John Waters, right?
Dusan Makajev.
—DiB
Waters is coming up. Argento, too. :)
I’m very glad to see you included Harmony Korine. Gummo is one of my all time favorites and I also love Julien Donkey-Boy. (Really excited for Spring Breakers BTW).
For others, I would recommend Ken Russell, one of my favorite directors whom I feel is massively underrated. This list series seems like a really cool idea. Hopefully I can think of some other recommendations.
DIRECTORs:
Richard Quine
Oscar “Budd” Boetticher
joseph h. lewis
edgar g. ulmer
mitchell leisen
am i doing it right? :\
M. Night Shyamalan… what
Kevin Smith.
Mario Bava
Bernard Rose
Julie Taymor
Pedro Almodovar
George Kuchar
Russ Meyer
Abel Ferrara
Tinto Brass
Zalman King
Menachem Golan
Bob Clark
Asia Argento
I second Bob motherfuckin’ Clark. Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, Murder By Decree, Porky’s…
Paul Bartel
Alejandro Jodorowsky
William Castle
José Mojica Marins
Andy Warhol
Just a few other names…..
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Ambitious. But uh, is “vulgar” used here in the sense of an aristocrat talking about a plebeian? I.e., “common?”
Because I wouldn’t call someone like Kenneth Anger “common.”
Or are you just being sarcastic and using it as a word for the artists you think are undervalued — i.e. not well-known by the majority (whoever they are)… yet… or are considered minor (if they are known)?
Don Siegel?
*Double post, sorry
Based on the submissions here, I have no idea what the word “vulgar” means.
That’s why I asked — I’m confused too.
It’s just the term Lehtonen has thrown around here quite often to describe (I believe) directors that are usually thrown off to the side who are, in the argument of the person using the term, in need of re-evaluation or further peering into the auteur-nature of their work. For example, someone could throw off Uwe Boll as a terrible director, but it could still be argued that he has that auteur streak in his film work. Basically, the underrated and undervalued auteurs.
in need of re-evaluation or further peering into the auteur-nature of their work
Ah ha — this.
Don’t forget one of the kings of Vulgar Auteurism, John Carpenter.
And Takashi Miike. And Paul Verhoeven.
Repeat.
Yeah, I’ve been trying to avoid the ones Lehtonen so heavily supports (Carpenter, Miike, Verhoeven, Mann, McTiernan) but will probably get around to doing rankings on them eventually – as I am also a supporter of them all as vulgar auteurs.
It is good to spread the love around to those less considered. Man, do I need to watch some Bakshi and Araki. I think I am going to start my dive back into M Night now that I am much more open to mise en scene and auteurism.
Larry Cohen might be another good choice.
Lehtonen and I tend to see eye to eye on everything – except for his love of Paul W.S. Anderson, so I think you could easily toss him on the list.
As far as actors go, Keanu Reeves and Nicolas Cage are two of my favorites that tend to make people roll their eyes whenever I mention them. Either that or they’re a closet Nic Cage fan and they’ve seen movies like “Vampire’s Kiss” so they totally get it.
It might just me but I feel like Miike gets enough respect and acclaim from the international film community these days, especially after “13 Assassins.”
The term “Vulgar Auteurism”, is a cousin to Vulgar Modernism
A brief, working definition of a Vulgar Auteur: A filmmaker who works within popular culture, making films defined by qualities of mass entertainment like genre, violence, pulp, etc. that still retains a thematic and aesthetic continuity over their body of work. They are often, but not always, mistakenly degraded for the supposed “vulgar” nature of their work.
Vulgar: “lacking sophistication or good taste; unrefined”
John Milius, John Boorman
Second José Mojica Marins and William Castle.
A filmmaker who works within popular culture, making films defined by qualities of mass entertainment like genre, violence, pulp, etc. that still retains a thematic and aesthetic continuity over their body of work.
Does that apply to all the people listed above?…
DOUGLAS REESE
A new list series I’ve started here on MUBI. And by started, I really mean just started. This thing is gonna grow.
To quote myself with my intentions of all this:
“Inspired by Jack Lehtonen and his push for the ‘vulgar auteur’ canon, I would like to further demonsrate some of my favorites when it comes to actors, actresses, and directors who are, to me, underrated and/or undervalued auteurs of their craft. I will rank their filmography based on the quality of the films (which, for me, also constitutes directing), and then will give the actors five examples of films where they showcased their highest talents.”
So far, these have been the entries added…
DIRECTORS
KENNETH ANGER
GREGG ARAKI
RALPH BAKSHI
JONATHAN DEMME
HARMONY KORINE
FRANCOIS OZON
M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN
JOHN SINGLETON
EDWARD D. WOOD JR.
ACTORS/ACTRESSES
NEVE CAMPBELL
JENNIFER LOPEZ
Upcoming entries include Brad Dourif, Lindsay Lohan, Rob Zombie, Radley Metzger…
Any recommendations / requests for “vulgar auteur” entries? :)