MUBI brings you a great new film every day.  Start your 7-day free trial today!
Watch a new film every day for $4.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.
 
All Topics  »

the age of a director

like2sl​eep

over 3 years ago

questions about a directors age…

Photobucket

what directors have got better with age, particularly in their senior years

Photobucket

have any declined after a very strong debut at a young age?

Photobucket

what are the greatest films directed at the youngest and oldest ages?

Photobucket

please say the age of the director at the time film was made

Photobucket

apursan​sar

over 3 years ago

1908
Manoel de Oliveira, 11 December, The Singularities of Rapariga Loira (2008)

1911
Jules Dassin, December 18, Circle of Two (1980)

1912
Kaneto Shindô, April 28, Fukuro (2003)

1915
Mario Monicelli, 15 May, Le rose del deserto (2006)
Kon Ichikawa, 20 November, The Inugamis (2006)

1916
Dino Risi, 23 December, Le Regazze di Miss Italia (2002)

1917
Mel Shavelson, 1 April, Yours Mine And Ours (1968) [DIED AUGUST 8, 2007]

1918
Gabriel Axel, 18 April, Leila (2001)

1920
Eric Rohmer, 4 April, Les amours d’Astree et de Celadon (2007)
Mickey Rooney, September 23. The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960)

1921
Chris Marker, 29 July, The Case of the Grinning Cat (2004)
Miklos Jancso, 29 September, Ede megeve ebedem (2006)

1922
Carl Reiner, 20 March, That Old Feeling (1997)
Alain Resnais, 3 June, Private Fears In Public Places (2006)
Blake Edwards, 26 July, Son of the Pink Panther (1993)
Jonas Mekas, 24 September, Elvis (2001)
Arthur Penn, 27 September, Inside (1996)
Ebrahim Golestan, Ghost Valley Treasure (1974)

1923
Norman Mailer, January 31, Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987)
Franco Zeffirelli, 12 February, Tre Fratelli (2005)
Irvin Kirschner, 29 April, RoboCop 2 (1990)
Seijun Suzuki, 24 May, Princess Raccoon (2005)
Sir Richard Attenborough, 29 August, The Snow Prince (2003)
Arthur Hiller, 22 November, National Lampoon’s Pucked (2006)

1924
Stanley Donen, 13 April, Love Letters (1999)
Sidney Lumet, 25 June, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
Robert Frank, 9 November, Sanyu (2000)
Robert M. Young, 22 November, “Battlestar Galactica” episodes (2004-2007)

1925
Paul Newman, 26 January, The Glass Menagerie (1986)
Fernando Birri, March 13, ZA 05. Lo viejo y lo nuevo (2006)
Peter Brook, 21 March, The Tragedy Of Hamlet (2002)
D. A. Pennebaker, 15 July, Addiction (2007)
Joseph Sargent, 22 July, Sybil (2007)
Claude Lanzmann, 27 November, Sobibor (2001)

1926
Youssef Chahine, 25 January, 47 Years After (2007)
Haskell Wexler, 6 February, From Wharf Rats to Lord of the Docks (2007)
Bud Yorkin, 22 February, Love Hurts (1991)
Andrzej Wajda, 6 March, Katyn (2007)
Jerry Lewis, 16 March, Smorgasbord (1983)
Roger Corman, 5 April, Frankenstein Unbound (1990)
Herschell Gordon Lewis, 15 June, Blood Feast 2: All You Can Eat (2002)
Mel Brooks, 28 June, Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
Norman Jewison, 21 July, The Statement (2003)
Lina Wertmuller, 14 August, Peperoni ripieni e pesci in faccia (2004)
Bud Greenspan, 18 September, Pride Against Prejudice: The Larry Doby Story (2007)
Albert Maysles, 26 November, American Prison: The Forgotten Jews (2007)

1927
Kenneth Anger, 3 February, Mouse Heaven (2004)
Ken Russell, 3 July, Trapped Ashes (2006)
Elliot Silverstein, 3 August, The Car (1977)
Marcel Ophüls, 1 November, The Troubles We’ve Seen (1994)
Jerry Schatzberg, The Day the Ponies Come Back (2000)
Alfred Leslie, Cedar Bar (2002)

1928
William Peter Blatty, 7 January, The Exorcist III (1990)
Jacques Rivette, 1 March, Don’t Touch The Ax (2007)
William Klein, 19 April, Messiah (1999)
Agnes Varda, 30 May, Quelques veuves de Noirmoutier (2006)
James Ivory, 7 June, City of Your Final Destination (2007)
Nicolas Roeg, 15 August, Puffball (2007)
Mel Stuart, 2 September, Charlie and the Chocolate Factor
Harold Becker, 25 September, Rififi (2008)
Clu Galager, 16 November, A Day With The Boys (1969)

