2005 Calvins: Best Director
By David Mumpower
February 18, 2005
In the end, the producers only supply the currency and the cinematographers do as they are told when shooting the picture. There is but one person responsible for pulling the entire production together. If you like the movie, it’s an unspoken rule that you (should) like the director. (S)he is the one who receives the advice and recommendations of the cast of hundreds involved in the creation. Then, (s)he blends all the delegated authority together into a single celluloid blanket. If the film fails, the director is the fall guy. We currently refer to this as Uwe Boll’s Law. If, on the other hand, most of the decisions work, the director is a hero, a person at whose feet we should rain down roses and hosannas. Here, then, are the ten such heroes of 2004 cinema, BOP’s selections for Best Director.
Michel Gondry was a virtual unknown in North America coming into 2004. Oddly, though, Charlie Kaufman was well aware of his natural talents. Hollywood’s quirkiest scribe crossed the Atlantic in 2001 to join Gondry in his homeland of France. The duo created a quirky project known as Human Nature. Kaufman was so impressed that when he came up with a unique idea for a romantic comedy (of sorts), he knew exactly whom to call to helm the project. The result is that the combination of Kaufman the writer and Gondry the director both wind up being runaway Calvins winners as the best in their respected fields this year. In addition, their joint creation takes our top prize, Best Picture. That pretty much says it all about what the BOP staff thinks about the two men’s joint output, does it not?
During the course of the voting process, an interesting debate ensued. It’s one that will rage among us for years to come, but the perfect example of it is demonstrated with this vote. Is it harder to direct a live action production or an animated one? Opinions are sharply divided. Many favor the live action variety, arguing that inability to control the elements makes said film shoots much more creative. Conversely, those who feel that animated projects are harder believe that an entire layer of control is removed from an animated director. They are far more reliant on the work of others than a live action director. It is for this reason that our vote reflects the fact that we give Michel Gondry the nod over our second place contender, Brad Bird. As much as BOP loves the auteur and his instant classic, The Incredibles, we cannot help but feel that it’s harder to direct a Charlie Kaufman script than it is to put the geniuses at Pixar to work.
A not-so-distant third is Michael Mann for his work on the sleek, timeless Collateral. Clearly influenced by his earliest work on Miami Vice, the Tom Cruise/Jamie Foxx film celebrates the dark, mystical nature of the criminal underworld. Foxx portrays an everyman who is introduced to the mysterious Vincent, a wetworks expert who has a schedule to keep. The movie plays out exactly as a fan of the 1980s Crockett and Tubbs adventures would expect. The audience is somehow trained to admire the unseemly behavior of Vincent and his cohorts only to be forcibly reminded of what a monstrous human being the man is. The way that Mann is able to recreate the criminal mind is no longer as novel in the age of David Chase’s Sopranos, but the famed director demonstrates how far he has evolved the concept since his early days on Thief.
As we have mentioned before, Martin Scorsese is in danger of becoming the Susan Lucci of the Academy Awards. The living legend responsible for works such as Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and The Last Temptation of Christ has received his seventh nomination from the Academy, yet he is still winless. It’s presumed that he is a co-favorite this year along with Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby. The duo comprises the remainder of our top five in the category, as well. Scorsese takes the legendary hermit Howard Hughes and turns him into a larger-than-life Hollywood icon. In other words, Scorsese focuses on the time before he locked himself away from the outside world, and the result is an unforgettable biopic. Eastwood, on the other hand, goes much smaller with his directorial effort. He creates a carefully measured character study of three deeply damaged humans struggling to find their redemption in one another. As is the case with a lot of Eastwood’s films, there is a surprising darkness in the extremes faced by the protagonists. The combination of the films is intriguing in this regard. One is stubbornly upbeat while the other is subversive in its bleakness.
Finishing just outside the top five are Zach Braff and Alfonso Cuarón. We have lavished praise on Braff in every category imaginable for his work on Garden State. The film strikes the perfect note of remorse laced with hope, and it greatly impacts the BOP staff. But it’s the Potter film in seventh place that might be the surprise vote for direction. After all, Alfonso Cuarón was a replacement director for Chris Columbus; more importantly, he is a virtual unknown to the people likely to see his film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Cuarón only had two U.S. productions on his resume, the largely unseen Great Expectations and A Little Princess. His most recent credi, Y tu mamá también, was *ahem* a bit too sexually aggressive for the Harry Potter crowd to know. Someone saw something in A Little Princess that made them confident he could pull off the big screen adaptation of one of the most popular pieces of fiction of the past 150 years, though, and the director justified that opinion. The third Potter film is easily the best of the bunch thus far, and Cuarón’s light touch is the key to that success.
Comprising the rest of the top ten are Alexander Payne for Sideways, Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill Vol. 2 and Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11. Payne continued his recent hot streak by cleaning up with Sideways, yet another tale of a man struggling with his own self-worth. Tarantino showed that he could do more than just drip blood by throwing a change-up with Vol. 2 after the high and tight heater that was Vol. 2. Out was the draw-and-quartering and in was dictionary word of the day dialogue among the white and black hats. The two films make marvelous book-ends in this regard. As for Moore, love him or hate him (and both the staff as well as the readers appear nicely divided in this regard), there is no disputing the fact that his work in Fahrenheit 9/11 is remarkable. It’s penetrating, it’s decisive, and it certainly leaves its mark.
The near misses in Best director are Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 2), Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers), Ki-duk Kim (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter….and Spring), and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead).
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Top 10
|
| Position |
Director |
Film |
Total Points |
| 1 |
Michel Gondry |
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind |
106 |
| 2 |
Brad Bird |
The Incredibles |
80 |
| 3 |
Michael Mann |
Collateral |
62 |
| 4 |
Martin Scorsese |
The Aviator |
57 |
| 5 |
Clint Eastwood |
Million Dollar Baby |
45 |
| 6 (tie) |
Zach Braff |
Garden State |
44 |
| 6 (tie) |
Alfonso Cuaron |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
44 |
| 6 (tie) |
Alexander Payne |
Sideways |
44 |
| 9 |
Quentin Tarantino |
Kill Bill Vol. 2 |
41 |
| 10 |
Michael Mann |
Fahrenheit 9/11 |
37 |
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