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Five Film Favorites: Directors

Being the manager of a repertory cinema, Richmond's Biograph Theatre, for nearly a dozen years (1971-83) was quite a Film education. By watching selected movies several times I came to understand, somewhat, the factors that made particular movies so outstanding and what made others difficult to watch. 

During those years, by reading a lot about movies and discussing related topics with many people who knew a lot about cinema, it further developed my appreciation for the ingredients that usually made the great films just that. So, let's stipulate that good feature-length movies usually contain at least a couple of really good scenes that people like to talk about. In the best films, such scenes are strung together gracefully.  

Most of my all-time favorite films were made by directors who had a distinctive style that is noticeable in several films they directed. My favorite movie directors are pretty good examples of what film aficionados once liked to call, "auteurs." 

Frequently such directors wrote or co-wrote the screenplays. Somehow, perhaps because they were so talented, they managed to get their ambitious projects financed, without having to make the sort of artistic compromises many of their fellow filmmakers had to make, in order to keep steady work. And, yes, my five favorites in this category are all dead. Which means they can‘t keep doing what the prolific filmmaker Martin Scorsese has been doing to beat up on his once-stellar reputation. (Have you seen "The Irishman" (2019)? It's awful!)

It now seems that making a movie has gotten to be so expensive that the accountants and lawyers, who raise the dough to produce feature-length motion pictures simply don’t want to take the risk to finance projects that don’t nicely fit in with current focus group wisdom. 

Anyway, for whatever reasons, it seems we hear less about auteurs these days. That's OK by me; the word always has sounded a bit overcooked. 

Now, in alphabetical order, my list of favorite five directors, along with five of their most representative/best films are as follows (my favorite flick for each director is in bold): 

Luis Buñuel (1900-83; born in Spain, made some films in Spanish, some in French): “Los Olvidados” (1950), “Belle de Jour” (1967), “Tristana” (1970), “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” (1972), “The Phantom of Liberty” (1974).

Federico Fellini (1920-93; born in Italy, made films in Italian): “Nights of Cabiria” (1957), “La Dolce Vita” (1960), “8½” (1963), “Juliet of the Spirits” (1965), “Amarcord” (1973).

John Huston (1907-87; born in the USA, made films in English): “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), "Key Largo" (1948), “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), “The African Queen” (1951), “Wise Blood” (1979).

Elia Kazan (1909-2003; born in Istanbul and immigrated to the USA at the age of four, made films in English): “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951), “On the Waterfront” (1954), “East of Eden” (1955), “A Face in the Crowd” (1957), "Wild River" (1960).

Stanley Kubrick (1928-99; born in the USA, made films in English): “The Killing” (1956), “Paths of Glory” (1957), "Lolita" (1962), “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964), “Full Metal Jacket” (1987).

Note: The director I am liking more in recent years (especially since I first wrote this piece about 10 years ago) is Louis Malle. "Elevator to the Gallows" (1958) has shouldered its way onto my all-time top ten features list. 

 



This post first appeared on SLANTblog, please read the originial post: here

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