My Favorite Movie Makers

For the next few posts I'm going to count down my top ten favorite filmmakers.

Now this is going to be a list of filmmakers, not just directors. Generally I think people use the term "filmmaker" to mean director, but I'm using filmmaker to mean all of the major dudes who contribute to the making of a film. So, in addition to directors, this list will take into account writers, producers and actors.

That being said, everyone on this list is probably going to end up being a director. I am very biased towards directors because, more often than not, they are the primary author of the film. For those who don't know, that's basically what "auteur theory" is all about. "Auteur" being French for "author" and their theory, which, at the time, was not the way Hollywood thought, was that the director is the man -- not the film studio, the lead actor, the producer, etc. A film is solely the vision of the director, and it's a theory I pretty much agree with. (For the record, this is one of the only times you'll ever find me agreeing with the French. Also for the record, that's now two posts where I've taken a gratuitous swipe at the French. I really don't have THAT much disdain for the French. I just grew up having Al Bundy and Don Cherry as two of my heroes, so I've always enjoyed a fine joke at the expense of Europeans and the French.)

So while I mostly agree that the director is the man, I do think there are occasional exceptions to the auteur theory. Sometimes it just doesn't seem like the director was the primary visionary on a film. Sometimes a film seems like it was more the vision of the writer, the producer or even the lead actor, than it was of the director. For example, when a movie is written by Charlie Kaufman it often feels more like a Charlie Kaufman movie than a movie by whoever directed it. I often forget (momentarily) who directed Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but I always remember they were written by Kaufman. (Note: George Clooney directed Confessions and Michel Gondry directed Spotless Mind.)

Another example, for you classic horror buffs, is how a Val Lewton produced movie feels more like a Val Lewton film than a film by whoever directed it.

Here's the poster from Val Lewton's Cat People (directed by Jacques Tourneur). Really sick movie. I highly recommend it. It's about this lady who is a descendant of this crazy cult that worshiped cats and could morph into them and kill. Despite that sounding like a somewhat silly premise, the move is really intelligent, surprisingly moving, and totally scary.

Also, you're going to tell me that Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were REALLY the visions of Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand, respectively? Give me a break. It was all Lucas'. He just used them as puppets because he doesn't like directing human actors (wookiees he can handle).

Sometimes it seems like even the star of a film can come across as the primary creative force over the director. Such as when Woody Allen stars in a movie that he didn't write or direct. Even though he is only credited as the lead, it can still often feel like a Woody Allen film above all else. For me, this is the case with The Front from 1976. Woody neither wrote nor directed it, but if you watched it not having known he did neither, you would have sworn he'd done it all. Or with the movie Antz. Woody just does the voice of the lead ant, but because the writers and animators knew they were going to have Woody voicing the lead, they worked in all these little trappings that are hallmarks of the films he writes and directs. So what happens is this CGI kids movie ends up feeling like a movie Woody could have written and directed himself. So while Woody may not have actually been the visionary, or even had much say in terms of the day-to-day decisions on the set (or animation studio), when it comes to the finished product, what you get is something that looks, sounds and feels like a genuine Woody (that's what she said).

As I count down each of my favorite filmmakers I am going to list my top three films by each dude. And, yeah, I'm saying dudes because they will all be men. Sorry ladies, it's not my fault; women just don't write, direct or produce much, and many actresses are stupid and hired primarily for their looks. But, for your sake, here are some ladies I give big ups to for making numerous quality pictures: Pam Grier, Jane Campion, Jodie Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Ellen Burstyn, Marilyn Monroe, Diane Keaton, Molly Ringwald, Sarah Polley, Sophia Coppola, Shirley Temple, Judy Davis, and Joan Crawford.

So, please stay tuned for number ten on my list of ssssiiiiccck movie makers.