Fun Threesomes, Foursomes and Moresomes

Hi,

Thanks for this... nice! I'm curious what you think of Lars von Trier? I'd nominate Europa, Riget (not sure whether this was ever in the cinemas, I watched it as a TV series but it's actually his best in my view), Dancer in the Dark, Melancholia. There are more good ones.

Peter Weir:

Excellent list per my tastes, Pedro. Other than Tornatore, I could see all being on my list. You might remember this, but some years ago I did a ridiculously overstuffed directors poll (there is humour in excess) with many of my favourite directors including a list of some of my favourite films (tried to limit it to three). It's not very nicely formatted, think it would be aesthetically unpleasing to duplicate it here, and because I tried to limit the number of films I felt like it less appropriate but here is a link: A Drove of Directors: Various Film Directors CLICK

Since von Trier was mentioned earlier, he is one of my very favourites and I chose The Element of Crime, Europa, Melancholia for three, but Dancer in the Dark (which I saw in the cinema) and Riget are faves as easily. Dancer in the Dark is actually the one that I still think about the most, and not just because I like Bjork.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: Martin Scorsese  1973: Mean Streets   1975: Taxi Driver  1978: The Last Waltz                   1980: Raging Bull  1982: The King of Comedy                   1988: The Last Temptation of Christ  1991: Cape Fear                  1993: The Age of Innocence  1995: Casino  ...

  ... and I would add Jacques Tati, Richard Lester & Orson Welles.  among newer directors, I admire Paolo Sorrentino, Gustavo Taretto, & Ryusuke Hamaguchi.  

Guy Guden wrote:   ... and I would add Jacques Tati, Richard Lester & Orson Welles.  among newer directors, I admire Paolo Sorrentino, Gustavo Taretto, & Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

As said, a nice list of directors who were responsible for major film works in film history...

I would personally not mention Tornatore in such a list: although I really do enjoy the films you mention, they are, in my eyes, rather conventional (both formally and narratively).
For Peter Weir I would, also, add The Truman Show - a film that I use a lot in my film classes...

Agree with you on Buñuel, I would just explicitly mention one of his earlier exceptional works, with Dali: L'âge d'or.

With Fellini, another exceptional director of fim history, I prefer mostly his 50s and 60s films: of course the big ones, La Strada and La dolce vita, but also - and especially - I Vitelloni, Il bidone, Le notti di Cabiria, Giulietta degli spiriti (sorry, I'm too lazy to look up the English distribution titles...). However, my preferred one might be Otto e mezzo.

I'm not that much fan of Francois Truffaut, except some of his earlier films: Les 400 coups, Jules et Jim, Fahrenheit 451, La peau douce... After that he is going into very cliché man/woman storytelling; yes always with his personal twist, but still... Same gripe I have against Woody Allen.

From Jean-Luc Godard - your comments are very to the point - I would add Pierrot le fou, A bout de souffle, and maybe Week-end as probably one of the best examples of his over the top aesthetics and narration (e.g. La Chinoise, Le petit soldat...). Although I do not always like the results of his experimentations, I admire he did it and tried. His Histoire(s) du cinéma is another exceptional and extra-ordinary - in the litteral sense of "out of the ordinary" work of reference.

In the beginning I wasn't much fan Pedro Almodovar's films; they were too neurotic to me. I regocgnized their interest, but wasn't really into them. This changed especially with Todo sobre mi madre (Everything about my mother) and his subsequent films, including the hilarious Los amantes pasajeros

Peter Greenaway is one of the maestros to me. Exceptional body of film works, where the visual aspects are as important as the story, and he doesn't hesitate to play with the spectator (e.g. Drowning By Numbers). I like most of his films and had the pleasure of organizing a retrospective of his work in his presence. Very pleasant man to spend time with and he was of an exceptional availabitity to our public. The Cook... is probably the film that I prefer the most: everytime I see it again it gains in strenght. An exceptionally original contemporary filmaker!

Regarding Werner Herzog I'm actually not that fond of his most know works. I prefer his documentaries or some of his more experimental works. You mentioned Where the Green Ants Dream, I would add Fatamorgana and, as said, much of his docentary work.

From the Japanese, yes of course, I like Kurosawa's work. There are too many to mention, but other than Ozu, I would especially mention the work of Kenji Mizoguchi, probably my preferred one of these three great directors.


During my film studies I discovered and was most impressed by the work of Antonioni (L'Aventura, La notte, L'eclisse, Cronaca di un amore...) and Wim Wenders (especially Im Lauf der Zeit/Kinsgs of the Road) and his other 70s work. He had a lesser period, but his later Don't Come Knocking, for example, is quite exceptional again.




Edited by suitkees - February 18 2023 at 07:25

suitkees wrote: ... Regarding Bertolucci, I prefer some of his earlier work: Prima della rivoluzione, Last Tango in Paris, Il conformista, Novecento (1900). I'm much less convinced by his siruppy hollywoody endeavors like Little Buddha, The Sheltering Sky, The Last Emperor... despite, indeed, the exceptional cinematography by Storaro! ...