RIDLEY SCOTT ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER, GLADIATOR, BLACK HAWK DOWN Ridley Scott’s career as a journeyman means that his filmography suffers from highs and lows. However, Scott’s place as one of the best filmmakers of all time is firmly cemented due...
FEDERICO FELLINI 8 1/2, LA DOLCE VITA, I VITELLONI, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA Federico Fellini made movies that echoed the spinning, passionate and indulgent (wink) Italian style. His films were on the one hand were a counteraction to the stark depressing...
DAVID LEAN LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, BRIEF ENCOUNTER To even casual filmgoers — maybe mostly to casual filmgoers — David Lean represents the Platonic ideal of cinematic experience: looming, wider-than-wide screens; vast, exotic...
DAVID CRONENBERG THE FLY, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, CRASH, VIDEODROME, EASTERN PROMISES If there is one common thru line in the work of David Cronenberg, it would be an exploration of human frailty. We humans are deeply flawed creatures, and...
HAYAO MIYAZAKI SPIRITED AWAY, PONYO, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, PORCO ROSSO Hayao Miyazaki is one of the few filmmakers who makes anime universal. It is hard not to get hyperbolic when discussing a filmmaker who is able to capture magic on...
F.W. MURNAU NOSFERATU, SUNRISE, THE LAST LAUGH, FAUST Thanks to F.W Murnau’s 1922 unauthorized Dracula retelling, Nosferatu (along with Robert Wiene’s 1920 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), expressionism is most closely associated with a certain Gothic branch of the horror...
JEAN-LUC GODARD BREATHLESS, BAND OF OUTSIDERS, ALPHAVILLE One of the founding fathers of the French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard began as a film critic, writing for “Cahiers du Cinema” in the early 50s along with fellow New Wavers, Francois Truffaut...
FRITZ LANG METROPOLIS, DR. MABUSE, M, FURY Nobody shows desperation like Lang. Though he often did procedural-type films, his best moments were always in big action set pieces (for their day anyway) – the flooded room in The Testament of...
MICHAEL POWELL THE RED SHOES, BLACK NARCISSUS, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, PEEPING TOM Michael Powell was so concerned with – and successful at – making beautiful films that it’s possible to overlook how incisive and difficult they...
DAVID LYNCH BLUE VELVET, MULHOLLAND DR., THE ELEPHANT MAN, ERASERHEAD If, in some twisted experiment, you raised a child from birth in an isolated environment where you constantly showed him films of every different genre, nationality and style, narrative and...
