Another Great Directors List Update

I've settled on writing new director spotlight posts every other month, in order to give myself some breathing space.  However, I have to admit that I've been running short on names lately, and getting increasingly obscure with my choices.  There are plenty of talented directors out there that I haven't covered, but we're getting into more iffy territory as the list gets longer.

Back in 2015, I filled a whole post with a list of directors I wanted to feature in upcoming "Great Director" posts, and the films that I'd seen for each.  Five years later, there's still one name from that post I haven't written about - Elia Kazan.  I'm missing a few key works for him, namely his debut film, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and the culturally significant "Pinky," which was at the center of a protracted First Amendment battle.

I considered putting up a new list of coming attractions, but the list of directors I have in mind is shorter than I'd like it to be.  Blake Edwards, and Lars von Trier are definitely coming up, and my next post will probably be on Vincente Minnelli.  I'm currently in the middle of marathoning a couple of his '50s films.  Others in the mix include Rob Reiner, Nicholas Ray, Pedro Almodovar, Ang Lee, Peter Weir, John Frankenheimer, and Terrence Malick.  However, there's at least one big title I'm missing or need to rewatch for each of them.   

It's also not lost on me that these are mostly white European and American male directors again.  My attempts to diversify haven't been going well.  Female and minority directors generally produce far fewer films than their white male counterparts.  Their work is also much more difficult to find and you run into all the recency problems.  Or else there's the significance issue.  I mean, I could technically do Penny Marshall or Elaine May, who I love to bits, but it's difficult to argue I should write a post about them instead of, oh, Blake Edwards, who had a far more substantial and influential career.    

Some of this imbalance is also because, frankly, I'm not putting forth as much effort as I could be.  This is one of the reasons I'm putting the Top Ten Project on hiatus, so I can devote more attention to some of my blind spots and avoid another long hiatus.  I only saw my first Susan Seidelman film this year.  I only saw "The Watermelon Woman" this year.  On the other hand, at least it was this year, instead of next year or never.  More and more obscure art films are coming online through various platforms, and I'm hoping to take more advantage of it.

I've very deliberately set a precedent for including directors with shorter filmographies, after the post on Richard Williams last year, who has a grand total of two-and-a-half feature directing credits to his name.  HIs spotlight is the movie where he's only credited as animation director.  Eventually I'm going to write that Elaine May post, because though she only directed four features, I won't be able to use that as an excuse.  Whether I'll talk myself into watching "Ishtar" or not is another story.       

I've also decided to incorporate the following previously written posts into the series:

Angel Face for Otto Preminger

They Shoot Horses Don't They? for Sydney Pollack

The Martian for Ridley Scott

Yes, I like "The Martian" more than "Alien," "Blade Runner," or "Thelma and Louise," because sometimes you just want a feel-good film where they save Matt Damon.  And Ridley made a damn good one.

---