And what about the Canadians?
Atom Egoyan
Bruce McDonald
Woah, too many for me to keep up with.
About Wong Kar Wai - I love him to bits, but in the Mood for Love is not my favourite.
Lee Ang. I loved Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but his master work was The Ice Storm. That was a brilliant movie.
Yeah to Sergeo Leone. Those Spaghetti Westerns are awesome.
Some discussion about Chinese movies being to melodramatic or something. Well sometimes a bit of ‘oopmh’ is good to take it away from the ordinary stuff we get. This ‘over-the-topness’ is proabbly what that guy didn’t like about ‘Goddess of 1967’ that I loved. It’s there in the Spaghetti Westerns too, and in Takeshi Kitano’s stuff. And anime. Also why I love kunfu flicks. Maybe in the work of that Korean director someone mentioned. I’d like to check him out. I also want to try some Bollywood stuff. Any starters?
Brian
[quote=“Dahudze”]Man, this is so cool. Makes me want to see some of these movies, and see some of them again.
Some mentions I haven’t seen (or not seen enough of):
-
Martin Scorsese–“Goodfellas” was the greatest depiction of gangsters (or whatever word you want to use) ever made. Add “Raging Bull”, the “Life Lessons” short from “New York Stories”, “The King of Comedy”, “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver”
-
Fritz Lang “Metropolis”, “M”,
-
Hal Ashby–“The Last Detail”, “Being There”, “Harold and Maude” & “Shampoo”.
-
Sydney Pollack–“Tootsie”, “Electric Horseman”, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”, “Jeremiah Johnson”, “The Way We Were”
-
Frank Capra–(Hey, the guy invented the Screwball Comedy) “It Happened One Night”, “It’s a Wonderful Life”
Another vote for Billy Wilder and David Lean, too.
And not to get too off topic, but–
What about the great WRITERS?
-
Paddy Chayevsky “Network”, “Marty”
-
Billy Wilder (again)
-
Dalton Trumbo “Roman Holiday”, “Papillon”, “Spartacus”[/quote]
Is that inventor of screwballs Capra or Ernest Lubitsch, inimitable owner of the famous “Lubitsch Touch”? “To Be or Not to Be” “Little Shop around the Corner” “Trouble in Paradise” “Ninotchka” “Design for Living” etc. Biting wit, uproarious fun and grace all rolled into one…even his silent comedies made in Vienna seem already so musical…
Missed this last night. You know I agree with you, except for the bit about Kenneth Branagh having any talent whatsoever, except perhaps for the ability to con people into believeing that he is capable of acting or could direct his way out of a paper bag. His so called ‘acting’ is self-indulgent strutting, and his ‘directing’ is just downright awful, particularly his horrendous adaptions of Shakespeare, which both fail to capture the spirit of the plays, or provide an intersting original interpretation. I couldn’t believe how bad his ‘Twelfth Night’ was. He didn’t have the slightest grasp of that play, and then there was that smarmy little ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ with that horrible Thompson (ooh I’m so English, and just a little bit batty) woman. I avoided his Hamlet, but was unfortunate enough to catch a little bit of its dreariness on the telly just last week. I quickly changed to Channel Z for something better directed, and with more depth. (I didn’t see Henry V, because I could bever find the first 4 movies and I hate watching sequels out of order). And that Frankenstein was just apalling (although his fake muscles were amusing).
Enough on the Brannagh rant.
Thanks to F_hou for reminding me of Lubitsch’s name. I was just trying to remember his name the other day when talking about ‘To Be Or Not to Be’ - a marvellous film. I saw one or two of his silents too, but I can’t remember them to tell you the truth. I was a little overwhelmed with too many films at the time. Maybe if I did an IMDB search. Ahh, Lady Windemere’s Fan is the movie I’m thinking of. That was really good. May have seen 2 or 3 others too.
Brian
Sir Donald Bradman wrote:
[quote]
Maybe in the work of that Korean director someone mentioned. I’d like to check him out. [/quote]
Hey, dude, here are some articles about the Korean director and a couple of his flicks…
[color=blue]My personal favorite films of Kim Ki Duk[/color]
[color=red]1. The Isle[/color]
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/TheIsle-1116697/reviews.php
[color=red]2. Bad Guy[/color]
http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1001833351/did-0/code-k/section-videos/
http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/asianfilm/korea/badguy.html
http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/bad_guy.htm
[color=blue]
Article - The Ferocious Eye of Kim Ki-duk[/color]
http://www.realtimearts.net/rt50/walsh.html
[color=blue]
[color=blue]His official site[/color]
http://www.kimkiduk.com/e_main.php
[color=blue]You could order his films from here. [/color]
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/person.kim+ki-duk/qx/titles.htm
Spacegal, I hope you were just referring to Polanski as a great director in general (and I agree) and not that the Ninth Gate is a testament to his skills or anything, cuz i have to say that the film was utter crap. 
Didn’t he remake some horror film with his gfriend sharon tate? with vampires or something. or was that something else.
spacegal.
you mention roman polanski and leave out rosemary’s baby and the tenant, not to mention chinatown???
for shame!!
These movies are roman polanski when he was kickin ass and takin’ names…
and yes, toe save, david mamet oozes cool.
I had no idea Chinatown was Roman Polanski…fantastic movie!! Jack Nicholson at his best
[quote=“ghettostyle”]spacegal.
you mention roman polanski and leave out rosemary’s baby and the tenant, not to mention chinatown???
for shame!!
