with.
46. ELIA KAZAN (TURKEY)
HONOURS He won two Oscars for directing; A Gentlemen's Agreement in the late 40's and then On the Waterfront in 1954. He was also nominated for A Streetcar Named Desire, America, America and East of Eden. He was awarded, controversially (more on that later), the lifetime achievement Oscar in 1999.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 89%
TOP FILMS On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden, Splendor in the Grass.
ON THE WATERFRONT
OPINION It's hard to know where to start with Elia Kazan. I guess nationality is right at the top. He was born in Istanbul, which is now in Turkey, when it was called Constantinople and the capital of the Ottoman Empire. But his family was Greek so it's hard to say whether he'd be considered Greek or Turkish and knowing the relationship between those two countries I'll stick to the actual place where he was born and leave it at that. Sorry Greece. Although if that had been the biggest controversy in the life of Elia Kazan his life would have been a lot easier. Back in the 1950's Kazan was a great director making great movies. But because he was from Eastern Europe he found himself before the House Un-American Activities Committee during McCarthyism. Kazan had been a member of the Communist party but left during Joseph Stalin's attrocitites. He testified and named names of other Communist party members in order to save his career. In turn he found himself extremely unpopular among the film community. So much so that during his honourary award in 1999 at the Oscars several notable actors and actresses were shown to be less than enthusiastic about Kazan being rewarded for his actions and some went as far to sit on their hands during the presentation. I distinctely remember Holly Hunter, Nick Nolte and Ed Harris being among those to ignore the award. Kazan's best work was during the 1950's when he made On the Waterfront with Marlon Brando as well as a Streetcar Named Desire with the same actor and East of Eden with James Dean. On the Waterfront is particularly fondly remembered voted by AFI as the 19th best film ever made. It nearly didn't happen as he testified in 1952 and Brando wasn't thrilled to work with a guy who was so friendly towards the hard right wing group whose agenda involved destroying careers of people within Hollywood. Kazan has given some back though founding the Actor's Studio in 1947 and directing 21 actors and actresses to Oscar nominated performances.
45. CURTIS HANSON (USA)
HONOURS Won an Oscar for LA Confidential, albeit the screenwriting one not the directing one. LA Confidential was also up for three BAFTA's but didn't win and the Palm D'Or but once again didn't win. It was also nominated for two Golden Globes.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 71%
TOP FILMS LA Confidential, 8 Mile, Wonder Boys, the Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
LA CONFIDENTIAL
OPINION Curtis Hanson makes this list for just one film; LA Confidential. It's the best film of the 90's, barring Goodfellas, and one of the best adaptations of a novel ever brought to the screen. James Ellroy's novel was dense and hard to convert to film but Hanson managed it with relative ease. So much so that Brian De Palma felt he could do the same job with the Black Dahlia. Not so. It's really not that easy. Even with killer source material. Hanson was aided by a love of great films and direction basing much of his style on Alfred Hitchcock. Hey, if you're going to steal then steal from the best. Leading into LA Confidential, one of my all time favourite films if I hadn't already shown enough love for it, he really hadn't demonstrated that he was capable of such a brilliant film. His work going into LA Confidential was as follows; Bedroom Window (an unfortunate attempt at retelling Rear Window with Steve Guttenberg), Bad Influence (a really mediocre Rob Lowe thriller), the Hand the Rocks the Cradle (sleazy thriller saved entirely by the sweet, sweet joy that is Rebecca DeMornay) and the River Wild (that rare commodity the Meryl Steep action movie). Not the repertoire of a man destined to make an all time great movie. But he sunk his heart and soul into LA Confidential and it paid off. Apart from getting robbed at the Oscars by Titanic. Since then he's had a real mixed bag of stuff showing his range off. His follow up was the melodramatic comedy of Wonder Boys. A film routinely overlooked because of it's highbrow literary content and homosexual overtones. Showing his diversity again Hanson's next project was Enimem debut 8 Mile, which showcased once again how good pacing and a striking lead character can cover up a lot of shortfalls. Although with LA Confidential he had the upside of a stellar ensemble cast featuring Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, a straight edged Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey in his most suave role. It launched Crowe's career in Hollywood and should have made Hanson himself a mainstream director for years to come. While he's not realised that yet the fact he wrote and directed LA Confidential sets him in good stead to attempt another film of that scope in the future.
