One of the reasons serious cinema lovers dismiss “journeyman” filmmakers is they often make fun, widely-seen crowd-pleasers. Rob Reiner, Robert Wise, and Penny Marshall made hits that will never be confused with Cries and Whispers or The Human Condition. To be sure, a popular movie can be a work of art. But summer tentpoles are […]

Gen X nostalgia is at its peak now, and as an Xer myself, let me apologize to all of you Millennials and Zoomers right now. The callbacks, parodies, and reminiscings out there are insufferable. Yes, we all want $2 gas and $7 large pan pizzas and kids on bicycles breathing fresh air. We don’t want […]

I met Robert Wise at Syracuse University, when he spoke to our small film production class and ran an editing workshop. What did this award-winning director have to teach us about editing? A lot—he edited a little film called Citizen Kane. He also edited The Magnificent Ambersons, both Welles’ original vision and the studio-mandated recut. […]

What makes a great director? Is it someone with a singular aesthetic vision, like Ridley Scott’s early emphasis on backlighting or, to hit the other end of the spectrum, Yasijuro Ozu’s static camera placement? In my intro to this series, I wanted to explore directors who make great films but have no singular vision, aesthetic, […]

This month’s “The Journeymen” article is only #2 in the series, and it appears I’ve already strayed off the path. That’s because Patrice Leconte in no way fits my definition of a “journeyman” filmmaker. I included him in my list because he’s one of my favorites. He also works in a variety of genres: comedy, […]

I have a lot of “13 Films” list ideas. One is a tribute to 13 directors I admire but who don’t get a lot of scholarly love. This is because their body of work doesn’t fit neatly into an analytical box. Sergei Eisenstein made movies about revolution. Alfred Hitchcock is a master of suspense. Jane […]
