SquawkRadio Comments

Cameron Crowe: Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous

Terry Gilliam: Twelve Monkeys, The Fisher King, Time Bandits

Billy Wilder: The Aparatment, Some Like it Hot, Sunset Blvd., Love in the Afternoon

Norman Jewison: The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming, Moonstruck

Howard Hawks: Bringing up Baby, To Have and Have Not, His Girl Friday and a zillion others

BTW...Altman would record his audio tracks separately by using multiple mikes feeding into a multi-track recorder (I know this because I know the guy who made the recorders and he actually flew in to where they were shooting “The Wedding” because of some technical problem). I assume other directors do that now that the technology has evolved and it is easier, but I dunno.

I’m a big fan of George Cukor - I think it’s wonderful how a male director of that era focused so much on women, and on strong, smart women.

Charles Laughton only directed two films, but his Night of the Hunter scared the crap out of me when I was young, and it still chills me today.

I’m the most impressed with directors who also write or help to write the screenplay. To have a great story to tell and then to have the insight to translate it onto the screen is a major undertaking.

hmm, is that a tidbit about an upcoming book, Eloisa? *g*

Kevin Smith! Love him!

Who I don’t like. Sophia Coppola. Maria Antoinette could have been SO much better.

And the guy who directed the 3rd Harry Potter movie.

I grew up on John Hughes - Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and many more - so I watching these films takes me right back to my youth.

Several of the others mentioned are wonderful as well.  I think it might be interesting to sit and watch the films that Clint Eastwood has directed.  Unforgiven is one of the best movies ever made in my book.

I love Billy Wilder and Frank Capra!  And TIME BANDITS by Terry Gilliam is my favorite movie of all-time. 

I’m also a Quentin Tarentino fan because he is the rare director who can still surprise me but his movies are WAY too violent for your tastes, Eloisa.

terrio, love John Hughes movies! I was the same age as most of the kids in those! Good pick!
-definately Merchant/Ivory, almost every movie I see of theirs, I love, and consequently, buy!!

Eloisa, tell us more about your Altman homage of Georgian period dress… C’mon, you know you want to: 

I’m with Terrio on the John Hughes thing and then there’s Christopher Guest with: Waiting for Guffman, Best of Show, and For Your Consideration.  If you watch these three in a row, you’ll be laughing so hard.  I love these movies.

The third Harry Potter movie (Prisoner . . .) was directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who directed 2006’s “Children of Men.” He is one of the trio of film directors from Mexico who have made an international impact on “the cinema.” The other two are Guillermo del Toro ("Hellboy" and “Pan’s Labyrinth") and Alejandro González Iñárritu ("Amores Perros”, “Y tu mamá también”, and “Babel").
Kay

elssyany, I’m with you on the Christopher Guest films.  They’re definitely among my favorites.  No matter how many times I see them, I find someting new to laugh about.  BEST IN SHOW is my favorite; I have FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION from Netflix at home right now.

BTW, I just finished SUGAR DADDY (literally, like 5 minutes ago).  Wow.  I loved it.

Hmm, I actually liked the third Harry Potter best. I like Alfonso Cuaron’s dark style. The one that I DON’T like is Chris Columbus, who did the first two as well as the movie of Rent. Blech. Those could have been SOO much better.

One great director with great versatility who I can think of is Rob Reiner. He did This is Spinal Tap (a Christopher Guest vehicle, one of the funniest), The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, Alex & Emma, A Few Good Men, When Harry Met Sally. Lighter fare, but still good.

Gina said Billy Wilder, but forgot the comedy: One, Two, Three!
my word is with69-no comment!

My movie list is rapidly growing! 
I’m with you Eloisa, I really hadn’t started paying attention to directors until a movie buff friend of mine took me to task and made me see the light.  Since then I’ve been paying more attention. 
Many of the movies and directors already mentioned I love, but here are two other directors:

The Coen Brothers (Ethan & Joel)
-O Brother, Where Art Thou?
-The Ladykillers
-The Big Lebowski
These brothers write, produce and direct jointly and I love their use of irony and devotion to dialogue.