1929
Ulu Grosbard, 9 January, The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
Vera Chytilová, 2 February, Pleasant Moments (2006)
Alejandro Jodorowsky, 7 February, The Rainbow Thief (1990)
Claude Goretta, 23 June, Sarte, the Age of Passions (2006)
Buddy van Horn, 20 August, Pink Cadillac (1989)
Vittorio Taviani, 20 September, La massseria delle allodole (2007)
Alain Tanner, 6 December, Paul s’en va (2004)
Michael Snow, 10 December, *Corpus Callosum (2002)

1930
Frederick Wiseman, 1 January, State Legislature (2007)
Richard Donner, 24 April, 16 Blocks (2006)
Paul Mazursky, 25 April, Yippee (2006)
Jess Franco, 12 May, Snakewoman (2005)
Clint Eastwood, 31 May, The Changeling (2008)
Claude Chabrol, 24 June, The Woman Cut In Half (2007)
Robert Culp, 16 August, Hickey And Boggs (1972)
Sir Peter Hall, 22 November, Never Talk To Strangers (1995)
Jean-Luc Godard, 3 December, Vrai faux passéport (2006)
Richard Rush, Color of Night (1994)

1931
Robert Duvall, 5 January, Assassination Tango (2002)
Hal Needham, 6 March, Street Luge (1996)
Masahiro Shinoda, March 9, Spy Sorge (2003)
Ettore Scola, 10 May, Gente di Roma (2003)
Irwin Winkler, 25 May, Home of the Brave (2006)
Jan Troell, 23 July, Maria Larsson’s Everlasting Moment (2008)
Ermanno Olmi, 24 July, One Hundred Nails (2007)
Alain Cavalier, 14 September, Le Filmeur (2005)
Marta Meszaros, 19 September, Hanna Wende (2008)
Paolo Taviani, 20 September, La masseria delle allodole (2007)
Bruce Baillie, September 24, The P-38 Pilot (1990)
Mike Nichols, 6 November, Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

1932
Carlos Saura, 4 January, Io, Don Giovanni (2008)
Alfonso Arau, 11 January L’Imbroglio nel lenzuolo (2007)
Richard Lester, 19 January, Get Back (1991)
Milos Forman, 18 February, Goya’s Ghosts (2006)
Nagisa Oshima, 31 March, Gohatto (1999)
Elaine May, 21 April, Ishtar (1987)
George Sluizer, 25 June, The Chosen One (2007)
Monte Hellman, 12 July, Trapped Ashes (2006)
Melvin Van Peebles, 21 August, The Real Deal (2003)
Robert Benton, 19 September, Feast of Love (2007)
Dusan Makavejev, 13 October, Danish Girls Show Everything (1996)
Edgar Reitz, 1 November, Heimat-Fragmente: Die Frauen (2006)
John G. Avildsen, 21 December, Dancing Into the Future (2007)
John Mackenzie, Quicksand (2001)

1933
Jean-Marie Straub, 8 January, Quei loro incontri (2006)
Liliani Cavani, 12 January, Albert Einstein (2009)
John Boorman, 18 January, The Memoirs of Hadrian (2008)
Costa-Gavras, 12 February, The Ax (2005)
Bob Rafelson, 21 February, No Good Deed (2002)
Ken Jacob, 25 May, Razzle-Dazzle (2007)
Ivan Passer, 10 July, Nomad (2005)
Roman Polanski, 18 August, Pompeii (2009)
Lucian Pintilie, 9 November, Tertium non datur (2005)
Bruce Conner, Looking for Mushrooms (1996)

1934
Otar Iosseliani, 2 February, Jardins en automne (2006)
Peter Kubelka, 23 March, Dichtung und Wahrheit [Poetry and Truth] (2003)
Mark Rydell, 23 March, Even Money (2006)
Claude Berri, 1 July, La graine et la mullet (2007)
Sydney Pollack, 1 July, Sketches Of Frank Gehry (2006)
Gilbert Cates, 6 June, Backfire (1987)
Jan Svankmajer, 4 September, Sileni (2005)
Kira Muratova, 5 November, Two In One (2007)
Garry Marshall, 13 November, Georgia Rule (2007)
Robert Towne, 23 November, Ask the Dust (2006)
Chor Yuen, Pu ti you gui (1993)

