If being a great director means making people feel good about themselves or providing a sort of fantasy American dream then Cimino is not very good at all. But if being a great director means using a camera to tell a story and using a frame in as dynamic a way as possible then Cimino is a master.
It's been years since I've seen this film. But off the top of my head I can already recall at least three scenes that are masterfully directed: a nightclub shootout, the moment following a home invasion, and the final set piece. When I say masterful direction, I mean perfect shot selection, purposeful and expressive camera movement, specific editing, and all done in a way where as a viewer we always understand the geography of the scene.
I don't mean to sell Cimino short by suggesting that this film is all a cold, technical enterprise. In fact, I feel quite strongly about Rourke's character, and the second moment I reference above is particularly devastating.
A flawed film, certainly. But when it's clicking, it's crime elevated to the same operatic and cinematic heights as Coppola's work in The Godfather films. A movie that seems to have exercised a major influence on the cinema of Michael Mann and an important link to King of New York, Carlito's Way, and other modern crime films. Also, a film and an auteur, as much as anyone in this countdown, quite desperately in need of re-evaluation.
Other contenders for 1985: I still have some things to see from this year. These include: George Romero's Day of the Dead, Agnes Varda's Vagabond, Atom Egoyan's Next of Kin, Jane Campion's Passionless Moments, Hou Hsiao-hsien's A Time to Live and a Time to Die, Claude Lanzmann's Shoah, Edward Yang's Taipei Story, Paul Schrader's Mishima, Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Horse Thief, Elem Klimov's Come and See, Jean-Luc Godard's Detective, and Lasse Hallstrom's My Life as a Dog. I need to revisit Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future as it's been too long since I've seen it to know where it'd place on this list. But from this year I really like Akira Kurosawa's Ran, Martin Scorsese's After Hours, and Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Laundrette. And my closest runner-up is Maurice Pialat's Police.
10/19/10 I watched Lasse Hallstrom's My Life as a Dog. Sentimental and almost always looking to be likable. But also with some nice heartfelt and a few inventive moments. Overall not really my thing.
3/28/11 I watched Wim Wenders' Tokyo-Ga. This exploration almost feels like a Godard or Marker essay. An unorthodox, somewhat meandering doc that seems like essential viewing for any strong fan of Ozu's work. Wenders mourns cinema's loss of one of its most special practitioners. Using Ozu's favorite city, Tokyo, as his lens to look at how the world has changed since Ozu's disapperance, Wenders also spends significant time with some of Ozu's closest collaborators.
4/19/11 I watched Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. This abstract, highly stylized oddity actually is one of the more interesting films I've seen from Schrader. At times, it is almost too obtuse, but there is also something here that feels quite personal. And it's the most cinematic of the Schrader-directed films that I've seen. The actor playing the adult Mishima is quite powerful, and Philip Glass's score, though in typical Glass fashion repetitive, also binds it all together into a successfully surreal, cerebral, and intermittently visceral work.
8/30/11 I watched Elem Klimov's Come and See. A harrowing, unflinching, and frenetic film about the horrors of war. Klimov's camera is impressively mobile. The film just felt so full of rage though that it is hard to take in.
8/24/16 I watched Jean-Luc Godard's Hail Mary. One of the more difficult slogs I have experienced with JLG. I never fully connected, emotionally or intellectually, which is very rare for me with his cinema.
4/8/18 I watched Edward Yang's Taipei Story. Stillness and quiet reign in this early Yang film and a memorable, brooding performance by the masterful Hou Hsiao-hsien. Makes me want to run down all of Yang's work as he seemed to excel in the same vein as Hou when he chose to stay contemporary rather than period.
4/28/18 I watched Albert Brooks' Lost in America. Brooks is funny and a good writer but there is something very bland and unexciting about him as a director to me.
11/25/18 I watched Frederick Wiseman's Racetrack. Typical Wiseman quality. What it reminded me of, more than anything, is how unflinching Wiseman can be, no matter how disturbing the scene. But overall slightly less affecting than his greatest work.
9/29/19 I watched Agnes Varda's Vagabond. Varda is one of my almost completely blind spots within the Nouvelle Vague. Of course I have seen Cleo and only recently The Beaches of Agnes. I had heard for a long time about Vagabond but knew it was heavy and wanted to see it when I could take it on (in). Its structure is incredibly surprising. I did not really catch on to how it was put together until probably 30-45 minutes in. In the way it begins and continuously looks back it seemed to have influenced both Twin Peaks and perhaps even some of Dumont (Li'l Quinquin, L'Humanite). Bonnaire's performance is full of power and the whole things gets under your skin. But Varda has this strong yet feathery touch that keeps it exactly where it needs to be rather than turning it something cloying or overwrought.
4/8/20 I watched Jacques Rozier's Maine-Ocean. Although I have only seen three of Rozier's films to date, it is clear that he has a unique voice and consistent thematic interests that include the constraining nature of society and the opportunities of freedom offered by water, travel and the sea. Rozier's style is a unique balance of rigor and looseness and his humanistic spirit comes through in his joyful tone and emphasis on community.
4/28/18 I watched Albert Brooks' Lost in America. Brooks is funny and a good writer but there is something very bland and unexciting about him as a director to me.
11/25/18 I watched Frederick Wiseman's Racetrack. Typical Wiseman quality. What it reminded me of, more than anything, is how unflinching Wiseman can be, no matter how disturbing the scene. But overall slightly less affecting than his greatest work.
9/29/19 I watched Agnes Varda's Vagabond. Varda is one of my almost completely blind spots within the Nouvelle Vague. Of course I have seen Cleo and only recently The Beaches of Agnes. I had heard for a long time about Vagabond but knew it was heavy and wanted to see it when I could take it on (in). Its structure is incredibly surprising. I did not really catch on to how it was put together until probably 30-45 minutes in. In the way it begins and continuously looks back it seemed to have influenced both Twin Peaks and perhaps even some of Dumont (Li'l Quinquin, L'Humanite). Bonnaire's performance is full of power and the whole things gets under your skin. But Varda has this strong yet feathery touch that keeps it exactly where it needs to be rather than turning it something cloying or overwrought.
4/8/20 I watched Jacques Rozier's Maine-Ocean. Although I have only seen three of Rozier's films to date, it is clear that he has a unique voice and consistent thematic interests that include the constraining nature of society and the opportunities of freedom offered by water, travel and the sea. Rozier's style is a unique balance of rigor and looseness and his humanistic spirit comes through in his joyful tone and emphasis on community.
12/29/21 I watched Andre Techine's Rendez-vous. The film that made Juliette Binoche a movie star feels like a combination of numerous genres - romance, thriller, ghost story, art film. It is difficult to understand all that Techine is after in this work. But the idea of a new generation struggling to find and make sense of love seems to be at the fore.
1/2/22 I watched Hou Hsiao-hsien's The Time to Live and the Time to Die. The beautiful naturalism of Hou's cinema is the element that stands out most. His ability with light and color are nearly unrivaled. His formal approach changes fairly dramatically as his career evolves, at times becoming far more rigid and purely contemplative than it is here. At this stage in his career, Hou is artful while still being gentle and warm. His cinema is disciplined enough to avoid any claims of being emotionally manipulative or simply pittoresque.
1/9/22 I watched Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider. A top shelf Eastwood western that impresses on numerous fronts. It is mindful with its location work, its pacing, its framing. It contains one of the most memorable performances in Eastwood's filmography with Michael Moriarty's work. And it reminds one how effective Eastwood can be when he's offering the public certain mythologies like a God-like hero that will save us all from our fears and challenges.
