Who actually are the best directors?

[CaledonianGonzo]

El Unicornio makes a good point, and it's strange how people never criticise Bergman or Dreyer or whoever for being humourless (or indeed Noe or Malick). Maybe it's that he makes big budget "mainstream" films rather than arthouse stuff. Don't know, but he seems to be the only director who gets described that way. And I don't see it as as big a minus as some of you lot do, either.

And I thought Eternal Sunshine...wasn't that much kop. That whole family of films, him and Jonze, I just find unsatisfying and I'm very glad all films aren't "warm and witty" that way.

Perhaps a *bit* of a stretch to say that no one ever calls Bergman gloomy.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/apr/10/film.filmnews)

[Ignatius_S]

I'd have Clint for Tightrope, Unforgiven and especially Perfect World, a scandalously underrated film.

Changeling - piece of crap, pure and simple.

Unforgiven is notable for the supporting cast - if it didn't have that, it wouldn't have got the plaudits it did. It's an okay Western but unbelievably over-rated.

Perfect World is fine, but fairly insipid.

Tightrope is a workable B-movie with the sophistication of a mucky book.

In Honkytonk Man, Eastwood made a couple of rather important changes:

1) The car that they main characters ride in becomes more dilapidated as they proceed, symbolising the singer's deteriorating health; at the climax of the journey, the singer has died and the car is a broken down repair. However, Eastwood in most of his films had in written into the contracts that any car could be purchased by him for $1 and he was rather taken with the car that was used, so he made a change that it would remain pristine because of being tight with his money.

2) The singer dies without finding success. For the film, Eastwood changed it so that the character knows his music will live on.

In Play Misty For Me, the character that Eastwood plays was originally due to do some soul-searching - although his stalker was mentally unbalanced, he acknowledges that his behaviour towards her had an major impact on what happened and his feels responsibility. Eastwood decided to change that so she was a nut and the DJ had nothing to feel bad about.

Related to that film, Misty was re-released with much commercial success - Eastwood was furious that he wasn't going to get a penny from this and this had a big impact on Every Which Way But Loose. That film was written by a former singer-songwriter, who wrote a number of original songs for the script, which reflected what was happening on the story. Eastwood made the decision to remove these from the shooting as he didn't want the writer profiting from 'his' film.

Eastwood said that Pale Rider was a homage to Shane. In that classic Western, the titular hero fights a tense battle and badly wounded, rides off into the sunset. Pale Rider's climatic gunfight is as dull as ditch-water and as much tension as an episode of Songs of Praise. He easily dispatches his foes and one wonders why the Preacher didn't take them out as soon as they got there. Although Geoffrey Lewis is a fine actor, and one I'm very fond of, he's no Jack Palance in the supposedly Jack Palance role. This leads to another problem with Eastwood as a director - for years, his main goal was to build himself as an icon. This led to him avoiding big name or highly impressive performers and instead use a pool of character actors that would do a decent enough job and make sure that the scene belong to Eastwood. Later on, he had no such problem working with big names and dropped 'friends' like Lewis, who had depended on... classy.

Personally, I think High Plains Drifter is a great film but Eastwood as a director just doesn't cut it as one of the 'goods', like alone the greats.

[Talulah, really!]

What are you guys on about? Inception is a total hoot.

The only time I laughed more in a cinema than the first time I saw Inception was the fourth time I saw Inception  because by then we could sing along with the jokes.

I mean, ferChristsake, it's a fucking Caper Movie, the single, solitary film genre it is impossible to take seriously, the whole thing is a splendid wizard wheeze, it's Oceans 11,12,13 only without the camp, knowing, ironic, archness, the great grand joke is that the whole preoposterous parade is presented in full surroundsound po-faced seriousness, Hustle as written by Richard Wagner.

It is a gigantic confection of mainstream cinema about a man whose dreams are entirely composed of the cliches of modern mainstream cinema, how's that for a "circle in a spiral, a wheel within a wheel"[nb]Hint, hint!!![/nb].

Look at the Mombassa sequence, it goes beyond parody and pastiche arriving instead at the more elevated level of pure creative play in taking apart the tropes and tricks of the "James Bourne" and "Matrix Decoded" films, frantic frenzied fastcuts, pointless running about, endless appearing out of nowhere besuited badguys who can't shot straight, nonsensical "HeyKidsSymbolsGottaSpotEmAll" scenes and throwing them all gleefully in the audiences' faces in the first third of the film.

Seriously, Guys, It isn't.

[biggytitbo]

Perfect World is fine, but fairly insipid.

Tish, its a fine fine film, one of Clint's best. Thick on atmosphere, morally complex, brilliant acting allround.