1935
Theo Angelopoulos, 17 April, The Dust of Time (2007)
Joan Micklin Silver, 24 May, A Fish In The Bathtub (1999)
William Friedkin, 29 August, Bug (2006)
Michael Winner, 30 October, Parting Shots (1999)
Peter Watkins, 29 October, Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000)
Les Blank, 27 November, All in This Tea (2007)
Woody Allen, 1 December, Woody Allen Spanish Project (2008)
Hans- Jürgen Syberberg, 8 December, Hohle der Erinnerung (1997)

1936
Alan Alda, 28 January, Betsy’s Wedding (1990)
Burt Reynolds, 11 February, The Final Hit (2000)
Haile Gerima, March 4, Adwa (1999)
Kwon-taek Im, 2 May, Across the Years (2006)
Dennis Hopper, 17 May, Homeless (2000)
Ken Loach, 17 June, It’s A Free World (2007)
Robert Redford, 18 August, Lions For Lambs (2007)
Hugh Hudson, 25 August, I Dreamed Of Africa (2000)
Lau Kar Leung, August, Heroes of Shaolin (2008)
Philip Kaufman, 23 October, Twisted (2004)

1937
Warren Beatty, 30 March, Bulworth (1998)
Jack Nicholson, 22 April, The Two Jakes (1990)
Jorgen Leth, 14 June, Aarhus (2005)
Tom Stoppard, 3 July, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
Francis Veber, 28 July, The Valet (2006)
Andrei Konchalovsky, 20 August, Gloss (2007)
Carroll Ballard, 14 October, Colter’s Run (2008)
Luc Moullet, 14 October, The Liter of Milk (2006)
Claude Lelouch, 30 October, Crossed Tracks (2007)
Sir Ridley Scott, 30 November, American Gangster (2007)
Tom Palazzolo, I Married a Munchkin (1994)

1938
Istvan Szabo, 18 February, Journey by Moonlight (2008)
Paul Morrissey, 23 February, Veruschka (2005)
Jirí Menzel, 23 February, Obsluhoval som anglického krála (2006)
Jerzy Skolimowski, 5 May, Ferdyduke (1991)
Richard Benjamin, 22 May, Conditional Love (2008)
Kevin Brownlow, 2 June, I’m King Kong! (2005)
Paul Verhoeven, 18 July, Azazel (2009)
Ralph Bakshi, 29 October, Last Days of Coney Island (2007)
Liv Ullman, 16 December, Faithless (2000)
Rudy Wurlitzer, Candy Mountain (1988)

1939
Edgardo Cozarinsky, 13 January, Night Watch (2005)
Michael Cimino, 3 February, No Translation Needed (2007)
John Hancock, 12 February, Suspended Animation (2004)
Bertrand Blier, 14 March, How Much Do You Love Me? (2005)
Volker Schlöndorff, 31 March, Ulzhan (2007)
Francis Coppola, 7 April, Youth Without Youth (2007)
Krzysztof Zanussi, 17 July, Black Sun (2007)
Peter Bogdanovich, 30 July, The Broken Code (2007)
Wes Craven, 2 August, Red Eye (2005)
Michael Sarne, 6 August, Glastonbury the Movie (1995)
John Badham, 25 August, Incognito (1997)
Joel Schumacher, 29 August, Town Creek (2008)
Marco Belocchi, 9 November, The Wedding Director (2006)
Dariush Mehrjui, 8 December, Santoori (2007)
Fred Schepisi, 26 December, Last Man (2008)

1940
George A. Romero, 4 February, Diary of the Dead (2007)
Stuart Samuels, 8 March, 27 (2007)
Bernardo Bertolucci, 16 March, The Dreamers (2003)
Godfrey Reggio, 29 March, Naqoyqatsi (2002)
Paul Cox, 16 April, Human Touch (2004)
Al Pacino, 25 April, Salomaybe? (2007)
Abbas Kiarostami, 22 June, Certified Copy (2008)
Victor Erice, 30 June, Soliloquio (2006)
Brian De Palma, 11 September, Redancted (2007)
Bruce Beresford, 16 August, The Contract (2006)
Chris Menges, 15 September, the Lost Son (1999)
Dario Argento, September 7, Mother Of Tears (2007)
Fredi M. Murer, 1 October, Vitus (2006)
Terry Gilliam, 22 November, Untitled Gorillaz Project (2007)
Slava Tsukerman, Stalin’s Wife (2008)