44. FEDERICO FELLINI (ITALY)
HONOURS Nominated for 12 Oscars before winning an honourary one in 1993. In typical Oscar fashion he died the same year. That honourary Oscar tends to equate to death more often than not. He had slightly more success in Europe with Cannes awarding him the Palm D'Or for La Dolce Vita in 1960. Nights of Cabiria was given a special award and he also won a technical prize for 1972's Rome. He's won a string of other awards including the career Golden Lion at Venice.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 90%
TOP FILMS - 8 1/2, La Strada,, La Dolce Vita, Nights of Cabiria, Amarcord.
8 ½
OPINION Although I'm not the biggest fan of surrealism there's more to Fellini than 8 ½ and even if there wasn't it's still a film that has such wonder and weirdness that he'd still be impossible to ignore. Fellini began his career by contributing to Roberto Rossellini's Rome: Open City', one of the best films of the 1940's. Fellini helped on the screenplay and it was this that helped him become a director in his own right. His career behind the camera actually began 14 years earlier but after the success of Open City he never looked back. He made a string of solid films before gaining recognition for La Strada in 1954. Based on experiences in his home town as a boy Fellini wrote a powerful script about a naïve young girl in love with a gypsy strongman. La Strada, meaning "the Road", went on to win the Academy Award for best foreign film. Three years later he made another Oscar winning film; Nights of Cabiria. His own wife starred in the central role as a prostitute in search of love in the seedy side of Rome. Largely forgotten by film lovers (compared to his more famous films) Nights of Cabiria still counts among Fellini's best work. His next major film was La Dolce Vita, which won an Oscar for best costumes, and was the film that changed Fellini's approach to film making. His earlier work was classed as neo-realist based on the Italian movement of the same name. When he made La Dolce Vita he was telling the world his style was changing as was the world. The film covered a week in the life of a reporter covering the more sensational side of stardom. La Dolce Vita translates to "the Sweet Life". This film marked Fellini's move from neo-realism to surrealist films. His next major film being the very surreal 8 ½. I've included a clip from that film so you can get an idea of what it's like if you were interested in seeing it. I personally think the harem scene is the best in the film. 8 ½ is certainly not for all tastes as it's weird and confusing and it's often hard to know what's real and what isn't. 8 ½ is a film about writers block from Fellini who was suffering from writers block at the time. So essentially he made a film about what he was thinking about. That in itself is clever enough as he couldn't make this epic next film so he made a film about how he couldn't make a film. It's like my book that I wrote about not being able to write a book. This is pure Gonzo journalism. Fellini himself was the story. Fellini continued to make unusual films up until 1990 including Amarcord, which also won best foreign film at the Oscars giving him a tally of four wins in that category.
43. INGMAR BERGMAN (SWEDEN)
HONOURS - The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly and Fanny and Alexander all won best foreign language film at the Oscars. He was nominated for nine himself without winning but did win the Irving G. Thalberg award in 1971. Oddly enough he received seven nominations after taking home the Thalberg award.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 87%
TOP FILMS - Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly, Fanny and Alexander.
SEVENTH SEAL
OPINION Bergman is one of those directors that normal film watching guys, like me, fear something fierce. He has a reputation as a heavyweight and the idea of watching a Bergman film unprepared is kinda scary because you don't really know what to expect. So it took me a long, long time to watch the Seventh Seal but I have to tell you it's a great viewing experience. There is limited moping for an arthouse film, death chops down a tree with his scythe and fun is had by all. That's not to say that Bergman's other films aren't a bit tough to get through. Through a Glass Darkly is really heavy as is Wild Strawberries. Moments of levity only occassionally bring the films up to levels where it's easy viewing. Of course Bergman didn't want easy to watch films. That's the point. Although it is strange that his most accessible film is also his most famous. Bergman was an interesting guy away from his films as well having five wives and nine children. During the 1970's he was arrested for tax evasion and went into exile in Germany after the charges were dropped disgusted with his own country. He briefly made films in Germany before returning to Sweden for the critically acclaimed Fanny and Alexander. One of the few films he made in Germany; the Serpents Egg, is widely regarded as his worst film. Unlike other directors Bergman seemed unable to channel his anger into the creative process. His legacy is to have affected the lives of many up and coming film makers. Especially Woody Allen who claims Bergman was the greatest film artist since the creation of cinema. He also inspired Robert Altman, David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky and diverse talents like Chan wook Park and Lars von Trier.
42. WOLFGANG PETERSEN (GERMANY)
HONOURS Oscar nominated for Das Boot. That also garnered him a BAFTA nomination.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 64%
TOP FILMS Das Boot, Troy, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire.
