Pauline Kael called it "a huge, jerry-built, crumbling ruin of a movie". Roger Ebert called it "such a silly and stupid movie... our immediate reaction is pity". Few directors of Michelangelo Antonioni's stature have followed a film as acclaimed as Blowup (1966) with one as reviled as Zabriskie Point (1970). [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese on Jun 25, 2009 - 30 comments

Charlie's Angels. Simon & Simon. 21 Jump Street. Baywatch. The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. And of course, The X-Files. His filmography spans nearly 40 years, and his habit of using profanity onset was immortalized in the classic episode Jose Chung's From Outer Space (sorry, no video), but in the end, he really loved those guys, and they loved him. He was lured out of semi-retirement and back to Canada to executive-produce and direct Supernatural for the WB (later CW). Kim Manners died of lung cancer in LA on January 25, 2009.
posted by cereselle on Jan 26, 2009 - 25 comments

Six new directors who are making music video cool again:
Cat Solen (see also)
Rik Cordero (see also)
Matthew Cullen (see also) (previously)
Vincent Moon (see also)
Vincent Morisset (see also)
Keith Schofield (see also)
posted by Horace Rumpole on Oct 17, 2008 - 23 comments

17 Notorious Living, Working Cinematic Provocateurs. The Onion A/V Club strikes again.
posted by chuckdarwin on May 5, 2008 - 32 comments

Trailers From Hell. Cult directors (and other industry types) introduce and comment on trailers for cult films. For instance, Allison Anders on Peeping Tom, Rick Baker on The Man Of A Thousand Faces, Joe Dante on Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman, Jack Hill on White Heat, Dan Ireland on The Haunting, Mary Lambert on The Masque Of The Red Death and Edgar Wright on Carnage. (Flash menu and intro unfortunately)
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Jan 28, 2008 - 11 comments

TM without the ™. When he's not directing one of the best movies of the year or sitting on intersections with cows, David Lynch is a vocal advocate of Transcendental Meditation. In his new book Catching the Big Fish, he talks about the Box and the Key, meeting Fellini, the Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit, why he doesn't do DVD commentaries--and TM, which he calls "the experience that does everything." If you're intrigued by TM but sketched out by the organization and the $2,500 fee, perhaps you'd like to know that there is a cheap, downloadable alternative.
posted by muckster on Dec 3, 2006 - 35 comments

Robert Altman, RIP. The Director of Nashville, Mash, and A Prarie Home Companion has passed on.
posted by mattbucher on Nov 21, 2006 - 130 comments

Forum: The Pros and Cons of Director Liability. [more inside]
posted by monju_bosatsu on May 31, 2006 - 4 comments

Three new ways of thinking about David Cronenberg (director of Videodrome, Dead Ringers, etc.). A documentary filmmaker, an avant-garde filmmaker, or maybe just a guy who looks at couples and probably wonders what they look like having sex. Kind of par for the course.
posted by Joe Hutch on Mar 20, 2006 - 45 comments

Sarah Polley, the little girl in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, finds out that another little Canadian girl is about to star in another Terry Gilliam film, and writes--and warns--about her experiences. Gilliam responds.
posted by amberglow on Oct 2, 2005 - 93 comments

Toshio Matsumoto's (J) first film (E), Ginrin (or "Silver Ring"), once believed lost has been found! Ginrin was an English Language, "relatively avant garde" PR film that had perhaps the first use of Musique Concrete in a Japanese film -- in this case, the first score by Toru Takemitsu. The film was discovered to be lost (as a result of the firm it was made for going under) in the 1980s when it was desired for a retrospective on the 1950's Japanese Avant-Garde at the Pompidou Center. [More Inside]
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me on Sep 11, 2005 - 4 comments

Wonderful Town... Director Ryan McFaul (whose music video for Gay Boyfriend was previously seen in this MeFi thread ) is back with a dizzying MGM-meets-digital-compositing advert for a Broadway production of Wonderful Town. (Slightly less dazzling, but still worth seeing, is his ad for a San Francisco production of White Christmas.) Somebody give this man a feature film!
posted by yankeefog on May 2, 2005 - 5 comments

Victorian era projectors and directors.
posted by arse_hat on Jan 17, 2005 - 2 comments

Nostalghia : a site devoted to the work of the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky.
posted by carter on Mar 7, 2004 - 6 comments

Groundbreaking music videos (quicktime req'd) courtesy of Palm Picture's exciting new Director's Label. The first collections are courtesy of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry & Chris Cunningham.
posted by boost ventilator on Oct 14, 2003 - 13 comments

Ardent Twin Peaks fanatics are rallying behind Operation: Creamed Corn, in efforts to convince New Line to release the deleted scenes hand-picked by David Lynch from Fire Walk with Me. Will it work? I sure hope so.
posted by brittney on Aug 28, 2001 - 15 comments

Spielberg bizarrely philosophizes during a press conference about playing god and technology "becoming our masters." I can't imagine 2 issues that couldn't take a bigger backseat to the most pressing concern of how government uses said technology. Steve, the bogeyman isn't The Matrix its Uncle Sam.
posted by skallas on Jun 19, 2001 - 21 comments

Besides being great directors, what do Wong Kar Wai, John Frankenheimer, Guy Ritchie, Ang Lee, and Alejandro González Iñárritu all have in common? BMW is cool. ...and Ang Lee is too, the Incredible Hulk, nice touch.
posted by tomplus2 on May 16, 2001 - 10 comments