1941
Hayao Miyazaki, 5 January, Ponyo On A Cliff (2008)
Henry Jaglom, 26 January, Irene in Time (2007)
Michael Apted, 10 February, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2009)
Adrian Lyne, 4 March, Unfaithful (2002)
Wolfgang Petersen, 14 March, Poseidon (2006)
Stefan Jarl, 18 March, Flickan fran Auschwitz (2005)
Bertrand Tavernier, 25 April, In The Electric Mist (2007)
Nora Ephron, 19 May, Bewitched (2005)
Bob Dyland, 24 May, Renaldo and Clara (1978)
Stephen Frears, 20 June, Skip Tracer (2007)
Denys Arcand, 25 June, The Age Of Ignorance (2007)
Raul Ruiz, 25 July, Love and Virtue (2008)
Denys Arcand, 26 June, L’Âge des ténèbres (2007)
Jean Pierre Lefebvre, 17 August, See You In Toronto (2000)
Barbet Schroeder, 26 August, Terror’s Advocate (2007)
Michael Wadleigh, 21 September, Jimi Hendrix Live At Woodstock (1999)

1942
Walter Hill, 10 January, Broken Trail (2006)
Terry Jones, 1 February, The BFI London IMAX Signature Film (1999)
Margarethe von Trotta, 21 February, I Am the Other Woman (2006)
Mike Newell, 28 March, Love in the Time Of Cholera (2007)
Peter Greenaway, 5 April, Nightwatching (2007)
Douglas Trumbull, 8 April, Luxor Live (1996)
Michael Haneke, 23 March, Funny Games (2007)
Barry Levinson, 6 April, What Just Happened? (2007)
Barbra Streisand, 24 April, The Mirror Has Two faces (1996)
Raymond Depardon, 6 July, Profils paysans: la vie moderne (2007)
David Steinberg, 9 August, Frangela, 2007
George Kuchar, 31 August, Beastial Comforts (2005)
Mike Kuchar, 31 August
Werner Herzog, 5 September, Antarctic documentary (2007)
Michael Crichton, 23 October, The Thirteenth Warrior (1999)
Martin Scorsese, 17 November, Shine a Light (2007), Silence (2008)
Rosa von Praunheim, 25 November, Your Heart in My Head (2005)
Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol, November 29, Tamnaan somdet phra Naresuan maharat: Phaak prakaat itsaraphaap (2007)
George Armitage, The Big Bounce (2004)

1943
Larry Clark, January, Destricted (2006)
Tobe Hooper, 25 January, Mortuary (2005)
Mike Leigh, 20 February, Untitled Mike Leigh Project (2008)
Andre Téchiné, 13 March, The Witness (2007)
David Cronenberg, 15 March, Maps to the Stars (2008)
Roy Andersson, 31 March, You the Living (2006)
Jean-Pierre Gorin, 17 April, My Crasy Life, 1992
Jon Jost, 16 May, La lunga ombra (2006)
Iain Sinclair, 11 June, London Orbital (2002)
Walter Murch, 12 July, Return to Oz (1985)
Peter Hyams, 26 July, A Sound Of Thunder (2005)
Alain Corneau 7 August, Le deuxieme soufflé (2007)
Robert DeNiro, 17 August, The Good Shepherd (2006)
Hugh Wilson, 21 August, Mickey (2004)
Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1 October, His Minor Majesty (2007)
Bob Swaim, 2 November, La France Made in USA (2007)
Terrence Malick, 30 November, Tree Of Life (2008)
Arturo Ripstein, 13 December, Carnaval del sodoma (2006)
Alan Rudolph, 18 December, The Secret Lives Of Dentists (2002)
Harry Shearer, 23 December, Teddy Bears’ Picnic (2002)
Thom Andersen, Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

1944
Sir Alan Parker, 14 February, The Ice At The Bottom Of the World (2008)
Jonathan Demme, 22 February, He Comes In Peace (2008)
Jacques Doillon, 15 March, Le premier venu (2008)
John Milius, 11 April, Journey of Death (2008)
Charles Burnett, 13 April, Red Soil (2007)
George Lucas, 14 May, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Frank Oz, 25 May, Death at a Funeral (2007)
Tony Scott, 21 June, Emma’s War (2008)
Peter Weir, 21 August, Master and Commander (2003)
Harun Farocki, 1 September, Nicht ohne Risiko (2004)
Patrice Chereau, 2 November, Gabrielle (2005)
Danny DeVito, 17 November, Duplex (2003)
Harold Ramis, 21 November, Year Zero (2008)
James Toback, 23 November, When Will I Be Loved (2004)
Eliseo Subiela, 27 December, El resultado del amor (2007)
Taylor Hackford, 31 December, Ray (2004)