DAS BOOT
OPINION I found Petersen to be one of the hardest directors to place on this list. I knew he needed to be on there because of Das Boot. There's no real arguing with that. Das Boot was one of the finest films of the 1980's. It captures claustrophobia perfectly and made submarine movies popular for years to come. But after making Das Boot he fucked off to America and made a series of films that haven't exactly set the world alight. His latest being the remake of the Poseidon Adventure. I know at least one of my friends in the cinematic reviewing community has labelled Petersen a hack for his involvement in a string of Hollywood blockbusters. He's certainly sold out. I think that's abundantly clear. He's not making these films for a love of the genre like say Bryan Singer and the comic book movies. He does seem to be making a lot of paycheck movies. Poseidon being a really obvious example. Although some of his films in America have had quality to them. I've always been very fond of Outbreak, the Dustin Hoffman movie about a mutated African virus breaking lose on American soil, and In the Line of Fire where Clint Eastwood finally realised he was old. He's made some fun choices over the years. His first American movie was Enemy Mine, which is a really out there film where a human warrior comes into contact with an alien one and they have to work together to survive. Perhaps it was the critical and financial failure of this film that drove Petersen to make more mainstream and bland films in the coming years. Having said that he has a great grasp of tension and has no problems filming exciting action sequences. His sweeping battle scenes in Troy were a joy to behold and Air Force One featured some fun scenes as did the Perfect Storm. While it looks like he'll never get the chance to replicate his combination of tension and action like he did with Das Boot I still rate him as a director simply because of the resounding success of that film. The lengthy directors cut is even better although I've not seen the even longer uncut version, which comes in at 290 odd minutes.
41. ROBERT RODRIGUEZ (USA)
HONOURS Won a technical prize at Cannes for his work with visual shaping on Sin City. His first film El Mariachi won the audience award at Sundance.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 63%
TOP FILMS Sin City, From Dusk Til Dawn, Grindhouse, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
DESPERADO
OPINION Robert Rodriguez grew up with an ambition of becoming a film maker and in order to get his dream a reality he became an expert at shooting films on a small budget and making them look great. His debut picture El Mariachi, despite being an action-revenge flick, was made for a mere $7,000. It took $2M at the box office after a studio picked it up and spent $200,000 on post production. Nevertheless it's a remarkable achievement making something bordering on epic on the cheap. His next project, having proved himself capable, was to essentially remake the film as Desperado (although it's technically a sequel) starring Hollywood's coolest; Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Quentin Tarantino and Steve Buscemi. Made for $7M it became an instant cult classic and took $25M at the box office. It gave Rodriguez a reputation as a low budget film maker whose films would turn a profit. As a result he's developed this uncanny ability to make films he wants to make. This has also made him unassailably cool. His next film probably helped that reputation as it was From Dusk Til Dawn. The robbery caper turned into vampire horror film starred a tattoo covered George Clooney, just breaking onto the big screen, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis and Salma Hayek. The budget was slightly larger at $20M and even though it wasn't a big success at the box office it made money and made even more as a cult DVD hit. It doubled it's money in the rental market. After making B-movie horror the Faculty he moved into a more mainstream market spawning the Spy Kids franchise to amuse his own children. If he had a reputation of making money beforehand the Spy Kids films amplified that reputation. The first took over $100M. By the time the franchise fizzled out with the third movie it had made over $300M. He also took time the same year as the third Spy Kids film to make Once Upon a Time in Mexico and complete the Mariachi Trilogy. With the Mariachi character somewhat played out the film needed a scene stealing performance from someone else. Step forward Agent Sands; Johnny Depp in rare form. Even if you don't rate the film you have to rate the quirky performance. With everything he'd done wrapped up Rodriguez looked for a new challenge and took to bringing Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novels to the big screen. His adaptation is remarkably faithful, it's like reading the books onscreen, and was so successful it's already had two sequels green lighted (although financial issues have seen delays on production). Rodriguez has spent the time working on Grindhouse, a tribute to b-movie horror films, with Quentin Tarantino. Effectively two films with a bunch of fake trailers in between Rodriguez made Planet Terror, a zombie film. Grindhouse has the odd honour of being the only Robert Rodriguez film to lose money.
40. MEL GIBSON (AUSTRALIA)
HONOURS Won two Oscars for his second film as a director; Braveheart. He's been BAFTA nominated twice for Braveheart and Apocalypto. Braveheart also won Gibson a Golden Globe.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 64%
TOP FILMS Braveheart, Apocalypto, the Passion of the Christ, Man Without a Face.
