Research in progress, Nov 2, 2022
Careers: Shape, Misc, Various Issues, Zeitgeist
Good Movies vs. Masterpieces
John Huston has made many good films, but no masterpiece.
Asphalt Jungle, masterpiece?
Almodovar, 4 masterpieces in a row
Coppola, 70s masterpieces, 4 in a row, then decline
Directors: definition-charactristics
Cukor, acting (and actors)
Griffith demands tolerance
Walsh guts
Hawks, loyalty, wit
Minnelli, magic and style
Europeans in Hollywood
Fritz Lang
Ophuls
Billy Wilder
Otto Preminger
Douglas Sirk
Siodmak
They all brought a transplanted European identity as the basis of a privileged critical perspective on Hollywood genres, and the social mores they conveyed.
Wretched Careers:
Von Stroheim, 1918-193
Von Sternberg
Welles, Orson
Directors depending on collaboration
Dependence on collaborators? but who are the collaborators?
Cukor–actor, writers
Hal Ashby
Macho Directors:
Hathaway
Hawks
Huston
Raoul Walsh
Up and Down
Woody Allen
Robert Altman
John Boorman
Malick
Modest, Self-effacing directors
John Cromwell
Versatile Directors
Jonathan Demme
Zeitgeist Directors
Kasdan, Grand Canyon, 1991 (LA in age of Rodney King)
John Hughes, 1980s
Oliver Stone, 1990s
Comparing directors:
Tod Browning and James Whale
John Stahl and Douglas Sirk
Kazan and Richard Brooks
Clarence Brown and Cukor
Cukor and Minnelli
Woody Allen and Mel Brooks
Directors: Mediocre
Nunnally Johnson
Henry King
Henry Koster
Anatole Litvak
One-Film Directors:
Michael Cimino