1945
Andrew Bergman, 20 February, Joe’s Last Change (2008)
George Miller, 3 March, Happy Feet (2006)
Werner Schroeter, 7 April, Deux (2002)
Ventura Pons, 25 July, Barcelona (un mapa) (2007)
Wim Wenders, 14 August, The Palermo Shooting (2008)
Bob Balaban, 16 August, Bernard and Doris (2007
Robert Greenwald, 28 August, Supermarket Swindle (2008
Willard Huyck, 8 September, Howard The Duck (1986)
Nikita Mikhalkov, 21 October, 12 Angry Men, Burnt By the Sun 2 (2007)
Terrence Davies, 10 November, The House of Mirth (2000)
Neil Young, 12 November, Greendale (2003)
Penelope Spheeris, 2 December, The Kid and I (2005)
Victor Nunez, Coastlines (2002)
Jim Sharman, Shock Treatment (1981)

1946
David Lynch, 20 January, Inland Empire (2006)
Christopher Hampton, 26 January, Imagining Argentina (2003)
Hector Babenco, 7 February, El pasado (2007)
Luis Puenzo, 19 February. The Whore and the Whale (2004)
Michael Radford, 24 February, La Mula (2008)
Bigas Luna, 19 March, Yo soy la Juani (200g)
Lajos Koltai, 2 April, Evening (2007)
John Waters, 22 April, A Dirty Shame (2004)
Franc Roddam, 29 April, K2 (1992)
Bill Plympton, 30 April, Idiots and Angels (2008)
Bruce Robinson, 2 May, The Rum Diary (2008)
Lasse Hallström, 2 June, Sammy (2007)
Sylvester Stalllone, 6 July, John Rambo (2007)
Paul Schrader, 22 July, Adam Resurrected (2008)
Bill Forsyth, 29 July, Gregory’s Two Girls (1999)
Barbara Kopple, 30 July, Shut Up & Sing (2006)
Martha Coolidge, 17 August, Zorro 2110 (2008)
Dennis Dugan, 5 September, I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry (2007)
Frank Marshall, 13 September, Eight Below (2006)
Tommy Lee Jones, 15 September, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
Steven Spielberg, 18 September, Indiana Jones IV (2008)
John Woo, 23 September, Red Cliffs (2008)
Jean-Jacques Beineix, 8 October, Mortel transfert (2001)
Ivan Reitman, 27 October, My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)
Joe Dante, 28 November, The Greatest Show Ever (2007)
Andy Davis, The Guardian (2006)

1947
Takeshi Kitano, 18 January, Kantoku Banzai! (2007)
Paul Auster, 3 February, The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007)
Benoît Jacquot, 5 February, L’intouchable (2006)
Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, 2 March, What No One Knows (2008)
Hsiao-hsien Hou, 8 April, Flight of the Red Balloon (2007)
Ann Hui, May 23, Yi ma de hou xian dai sheng huo (2006)
Tim Hunter, 15 June, Mad Men (2007)
Albert Brooks, 22 July, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005)
Stuart Gordon, 11 August, Stuck (2007)
Péter Gothár, 28 August, Hungarian Beauty (2003)
Stephen King, 21 September, Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Alan Moyle, Weirdsville (2007)

Dennis Brian

over 3 years ago

nice list apursan​sar i think in general directors get better with age

didnt realize larry clark was so old

Erik Villase​nor

over 3 years ago

I believe orson welles was 29 when he made citizen kane and alot of people believe he never made a film close as good as kane until touch of evil even though I personaly consider most of his films as master peices in their own way.


Polaris​DiB

over 3 years ago

I don’t understand that list. Are the movies listed supposed to be their last movies? Because Nora Ephron directed Julie and Julia and Michael Mann directed Public Enemies, and did not direct Hancock.

—PolarisDiB

apursan​sar

over 3 years ago

That’s right, the list needs some corrections. I found it on the net, and already made some changes where I thought it would be necessary. The list actually refers to the last feature films of the oldest living directors.

like2sl​eep

over 3 years ago

wow… in that case The Singularities of Rapariga Loira was directed by a 100 year old man!

Dennis Brian

over 3 years ago

yes sleep and he is still directoring to this day at 101.
its also worth noting that these films are very complex and well made

Polaris​DiB

over 3 years ago

Interesting, I did not know that list existed. It needs to be updated, as mentioned—after all, as we all know now, Eric Rohmer kicked the bucket recently.

