WES ANDERSON RUSHMORE, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, BOTTLE ROCKET, THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX In his own way, one of the most divisive filmmakers around, Wes Anderson’s films have a signature style that is a clear extension of his personality. Perfectly balanced...
MICHEL GONDRY ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP, BE KIND REWIND From utter brilliance with Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind to his subpar director-for-hire work in The Green Hornet, Michel Gondry’s filmography is uneven. And...
JEAN RENOIR THE RULES OF THE GAME, GRAND ILLUSION, THE CRIME OF MONSIEUR LANGE Jean Renoir once said, “My dream is of a craftsman’s cinema in which the author can express himself as directly as the painter in his paintings...
ERIC ROHMER MY NIGHT AT MAUD’S, AUTUMN TALE, CLAIRE’S KNEE, FULL MOON IN PARIS Rohmer was often tagged with accusations that his films weren’t “cinematic” enough, but he simply wasn’t going for the same kind of cinema as his contemporaries....
SATOSHI KON TOKYO GODFATHERS, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, PAPRIKA There are people who look at certain Sathoshi Kon films, such as Perfect Blue or Tokyo Godfathers, and say, “Why did that have to be animated?” Those people quite clearly don’t get it....
SPIKE LEE DO THE RIGHT THING, THE 25th HOUR, 4 LITTLE GIRLS, MALCOLM X For almost three decades Spike-Lee, Celebrity Provocateur has threatened to overshadow Spike Lee, World Class Filmmaker. Which is a shame. Lee’s 1989 masterpiece Do the Right...
D.W. GRIFFITH THE BIRTH OF A NATION, INTOLERANCE, BROKEN BLOSSOMS If you haven’t been to film school or performed the equivalent autodidactic cinematic research, chances are your knowledge of D.W. Griffith comes to some or all of these points: (a)...
JOHN CARPENTER HALLOWEEN, THE THING, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK One of the most important figures in modern horror and science fiction, John Carpenter made some of the most influential and copied films in the last...
CHAN-WOOK PARK OLDBOY, LADY VENGEANCE, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, THIRST It’d be easy to tag Park and his films as exploitative, what with their incest and tooth removal and graphic torture and unbelievably bloody vampires, were it not for the...
JOHN CASSAVETES FACES, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, HUSBANDS, THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE Before becoming one of the fathers of American independent cinema, John Cassavetes was a well-known actor, appearing in such films as The Dirty Dozen and...
