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Post by Mighty Jack on Feb 24, 2012 5:47:54 GMT -5
Buster Keaton Keaton was a great silent comedian, yes — and, until his sad, boozy decline in the '30s, a great director. ‘‘He always put his camera in the right place,’‘ said filmmaker Richard Lester. ‘‘Take THE GENERAL.... You can't take a shot away. They're all necessary.’‘ More than Chaplin, Keaton understood movies: He knew they consisted of a four-sided frame in which resided a malleable reality off which his persona could bounce. A vaudeville child star, Keaton grew up to be a tinkerer, an athlete, a visual mathematician; his films offer belly laughs of mind-boggling physical invention and a spacey determination that nears philosophical grandeur. – EW Although his career lacked the resilience of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton may well have been the most gifted comedian to emerge from the cinema's silent era. And while his skills as a gag writer and physical comic were remarkable, Keaton was one clown whose understanding of the film medium was just as great as his talent for taking a pratfall. – Mark Deming, Rovi I adore Keaton, his films are a wonder to behold and while he didn’t consider himself a genius, he most certainly was. His technical achievements with FX and stunt work, impeccable timing and scene construction are all a testament to that. While he didn’t always take directorial credit, the writers and cameramen who worked with him admitted that 90% of the material presented on screen was done by Buster, including the direction. Trademark:* Extensive use of long shots, liked to sit on a scene and let it play out rather than cut to close up (though he knew when to use a close up and exploit that wonderful face of his) * Flat hat, slapshoes, deadpan expression (IMDB) * His films contain elaborate gadgets of his own devising (IMDB) * Used the camera to help comedy, e.g to create effect of rocking boat in beginning of The Boat (1921). (IMDB) Quotes:"The first thing I did in the studio was to want to tear that camera to pieces. I had to know how that film got into the cutting room, what you did to it in there, how you projected it, how you finally got the picture together, how you made things match. The technical part of pictures is what interested me. Material was the last thing in the world I thought about. You only had to turn me loose on the set and I'd have material in two minutes, because I'd been doing it all my life." Trivia:Ranked 7th in EWs listing of the 50 greatest directors. Keaton stated that his nickname "Buster", was given to him by magician Harry Houdini, when at the age of three, he fell down a flight of stairs and was picked up and dusted off by Houdini, who said to Keaton's father Joe, also nearby, that the fall was 'a buster'. Savvy showman Joe Keaton liked the nickname, which has stuck for more than 100 years. Academy Awards:1960 – an honorary award for, “his unique talents which brought immortal comedies to the screen.” Key releases: The General, Sherlock Jr. The Navigator, Steamboat Bill Jr (uncredited). The Camerman (uncredited), Seven Chances
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Post by Mighty Jack on Feb 28, 2012 0:46:46 GMT -5
Steven Soderbergh He started off at the vanguard of Independent filmmaking with Sex, Lies and Videotape and Kafka. Not content to be confined to that label, has mixed in slick commercial fare (Oceans 11) and documentaries. His films are known for their vibrant dialog as well as the silences, where he allows the visuals to tell the story. In either case he always brings out the best in his actors. He can be stylish, a master of composition (as with the Good German), or he can throw out everything he knows and make movies with zero budget (Bubble) and ones that appear made by an amateur (Full Frontal). He’s a man who wears many hats: Writer, cinematographer and editor. Because of his experimental style it’s hard to pin him down, which might explain why some hail him as a genius while others feel he’s too inconsistent. My 10 Favorite Films:1. The Limey * 2. Traffic * 3. Sex, Lies and Videotape * 4. Out of Sight * 5. The Girlfriend Experience * 6. The Good German * 6. King of the Hill * 7. Kafka * 8. Contagion * 9. The Underneath * 10. Solaris Trademark:· His films have an intellegence and are thought provoking. Are good character pieces · Carefully planed color pallet, cinemtatography and composition. · while Soderbergh's subject matter is highly varied, many of his films feature as a central theme the exploration of the act or moral consequences of lying Quotes:"Well, I think a part of you has to be scared, it keeps you alert; otherwise you become complacent. So absolutely, I'm purposefully going after things and doing things that I'm not sure if it's going to come off or not. Certainly Full Frontal was one of those. That was pure experimentation, that's the kind of film that you make going in where you know that a lot of people are not going to like it because it's an exploration of the contract that exists between the film-maker and the audience and what happens when you violate that contract." Trivia:At one point, was interested in directing Fantastic Four (2005). Is the only director to have had two films (Traffic (2000) and Erin Brockovich (2000)) receive Best Director nominations in the same year for the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Directors' Guild of America Academy Awards:Was nominated as best director for Erin Brockovich and Traffic. He won for Traffic. Was nominated but did not win for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (1989).
