beginner’s guide

The Beginner’s Guide: Hayao Miyazaki, Director

How to summarise Hayao Miyazaki in a few words? Brilliant, magical, ecologist, fantastic, cultural, wise, a true master of his art: animation.

Del Toro
The Beginner’s Guide: Guillermo del Toro, Director

Near the conclusion of Hellboy II, we find the eponymous hero at death’s doorstep. Hellboy is laid at the feet of his personal Angel of Death, a shrouded, veiled monstrosity whose ragged wings are festooned with a series of enormous, amber eyes. Elizabeth Sherman, Hellboy’s partner, cradles his unconscious body in a pose reminiscent of the Pietà, an aesthetic emphasized by the magical spearpoint thrust into Hellboy’s side.

Spike Jonze
The Beginner’s Guide: Spike Jonze, Director

Producer, Director, Writer, Actor. These are just some of the labels one could attribute to Spike Jonze. Absurd, surreal, unique and diverse are just some of the few one could attach to his films.

David Lynch
The Beginner’s Guide: David Lynch, Director

David Lynch has one of the most polarizing bodies of work in Hollywood (though he is objectively one of the nicest and most genuine people there). His films divide audiences like they were born of a marriage between Moses and Solomon. Filled with peculiar idiosyncrasies and defiantly flaunting conventions of both genre and narrative, Lynch’s films have been stubborn in their consistency for most of his career.

Alfred Hitchcock
The Beginner’s Guide: Alfred Hitchc*ck, Director

British director Alfred Hitchc*ck’s reputation as the “Master of Suspense” is still familiar to moviegoers around the world 25 years after his death. Hitchc*ck’s jowly visage and drawling accent are pop culture fixtures, and his movies are endlessly imitated and even spun-off into popular TV series. However, Hitchc*ck was more than just the man who gave the world Norman Bates and that infamous shower scene in Psycho (1960).

Wes Craven
The Beginner’s Guide: Wes Craven, Director

When you think of horror movies, one name should spring to mind: Wes Craven. He reinvented the teen horror genre and made it his own, alongside creating the most feared character in the horror genre:

Ingmar Bergman
The Beginner’s Guide: Ingmar Bergman, Director

Saying you like Ingmar Bergman is like saying you like cinema. His influence and style have become more than an influence, a defining layer in the foundation of cinema. With some directors you can recall a few classic movies, but with filmmakers like Bergman, who has so many definitive credits as a director, his filmography can almost seem too daunting to follow.

David O. Russell
The Beginner’s Guide: David O. Russell, Director

“There’s no such thing as nothing.” Paranoid. Obsessive.

The Beginner’s Guide: Stanley Kubrick, Director

There’s no arguing that if you have even a mild interest in film, you’ve likely heard of Stanley Kubrick. You’ve probably even seen at least one of his films, or, barring that, maybe some of the more famous clips (especially if you’re a film student). So my approach to this “Beginner’s Guide” is to recommend that you forget all that.

silent film
The Beginner’s Guide: Silent Film

When The Artist won Best Picture at the 84th Academy Awards, it became only the second silent film to win that award. That’s because silent films were already almost passé by the time the first ceremony was held. The end of silent films was swift and fast, their production gone in almost no time.

Tarantino
The Beginner’s Guide: Quentin Tarantino, Director

Controversial, unapologetic, and brilliant all at the same time, Quentin Tarantino is one of the most unique directors in film history. Dropping out of high school at age 15 to pursue acting and his love of films by working at a video rental store, Tarantino developed a unique understanding and appreciation for movies that cannot be taught in a formal setting. His films are notorious for gratuitous violence, pop culture references, and extended scenes of dialogue.

The Beginner’s Guide: Wong Kar-Wai, Director

The first time I saw Chungking Express, I didn’t realize what love was. An over-dramatic statement, but Wong Kar-Wai films are truly worth viewing. It’s about the human condition in terms of emotional separation from each other.

Nolan
The Beginner’s Guide: Christopher Nolan, Director

One of the year’s most-anticipated films is Interstellar, and it is directed by acclaimed director Christopher Nolan. It will be the first film he does exploring space. He began his resume with a short film called Doodlebug, and since then, he has taken Hollywood by storm directing nine films that include Following, Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Inception, and the The Dark Knight trilogy.

The Beginner’s Guide: Alex Gibney, Documentary Maker

When the majority of people are asked for their opinions on the topic of ‘best film directors’, a usual set of names are mentioned. While individuals will naturally have personal and less predictable choices, there is a good chance that at least one of their suggestions will be from a set of list of collectively-decided greats: Kubrick, Hitchc*ck, Scorsese and the like.

Steve McQueen
The Beginner’s Guide: Steve McQueen, Director

There are some film directors who really exemplify the work of an artist. You could say their work is special in its own way, and every director has their particular style. There is no question about the passion, intensity, and creativity in the art work they create.