Where Are the Next Great Film Directors? - James Ivory

[timothyj1966]

AGREED - with all our technology... if we don't have great directors, and creativity with beautiful, well acted stories.... movies these days all seem like blockbuster bores... bring back the Merchant Ivory production kind of pieces....exquisite stories - sets- top craft actors- stunning attention to detail and amazing screenplays...now that all makes a BLOCKBUSTER - so sick of America saves the World Summer Blockbusters..... " just saying':.....

[ANASTASIACHAVEZVLOG]

How about the directors that didn't get there by way of nepotism?

[RonAlmeida]

The fact is that every body who's after fame and fortune has got on to the band wagon. For them film is not an art, just cheap entertainment for the masses. So they target the lowest common denominator. The real directors find it difficult to find financiers, for they want to make a lot and not loose money. Money does not only make the world go round but also turns it into a cesspool of mediocrity at best.

[stefaa18]

Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, Sopphia Coppola, Christopher Nolan, whats wrong with them

[Edhunter665]

@stefaa18

Alfonso Cuaron, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, after seeing The Town, I would even mention Ben Affleck. And of course Guillermo del Toro, whose masterful Pan's Labyrinth is a testament to art unlike the world of cinema has seen in years. It is this moment in cinema when I actually see it moving forward, with much more depth and edge, the likes of which neither Ivory, nor de Mille, and not even Ford or Altman could have imagined.

[Edhunter665]

Let me get this straight. The man who directed a series of excruciatingly boring movies, with Picasso in between, is criticising the directors of today for not making the same boring movies as he did? Talk about hypocrisy. Or self-awareness. He is simply absolete, and young directors(like Shane Meadows) could wipe the floor with this guy. Even his speech pattern is boring.

[TheTypicalGirl]

Great to hear that his mind is as sharp as ever. Means much more work from him. I love everything he's been a part of.

[delta2ish]

i think the great directer who can use the stuff these days is here christopher nolan

[cineasta71]

You are not saying much...

[Larkinchance]

Avatar, Cowboys and Indians and a noble but shallow story

[Larkinchance]

Special effects do not a story make...

[owengot]

I don't know if it's the marketplace.. In the 60's and 70's popular films also happened to be really great films. Since then Hollywood has lowered the bar substantially, but that doesn't mean there isn't a large audience for quality filmmaking. As long as crap is being made, it's hard to imagine a world where anything else is the norm. But it can happen, when pressure builds up..

[MatthewEnsell]

Im a starting film director, remember the name 'Matthew Ensell'

[rapisgood]

i agree. i only go to the theatre for a highly anticipated movie now, everything else is junk. things are getting better though. this time he speaks of is very near

[cableslip]

amazing. i am so glad he is questioning the status quo

one thing I would ad is that he is thinking in terms of the lone leader director - I see this myth of one person making a film growing into a view that incoporates, purpose, audience, crew, actors and story, and what it all ends up being in a way that we do not now see

director as superstar and celebrity is no longer useful if we are going to go into the future and create something new

[dallasINtokyo]

i disagree as well, there are plenty of great directors out there

[shadetail]

Tarentino, Guillermo del Toro, Wes Anderson

[DNATS]

Because Hollywood is now too run by the union, creativity is lacking and profit is the only thing valued. The next great director won't come from the U.S, they will come from Bollywood, China, Japan, and emerging film industry in those countries. Look at all the horror movies that are being remake from Japan to the U.S. Etc. I just believe Hollywood emptied its guns already.

[JiminL]

@DNATS Don't forget Korea, the asian powerhouse of creative, original films. Look up park chanwook and bong joonho.

But to give USA credit, there are tons of non-Hollywood films that are just downright awesome. Also, independent documentaries seem to be on a rise. USA just has too much history to stop producing great directors.

[thesparitan]

this is funny to hear because i am reading war and peace and can see a beautiful movie being made

[ApocalypticMetalHead]

Films of late have gone to hell, it's the marketplace that forces the many great directors we have to make these big budget stinkers to please the dumb masses. In the last 5+ years, the less-funded independent film industry has come out with better films than our current giants! What does that say? It says profit comes before film. Somebody please name a big budget film of late that didn't have BULLSHIT written all over it. And Slumdog Millionaire doesn't count because I haven't seen it.

[thesparitan]

i agree

[kenm31388]

@ApocalypticMetalHead The new Star Trek was a decent film. But I know what you mean. It's the buisness-minded studios execs who don't want to risk losing their jobs that are to blame. They keep churning out lame sequels, comic book adaptations and remakes.

[82abhilash]

He is so right. And I think there is good reason to be hopeful as well.

[Congest]

Film will never truly flourish as an art form until it is removed from the need to turn a profit in the market place.

[migkillertwo]

as if there are objective standard of "greatness" in art

*rolls eyes*

[rkullberg]

Though, the irony of what you said is that for a great film to truly come about, like the one Ivory speaks of, you need the collaboration of many different artists. It would be extremely difficult to find a collection of artists who would be willing to make a high budget film without the certified paycheck that comes from marketing. There needs to be a better system of budgeting.

[666norton420]

i completely disagree.

my series which is an action sci-fi, is forwarded by plot and action, rather than characters.

i've made it from the ground up to be a spectacle for the eyes, like nothing really seen before.

it's intended to make insane amounts of money, while being entertaining.

all the classic character movie elements have been removed, as we've seen it all before.

of course, that's not to say it doesn't have substance, as it spans 250,000 yrs and some characters are 1000s of yrs old.

;d

[wimscheers]

The problem is rather the corporations and public then the directors. You don't get a big budget when you try to tell the tail of an old fisherman strugling with a fish, you get it when a hot chick bends over with huge fighting robots in the background.

[wmg111]

Sad but true.

[Slug99]

The cost of technology goes down over time, eventually people will be able to make a cheap art house film with the stuff hollywood uses today. Sure it'll still costs a bunch of money, but movies has always been the expensive art form.