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 28, 2012 8:30:28 GMT -5
holy crap, i didn't know SS directed "Kafka"! i love that movie. so WEIRD.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Feb 29, 2012 0:08:53 GMT -5
I wish they'd release that on blu-ray. I've read that he's been re-editing it for years now. I hope if it is released that both cuts are included.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 1, 2012 1:58:34 GMT -5
Billy Wilder One of Hollywood's most consistent and enduring filmmakers, Billy Wilder was also among its most daring. In feature after feature, in a wide variety of styles and genres, he explored the taboo subjects of the day with insight, wit, and trenchant cynicism; adultery, alcoholism, prostitution -- no topic was too controversial or too racy for Wilder's films. Unlike the majority of Hollywood's other historically provocative voices, however, he was a major commercial success as well as a critical favorite, with two of his features garnering Best Picture Oscars and numerous others honored with various Academy nominations. Sophisticated and acerbic, his intricate narratives, sparkling dialogue, and painterly visuals combined to illuminate the darker impulses of modern American society with rare brilliance – Jason Ankey, Rovi (Rotten Tomatoes) Trademark:* His movies frequently opened with narration * Films often featured low key lighting * Featured dangerous, manipulative women in his films * Cynical yet humorous films (IMDB) Quotes:“A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.” “I have ten commandments. The first nine are, thou shalt not bore. The tenth is, thou shalt have right of final cut.” Trivia:* Was estranged from brother W. Lee Wilder. A director of B-mvoies (Killers from Outer Space). * At one point he was slated to direct a movie about the Marx brothers running the United Nations. This was around 1960. The project fell apart after Chico Marx's death in 1961, which was followed by Harpo Marx's death in 1964. * He collaborated closely with Steven Spielberg on the script for Schindler's List (1993), and was one of several directors considered to direct it (Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese both turned down the project). Although Wilder strongly considered directing Schindler's List (1993), he felt he was a little too old (he had already retired) and the subject was almost too personal (both his mother and grandmother were killed in the Holocaust). It was ultimately Wilder who told Spielberg he should direct it Academy Award wins:1988 – Irving G. Thlaberg Memorial Award 1961 – Best director, best picture, best screenplay for the Apartment 1951 – Best screenplay, Sunset blvd 1946 – Best director, best screenplay for Lost Weekend Key releases: The Apartment, Some Like it Hot, Witness For the Prosecution, The Seven Year Itch, Stalag 17, Ace in the Hole, Sunset Boulevard, Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, The Major and the Minor – Plus two Audrey Hepburn movies: Sabrina and Love in the Afternoon.
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Post by TheNewMads on Mar 1, 2012 12:38:52 GMT -5
Let's see if this works. Michelangelo Antonioni I used to be somebody else...but I traded him in. --Tagline for “The Passenger” To me the key to finding a way into Antonioni’s films is to see the camera as a bridge between the characters and their environment, sometimes exploring the character at the expense of his surroundings, sometimes allowing the landscape to dwarf and envelop the character, but always ranging between the two to explore their relationship. Antonioni engages in trickery to create a feeling of identificatory dislocation: for instance, he may show a character in close up, switch to what appears to be a POV, the camera pans and when it returns to the character, he’s gone. What’s happened to the character in the meantime? Is the landscape the camera pans over still being witnessed, by anyone other than us? If not, is he trying to say cinema is just a formal exercise, or is he trying as best he can to use the camera to convey a world that exists outside consciousness? Antonioni’s primary theme is the unsolvable mystery, the problem that not only yields no solution but loses its integrity as a problem the longer it’s explored. The photograph in “Blow Up” that fades into graininess the more it’s enlarged. “L’Avventura”’s distraught vacationers, who hope to rescue one missing among their number but only become absorbed in tangential affairs until poor lost Anna is nearly forgotten. The reporter in “The Passenger” who adopts a clandestine identity to try and cover an African civil war but only gets stuck in a morass of unintended consequences. Throughout Antonioni takes a discomfiting view of human identity, desire, and purpose as fleeting, fungible, always at grave risk of dissolving into ground. In this he probes the theme of existentialist terror that was so common in mid-century art, but his unerring aesthetic sense made these terrors less terrible. Trademarks:* Long duration shots, landscapes, vertiginous changes in perspective * Mobile, often experimental camerawork * A subtextual interest in Italian (and later, British and American) politics, the contrast of old and new cultures, and architectural antiquity and modernization * An incongruous infatuation with pop music, film, television and fashion Quotes:* I am not a theoretician of the cinema. If you ask me what directing is, the first answer that comes into my head is: I don't know. * Hollywood is like being nowhere and talking to nobody about nothing. * Till now I have never shot a scene without taking account of what stands behind the actors because the relationship between people and their surroundings is of prime importance. Trivia:Had an Oscar stolen by burglars from his apartment in 1996. Awards:Win * 30th Anniversary Prize - 1982 Cannes Film Festival * Best Director - 1966 National Society of Film Critics * Golden Lion - 1964 Venice International Film Festival * Silver Lion - 1955 Venice International Film Festival Nominations * Best British Film - 1967 British Academy of Film and Television Arts * Best Director - 1966 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences * Best Original Screenplay - 1966 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences * Best British Film - 1960 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (from the New York Times) Key releases: •The Passenger (1975) •Zabriskie Point (1970) •Blow-Up (1966) •L'Eclisse (1962) •La Notte (1961) •L'Avventura (1960)
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 2, 2012 0:41:08 GMT -5
I say it worked out nicely. That's a great write-up, nice observations and details. I enjoyed reading it.
