#310 Nikita Mikhalkov
Ranked ListThis Russian filmmaker made one of my main gateways to contemporary foreign cinema.
Dark Eyes had no reputation to me, but the plot is so ingeniously constructed around a specific International time and place, it remains on my mind to this day.
There's a mystery to Mikhalkov's career. On IMDB, his features easily score above 7.0 until 2010. His last three films are 4.2, 4.1 and 5.7. They're also unusually long and the posters look like Mikhalkov has sold his soul, especially Burnt by the Sun 2. However, I'm not THAT interested in finding out why. I also just watched
An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano by coincidence for my ICM Hitlist, so to get back on track, I'll move ahead.
#311 Taylor Hackford
Ranked ListI was probably too young to appreciate Taylor Hackford's output when I got into films in the 80s. (Having 'Hack' in his name became a lazy way to label his lack of an identifiable style.) I went back to re-evaluate and somewhat appreciate
An Officer and a Gentleman, but a 2nd watch of
Against All Odds didn't yield the same results. I turned around on Hackford with
Dolores Claiborne (under-appreciated and as good as Misery), which was followed by
Devil's Advocate, which I will argue is a Great movie with two crippling decisions, the very end and Keanu's accent.
I have two titles here I've always been curious about:
The Idolmaker (1980) and
Bound by Honor (1993)