Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Coen Brothers, Wachowski Brothers, Terrence Malick, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Hayao Miyazaki, John Woo to name a few…
@Fredo
OMG! a movie by him staring Kidman and Eckhardt?
I hope it is still good. Sounds very sad.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul is number one. Kiarostami, Sokurov, Hou are some others
I don’t give up on directors, but I don’t necessarily look up their latest projects. If they have failed me repeatedly, I become more careful and do some research before watching any of their newer movies. This is the case with directors like Gus Van Sant, Terry Gilliam, the Coen brothers, and Jim Jarmusch, to name a few.
Other directors such as Jan Svankmajer, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg tend to keep me interested, and even if some of their new projects aren’t as good as their previous ones, I try to watch what they make, but I don’t go out of my way to look for what they’re up to. There’s only one director I’d willingly go out of my way to look for what he’s up to and that’s Bela Tarr, whose movies are perfect.
Then there’s Werner Herzog… He’s one of the main reasons why I’m so fond of cinema, and if that wasn’t enough, he has also inspired me in matters that go beyond cinema. So it doesn’t matter what type of movie he makes, I will watch it.
Rebeca, you are so right. Just when you’ve fallen in love with Gus Van Sant, Terry Gilliam, the Coen brothers, and Jim Jarmusch, they find a way of sticking it to you (Tideland anyone?).
Fredo—I totally get where your coming from with Button and I agree that a film has to be more then just beautiful for it to be worth a damn, and in this case I would say there is a lot more then just the look of the film (which I don’t think you could deny is amazing). I’m not going to present an arguement here, like I said I’ve just done to much of it, but would like to refer you to Amy Taubin’s article in the January-Febuary issue of Film Comment. She makes as good a case as anyone (including myself) could hope to make, recognizing what the film does right as well as its flaws (of which I agree it has a few). She is also the first person I know of that pointed out the similarity to the Forrest Gump script, which I see as an undeniable but meaningless truth about the film.
If you’re in the minority about Memento then I’m right there with you. In fact, I had to watch that film in a class this semester and that was the first thing I thought when it ended. Not that it is a bad film by any means, it just doesn’t hold up as well after multiple viewings, which for me is one of the indicators of truely good work.
Definitely definitely definitely, see In Bruges as soon as you can. It was the greatest surprise I had watching a film last year.
Jason – I’ll check out Taubin’s article on Button but my guess is that if friends, critics (didn’t Rex Reed call it one of the great films of all time?), and Fincher himself can’t convince me than it’s probably a lost cause. And sitting in the theater watching it I felt pretty strongly about the flaws with the script so it’s going to take some mighty strong arguements to sway me!
I’ll add In Bruges to my list of films to rent and regarding Momento, maybe it was just the novelty of it that excited people? I don’t really know. After The Dark Knight, Insomnia is my favorite Nolan film (I’m sure I’m in the really small minority there!) and I even prefer it to the original – but I’m such a Pacino freak that I’m probably biased.
I also prefer Nolan’s Insomnia to the original. Yeah, I forget that you heard Fincher talk about it, your probably right that if he can’t sway you, no one can. I look forward to hearing what you think of In Bruges.
Fredo
@Drew
hahahahahahaha!
@Eli
Looks like John Cameron Mitchell is going mainstream with his next film, Rabbit Hole. Should be interesting.