[Mini]

Do films always need humour? I'm quite a fan of musicians and filmmakers who take themselves deadly seriously. Anyway, compared to his peers, Nolan's films aren't that serious, I find them pretty lighthearted for the most part. They're certainly not in Gaspar Noe or Terrence Malick territory.

Films don't necessarily need humour, but anything or anyone that takes itself too seriously is just off-putting.

[Famous Mortimer]

As a huge fan of some of their work, I want Neveldine / Taylor to be those guys, who make the insane films but with a bit of brains and class. Sadly, they just seem to be held back by something - both "Gamer" and the new "Ghost Rider" were alright but flawed as hell. They could be great, though.

[madhair60]

More "Clint Eastwood being a cunt" stories please!

[Egyptian Feast]

More "Clint Eastwood being a cunt" stories please!

Here's one, quoted from Wikipedia:

Sondra Locke had a fourteen-year relationship with actor Clint Eastwood. They cohabited from 1975 to 1989. During the early years of the relationship, Locke had two abortions and a tubal ligation, which she claims were at Eastwood's request.

In 1989, Locke sued Eastwood for palimony, after he changed the locks on their house and placed her belongings in storage. They settled in 1990, with Eastwood giving her a directing contract with Warner Bros. in exchange for her dropping the suit. However, the studio never hired her to direct and rejected all of the 30+ film projects she proposed. In 1996, Locke hired entertainment attorney Neil Papiano and sued Eastwood for fraud, alleging that he had compensated Warner Bros. for the contract. The case was left in the jury's hands, with analysts predicting that Locke would win. In 1999, Eastwood and Locke agreed to settle out of court for a reportedly large amount. The details of the settlement were not publicly disclosed. The case is used in some modern law school contracts textbooks to illustrate the legal concept of good faith.

He apparently also used to scrawl rude words in red ink in the shooting script for her directorial debut, Ratboy.

[Ignatius_S]

Tish, its a fine fine film, one of Clint's best. Thick on atmosphere, morally complex, brilliant acting allround.

Actually, the acting is really good in it – I'll certainly give you that. It's a well crafted film and one I did enjoy the first time, but not one that I've personally enjoyed revisiting, but can see why others would like it a lot.

More "Clint Eastwood being a cunt" stories please!

Well, as it's you...

Actually, there's a Patrick McGilligan biograghy, which is a very good read. Although it's accused of being 'negative', it's well-researched and cuts through a lot of the public persona that's been built up. Very importantly, it's very good when looking at his films and him as an artist. Just about all the people in the book interviewed who have fallen out with Eastwood (IIRC, Eastwood told people around them not to cooperate, so arguably you are getting one side) come across pretty well – they don't sound bitter, but just rather sad at what happened. There was one actor off Rawhide, who was a big drinking buddy of Clint's and when the For A Fistful of Dollars gig came up, Eastwood got him a part in the film as basically he wanted a mate for moral support. While there were away, the friend decided that as a friend that he should talk to Eastwood about not sowing his wild oats so much now and take his responsibilities as a married man (IIRC, someone he had a fling with, gave birth to his child around this time) – this wasn't appreciated and Eastwood didn't speak to him again. There does seem to be quite a lot of people Eastwood  just 'drops' when he doesn't have a use for them or he's displeased.

That book also reported that when Eastwood goes to awards ceremonies, him and his mates got a reputation as the last to leave. The reason being that there are often goody bags with big brand, decent freebies, however, the vast majority of stars leave them as they don't want to be photographed with them as it might make them look cheap. So if you leave last, you can take the discards. How true this is, I wouldn't like to say, but there are lots of things (e.g. car contracts, as mentioned above) that does make Eastwood sound like he likes to save a dollar. Going from memory here, although it's usually reported that he didn't read the Unforgiven script for years because the reader told him it was bad (which doesn't really explain why he had bought it in the first place), Eastwood had in fact sat on it deliberately in order to try and avoid paying her a bonus (I forget the details, but if it gets made and/or does well, the reader gets a nice pay-out for signalling that it had potential).

When he ran for mayor, he portrayed himself as a common-sense alternative to the incumbent – e.g. going on about not being able to eat ice cream in the street. This wasn't very accurate and there are claims that him being refused planning permission over a business venture was the real reason – once elected, there were allegations of cronyism.

During The Eiger Sanction, Eastwood refused to listen about not filming a scene because of the danger, which I think was because of the weather (at this time, he was dedicated to shooting under budget and under time). The filming went ahead and there was indeed an accident, which sadly killed one of the climbers.

