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Where do I start with [insert filmmaker here]?

post #1 of 98
Thread Starter 
Don't know which movies from a certain director to see first? Which actor's roles are their best? If you want to get into a certain filmmaker, but don't know where to start, just say so here...
post #2 of 98
"What's your point?"
post #3 of 98
Thread Starter 
On music forums people are always helping each other get into certain artists, like so:
"I like a few of so and so's songs, which album is best for new fans?"
"Well, so and so is their most accessible album, bla bla bla"

Thought we could do the same with filmmakers.

edit: "I never had one", duh.
post #4 of 98
I'll start. I've never seen a single Ingmar Bergman film. Being a Woody Allen fan, this cannot do. What are the essentials, what is the reccomended order, what should I be on the lookout while watching them?
post #5 of 98
Thread Starter 
Akira Kurosawa, I guess I should start with Seven Samurai, but what next?
post #6 of 98
Patrick, I loved The Virgin Spring. I thing it's a great place to start. A bit depressing, but Max Von Sydow is incredible.

Mantis, after Seven Samurai, I'd recommend Rashomon. Classic Kurosawa, and EVERYONE borrows from this film.
post #7 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
I'll start. I've never seen a single Ingmar Bergman film. Being a Woody Allen fan, this cannot do. What are the essentials, what is the reccomended order, what should I be on the lookout while watching them?
From my limited knowledge, Seventh Seal and Persona are the ones that first got him noticed. The former is certainly an excellent film.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMantis View Post
Akira Kurosawa, I guess I should start with Seven Samurai, but what next?
Yojimbo, Ran and possibly Stray Dog. I also hear Rashomon is in order, though I've yet to get around to that one myself.


Anyway, I've yet, to my shame, to see anything by Fellini, and the only Godard I've managed is Notre Musique. Anyone recommend a couple of good starting points?
post #8 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
I'll start. I've never seen a single Ingmar Bergman film. Being a Woody Allen fan, this cannot do. What are the essentials, what is the reccomended order, what should I be on the lookout while watching them?
Go to filmspotting.net and check out their Ingmar Bergman marathon, that's what I"m doing to get a general idea of where I should go first.

EDIT: I would appreciate a clue as to where to start with Robert Altman.
post #9 of 98
Start with Persona. It's a marvelously entertaining film, with one of the best monologues ever recorded.
post #10 of 98
Sam Fuller. Point me in that direction.
post #11 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jakespeare View Post
I would appreciate a clue as to where to start with Robert Altman.
Start with M*A*S*H and Nashville.
After that, move on to Short Cuts, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and The Player.
Then, if you're still on board, there's more good stuff still...

Quote:
Originally Posted by KABONG View Post
Sam Fuller. Point me in that direction.
I'm no expert on Fuller, but I started with Pickup on South Street, then Shock Corridor, then The Big Red One in re-release form.
post #12 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jakespeare View Post
EDIT: I would appreciate a clue as to where to start with Robert Altman.
Start with where the rest of America started: M*A*S*H (1970). After that, watch one of the most perfect movies ever made, McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1972). Follow that up with Nashville (1975), The Long Goodbye (1973) (a flawed but worthwhile and interesting film), The Player (1992) and Short Cuts (1993). After you've digest those, you're ready for the less accessible pictures. That means Images (1972), 3 Women (1977), and Brewster McCloud (1970).
post #13 of 98
What, no love for O.C. and Stiggs?

Herzog and Fellini. Help.
post #14 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Fordyce View Post
Herzog...Help.
Aguirre The Wrath of G-d and Fitzcarraldo.

Then, find out how Fitzcarraldo was made in Burden of Dreams, a documentary made about, but not by, Herzog. Also see My Best Friend: Klaus Kinski, made by Herzog about the star of the first two films. Got it?

For more of this style, check out the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly and it's narrative companion, Rescue Dawn.

Then, uh, see Grizzly Man if you're into his documentaries, and his remake of Nosferatu for more narrative.

...And Incident at Loch Ness if you want a mockumentary of Burden of Dreams starring Herzog, and directed by Zak Penn.
post #15 of 98
For Herzog, you MUST see Strozeck.
post #16 of 98
15 posts in and I'm already loving this thread!

