The Revenant – 2015 Iñárritu
A masterpiece of staggering beauty and cinematic aweOpens with a dream montage – incredible imagery, and then we’re off and running with the hunting scene starting with the camera aimed down at the stream and
Death in Venice – 1971 Visconti
A stylistic break for Visconti for the most part— there is some nice blocking and framing in the dining sequences (flowers galore), beach sequences (see below) but here- Visconti mostly uses the slow zoom as
Prisoners – 2013 Villeneuve
A very strong opening frame from Villeneuve and DP “Roget Deakins—gorgeous picture of the woods and then the Lord’s prayer from Hugh Jackman’s Keller Dover A very strong opening frame from Villeneuve and DP “Roget
The 160th Best Director of All-Time: Steve McQueen
McQueen. McQueen has the latest debut of any auteur on this list thus far (2008). He burst on the scene with Hunger- a film that landed solidly in the top 500 of all-time on my
The 159th Best Director of All-Time: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Clouzot. We’re at position #159 here so an auteur with a top 500 film of all-time (Diabolique) and another great film not far behind (Wages of Fear) and in the top 100 of its respective
The Leopard – 1963 Visconti
Made at the height of the era for the epic genre—Visconti’s masterpiece stakes a legitimate claim to be named one of cinema’s most beautiful films It opens with a series of sumptuous establishing shots of
The 158th Best Director of All-Time: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Jeunet. Jeunet isn’t here without Amelie (less and less top 500 all-time films remaining as we’re at the #158th best director of all-time) but that 1-4 below is very solid. The films are imaginative, handsomely
The 157th Best Director of All-Time: Anthony Mann
Anthony Mann. Mann has 14 archiveable films—unreal—that’s the most at this point with the auteurs remaining who I haven’t yet mentioned as the best 156 directors of all-time. Still- it’s not just about quantity- he
The 156th Best Director of All-Time: Baz Luhrmann
Luhrmann. Baz is the Australian expressionist auteur who is a style-plus director with a abbreviated filmography. Finding a style-plus director outside of my top 150 directors is rare- so that’s the main case for Baz
Welcome to L.A. – 1976 Rudolph
Alan Rudolph’s third film and the first of eight films in the archives Certainly Rudolph is the most Altman-like of all the Altman acolytes—he worked with him and on projects like Nashville and The Long
The 155th Best Director of All-Time: Jean Cocteau
Cocteau. Cocteau may be the most inventive mind in an arftorm filled with geniuses-- some of the 20th and 21st century’s greatest artists. His case is those top two films—both on the top 100 of
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) – 2014 Iñárritu
Three viewings- two in theater in 2014 and again February 2020Utterly astonishing cinematography in the Bordwell definition of cinematography—the camerawork—audacious--- Iñárritu is a virtuoso--- it is Rope, Russian Ark, The Shining, I Am Cuba- Iñárritu