Author Topic: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.  (Read 2549 times)

StandAloneMatt

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Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« on: March 20, 2007, 04:40:05 PM »
Now that Martin Scorsese has won - who are your top 5 living directors who haven't won an oscar.  I am including an oscar in any category - so people who have won screenplay oscars (Tarantino, etc) are out.

I would love to hear lists from those out of the US - to see what differences or what filmmakers that might not have made a spash in the US, but might be reveared overseas.

1) David Lynch
2) Peter Weir (Had he not run into hobbits in 2003 - I think he would have had one for Master and Commander)
3) Werner Herzog
4) Terrence Malick
5) Richard Linklater (Although he should have won best animated film for "A Scanner Darkly" and/or "Waking Life")

Others 6-whatever (to help)

Kar Wai Wong
Chan-wook Park
Yimou Zhang
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Walter Salles
Guillermo del Toro
Alfonso Cuarón
Mike Leigh
Ridley Scott
Spike Lee
Terry Gilliam
Michael Mann

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2007, 06:14:08 PM »
1. Terrence Malick
2. Peter Weir
3. David Lynch
4. Lars von Trier
5. Werner Herzog

Honorable Mentions:  Richard Linklater, Wong Kar-Wai, Terry Gilliam, Spike Lee, and Mike Leigh. 
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Brian Z

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2007, 09:50:42 PM »
The problem with a thing like this, which is fun, is that you essentially have to find a year to give it to them where they deserve. For example, I'd give this past one to Cuaron instead of Marty, which would be leave Marty without one still.

sdedalus

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2007, 12:30:30 AM »
1. Wong Kar-wai
2. Hou Hsiao-hsien
3. Jean-Luc Godard
4. Jim Jarmusch
5. Terrence Malick

Zhang Yimou, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Michael Mann, Alain Resnais, Seijun Suzuki, and Werner Herzog also receiving votes.
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StandAloneMatt

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2007, 02:54:31 PM »
@sdedalus:

Hou Hsiao-hsien - I am unfamiliar with these director - what movies would you recommend I put on my Netflix Queue.

Seijun Suzuki - I have already put branded to kill on my queue.

sdedalus

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2007, 03:53:42 PM »
Hou Hsiao-hsien is a Taiwanese director who's generally exalted by critics but hasn't achieved any kind of popular success anywhere.  He's only had one film get an actual theatrical distribution in the US, and that was 2005's Three Times, released by IFC last year.  His films are slow, with long takes, no closeups and not a whole lot in the way of plot.  If you like Ozu or Tarkovsky or Jarmusch, you'd probably like Hou.

I've only seen his most recent films, because they're the only ones available on decent DVD editions in the US (though there's an Asian boxset of 4 of his 1980s films I've got my eye on).  They're all outstanding.

Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996) - a gangster movie about an aging gangster and his young screw up of a partner.  The plot is similar to a lot of films in the genre (most notably Mean Streets), but the style is unique.

Flowers Of Shanghai (1998) - Life and infighting among early 20th century prostitutes.  They scheme and undermine each other, try to trick guys into marrying them, and get used up and thrown out by their rich clientele.  An homage to the many acclaimed films about geishas directed by Kenji Mizoguchi (The Life Of Oharu, Street Of Shame), I think Hou's is better.

Millenium Mambo (2001) - A young girl does drugs, tries and fails and tries again to leave her rat of a boyfriend and ends up at a film festival in Hokkaido, Japan.  The greatest of the urban alienation series of films from the first part of this decade that people seem to think was invented by Sofia Coppola.

Café Lumière (2003) - A tribute film made for the 100th birthday of Yasujiro Ozu, again Hou follows some alienated young people around an urban landscape.  But this time he throws in the inability of parents and children to communicate.  Also, there's no camera movement, in imitation of Ozu's style, whereas in Hou's other films the camera floats around a tableaux-like frame.

Three Times (2005) - A three part film with the same two actors playing lovers in three different periods of Taiwanese history.  The first section is set in the 60s, and is reminiscent of the period films of Wong Kar-wai (Days of Being Wild, In The Mood For Love, 2046).  The second section is set a brothel in the teens, and is silent (with a musical score) complete with intertitles (it is in color though).  The third part is set in the present, with a bisexual singer and a photographer cheating on their girlfriends.  It was the best film released in the US last year.


I'd start with Millenium Mambo.  It's my favorite Hou, and one of my favorite films this century.  Three Times would be a good place to start as well, or even Café Lumière, if you dig Ozu more than Wong.
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ElectricOtter

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2007, 04:50:34 PM »
The problem with a thing like this, which is fun, is that you essentially have to find a year to give it to them where they deserve. For example, I'd give this past one to Cuaron instead of Marty, which would be leave Marty without one still.

True, but the way the Academy looks at it, Marty's gonna keel over before Cuaron, who will most likely be back in the running after not too long.
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StandAloneMatt

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2007, 11:56:22 PM »
True - Cuaron's work in Chindren of Men was oscar worthy - or out of the guys nominated - I would have given it to Paul Greengrass.

sdedalus

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2007, 12:31:38 AM »
The problem with a thing like this, which is fun, is that you essentially have to find a year to give it to them where they deserve. For example, I'd give this past one to Cuaron instead of Marty, which would be leave Marty without one still.

But likely you would have given it to Scorsese back in 1973, or 76, or 80 or 88, or 90 or whenever.

I think he would have won my Best Director Award for only Taxi Driver and Last Temptation Of Christ, he would have been beat out the other years.  But that's a project for the future.
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karlwinslow

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Re: Top 5 Living Directors who have not won an oscar.
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2007, 10:03:18 AM »
True - Cuaron's work in Chindren of Men was oscar worthy - or out of the guys nominated - I would have given it to Paul Greengrass.

Me too.

 

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