*embarrassed* Where do I begin with David Lynch? (just finished Twin Peaks)
post #17 of 98
Eraserhead, Blue Velvet. Those were my starting points. Elephant Man. Wild at Heart.
post #18 of 98
Breathless for classic Godard, Weekend for characteristic Godard.
post #19 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by KABONG View Post
Sam Fuller. Point me in that direction.
Start with honoring the great Richard Widmark's passing with the red-scare noir PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET, then make your way to THE NAKED KISS, which is one of the most beautiful, shithouse-rat crazy movies ever made.

Also, his memoir, A Third Face is one Hell of an inspiring read.
post #20 of 98
Can anyone recommend a starting point for Fulci? I own Four of the Apocalypse , but I haven't seen it yet, thinking I should start with his more famous films.
Same thing for Dario Argento. Yeah, I know I have to see Suspiria and The Bird With the Crystal Plumage but I'm not sure where I should go from there.
post #21 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicholas View Post
Can anyone recommend a starting point for Fulci? I own Four of the Apocalypse , but I haven't seen it yet, thinking I should start with his more famous films.
Same thing for Dario Argento. Yeah, I know I have to see Suspiria and The Bird With the Crystal Plumage but I'm not sure where I should go from there.
Fulci: Zombie, The Beyond

Argento: Besides Suspiria, I'd go with Profundo Rosso (Deep Red), Inferno and Tenebrae.
post #22 of 98
Fellini

I would start with La Strada as its his most moving and accessible, then move to 8 1/2, then Nights Of Cabria, and the rewatch 8 1/2 as it needs and only gets better with repeat viewings, after that whatever catches your interest just be aware the quality will slide somewhat from those 3.


Bergman

I would start with Wild Strawberries, Seventh Seal, then Sawdust and Tinsel, then Perosna, then Silence, and finish with the full Fanny and Alexander.

Kurosawa
After Rashamon I would suggest Kagemusha, than to Yojimbo, then on Ran, as I think with Kurosawa its hood to have sharp contrast between his time periods rather than work chronological.
post #23 of 98
I just got into Fuller the other day. Ironically, I first saw Pickup on South Street the night before Widmark died. Great, great film and suprisingly fucking brutally violent at the end (face down a flight of stairs, oof).
post #24 of 98
Ben Kingsley recommendations, besides Gandhi and Schindler's List?
post #25 of 98
Sexy Beast
post #26 of 98
Douglas Sirk, anyone?

Also, if anyone here hasn't checked out any of Tarkovsky's stuff, I'd recommend starting with Ivan's Childhood first, with Andrei Rublev, Solaris and Stalker following in that order. If you're still interested after that, then you can move onto his even more inaccessible films such as Nostalghia, The Mirror and The Sacrifice. His short/student films are also more accessible than his more ambitious work.

Quote:
Ben Kingsley recommendations, besides Gandhi and Schindler's List
Someone said Sexy Beast, and also House of Sand and Fog. Most of his recent stuff is unfortunately shit.
post #27 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by R A Smith View Post
Ben Kingsley recommendations, besides Gandhi and Schindler's List?
If you want something light, Without A Clue is fun. He and Michael Caine are a good team.
post #28 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post
If you want something light, Without A Clue is fun. He and Michael Caine are a good team.
Deeply underrated film, with a great late Mancini score. Though Night of the Comet should serve as your introduction to the oeuvre of Thom Eberhardt.
post #29 of 98
On the Knigsley front I must echo the love for Without A Clue - very fun movie and it's nice seeing Kingsley in a comedy.

Sexy Beast is utterly compulsary viewing.

I'll throw up a vote for Testimony - Kingsley plays Russian Composer Shostakovich and its a very good look at Stalinist Russia as well.
post #30 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarkovsky View Post
Douglas Sirk, anyone?
There are far more knowledgeable people that can answer this better than I can but I'll offer up the two obvious films: All That Heaven Allows and Written on the Wind. Anything beyond that and I have no idea. Any suggestions beyond these?
post #31 of 98
By the way, this thread only confirms that we need more Beaks Canon.
post #32 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Fordyce View Post
Eraserhead, Blue Velvet. Those were my starting points. Elephant Man. Wild at Heart.
I wouldn't start with Eraserhead. I'd start with Blue Velvet, then Elephant Man, then Eraserhead, then Wild and Heart, then Lost Highway, Straight Story, then Mulloland Drive for dessert.
post #33 of 98
John Ford. Saw The Searchers, am watching My Darling Clementine Friday, what next?
post #34 of 98
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence are great Fords. I'm no expert on him, but I absolutely love those two.