Baz Luhrmann and his Red Curtain Trilogy:
-Strictly Ballroom
-Romeo & Juliet
-Moulin Rouge

THIS IS SPINAL TAP is another one of my favorite movies of all-time.  (Lick My Love Pump, anyone?)

And I too liked the third HARRY POTTER movie the best.  Loved his play on the whole theme of “time”.

all the suggestions mentioned above are good. For myself, I like to spend a lazy afternoon with Kurosawa (SEVEN SAMURAI is five hours right there, a whole afternoon or Yojimbo) the most.

Among the old Hollywood auteurs, I like Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges. Eloisa might especially like Sturges who is known for his character emsembles. I recommend SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS, which the Coen Brothers’ O BROTHER WHERE ARE THOU? refers to, or THE LADY EVE with Barbara Stanwyck

Bookworm Kim, I’m with you on Cuaron.

To many already excellent choices, I would add Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Silkwood, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Regarding Henry, Angels in America--even if it was an HBO mini-series), William Wyler (Wuthering Heights, The Letter, Mrs, Miniver, Roman Holiday), Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man). I am also a Hayao Miyazaki fan (Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle).

I second or third the vote for John Hughes.  He was big when I was a teen.  I also love all the movies listed under Howard Hawks.  He did a lot of John Wayne movies I like.  A couple more to add to the list…

Frank Capra - It Happened One Night, You Can’t Take It With You, It’s A Wonderful Life, Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Meet John Doe, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace, A Pocketful of Miracles.

Alfred Hitchcock - The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rebecca, Suspicion, Notorious, North By Northwest, Vertigo, Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, The Birds, Marnie, Psycho.

I also happen to know someone who was a film studies major in college.  He always recommends films by directors, not actors/actresses.

I’m with IrishEyes about Alfred Hitchcock---the man really knew how to make a movie.  I loved ‘The Lady Vanishes’ and most of the ones mentioned by IrishEyes except for ‘The Birds’, that movie scared the wits outta me.  Could explain a few things these days, huh?

The other director I really like is John Ford.  How can you forget ‘The Searchers’ with John Wayne or ‘The Quiet Man’, ‘How Green Was My Valley’, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and ‘My Darling Clementine’.

--dorothy

Baz Luhrmann!  How could I forget? I actually teach his Romeo and Juliet.  And I haven’t thought about John Hughes in a long time—but I certainly loved those movies when I was little!

Spinal Tap, Teresa?  hmmmm

Eloisa

I agree with most of the directors recommended so I will just add that in your Altman marathon you have to add Cookie’s Fortune- classic but little known Altman- with a great cast.

My daughter went to see Baz Luherman’s R&J with a guy who didn’t know the story (his friend told him to see it). When Romeo didn’t get the message from the friar, he turned to her and said “But he does find out she’s not dead, doesn’t he?”

That may have been their only date (not a lot in common), but I thought “How interesting it would be to see Romeo and Juliet without knowing what was going to happen.” I think we know the story too well.

I totally agree with Gina on Howard Hawks, and with AneriAillin on THE LADY VANISHES.

My favorite director these days if Fred Zinneman. You might not have heard of him, but he was the director behind HIGH NOON, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, and A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. In the 50’s and 60’d he was the best!

I couldn’t think of one director when I first read this blog yesterday. Then when I read all your posts I had a series of lightbulbs go off in my head.  Yes, to every director posted here especially Frank Capra, Billy Wilder and Christopher Guest, Ron Howard, not to mention Steven Spielberg.

My favorite Robert Altman film is Gosford Park.  I had to watch it twice before I started getting all of the little dialogue snippets that were clues.  Wow.  What an ensemble.  All of his movies are about the whole beieng greaer than the sum of the parts.

for comedy, Christopher Guest is my top pick. Another director who gets the ensemble cast.

I’m thinking about doing an Ang Lee afternoon sometime soon with Sense & Sensibility and The Wedding Banquet. He has a wonderful ability to showcase relationships.

My favorite Altman? 

Nashville

I love this movie.