These movies are roman polanski when he was kickin ass and takin’ names…
and yes, toe save, david mamet oozes cool.[/quote]
Hey GS,
Thx for the props vis-a-vis Mamet
But back to Polanski…I saw his first ever movie called Knife in the Water…a wonderful film noir…but also a prime example of coincidental prophetic foreshadowing, given his penchant for using knives in his films post Sharon Tate, as this film was made long b4 Manson and his pals did their evil deeds. In particular, his brilliant cameo in Chinatown…still one of the most horrific scenes ever…sends my queasy meter to 11.
And I know this should probably be mentioned in a music or literary thread, but has anyone ever heard The Jim Carroll (Basketball Diaries)Band’s song that has the lyric “It’s too late to fall in love with Sharon Tate”…man could that Jim write…
Sorry, I just learned Chinatown was Polanski…now you’re telling me he did a brilliant cameo? Please do explain the cameo…
i think he played some bad guy who tried to cut nicholson’s character. i kinda remember it was him and another guy holding nicholson against a fence under a streetlamp at night. correct me if i’m wrong.
He doesn’t “try” to cut Jake (Nicholson’s character)…Polanski sticks a knife up his nostril and slices his nose open.
Polanski’s Repulsion, with the arms coming out of the walls and a very young Catherine Deneuve!
I bet this film inspired David Lynch…
Wow, lots of new messages are accumulated meanwhile. Nowadays I make it a rule to check out the forumosa forum only once a day (It’s too tempting, though 
:P).
Jackburton wrote:
Spacegal, I hope you were just referring to Polanski as a great director in general (and I agree) and not that the Ninth Gate is a testament to his skills or anything, cuz I have to say that the film was utter crap.
Didn’t he remake some horror film with his gfriend sharon tate? with vampires or something. or was that something else.[/quote]
Feeling a little guilty I actually kinda liked the film, in spite of some drawbacks and the abrupt ending. I have a bit weird taste, LOL.
Saw it at bout 9 pm at Breeze Center and when the movie was over, general reponses from the viewers were like…[i]What the fck[/i]?* On the way back in the MRT, a friend of mine (a philosophy major) and I talked about the film and its complexity for an hour - both of us liked the movie.
It was a difficult, thought-provoking film and the score of the movie intrigued me, so I ordered the OST of it the next day - At the end of the film, the main theme “Vocalise” (Sumi Jo) was hauntingly beautiful. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00002EPU7/qid=1054881604/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9996037-4689409?v=glance&s=music
I’ve observed that people tend to either hate this film or love it. Everyone has a different taste…Well, sometimes great directors also churn out a few mediocre works. Some of you guys might not agree but my favorite Polanski’s flick is “Bitter moon” - am into weird, grotesque & bizarre cultish flicks.
Spacegal,
chacun son gout. didn’t mean anything by it. just MHO. i did think the premise of the Ninth Gate was very interesting, but the way the movie played out and the script really disappointed me. it was awhile ago, but i have the vague impression the editing bothered me too (or rather just the cohesiveness??)
kinda reminds me of the movie StarGate. Was also really an intriguing idea…until i saw the movie. :shock:
Chinatown…i do remember his nose getting cut now… and bleeding too. Guess I must have misremembered (right Mapodofu 
)
I vaguely remember Jack Nicholson getting roughed up outside the nursing home, if I recall correctly, or was it when he down at the water…Ninth Gate, Repulsion, too many good movies to see, too busy posting on Forumosa to see them hehe
I thought Bitter Moon was awful. I think Polanski was suffering from ‘aging European director syndrome’. This is the same thing that struck Bertolucchi when filming Stealing Beauty. Aging Euro director decides to let his camera obssess over a young starlet for 2 hours, while we are forced to watch. In fact after a few too many French films (don’t get me wrong - I adore French films - it’s just this type of film that gets too much), I’m really sick of the ‘Euro style obsessive love’ art house storyline. I think I must have seen over a dozen of these films in a single festival once. Nearly put me off French films for life.
Brian
There have been two occasions in my cinematic experience when I have walked out of the cinema and predicted that the film I had just seen would sweep all 5 of the major academy awards. The first time I did this was for Silence of the Lambs…and I was right on the money.
The second time I did this was for Sam Mendes’ captivating American Beauty…I missed out on only one prediction this time, but was quick enough to correct my prediction before the presenter said “and the winner for best actress is…”
Having never heard of either Hilary Swank or Boys Don’t Cry until I had seen the clip they always show for each nominee, I knew that Ms Benning would be staying in her seat…
It is unfortunate that Annette came up against Hilary that year, because both performances were absolutely spell-binding. Hilary did deserve the statuette but Annette deserved one too…
But this thread is about directors, therefore I hereby add Mr. Mendes to my list. His most recent effort with Hanks and Newman was passing fine, but American Beauty is a film I will never tire of watching. Impressive for a first effort. Just goes to show you how brilliant theatre directors can be…
I rented State and Main this weekend. Written and directed by David Mamet. Really good, despite having one of the Baldwins in the cast.
Ya…I agree Sandy…but if ya gotta have a Baldwin, then he is the one to have…and he is perfect as the narcissitic Lao Nyo eating young grass…
What I loved about it was that comic high five that they do…nice bit of bizness, that…if you don’t know what I mean, I’ll show you on Thursday…
The name escapes me right now, but there is another really good Mamet out there with Steve Martin…gotta run now, but I will find the name later…and of course…Heist, House of Cards and Glengarry Glenross are all must sees.