I mentioned this elsewhere in speaking about the Italians, that I'm more drawn to the emotional (Fellini) than I am the intellectuals, which has always my perception of Antonioni. I tend to get this personal high, if you will, with a Fellini, where as I feel a kind of detachment with Michelangelo. Still think he's brilliant. You mentioned the photograph in Blow Up - the more he tries to make it clearer, the more obscure it becomes. I thought that was pure cinematic genius.
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Post by TheNewMads on Mar 2, 2012 8:50:15 GMT -5
thanks! it's funny, my girlfriend, who had great tastes in movies, much better than me, adored antonioni but couldn't stand kubrick, who to me is another director with a very similar mood of emotional detachment. ("la notte" was one of kubrick's ten favorite movies, i just learned.)
anyway, i thought antonioni would be a good one to pick because i thought you'd be unlikely to do him and i don't wanna step on toes. there seems to be a certain amicable exclusivity between fellini fans and antonioni fans. it's kinda, i dunno, beatles vs. stones.
anyway, i've got some other directors i have in mind to do if i have time but they're mostly weirdos, so it should be fun...
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 3, 2012 1:11:33 GMT -5
Looking forward to them.
And don't worry about stepping on toes. I've already posted more than enough (trying to keep the thread alive). And have been holding back on Hitch and Kurosawa to give someone else a chance to talk about them. So anyone out there want 'em, or any other director, have at it.
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Post by reaperg on Mar 4, 2012 9:38:29 GMT -5
If I may backtrack a bit, it's nice to see someone regard Ishiro Honda as a great director. When you get past the men in rubber dinosaur costumes and the miniature cities, you have some damned fine films, thanks to Honda's ideals and storytelling. With the stateside releases of the original "Gojira" (by Rialto Pictures theatrically, and Classic media and Criterion on DVD) and Brad Pitt mentioning "War of the Gargantuas", I think his films have had some positive re-evaluation in recent years.
Of course, he has to share a lot of credit with Eiji Tsuburaya and his special effects work, which was as great as anything coming from Hollywood at the time.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 5, 2012 17:11:43 GMT -5
While I agree that it’s nice that Honda was selected, I am a bit disappointed that this is the only director who is generating any conversation.
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Post by reaperg on Mar 6, 2012 8:32:13 GMT -5
Look at it this way -- directors like Hitchcock, Almodovar, and the Coens go without saying. Honda's getting new appreciation after decades of being looked down upon as a B-movie maker.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 7, 2012 0:16:20 GMT -5
It's not the aspect of appreciation I was expressing disappointment with, but rather the lack of general discussion/conversation. Of course I could go to a film board and gab about this but I like (prefer) the people here and would rather gab with them. I'm not heartbroken or upset about it, but it is a slight bummer that it's not happening. That's the way it goes sometimes. You can't force people to talk. Anyhoo, I'm considering adding Victor Sjöström, he's a bit off the beaten path and a non-traditional name. I want to try and watch a few more of his movies first. But if that's one of your weirdos NewMads I'll hold off on him.
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Post by TheNewMads on Mar 7, 2012 10:55:26 GMT -5
Anyhoo, I'm considering adding Victor Sjöström, he's a bit off the beaten path and a non-traditional name. I want to try and watch a few more of his movies first. But if that's one of your weirdos NewMads I'll hold off on him. nope, you may proceed! i've got at least three people in mind, and it's pretty obscure stuff (but tangential to some big names) so i wouldn't worry about anything like accidentally doing a director i'm thinking of doing. (if you happened to, i'd actually be amazed and delighted.) anyway, i'm waylaid by the fact that to do it right i want to revisit some of the movies these folks have done and i happen not to have copies sitting around so i'm having to wait for them to queue up on my netflix. it's funny about the lack of discussion because, for instance, i LOVE Billy Wilder but i didn't necessarily have anything to say on the entry other than, yes! "The Apartment" and "The Lost Weekend" changed my life! but if something like two or three key moments in each director's output were mentioned, there might be more to talk about in terms of, oh, yeah, "Sunset Boulevard" started off with narration by a dead man, or, isn't it interesting that "The Killing" was one of the first movies to be told out of chronological order, or, yeah, i didn't really know what to make of that eight-minute continuous shot at the end of "The Passenger" either. Or, did the gruesome gunfight at the end of "Taxi Driver" consummate the movie or damage it? discuss. you know, stuff like that. i might try to do that with the next director i do, if netflix ever comes through for me...
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Post by Mighty Jack on Mar 8, 2012 0:14:25 GMT -5
Good idea with the questions etc. I can go off on discussion without that kind of push myself. But it might help to spur others to conversation by introducing what you suggest into the entries. (and I would have been interested to hear why those films changed your life)
And on the other matter - cool - I wanted to do Victor and Ernst Lubitsch in context/contrast to D.W. Griffith, and how they helped change the American film landscape.
So, after watching a few more movies from each, I'll cobble something together.
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