The Guardian has published a list of the 40 best directors, culled from a poll of seven critics (including Molly Haskell, Derek Malcolm and my friend B. Ruby Rich). The list is a bit odd. It goes out of its way to include lots of great international directors that might not be household names, such as Abbas Kiarostami (#6), Bela Tarr (#13), Tsai Ming-liang (#18), Aki Kaurismaki (#19), Michael Haneke (#22), Alexander Sokurov (#26) and Samira Makhmalbaf (#36). But it also contains some serious stretches. Steven Soderbergh comes in at #4; it's arguable he should be on the list at all. He's made three near-great films (sex, lies and videotape, Out of Sight and The Limey), several overrated behemoths and no great ones. Other overrated directors on the list include Michael Winterbottom (#20), Walter Salles (#23), Ang Lee (#27), David O. Russell (#34) and the Wachowski Brothers (#35). Could the makers of the abominable The Matrix Revolutions really be considered in the top 40? On the plus side, David Lynch comes in at #1, and the list had the good grace to consider David Cronenberg (my personal #1) at #9. Even the great animator Hayao Miyzaki earned a slot in the top ten. I guess the ultimate point of such a list is to liven up discussions, and they certainly have done that.
| :: posted by Jeffrey M. Anderson, 4/25/2005 | Comments (0) Links to this post |
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