Looking for New Director recommendations
 

Not "recent directors" but directors that are "new" to you or myself



I like the films of the following directors very much:
Woody Allen
David Lynch
Wim Wenders
Jim Jarmusch
Bergman
Fellini
Gilliam

Any director who likes to make you think. Especially if their stories follow an absurd line of reasoning.or Dark Comedy. (an eclectic group to say the least)



Who would you recommend?




If you want to post your own list of directors you like, feel free and we can recommend to each other.

There's a director named Noah Baumbach that's done some really interesting work this decade.

Re: Looking for New Director recommendations
 

If anybody knows me, they know who I'd recommend.

I've seen "When We Were Young" and "Margot at the Wedding". They were okay but not one to add to my list. I do want to see "Greenberg" however.

If your saying Orson Welles, I'd have to say that I have only seen "Citizen Kane" and "Touch of Evil" Which I thought were technically flawless, but I am not as interested in the stories as much as I would like to be. I've said before that I thought Welles and Hitchcock were in a class of their own when it came to directing. Who knows what he could have achieved if he had not been sabotaged by Hearst.
When I took Film Elements as a fan (not really as a student) we had a text book that used Citizen Kane as standard for all of the major elements. Gianneti's "Understanding the Movies" does the same thing.

You might like Michelangelo Antonioni. As director, he did several films in English, my favorite being Blow-up, followed later by Zabriskie Point, and The Passenger.

His pacing and use of silence, which allows for experiencing ambient sounds, was the best of its kind. Very absorbing atmospheres.

~Doc

I recognize his name, and the titles of his movies, but have not checked him out yet. Which would you recommend as an intro? Would that be Blow Up?

Carl Dreyer, Luis Bunuel, and Eric Rohmer.

Re: Looking for New Director recommendations
 

If I had to say what is common thread between almost all the directors I mentioned above is their use of the absurd in their films. If asked to describe my understanding of the "absurd" I would use Kundera's book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" as an example. The movie never describes the "Unbearable Lightness of Being; however, the book claims it is a sort of play between Lightness and Weight. This sense of absurd would be close to the definition in what makes a "Dark Comedy" such as "Brazil", "The Life of Brian", "Stardust Memories", "The Purple Rose of Cairo", etc.

Any particular films to start with?

Re: Looking for New Director recommendations
 

This is really great. Keep em' coming.

Only seen 3 Dreyer and my favorite is Ordet. Favorite for Bunuel is That Obscure Object of Desire and favorite Rohmer is probably La Collectionneuse.

Nah, not Orson Welles, but Kelly Reichardt. I talk about her movies all the time. Check out a couple of them, I think you might like them.

Night Moves is very good.

Re: Looking for New Director recommendations
 

While we're on the subject of Welles though, I highly recommend The Trial, The Magnificent Ambersons and The Stranger.

The Stranger has one of my all-time favorite performances. Orson Welles is legitimately frightening in his role.

Yeah, there you go, good one, I'd highly recommend it too.

Re: Looking for New Director recommendations
 

I know he is not new but I think Jon Favrou has came a long way since coming from an actor in the football movie The Replacements to making Elf, Iron Man, The Jungle Book live action movie and the small film called The Chef is really good. I know The Live Action Lion King is getting hard opinions and Cowboys and Aliens was odd. But I think he will end up being a very great director. Also the Star Wars Mandelorian Tv Show.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, and Micmacs are very Gilliamesque and darkly weird and wonderful with inventive visuals. For me his two masterpieces are Amélie and A Very Long Engagement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKhDL1LjESk

I would have to assume you are well aware of The Coen Brothers, David Fincher, Wes Anderson, Kubrick, Polanski, and Herzog.

I don't know how far you have dug into the filmography of Robert Altman but he is one of the greats. Stylistically most identifiable for his unique overlapping dialogue and capturing improvisational acting. His most famous and accessible films are probably MASH, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and maybe Gosford Park. Those are all great films, but he has a long list of greats and oddities and even his films that don't entirely work are usually mesmerizing and interesting. Two of his absolute masterpieces in my book are The Long Goodbye and McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAYheZweypk

I haven't seen his other films but Austin Chick is a director I'm interested in after seeing his Girls Against Boys (2012). It was an invigorating film to watch because of the imaginative direction and editing.