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Who do you think the most overrated director is?

HAL 9000

almost 4 years ago

Ron Howard. To some extent, Quentin Tarantino. Steven Soderbergh perhaps.

Kwenton

almost 4 years ago

Speilberg; he tops so many directors lists, but he’s really hit and miss

Christopher Lundie

over 3 years ago

Irrena, Sofia Coppola?

reasons please.

i actually saw two of her films – Lost in translation and Virgin suicides and i remember her dying on a stairs in the hands of Robert de Niro in Godfather. i like her dad’s films, but since she’s Coppola, she’s not automatically given the talent. i think in both of her films i’ve seen, she doesn’t give the actors much space at all, so they could explore what’s in the role, they’re playing (murray). OR she used the actors, who just can’t give much (dunst).
i was amazed how many people liked Lost in translation, meanwhile i just don’t get what’s with Bill Murray. he’s just there, looking sad. i believe that as an director, she could let him get more out of the character he was playing. i’m not his fan, but i know he could dig more into it and get more out of it. in the moment they kiss in the movie i felt like Scarlet was kissing her father. it didn’t work for me. and it was not with the actors. unless they kept them on valium while shooting.
let’s stop here, cause the virgin suicides is not even worth talking about. i understand why the teenage girls like that movie, cause i don’t think it was made for any other audience… it’s dull, too long in details, too fast in some points and sometimes skipping probably important parts. she’s into details and forgets about the story. there’s nothing i could take out of her movies.

Christopher Lundie

over 3 years ago

Irrena:
I respect your critique of Sofia Coppola but i must disagree with you on her merit, skill and worth as a director. True, being the child of a famous and an acclaimed film director does not immediately confirm any talent for said child, but i believe Coppola Jr has proven with her three feature films to date that she is a filmmaker of great skill and posseses a unique vision. I don’t think it’s accurate or fair to accuse Kirsten Dunst of being an actress ‘who just can’t give much’ as she gave an intelligent and sensitive performance as Lux Lisbon in ‘The Virgin Suicides’ one that possesed a maturity far beyond her years, she was also wonderful in a film called ‘The Cat’s Meow’ she can give subtle supporting performances in independent films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and is convincing as a leading lady (the Spiderman franchise)

From your post i get the feeling that one of the reasons you don’t like her as a filmmaker is because she doesn’t employ traditional plots or storytelling techniques in her films, which is absolutely true. The only plot in Lost in Translation to speak of consists of two mature, intelligent adults, who are at cross roads in their lives, meeting in a Tokyo hotel and creating a friendship, that is effectively it plot wise, but that’s ok because Coppola isn’t interested in creating a traditional hollywood romance with lots of twists and turns and revelations. It’s a very human film that reflects human relationships very effectively and honestly, it isn’t however a strict realism film either (the fact that one of the main characters is a hollywood movie star and the other is a philosophy graduate from Yale pretty much forgoes any strong ties with the real world) it’s very dreamlike and it casts a spell that keeps you watching right to the end, and to the infamous whisper. It is the most beautifully crafted film, the way Coppola creates and sustains mood and atmosphere as a director/writer with her skilled use of music, the way she frames a shot, the dialogue she writes is inspiring and wonderful to behold, the film flows effortlessly. In the end who needs a traditional hollywood plot when you have a director that is so skilled in crafting unique and interesting films?
As for Bill Murray, he simple gives the most subtle, intelligent and natural performance of the year. He was robbed at the Academy Awards.

‘The Virgin Suicides’ is a film that is very much worth talking about. To dismiss it as just a film for ‘teenage girls’ shows a somewhat lack of understanding of the film. ‘Mean Girls’ is a film just for teenage girls, never ‘The Virgin Suicides’
The main protagonists maybe teenage girls and it does have josh hartnett in it, but the film isn’t just about the sisters, it’s equally about the teenage guys across the street obsessing about tham and explores themes of adolesence in general. Again Coppola doesn’t employ traditional plot/storytelling techniques. She makes no serious attempt to explain why the sisters kill themselves, which is fine because that isn’t what Coppola’s film is about or interested in. Another, inferior director probably would have done this, but Coppola goes down a much more natural and organic road: she makes us feel and sense the sisters pain and lonliness and isolation from the world rather than mounting a police inquiry and trying to figure out every last detail as to why they killed themselves. It’s a very natural, refreshing and intelligent approach. She achieves this again with her skilled use of music (a perfect score from Air) the way she frames her shots and the colours she uses, the palette she paints from, her intelligent screenplay and subtle direction. Again this is a film more about mood and atmosphere rather then plot points. It’s magical, haunting and poetic.
‘She forgets about the story’ no she doesn’t, she just explores it in a different way.

irrena

over 3 years ago

hi Lundie,
you’re right – she doesn’t employ traditional plot/storytelling techniques, maybe that’s what i’m missing here. you’re right – that is what makes her different from other directors and probably unique. but the stories didn’t worked for me. they’re empty and in my opinion she just scratched the surface. to me it’s not about how the sisters pain, loneliness and isolation. to me she focused too much on dunst. other sisters just disappeared in the group. it’s just lux that’s there. she’s stubborn and the only one that this story is probably focused on among all 5 of them. i prefer the youngest of all sisters, the one that commits suicide the first one. from that one i really felt as if she suffered in that family. it made me think that the girl was talented, and not of sofia’s well directing. also – if there was no narrator, i would never understand what’s going on. the video itself is just too little to understand. there is some tension among the boys, but nothing comes back. it is… not working for me.
same thing in Lost in translation – i don’t see the love between main characters in whole movie. when they kiss i feel as if scarlet kissed her dad. it’s like she was forced to. i actually felt like that for the whole film – she was forced to do everything – as if she seduced murray just because he was the only english speaking person in whole country and as if she had to (you know, sofia forced her to). and when the love should be there, she started to act as if he was her dad. and the tears while saying goodbye… and let me say i like scarlet. and bill!
i’m not trying to make you feel other way about her – i even couldn’t if i wanted, it is great you like it, that’s all that counts. i respect that.
but i’m sorry, i still think this way.

if i ever become a female director, i would be thrilled if you were my fan.

ps: i did like the part where the mother burns lux’s vinyls and she begs not to do so with the kiss vinyl. that was cool. :)

ijmcleod

over 3 years ago

I really despise “most overrated” lists. In all realms of human endeavour.

banal1

over 3 years ago

Julie Taymor, she should have sticked to her puppet theater.

Fjordan Larsson

over 3 years ago

Terry Gilliam. Brazil was disgusting, he made a mockery of La Jetée with 12 Monkeys, and Fear and Loathing wasn’t great. All subtlety and nuance is completely lost on him.