APOCALYPTO
OPINION They just don't make directors like Mel Gibson anymore. He's a total throwback to the old days of film making where everything was big and loud and colourful. Where sweeping epics thrilled audiences. Gibson believes in making films that are structurally huge. If it wasn't for his unfortunate comments about Judaism, and blaming them for the death of Jesus in his movie, he'd be regarded as a director of epics on a par with the old timey guys like Cecil B. DeMille or Joseph L. Mankiewicz or even DW Griffith. Braveheart was appreciated for it's sense of epic and dedication to big screen thrills. It won Oscars. Five of them! Including the big two. And yet the appreciation for Gibson's movies has changed despite his style staying the same. If anything his commitment to making films in different languages has given his films a larger sense of scope than before. The public were certainly interested when devout Christian Mel made the Passion of the Christ in 2004. Made for $30M and cataloging the final day of Jesus Christ it pulled in a whopping $370M at the US box office despite church condemnation, mediocre reviews and protests about the anti-semetic content. Globally it took $600M. The rentals added on another $200M. I think you can call that a success. The controversy pushed the box office up, there's no doubt of that but if the film had sucked people wouldn't have gone at all. Oddly enough I reckon Gibson's least famous film as a director, Apocalypto, is his best. It's huge and sweeping and epic like you wouldn't believe. 700 extras. Massive sets. Dives off waterfalls. Jaguars chasing men. Battles. It has a lot of Mel's now patented gore but if you can overlook that it's such an exciting film with great performances. Sadly he has nothing lined up. Maybe he's waiting for the backlash from the Jew comments to die down. Whenever he does come back you'd better believe whatever his next project is it'll be exciting and different.
39. JEAN-PIERRE JEUNET (FRANCE)
HONOURS - Amelie got him an Oscar nomination. He won a BAFTA for it. He was also BAFTA nominated for A Very Long Engagement and Delicatesson. Meanwhile City of Lost Children was up for the Palm D'Or at Cannes.
RT FRESHNESS RATING 78%
TOP FILMS Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Alien Resurrection.
AMELIE
OPINION The first film I saw by Jean-Pierre Jeunet was Delicatessen in the early 90's. To say it's a little odd would be an understatement. His film combined cannabalism with romance, which I think is a first. The morbid dark comedy was suitably off the wall that it got Jeunet noticed and hired to direct the fourth Alien film; Alien Resurrection. While many people slate the film because the final alien bred by alien and human looks stupid and the whole sequence where Sigourney Weaver has sex with the alien is ridiculous that's being particularly unfair to the rest of the film. Alien Resurrection is fantastic up until the point where Ripley falls through the floor. Or possibly the bit with the clones in the jars although I think that scene is quite well done. The build up and the eventual escape of both Ripley and the aliens is all good stuff and some of the quirky characters made for fun viewing. Also the alien underwater chase scene is mint. Quite how no one else had thought of doing that before, I'm looking at you Fincher, is amazing. Visually I think that scene is on a par with anything done in the Alien franchise. I certainly think Alien Resurrection is a rewarding experience up to a point. I don't think Jeunet really enjoyed his time in America but took a lot from it to change the way he made his films back in France. His first effort at doing so was the offbeat romantic comedy Amelie. Normally I don't like rom-com's. I think they're very easy options for directors and often fall quickly into the rom-com blueprint. I'm not sure where this originated but I've seen a lot of movies that reminded me of Sleepless in Seattle. Just saying. Amelie is totally non-formula, totally off the wall and one of the most unexpected successes, ever. You look at Jeunet coming off Alien Resurrection it took him four years to follow that up. Amelie was not only a success around the world but also took money, $33M to be exact, at the US box office. A foreign film. A very simple one. And it took home big bucks. If the ideas at play behind Amelie are simple then the execution is not. The use of flashbacks and other concepts where lots of shots take place from different places are happening quickly litter Amelie. It's a film shot with a big heart but a short attention span. Jeunet took the template and made a movie about a missing soldier and his lovelorn fiance called a Very Long Engagement. This also starred Audrey Tautou and she's very good in both films albeit playing a very similar character. Jeunet seems to have this knack now of making French films in his own way. He doesn't want to tie himself into making films the French way. Obviously the French don't like it because they perceive his style as catering to a world market not the French one. But quite frankly isn't developing a new style of film making a good thing? I don't get the French complaints. But then, I don't get the French. Full stop. Next for Jeunet is the Life of Pi. A story of an Indian boy who's the son of a zookeeper and survives a shipwreck on a lifeboat with an assortment of wild animals. Sounds like my kind of film.