Edit: The Grapes of Wrath and The Battle at Midway, also.
post #35 of 98
Young Mr Lincoln and Drums Along the Mohawk are good as well
post #36 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarkovsky View Post
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence are great Fords. I'm no expert on him, but I absolutely love those two.

Edit: The Grapes of Wrath and The Battle at Midway, also.
Whoops. Saw Grapes of Wrath too. In school surprisingly.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is definitely on the list, I'll seek out Yellow Ribbon.
post #37 of 98
Watch Fort Apache before Yellow Ribbon.

The Quiet Man.

The Prisoner of Shark Island is a fantastic early work.
post #38 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ambler View Post
I wouldn't start with Eraserhead. I'd start with Blue Velvet, then Elephant Man, then Eraserhead, then Wild and Heart, then Lost Highway, Straight Story, then Mulloland Drive for dessert.
And I say start with Eraserhead if you can catch it on film in a theatre.
post #39 of 98
I would do the whole Calvary trilogy in order while your at it, as they do add up to say something quite Fordian.

aka
Fort Apache, Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande

I would move on to Hawks after that as he has quite a different perspective but working in the same system and studio which tells you the studio systems was not as bad as it was painted to be.
post #40 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharpel007 View Post
I would move on to Hawks after that as he has quite a different perspective but working in the same system and studio which tells you the studio systems was not as bad as it was painted to be.
Hawks is definitely going to happen, I'm an enormous fan of Rio Bravo and I want more.

But even before Ford there's Malick, Haneke and Altman, so it'll be a bit.
post #41 of 98
Takashi Miike, please...
post #42 of 98
Audition. That's about as easy and mainstream as his movies get. Happiness of the Katakuri's is then a good jumping off point for the rest of his filmography.
post #43 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jakespeare View Post
Hawks is definitely going to happen, I'm an enormous fan of Rio Bravo and I want more.

But even before Ford there's Malick, Haneke and Altman, so it'll be a bit.
Do yourself a favor and do Hawks before Haneke. In my opinion Haneke's so overrated, while on the contrary despite all that's been said about Hawks, there can never be enough said about him. Also, Malick's filmography is so limited, you could honestly watch all of them in one day. I wouldn't recommend it, as Days of Heaven and the New World (more so than his other films) need a few days to reflect on. But just saying it's possible.

I need some suggestions on some of the French new wave directors. I'm more than acquainted with Godard, Truffaut and Melville, but some of the other guys like Rohmer, Tati and Chabrol are totally foreign to me.
post #44 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hammerhead View Post
And I say start with Eraserhead if you can catch it on film in a theatre.
But finish with Inland Empire. Not because it's his worst, but because it's the hardest to get into.

Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet are both good Lynch starting points. Elephant Man and Straight Story are equally acessible, but somewhat atypical of his style, particularly the latter.
I found Blue Velvet followed by Eraserhead to be effective, myself.


Still no help on Godard?
post #45 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin Clark View Post
Audition. That's about as easy and mainstream as his movies get.
This quote just tickles me.

Billy Wilder. All I've seen is The Apartment and Sabrina (when I was about 10).
post #46 of 98
Sunset Blvd., Double Indemnity and Ace in the Hole for the more serious stuff. Seven Year Itch and Some Like it Hot for two of Monroe's finer roles.

And for those who like Sam Fuller, two of his lesser viewed films, Run of the Arrow and I shot Jesse James are easily worth checking out.
post #47 of 98
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xagarath Ankor View Post
Still no help on Godard?
Pierrot le Fou and Alphaville are my favourites. 65 was a very good year for Godard. Very different films with a similar style, if that makes any sense.
post #48 of 98
Additionally for Godard I'd add Band Of Outsiders and Masculin Feminin.
post #49 of 98
Thanks for the suggestions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarkovsky View Post
Sunset Blvd., Double Indemnity
I second that. I have a particluar fondness for Double Indemnity.
post #50 of 98
Regarding Wilder, you should check out two early films he wrote but didn't direct: Ball of Fire (which should also be on your Hawks list) and Midnight.
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