“Weerasethakul was the kind of director I had in mind, not John Woo (thought I admittedly have not seen Red Cliff), nor Thomas Alfresson (though I liked LtROI ).”
The only Weerasethakul film I found decent was Syndromes and a Century. And I wouldn’t put it up there with the other two I listed. However, I do think it would be on a list for certainly the best films of the decade.
Near as I can tell one of the few films that was considered instantly equal to the greatness that preceded it was l’avventura. I’m basing that statement on it’s being near the top of S&S’s top hundred poll like two years after it came out. Stephen, more than likely if you had been young when Seven Samurai or Psycho can out you would have been talking about how they could never compare with The Rules of the Game or Children of Paradise (the fact that you would’ve been right is not the point:))
Nothing new ever has the clout the old stuff does but Weerasethakul, Jia, and the other names mentioned are certainly creating brilliantly exciting film works that will be discussed and talked about for years.
It reminds me of something Jonathan Rosenbaum said about Pedro Costa’s Fontainhas trilogy and how he wasn’t completely sure how successful the films were but that he knew the films would be like friends he could slowly get to know and appreciate over the course of years as opposed to a couple of hours.
Michael Bay. Ugh.
I think I can say without hyperbole, that Richard Kelly is 40,000,000 times worse than any filmmaker on this list.
Apatow, Apatow, Apatow and oh maybe McG
Harry Long
I’m venturing a guess that Petroce was being sarcastic … ?