09/09/10
Believe it or not, it was PT Anderson's 1997 film, Boogie Nights, and Wes Anderson's 1998 film, Rushmore, that changed my life. In high school at the time, guys like Ryne Sandberg and Thom Yorke were my heroes. But when I saw those two flicks - both the works of detail-oriented auteurs - all of the sudden movies meant something more to me. Film suddenly was, in my young man opinion, the best form of modern art, encompassing elements of literature, photography, design, music, acting and so much more. I bought both flicks on VHS and watched them over and over again. Directors were my new heroes. Now, some 12 years later, the writer of a weekly film column, I suddenly felt the urge to list and talk about my Top 35 personal heroes. So here it is, to celebrate ScreenTime's one year anniversary, a list of our personal favorite directors …
35. Michel Gondry; 34. Terry Gilliam; 33. Ridley Scott; 32. Tim Burton; 31. Mike Nichols; 30. Roman Polanski; 29. David Gordon Green; 28. Ang Lee; 27. Wong Kar-Wai; 26. John Cassavettes; 25. David Cronenberg; 24. Kryzsztof Kieslowski; 23. Woody Allen; 22. Steven Spielberg; 21. Sidney Lumet; 20. Steven Soderbergh; 19. Nic Roeg; 18. Alfonso Cuaron; 17. Jean-Pierre Jeunet; 16. Richard Linklater; 15. David Fincher; 14. Christopher Nolan; 13. PT Anderson; 12. Coen Brothers; 11. Alfred Hitchcock
10. Terrence Malick - Sure, he's only had four films in theaters over his 37-year career, but all four are classics and two of his movies (Badlands and Days of Heaven) would easily make my personal Top 50. His funny, poetic and beautiful work is some of the most influential American cinema out there. If we had to pick just one of his movies (Gosh forbid), we'd probably go with Days of Heaven.
9. Spike Lee - Like many, before I saw a “Spike Lee Joint,” I knew of Spike as Mars Blackmon, the character he played in his landmark first film, She's Gotta Have It, who ended up in Nike Commercials. Eventually I saw Do the Right Thing and Clockers on HBO. By the time the underrated He Got Game was in theaters I was a devout fan; by the time the 1-2-3 diversity punch of Summer of Sam, Bamboozled and 25th Hour were released I was a Lee junkie. Even his lesser movies, like Crooklyn and She Hate Me, are incredibly well constructed and stylized. Do the Right Thing, my favorite film of the 80s, is my Lee pick.
8. Quentin Tarantino - Little need be said about motormouth auteur QT, considering how much media attention he's received over his still-young career. It's hard to pick just one, but I still consider Pulp Fiction to be his best, and one of my all-time favorite ways to spend 154 minutes.
7. Stephen Frears - For some reason, this very English director is too often overlooked by American audiences. The guy made John Cusack legit (The Grifters), discovered Daniel Day-Lewis (My Beautiful Laundrette), helped mold Quentin Tarantino (The Hit), made the best rock n' roll movie ever (High Fidelity), helped set the stage for New Queer Cinema directors like Todd Haynes (Laundrette) and directed one of the most overlooked films of the naughts (Dirty Pretty Things). It’s hard to pick one, but, for today, we'll go with his 1987 masterpiece, Prick Up Your Ears.
6. Gus Van Sant - In his 25-year career, Portland's own cinema God has made three duds and 10 very diverse movies that I consider classics. Among these 10 films are original indie classic Mala Noche, style fest My Own Private Idaho, Oscar-winners Milk and Good Will Hunting, Palme d'Or winner Elephant and my likely surprising favorite, Finding Forrester. Van Sant will no doubt continue to grow as an artist, his best days still ahead and a classic body of work already behind him.
5. Jean-Luc Godard - If Lou Reed invented modern indie rock and the modern version of musical cool, Godard invented modern indie film and modern film cool. To hear Godard speak about his films is to understand his unique genius and endless imagination. Known mostly for Breathless, Contempt and Band of Outsiders (all amazing works), ScreenTime picks 1965's Pierrot le fou as our most essential Godard moment.
4. Stanley Kubrick - Known for his string of inventive genre classics, Kubrick was arguably the most influential filmmaker of his time, and his movies (2001, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, etc.) hold up to this day. I could go on and on about this man, but will instead just recommend one of his lesser known classics, Barry Lyndon, as my Kubrick movie of choice.
3. Wes Anderson - Whatever, this is my list, and seeing Rushmore in high school changed me forever, so stuff it, haters. This is the movie I've seen more than any other, save for maybe Anderson's own The Royal Tenenbaums. The guy is easy to hate on right now, but mark my words, he'll be considered one of the very best of his time once the hype hating-critics move on to wine tastings and world traveling. His storytelling range may be small, but his style is as developed as anyone, ever, and his films get exponentially better with repeat viewings. I'll go with The Life Aquatic as his go-to film, but only because Bottle Rocket is too obvious and I already mentioned his other must-see films.
2. Martin Scorsese - Like Tarantino, little needs to be said about Scorcese. When a new friend asks me what my favorite movie is, my go-to answer is always Taxi Driver, a 34-year-old film that still takes me breath heavily. His deep catalog of works is a bit spotty, but very often brilliant and influential. If I had to pick his one example of cinematic mastery, it'd likely be either Raging Bull.
1. Jim Jarmusch - I started out this week's one-year anniversary column by writing 3,000 words about one of my all-time favorite artists/people/inspirations, Jim Jarmusch. An ultimately indulgent task. The older I get, the more I like and understand the value of each of his 10 features - four of which I'd list as all-time personal favorites. Each film so different from the next (yet always wholly Jarmuschian), I can't begin to imagine just how much the Jarmusch aesthetic has influenced my own ideas about art, expression and storytelling. For beginners, I'd recommend starting with Mystery Train or Down By Law.
And yes, before you say it, I do like the works of guys like Frank Capra, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Cecil B. DeMille, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Frederico Fellini, Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman, Clint Eastwood, Akira Kurosawa, Jean Pierre Melville, Yasujiro Ozu, Billy Wilder, Sergio Leone, Francois Truffaut and so on. And while I might rank them above many of the above folks on a proper Best Ever list, they just don’t register with me personally as much as the above 35.
Written by G. William Locke