You may have a point, I mean, consider David Gordon Greene. He’s gone from a minimalist approach on George Washington to Pineapple Express. Feel free to speculate about his motives. Ramin Bahrani works in a minimalist manner, as does Kelly Reichardt, but in their case, we’d have to allow for the presence of neo-realist influence as well. Here, we’d want to say precisely what each of those methods are, and not confuse or conflate them, which I’ve seen happen. Is minimalism less an attitude towards the world and more of a formal strategy? Is neo-realism more than this, different, and how? Lodge Kerrigan’s Keene absolutely is indebted to the films of the Dardennes bros., but I don’t know that I’d label him a neo-neo-realist (see A.O. Scott). He’s made two films (three, actually. But one was damaged beyond salvaging in post-), and I see a hyper-realist desire in him, as much as I see a minimalist or neo-realist influence. He has to work more, but…
I’ve always thought that 2001: A Space Odyssey is a minimalist film in some aspects, along with Eraserhead and PPP’s Teorema. These three films are among my favorites.
I truly doubt that minimalism is slipping away. Look at the Palm d’Or-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, or l’Enfant, or Ballast… along with Gus Van Sant’s films, of course. Gerry and Elephant are excellent examples.
I think it depends on where you’re talking about. Normally Asian directors are much more willing to work in a minimalist setting for almost the entirety of their career. Zhang-ke has been making films for over a decade now, Tsai Ming-liang, and Kore-eda for fifteen years, Hou Hsiao-hsien for almost thirty. All directors I would classify as minimalist filmmakers, and all of them seem completely happy to continue making films with almost no discernable plot (sans one or two films). It seems more of an artistic choice, to me. Some directors choose to work in very small settings, and don’t want to coerce emotion through music, or plot, or anything other than pure human emotion.
I think David Gordon Green can be given a pass on Pineapple Express if we take into consideration he’d just released Snow Angels which, ending aside, was very much a minimalist film.
These directors (Ozu Tarkovsky, Hou, Bresson, Tsai, etc…) all seem to be the exception to the rule, though. Very rarely is a director willing to actually pull all the melodrama out of their films, when they have funding available, simply for artistic purposes.
Well, Bresson is currently pretty influential (and Ozu widely admired) and Col Dax is right about Asian minimalism. Kiarostami has also been quite minimalist. Straub/ Huillet. I think there’s a lot of appreciation of minimalism, among intellectuals, cinephiles and critics, or at least a tendency to prefer understatement to melodramatic tendencies and excess; this is widely seen as a desirable contrast to the faults noted with Hollywood.
I overlooked (!) Hou. A minimalist master.
The turning away from melodrama can be a brutal decision for a western filmmaker. They may not have much of a choice. If you are driven to produce work as Reichardt and Bahrani, then get used to holding down a teaching gig (they do) between projects.
Ozu, Bresson, Tsai Ming-liang, Straub-Hullet, Michael Snow, Marguerite Duras
Some minimalist films can seem mannered, but that’s not a characteristic of Bill Douglas’ marvellous autobiographical Scottish film My Childhood
Is No Country For Old Men the closest use of minimalism with mass appeal from a western director?
Well, the Dogme 95 movement is obviously based on a minimalist attitude. And since their ambition was to undermine the predominant production process, their minimalism probably roots in a genuine belief nourished by the provocative character of its appeal.
Besides them: Michael Haneke, Christian Petzold, Jim Jarmush
Jim Jarmusch
Edward Yang, Hong Sang-Soo, Jia Zhang Ke, and Hou are my favorites.
There seems to be a large abundance of minimalist directors in the far east, perhaps to counter against the gore-tastic/explosively-violent popular action and horror genres.
Would Kiyoshi Kurosawa be considered a minimalist?
About Green and “Pineapple Express” – Pineapple Express is obviously a Green movie too. It had moments where the film just focuses solely on elements of the characters’ innocence and such. It has the loud, beefy parts of Apatow comedies certainly, but it also has tremendous scenes of quiet. One scene in particular, in which James Franco and Seth Rogen’s characters play in a forest, with simple music playing, is absolutely gorgeous. Honestly one of my favorite scenes of 2008.
Christopher Langford
Minimalism can be viewed as an auteur’s choice to deliberately strip down the film’s narrative revealing only what is essential to convey his story. Examples of this style of filmmaking were perfected by the likes of Bresson, Ozu, and Tarkovsky. While minimalism is often crafted by freshman directors due mainly to budget constraints, it seems to be seldom used by seasoned directors once their career has been established. Is this due mainly to the director’s attempt to reach a broader audience or is the decline of minimalism attributed to something else? Will auteurs like Lodge Kerrigan help re-popularize this medium or is minimalism slipping away before our eyes? What are your thoughts and some favorite minimalistic films.