Faded Directors
Submitted by lukeprog on Mon, 09/27/2004 - 07:52
Tags:
- George Lucas - greatness: American Graffiti, Star Wars, lately: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones.
- Mel Brooks - greatness: The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, lately: Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
- Philip Kaufman - greatness: The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, lately: Twisted.
- Peter Bogdanovich - greatness: Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show, lately: The Cat's Meow, a bunch of TV movies.
- D.W. Griffith - greatness: The Birth of a Nation, Broken Blossoms, lately: Abraham Lincoln, The Struggle.
It's sad how many perfect candidates there are for this list. I just need to be reminded of them/run across them.
Some thoughts I had were Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen (both of whom could really go on the Screenwriters list as well).
George Roy Hill hasn't been working for a while, but his last few films were pretty bad.
A tough call might be Bob Clark. He made one great film, but put out so much crap beforehand and afterwards that perhaps his one hit was just a fluke. It's your call.
I've changed these lists so that their best films don't have to be their earliest ones. However, there are too many 'fluke' screenwriters and directors for me to consider people like Bob Clark.
It's true Woody Allen hasn't made an Annie Hall or Hannah and Her Sisters or Manhattan or whatever recently, but most of his recent films aren't THAT bad (though, I haven't actually seen any of his since Sweet and Lowdown, so if I watch them and think they suck, I'll certainly add him to the list).
And Coppola: Though no Godfather or Apocalypse Now, Rainmaker was pretty good, even if Jack wasn't.
I guess I'm looking for a higher degree of fading than Allen and Coppola have displayed thus far.
Hmm. Fair enough, but I HATED Jack and Small Time Crooks, and their other recent movies seem to be regarded as mediocre at best. I haven't seen The Rainmaker, or really heard much about it, to be honest with you.
It's only because the list's formula compares their greatest to their latest... and since Coppola's latest is Rainmaker, with isn't that bad, I'll keep him off for now. If I revise the list's formula, he may be added.
Ohhh. I didn't know you were using their single latest film. I thought it was just a general look at what they've been up to in their last few films.
Peter Bogdanovich. He once did The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, Targets, What's Up Doc? Lately it's a lot of made-for-cable movies.
Yup, that's exactly right. Good pick.
Hahaha. I didn't know 75 years ago counted as "lately." It fits your model, though.
Yeah, I know :-)
I was too lazy to change my model.