Most Rebellious Film Directors?

Tools    





matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
(who were also great)

Those who would not compromise their art for any reason.. The first one that comes to mind is John Cassavetes. His first movie "Shadows" was very independent, outside of the studio system, but because many in the film business thought it was a new kind of cinema, a studio hired him to do "Too Late Blues" (best movie on the music business) and "A Child Is Waiting", where he was able to have two stars (Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland), but also had the movie cut by Stanley Kramer behind his back, and was actually fired while Kramer was at Cassavetes' home during Thanksgiving, so John choked him out, and he was fired, but the movie is still great. He went on to make even better movies, using his family, his wife's family, friends, his home, and didn't spend his days doing interviews complaining or being lazy, like Orson Welles (who I like, more for his interviews than movies, though).

Cassavates prioritized his art, acting in movies, to take the money and put them right back into his own movies, putting his home up as collateral, doing whatever it took. Ben Gazzara (and someone else in a different book) were saying how John went a month with no sleep trying to edit and finish the movie.. I don't remember the movie, but John would call theaters himself to get them played (and would eventually get distributors).

As great as it is to be rebellious, he actually was able to do something about it, and his movies speak for themselves, and hopefully inspired others to do the same. I also have a lot of respect for him or anyone else who can write and direct a great movie.



I would describe most auteurs this way. Ingmar Bergman immediately springs to mind.
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



Malick, but I don't know if I would categorize him as rebellious. He just does whatever the hell he wants, including frequently cutting big name actors he hired out of his movie during editing after shooting. For instance, Adrien Brody's character in the Thin Red Line was originally supposed to be the protagonist, but was reduced to... a cameo. and John Travolta and George Clooney also have cameos lol
__________________
Lists and Projects
Letterboxd



Tarkovsky I think could be considered as a sort of rebel. his works have such universality rather than just become some compromising Soviet propaganda. he ends up went exile further up the legend about an iartist vs authority.
Some directors/auteur that are pretty independent, self-sufficient or things like that; like Bergman, Herzog, Cassavetes as mentioned above.

I'll say probably Herzog at his younger, prime days is probably the most rebellious(but also I think akin to contrarian), feature filmmaker that Iknow, not only by the nature of his films.
We talk about a guy that technically stole a camera for making his films, playing fire with authority(faking his permit when shooting fritzcaraldo), and probably there more than that trivia.

the other I wnt to mentioned are other documentary~verite guys like peter Watkins, Chris marker.
__________________
"Фильм призван вызвать духовную волну, а не взращивать идолопоклонников."



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Sam Peckinpah. I guess if he wasn't broke all the time, he wouldn't have to be under the thumb of studios and producers. It seems like many of his movies were cut up, ala Orson Welles.



Malick, but I don't know if I would categorize him as rebellious. He just does whatever the hell he wants, including frequently cutting big name actors he hired out of his movie during editing after shooting. For instance, Adrien Brody's character in the Thin Red Line was originally supposed to be the protagonist, but was reduced to... a cameo. and John Travolta and George Clooney also have cameos lol
Which seems to royally frost those big name actors... I find it exquisite. Seeing the anger of said actors and their vanity taking a hit. It's more gorgeous than their over-paid pretty faces.
__________________
Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colors are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of 'Green'?

-Stan Brakhage



[...] and didn't spend his days doing interviews complaining or being lazy, like Orson Welles
This is strange to see someone say since Welles was constantly busy with various film projects up until his death. The enormous amount of time he spent on film production throughout his career is one of the major reasons why so many unfinished films (in various stages of completion) were left behind after his death.



Aside from redundant picks like those from the avant-garde/underground scene, here's a list of directors that cone to mind:

• Jean-Luc Godard
• Wang Bing
• Pere Portabella
• Jon Jost
• Luis Bunuel
• Jean-Marie Straub & Daniele Huillet
• Mark Rappaport
• Pier Paolo Pasolini
• Orson Welles
• King Vidor
• Terrence Malick
• Jim McBride
• Robert Altman
• Gregg Araki
• John Waters
• Jean Rollin
• Monte Hellman
• Rob Zombie
• Mario Bava
• John Cassavetes
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• Derek Jarman
• Roger Corman
• Samuel Fuller
• Paul Verhoeven
• Herschell Gordon Lewis
• Ed Wood