When he picked up True Crime, the pitchers were surprised and delighted that he wanted to play the cat-burglar, rather than the main detective that they saw him as. One reason for the surprise was that the thief gets killed off halfway through the film and when they mentioned this, Eastwood said he did want to make a few improvements... and him not dying was one of them

[Ignatius_S]

Here's one, quoted from Wikipedia:

He apparently also used to scrawl rude words in red ink in the shooting script for her directorial debut, Ratboy.

In that biography, I mentioned, with one of the abortions, an element that she found hard to deal with, was that he dropped her off at the clinic and basically said 'See you back at the house' before driving off.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Re: Sondra Locke, you'd think if he was that bad you might consider not living with him for 14 years.

I'm always slightly wary of taking notice of "he's a cunt in real life!" type things, as any of us, when put under a microscope, can be made to look like cunts. I did hear that Lee Van Cleef was very intimidated by him when they were making The Good, The Bad.... though, I do get the impression that he's quite egotistical and likes to control people.

[Ignatius_S]

Re: Sondra Locke, you'd think if he was that bad you might consider not living with him for 14 years.

I'm always slightly wary of taking notice of "he's a cunt in real life!" type things, as any of us, when put under a microscope, can be made to look like cunts. I did hear that Lee Van Cleef was very intimidated by him when they were making The Good, The Bad.... though, I do get the impression that he's quite egotistical and likes to control people.

As I mentioned in the biography, no one (and this included Locke) who has fallen out with Eastwood, came across as being bitter – they certainly didn't say he was a 100% bastard – there was a sadness, rather than bitterness. Eastwood has been very careful with his public image, so it's interesting to get another take.

In his dealings with females, Eastwood came across as a chauvinist. He's not going to be the only man, particularly of his generation to be. However, as I mentioned, he made a rather important change to Play Misty For Me – personally, I think the original ending is better. The revised version may speak to Eastwood more, but it cheapens the end product.

If he wants to be careful with his money, fine. But as mentioned above, it's affected the films he's directed - not for artistic reasons but because of penny-pinching.

A major reason I recommend the biography is because McGilligan does such a good job discussing the production of Eastwood's films and offers criticism, rather then merely 'dishing the dirt'.

[madhair60]

I'd like to read that book.  So I will.

_{Good post, Stu, good post.  Just keep 'em coming you're doing fine.}

[biggytitbo]

If he's such a big cunt how come nobody calls him 'Clit Eastwood'?

[kitsofan34]

My  flatmate has this boxset and everytime I see it I think it says "Cunt Eastwood". Can anyone else see it?

[Sam]

Films don't necessarily need humour, but anything or anyone that takes itself too seriously is just off-putting.

To you, perhaps. But earnest people deserve films too. I often wonder what people who criticise  things which are 'too serious' are so scared of encountering in them?

[biggytitbo]

To you, perhaps. But earnest people deserve films too. I often wonder what people who criticise  things which are 'too serious' are so scared of encountering in them?

Poo faced boringness. You'd be hard pressed to find any great film maker that doesn't have a sense of humour, it's in the DNA of all good art. In fact, I'd go as far to say its the definition of all good art.

[astrozombie]

I think a recent rising star is a fella by the name of Bobcat Goldthwait, I thoroughly enjoyed "Sleeping Dogs" and "Worlds Greatest Dad".

I recently thanks to the wonders of the internet enjoyed his latest "God Bless America". I think he is quite under the radar by most film goers at the moment but in the next year or two will be talked about endlessly by indie film lovers.

My  flatmate has this boxset and everytime I see it I think it says "Cunt Eastwood". Can anyone else see it?

Haha.

I heard once that the sole reason East Clintwood became a director was because he loved making movies and such but hated the process of waiting for directors to set up shots, think things over etc. So did it as a way of moving things a speedy pace. Apparently he films rehearsals and sometimes just yells "Let's move on, that was perfect!" Makes sense, Gran Torino was just 7 hours of him grumbling into the lens.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I think a recent rising star is a fella by the name of Bobcat Goldthwait, I thoroughly enjoyed "Sleeping Dogs" and "Worlds Greatest Dad".

I recently thanks to the wonders of the internet enjoyed his latest "God Bless America". I think he is quite under the radar by most film goers at the moment but in the next year or two will be talked about endlessly by indie film lovers.

Good choice, and I couldn't agree more. I loved both of his first two films, and can't wait to see what he does next. I didn't realise God Bless America was available online, but will have to try and get hold of that asap.

I saw "Sleep Dogs" at the London Film Festival, largely as I just happened to be in Leciester Square that day looking for a good film to watch, and afterwards he came out for a surprise Q&A. He was fascinating to listen too, and clearly really passionate about the work he produces.