—DiB

David Ehrenst​ein

over 3 years ago

@LIKE2SLEEP — Indeed he is. And he’s still working. No one remotely like him.

dAvril

over 3 years ago

yes sleep and he is still directoring to this day at 101

Does it mean you can be a milkman until you retire at 60 and still have 40 years of career as director ahead of you?

Polaris​DiB

over 3 years ago

Yes.

—PolarisDiB

dAvril

over 3 years ago

And mind you, you don’t need 40 years to make 7 influential films! :)

Frank P. Tomasul​o, Ph.D.

over 3 years ago

@Erik Villase​nor: Orson Welles was actually 25 years old when CITIZEN KANE premiered in April 1941 (He was born in 1915.) . A few days later, he reached his 26th birthday.

Erik Villase​nor

over 3 years ago

thats right thanks I just kne he was in his 20’s

Dimitri​s Psachos

over 3 years ago

“i think in general directors get better with age”

not really. and no, nothing about ageism. it’s about eternity.

Dennis Brian

over 3 years ago

all things being equal, assuming they can work on the projects they want and on reasonable budgets
I do think directors get better with age

ralch

over 3 years ago

“not really. and no, nothing about ageism. it’s about eternity.”

Ohmigod!! That is sooooo Maria Callas!

like2sl​eep

over 3 years ago

shouldn’t they get better with age due 2 more wisdom and film experience?

Matt Parks

over 3 years ago

I think we could cite directors that are examples of all three possibilities: peak earlier, peak later, and peak mid-career.

Stephen Prokow

over 3 years ago

Coppola became worse with age.

like2sl​eep

over 2 years ago

clint eastwood mentions manoel de oliveira in this interview

no retirement 4 clint eastwood

Daniel Kasman

-moderator-
over 2 years ago

Was it Eric Rohmer who wrote on how ridiculous it is to assume an old director who make worse films than they did when they were young? Maybe in defense of Renoir? Mentions Rembrandt? Any of this ring anyone’s bells?

Malik

over 2 years ago

I don’t see how you could say directors get better with age. Many of the New Hollywood directors made their best, or at least most ambitious, films in their youth. As do a healthy percentage of directors that are part of a ‘movement’ functioned best in their career when around other highly creative people. Or when ‘reacting’ against various establishments.

Vic Pardo

over 2 years ago

Great list of birth years, Apursanar. Of course, some of them have since died, including Jules Dassin, Kon Ichikawa, Arthur Penn, Norman Mailer and Paul Newman. (Some of them died, in fact, before your list was posted here.) And more will die in the coming months.

In any event, there’s no hard and fast rule here. Some think Welles’ best film was CITIZEN KANE, made when he was 25. Others think it’s CHIMES OF MIDNIGHT, made 25 years later. John Ford made masterpieces in the silent era (IRON HORSE, THREE BAD MEN), yet one of his best films was made near the end of his career, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE. Some directors thrive in a particular period, at a particular studio—check out Preston Sturges in the 1940s at Paramount. Yet, after UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948, made at Fox), he never made another worthy film. John Huston made films from 1941 to 1987—that’s 46 years. To me, he never made another film as good as his first, THE MALTESE FALCON. Others swear by his last film, THE DEAD. John Frankenheimer made some of the most unforgettable movies of the 1960s—THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, SECONDS. Nothing he did after that comes close, in my book.

Billy Wilder pushed the boundaries of the code and thrived in the studio system from 1942 (THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR) to 1966 (THE FORTUNE COOKIE). He was no less sharp in the decades afterward, but he couldn’t seem to get his mojo working once the Production Code gave way. When you could say and do anything, who needed Wilder’s subtle ways of getting around the Code? He needed to adapt and he didn’t. And he was one of the most brilliant wits Hollywood ever produced. What happened? If you can figure that out, there’s your story.

There are so many factors that affect a director’s output over the years. Age is just one of them. What if you get too rich too soon, like George Lucas? Compare his last three STAR WARS movies with his first two and you’ll see the difference. How long will Tarantino thrive? Will he continue to sustain his passion into middle age and beyond? I hope so. And he came out of the gate at top speed at a young age. He hasn’t turned out enough movies to suit me. I wish he’d learn to turn them out quicker.

Sancar Seckine​r

about 2 years ago

There is no rule for art.

Pierre

about 2 years ago

@Sancar Seckine​r – or if there is a rule, someone will surely come and break it, setting up a new one, to be broken…..