Pedro Almodovar: Guys walking into huge vaginas, Penelope Cruz falling in love with a trannie with implants, and NC-17 gay sex scenes aren’t my bag and never will be. Apparently some people enjoy these things. I’ll admit Almodovar uses color well and his films always go unexpected places and take risks. I just don’t like the places they go to. Exception: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) is funny, featuring a young Antonio Banderas.
Tim Burton: The poster boy for style over substance. His films are 
filled with great color compositions with interesting angles and diagonals – and tons of energy from the performers. His films are frequently humorous, but rarely emotionally affecting. Exception: By taking away his color palette, Burton was forced to focus on character and dialogue and wound up with his masterpiece: Ed Wood (1994). 
John Cassavetes: People call him the father of the American independent film industry. Martin Scorsese calls him a great influence, but I can’t see the connection. Cassavetes once indicated he liked to create movies that made you feel like the only sober one at a party long after it should have ended. That pretty much sums it up. Exception: Faces (1968) is less painful than the rest of his filmography.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Tarantino praises him for being prolific.
He made 43 films in 17 years from 1966 to 1982. And I shot 6 hours of video the first week of my first kid’s life. Does anyone but immediate family members want to watch? I didn’t think so.
Exception: None, but admittedly, I haven’t seen – nor will I ever see - all 43 films.
Nicolas Roeg: Being weird for weird’s sake isn’t art. It’s just weird. Note to Mr. Roeg: there are reasons why incest, date rape, and sexual perversion aren’t usually the central event in most movies. On the commentary track to Bad Timing (1980), he lamented that Spielberg had good timing and he, indeed, had bad timing. Substitute “taste” for “timing” and you would be correct, sir. Exception: Don’t Look Now (1973) is a very good, very creepy movie about a married couple (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) searching for their lost daughter.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Tarantino praises him for being prolific.
He made 43 films in 17 years from 1966 to 1982. And I shot 6 hours of video the first week of my first kid’s life. Does anyone but immediate family members want to watch? I didn’t think so.
Exception: None, but admittedly, I haven’t seen – nor will I ever see - all 43 films.Jean-Luc Godard: Along with Francois Truffaut, the most famous of the French New Wave directors. His films have interesting moments, but he is most remembered for breaking nearly all the rules of cinema. Over 40 years later, the truth is that some rules shouldn’t be broken. Being inventive does not equal genius. Not every inventor is Thomas Edison. Some dude invented toilet paper. Exception: His first film Breathless (1960- co-written by Truffaut) works great as a love letter to Hollywood gangster and Humphrey Bogart. He used “innovative” jump cuts, but the truth is he was forced to cut a 2 hour film down to 90 minutes and just got out a pair of kindergarten scissors.
Yasujiro Ozu: Critics praise him for his simple style where he
places the camera on the floor and people look directly into the camera. They insist the lack of camera movement makes the audience focus on the character’s emotions. I insist it’s a cure for insomnia. And what some critics call simple and no-frills, I call lazy and unimaginative. Exception: Tokyo Story (1953) actually does have some powerful emotional moments near the end, but you may need to watch it on your laptop at a Starbucks.
Yasujiro Ozu: Critics praise him for his simple style where he
places the camera on the floor and people look directly into the camera. They insist the lack of camera movement makes the audience focus on the character’s emotions. I insist it’s a cure for insomnia. And what some critics call simple and no-frills, I call lazy and unimaginative. Exception: Tokyo Story (1953) actually does have some powerful emotional moments near the end, but you may need to watch it on your laptop at a Starbucks.
Nicolas Roeg: Being weird for weird’s sake isn’t art. It’s just weird. Note to Mr. Roeg: there are reasons why incest, date rape, and sexual perversion aren’t usually the central event in most movies. On the commentary track to Bad Timing (1980), he lamented that Spielberg had good timing and he, indeed, had bad timing. Substitute “taste” for “timing” and you would be correct, sir. Exception: Don’t Look Now (1973) is a very good, very creepy movie about a married couple (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) searching for their lost daughter.
Eric Rohmer: Another French New Waver, famous for his 6 part film series about morality 
tales. His films are flat and uninteresting and the lessons the people learn in his films are obvious. I’d rather watch a recently painted room dry because there are only 4 walls. Exception: I remember liking My Night at Maud’s (1969) quite a bit, but I had both more time and more patience when I saw it 5-6 years ago.
tales. His films are flat and uninteresting and the lessons the people learn in his films are obvious. I’d rather watch a recently painted room dry because there are only 4 walls. Exception: I remember liking My Night at Maud’s (1969) quite a bit, but I had both more time and more patience when I saw it 5-6 years ago. 
Lars von Trier: He hates America even though he’s never been here. He makes really long, really pretentious films criticizing America’s treatment of women and minorities. He journeyed into the musical genre with Bjork and people inexplicably went bonkers for it. After seeing The Five Obstructions, I think there is genius there, it’s just completely misguided and wasted by hate. Exception: I haven’t seen Zentropa (1991) in over 10 years, but I remember it as a beautifully shot, visually arresting film about an American working on a train in post war Germany.
Note: I tried to round it up to 10, but the genius of Andrei Rublev and Atlantic City prevented Andrei Tarkovsky and Louis Malle from making the list. Also, Mike Leigh was a consideration with only one near-great film (Secrets and Lies) but the tremendous performances by Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake and David Thewlis in Naked knocked him off the list.
Note: I tried to round it up to 10, but the genius of Andrei Rublev and Atlantic City prevented Andrei Tarkovsky and Louis Malle from making the list. Also, Mike Leigh was a consideration with only one near-great film (Secrets and Lies) but the tremendous performances by Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake and David Thewlis in Naked knocked him off the list.
3 comments:
once again, the doctor proves he has far-and-away the most extensive film library of the contributors to this site. indeed, i have only (knowingly) seen a few of these director's films. that said, i must say i really like a few of burton's films. the scene in the first batman when kim bassinger wakes up in bed and looks around for keaton, only to see him hanging upside down while he's sleeping is classic. sleepy hollow is just jacked-up enough to be interesting, and i, for one, really liked the remake of charlie and the chocolate factory.
also, volver (which i will be posting a review of directly) is a really good film by Almodovar. i've seen nothing else by the guy, so i can't comment beyond that.
Wow. Where to start.
Great first sentence. I kind of liked All About My Mother, but would agree wholeheartedly about my own 'bag'.
Tim Burton....I really like Batman Returns and Big Fish is okay. You're dead on that he gets distracted by the visuals and it hurts his films overall. Reminds me of Michel Gondry. The Wonka remake was terrible (D+), but I liked Ed Wood, especially since we saw it in the theater together...awww.
Cassevetes and the rest...Not enough info to comments.
Michele Pfeiffer is great in Batman Returns. Some of Batman is OK. I look forward to your Volver review, priest, - it lost me pretty early on when the husband tries to rape his stepdaughter. Yes, we get it, Pedro, heterosexual men are horrible, horrible people. Your reviews are inevitably better thought out than my visceral reaction, though.
And lawyer, I thought Charlie Kaufman held Gondry in check in Eternal Sunshine, but agree the visuals in Science of Sleep got way out of control.
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