[Rev]

'World's Greatest Dad' was a real surprise for me, but I can't say that there's anything singular about the way it's directed.  I'll definitely be seeing 'God Bless America' and anything else he comes out with, but he's not yet the type of director we're talking about here.

You know how cool we are on here?  We seem to have gone this long without mentioning Quentin Tarantino.  That's how cool we are.  Annoying pastiche merchant that he is, if I had a time machine I'd jump into it to find out what kind of films he'd be making when he's in his sixties.

[Mini]

To you, perhaps. But earnest people deserve films too. I often wonder what people who criticise  things which are 'too serious' are so scared of encountering in them?

Smugness

[astrozombie]

'World's Greatest Dad' was a real surprise for me, but I can't say that there's anything singular about the way it's directed.  I'll definitely be seeing 'God Bless America' and anything else he comes out with, but he's not yet the type of director we're talking about here.

You know how cool we are on here?  We seem to have gone this long without mentioning Quentin Tarantino.  That's how cool we are.  Annoying pastiche merchant that he is, if I had a time machine I'd jump into it to find out what kind of films he'd be making when he's in his sixties.

I think if you watch a film and your attention is more focused on how it is directed or shot, that director has failed.

A good director should make you just focus completely on the story and not on how it is shot etc. Should just get you enraptured in the story and let that be that. A good example of a director who does this is George A. Romero, his films are very plainly shot, but the characters / story are 100% gripping.

David Fincher, a director who I am not a fan of, is mostly interested in doing things like taking the viewer on a trip through a CGI bin in the likes of Fight Club.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I think if you watch a film and your attention is more focused on how it is directed or shot, that director has failed.

It's an interesting argument, and one I've heard before. I do mostly agree with you, but occasionally a director will pull off something with such visual flair or in some other very unique way that it can make you consider how it was shot, which isn't always to the detriment of the film. I guess this applies to big action blockbuster-y spectacles (which I rarely watch, but there's the odd one I've been really impressed by) rather than more alternative / indie fare though.

[Cohaagen]

With regards to Nolan's Batman movies, I think a film about a vigilante who dresses as a giant rodent by definition benefits from, perhaps even requires, a sense of the ridiculous. But no, it's not enough for the multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne to just have a Batmobile, it has to be a cancelled prototype bridging vehicle for the military, which in practice and by the standards of plausibility that the director himself sets up actually makes no practical sense whatsoever.

[Mini]

You know how cool we are on here?  We seem to have gone this long without mentioning Quentin Tarantino.

Who?

What about Danny Boyle? Surely one of the best British directors. Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours... Not my favourite films ever, but all very good, with an awful lot to be admired. Even The Beach has its moments. Perhaps most impressive is that range of different genres he has successfully covered. He certainly does well, both commercially and critically. And he's directing the Olympic opening ceremony, which will hopefully include a James Franco style dismembering or two.

[SavageHedgehog]

Eastwood said that Pale Rider was a homage to Shane. In that classic Western, the titular hero fights a tense battle and badly wounded, rides off into the sunset. Pale Rider's climatic gunfight is as dull as ditch-water and as much tension as an episode of Songs of Praise. He easily dispatches his foes and one wonders why the Preacher didn't take them out as soon as they got there.

Well in fairness, the ease of the final battle could be partially explained by the fairly common interpretation that

Spoiler alert

Preacher is a ghost.

[close]

Though that doesn't explain why every woman in the film practically throws themselves at his feet the second they see him, including a 15 year old girl...

[Dead kate moss]

He's a sexy ghost.

[yorkshirecynic]

What about Danny Boyle? Surely one of the best British directors. Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours...

And Sunshine too, I thought that was excellent.

[yorkshirecynic]

I think a recent rising star is a fella by the name of Bobcat Goldthwait, I thoroughly enjoyed "Sleeping Dogs" and "Worlds Greatest Dad".

I recently thanks to the wonders of the internet enjoyed his latest "God Bless America". I think he is quite under the radar by most film goers at the moment but in the next year or two will be talked about endlessly by indie film lovers.

Just searched for him on Google and it appears he's that unhinged, squeaky voiced guy from the Police Academy films! Will have to check some of his films out

[astrozombie]

Just searched for him on Google and it appears he's that unhinged, squeaky voiced guy from the Police Academy films! Will have to check some of his films out

Yeah his career has taken quite the turn, he's now making very brilliant dark comedy feature films.

World's Greatest Dad is a hoot, his latest God Bless America about a man after being diagnosed with a brain tumour and catching an episode of "Super Sweet 16" on television featuring an irate spoilt little shit teenage girl decides to go on a killing spree across the country. I think it is so far the best film of the year.