Category: The Auteurs

WORDSLINGER'S NOTE: Here's another post that kind of defies categorization. This could literally go under Pop Culture, ROFLMAO - funny videos, The Auteurs, hell, considering the subject, even This Site is 420 Friendly. While I hesitate to lump Kevin Smith in with Hitchcock, Scorcese or Spielberg, if an auteur is an artist with a distinctive style, I think the man qualifies ... even if some would say he put the stink in distinctive.Say what you will about writer/director/actor Kevin Smith and h...

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Shot in 1973, film historian Richard Schickel's multi-part documentary The Men Who Made The Movies is a fascinating look at cinema and its more distinctive auteurs. Never more so than when he interviewed Alfred Hitchcock and got the Master of Suspense to talk at length regarding some of his most infamous films.If you read an earlier post called HITCHCOCKED! -- regarding a brief-but-fascinating documentary about the filmmaker -- this doc is much more in-depth, featuring Hitch himself explaining ...

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I've been a fan of Martin Scorsese for years. My favorite films of his being, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, After Hours, The Color of Money and GoodFellas. After a couple of missteps -- I hated Bringing Out The Dead and Gangs of New York -- he found his footing again in the new millennium with The Aviator and The Departed.Having said that, I'm ashamed to admit that it wasn't until a few months ago that I saw Mean Streets for the first time on TCM. Needless to say, I was blown a...

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I've written at length on this site about my passion for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Most recently about Psycho and Notorious. To those young readers who are unfamiliar with the movies of this undisputed Master of Suspense, I offer the following primer: HITCHCOCKED!Produced in 2006 by Starz, this documentary packs a bevy of fascinating info into its all-too-brief 25-minute running time. Fillmmakers as diverse as Larry Cohen, Keith Gordon, Joe Dante, Carl Franklin, Ernest Dickerson and Sean...

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I've been on a Martin Scorsese kick lately -- I recently added After Hours and The King of Comedy to my Scorsese shelf (both highly recommended). As a result of this latest obsessive-compulsion, I am posting the first of perhaps three articles regarding this legendary filmmaker.Produced in 1993 by Cinemax and The American Film Institute, the following program, Martin Scorsese's Favorite Films, is a fascinating look into Marty's passions and influences. If you've never heard Scorsese wax cinema...

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WORDLSINGER'S NOTE: Here's another example of categories being limiting. Should this documentary be filed under Pop Culture, DVD reviews, Steven Spielberg? I think, given the visionary über-directors involved, I will put it under The Auteurs.Critic and film historian Richard Schickel's documentary, Watch The Skies! Science-Fiction, The 1950s and Us is a fascinating look at Hollywood sci-fi films, post-World War II. Produced in 2005 by TCM, the hour-long doc features George Lucas, Steven...

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Despite the risk of over-saturating this site with posts about Steven Spielberg, I recently found a 2005 interview with the director conducted by British film historian, Mark Kermode. Covering the years 1969 (Night Gallery pilot) to 2006 (post Munich), this fascinating conversation is almost as good as Richard Schickel's, TCM produced, Spielberg on Spielberg from 2007 (as soon as that is available for internet embedding, I will put it up). Also covered is the rumored legend of how a teenaged S...

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You already know of my passion for the works of Steven Spielberg -- my Jonesing for Indy posts, and review of Indy 4 have made this obvious. I've also posted documentaries, interviews, and other essays. But I recently came across three gems on the web that I knew I needed to share here.Even before he announced his presence with authority with 1971's TV movie Duel (also posted in its entirety on this site, you can watch it by clicking here), little Stevie Spielberg was honing the craft which wo...

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What can I say about Woody Allen? That Annie Hall and Manhattan are two of my all time favorite films? Undoubtedly. Both are hilarious, touching, and endlessly quotable. That for five decades - as a writer, director, actor, and author - he has produced a staggering amount of classic works, from the absurd to the profound? Unquestionably. That his influence rivals those of his heroes, Groucho Marx, Charlie Chaplin, and Bob Hope? Indubitably.But rather than wax eloquent on such, let's let t...

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In regards to film debuts, few directors announce themselves with the authority that James Cameron did in 1984. The Terminator, besides being A Little Movie That Could, and launching Arnold Swarzenegger's career into the stratosphere, screamed that this writer/director was someone to be taken seriously.Filmed on a very low budget (6.5 million), by a director whose only previous credits were effects work on Roger Corman films and a seven day stint as director of Pirahna II - The Spawning (he was...

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When it comes to filmmaking, I've said for years there is a fine line between homage and rip-off. With that in mind, I think no other filmmaker has straddled this line quite so successfully as Brian De Palma. His early films, especially those from the 70s and 80s, were by and large "Hitchcockian" thrillers. What was so shocking about them -- other than the obvious subject matter -- was the extent they actually succeeded in spite of their obvious nods to the British Master of Suspense. But he...

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I don't own ALL of John Carpenter's films. In fact, as much as I love him as a director, I'll be the first to admit his recent films pale in comparison to his work from the 70s and 80s. That said, his first smash hit, Halloween (1978), was for many years the most successful independent film ever made. Not bad for a bunch of kids making a horror film about babysitters and the boogeyman.A list of the Carpenter DVDs I do own:HalloweenElvis - the movieThe FogEscape From New YorkThe ThingChristine...

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