Beginner’s Guide

The Beginner’s Guide: Elaine May, Writer & Director

Elaine May had a run of successful films in the ’70s and ’80s, yet she remains an underappreciated director and writer in the industry.

Beginners Guide: Agnès Varda, Director
Beginners Guide: Agnès Varda, Director

In an industry famously inhospitable to women, Agnès Varda has been quietly and consistently surpassing expectations, for more than five decades. This is our guide to the legendary Godmother of French New Wave cinema.

Beginner's Guide: Dorothy Arzner, Director
Beginner’s Guide: Dorothy Arzner, Director

Mention the name Dorothy Arzner and even the biggest movie buffs can often respond with blank looks; this guide is an intro into her legacy.

Beginner's Guide: Psychological Horror
Beginner’s Guide: Psychological Horror

Psychological horror films are designed to be more like vivid nightmares, sending the conscious mind an important message or warning of something that hasn’t been acknowledged.

The Beginner's Guide: Louise Osmond, Director
The Beginner’s Guide: Louise Osmond, Director

You won’t find out much about Louise Osmond if you look online. She is an Oxford history graduate who joined ITN as a news journalism trainee, and that’s all I or probably any other writer could know about her. But the personal details are irrelevant in the face of such a sturdy, and increasingly successful career as a documentary maker.

The Beginner's Guide: Buster Keaton, Director
The Beginner’s Guide: Buster Keaton, Actor & Director

When I was younger and just starting to get into classic film, I found a copy of The General at a local DVD store. Watching it later, I still remember the exact moment when I was captivated by Buster Keaton’s unique charm and screen presence. In the film’s first extended action sequence, Keaton is chasing after a troupe of Union soldiers who had infiltrated and stolen his train, and in a series of fast-paced, whirring motions, he narrowly escapes one mishap after another.

Film Inquiry's Best Articles Of September 2016 - Bollywood/Mughal-e-Azam
The Beginner’s Guide: Bollywood

Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Nargis, Dev Anand, Vyjayanthimala, Guru Dutt, Madhubala, Raaj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Meena Kumari, Shashi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Aamir Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone. To a majority of westerners these names will have very little resonance, if any at all. For many cinemagoers on the Indian subcontinent, however, these highly-revered and much-followed household names together epitomise the most significant cultural product in the region:

The Beginner's Guide: Screwball Comedy
The Beginner’s Guide: Screwball Comedy

Screwball comedies came around in the 1930s, due to the Motion Picture Production Code. The genre is still popular today, and some filmmakers try to recreate the themes and techniques in modern films. By 1934, the production code was being enforced in the motion picture industry.

Sofia Coppola on the set of The Bling Ring, photographed by Andrew Durham, 2012
The Beginner’s Guide: Sofia Coppola, Director

It seems strange that a body of work which has largely focused on the female experience without pontificating, should prove to be so contentious. And yet, Sofia Coppola’s viewers seem to fall largely within two extremes: the devoted and the apathetic.

The Beginner's Guide: Film Noir
The Beginner’s Guide: Film Noir

You probably already know what you’ll see in a film noir. Guys who talk out of the sides of their mouths, calling women “broads” and “dames.” Detectives, crime, forbidden love, doomed lives.

The Beginner's Guide: David Fincher, Director
The Beginner’s Guide: David Fincher, Director

You may be surprised to learn that David Fincher’s career almost never got off the starting grid. 1992’s Alien 3, a poisoned chalice if ever there was one, turned out to be a torrid experience for the former music video director (he had helmed videos for luminaries such as Jermaine Stewart & Madonna, most famously ‘Vogue’), to the point he genuinely considered giving up filmmaking. What a loss to cinema that would have been.

The Beginner's Guide: Baz Luhrmann, Director
The Beginner’s Guide: Baz Luhrmann, Director

Baz Luhrmann, born Mark Anthony Luhrmann, grew up in the tiny village of Heron’s Creek in New South Wales, Australia, a township which boasted a population of just 312 in 2011. Since then, he has revolutionised the Australian cinema scene and is best known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, comprising of romantic comedy and underdog tale Strictly Ballroom, a modernisation of Shakespearean classic Romeo + Juliet, and Moulin Rouge!, the extravagant and no holds barred musical set in late 19th century Paris.

The Beginner's Guide: Steven Spielberg, Director
The Beginner’s Guide: Steven Spielberg, Director

Steven Spielberg. The name alone is synonymous with cinema. But take a step back.

The Beginner’s Guide: Nicolas Winding Refn, Director

One of the most controversial directors currently working today, Nicolas Winding Refn is a provocative force to be reckoned with. He has an utterly distinctive voice that couldn’t ever be mistaken for anybody else. Each of his films is widely divisive, almost always opening to heated opinion from audiences.

The Beginner’s Guide: John Williams, Composer

In all production tools of filmmaking, using sound effects is a fundamental factor in capturing a film’s escapist experience and the audience’s reactions. Although sound is not seen on-screen, it does play a crucial role in how films work, and in how it progresses narrative, develops characters and addresses significance. John Williams is an example of a composer whose work has established the importance of music within cinema, and how they play a fundamental role in the entire experience.