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Post by ando on Jan 21, 2023 10:27:16 GMT
Yes, consecutive. Anytime meaning any era or anytime in their career. Often an artist will start out like a ball of fire, hit after hit. Then reach a point where they can't buy a hit.
I'm meaning directors who seem to choose the right projects and are able to bring them to fruition. Four is like having their own era.
Consecutive is what I suspected and I found that Capra, Hawks, and Wyler had such runs. I looked at Hitchcock (likely the most well known director), and I don't think he ever had a run of 4 or more "great" films in a row. I beg your paaahdon?   Vertigo North By Northwest Psycho The Birds If they’re not all great films they’re certainly the greatest run from Hitch, his prime (imo). Edit: For admittedly subjective reasons I can’t abide Rear Window. |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 21, 2023 17:09:38 GMT
Don't know how I missed that Hitchcock run, buy I agree those are 4 first rate films. While I'm not that big of a fan of Vertigo (I love the photography but find the story confusing and thus not that compelling), I know that most people rank Vertigo as one of Hitchcock's best films.
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Post by Unwatchable on Jan 21, 2023 17:40:38 GMT
That's a good run by Hitchcock. Funny, Ando is not crazy about Rear Window, and for JamesJazz it's Vertigo. I've never really liked Psycho. I can appreciate why it's important but it's way down on my list of Hitchcock movies.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 21, 2023 18:04:31 GMT
George Cukor: The Women (1939), Susan and God, The Philadelphia Story (1940), A Woman's Face (1941).
I assume some will question including Susan and God, but I really enjoy this odd quirky film with Joan Crawford and Fredric March.
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Post by ando on Jan 21, 2023 21:58:12 GMT
George Cukor: The Women (1939), Susan and God, The Philadelphia Story (1940), A Woman's Face (1941). I assume some will question including Susan and God, but I really enjoy this odd quirky film with Joan Crawford and Fredric March. Born Again Joan. Susan and God is right up (or down) there with Rain in the Crawford missteps. She was a bit too earnest in each of those performances; they needed a Joan Blondell type of twinkle in the eye to really work. Can’t think of the film but I’m sure Blondell played some kind of religious reformer but managed to come off winning despite the preaching (the title escapes me just now). |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 21, 2023 23:08:39 GMT
George Cukor: The Women (1939), Susan and God, The Philadelphia Story (1940), A Woman's Face (1941). I assume some will question including Susan and God, but I really enjoy this odd quirky film with Joan Crawford and Fredric March. Born Again Joan. Susan and God is right up (or down) there with Rain in the Crawford missteps. She was a bit too earnest in each of those performances; they needed a Joan Blondell type of twinkle in the eye to really work. Can’t think of the film but I’m sure Blondell played some kind of religious reformer but managed to come off winning despite the preaching (the title escapes me just now). I agree Crawford was miscast in Susan and God but it is such an odd quirky film that I still enjoy it. |
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Post by vannorden on Jan 22, 2023 3:37:31 GMT
Andrei Tarkovsky from 1962 to 1986 is hard to top: Ivan's Childhood (1962), Andrei Rublev (1966), Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975), Stalker (1979), Nostalghia (1983), and The Sacrifice (1986).
Fritz Lang's final consecutive stretch of films in Germany before defecting: Destiny (1921), Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1923), The Die Nibelungen Saga: Siegfried and Kriemhild's Revenge (1924), Metropolis (1927), Spies (1928), Woman in the Moon (1929), M (1931), and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933).
Jules Dassin also made a succession of great films before his untimely blacklisting: Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), Thieves' Highway (1949), and Night and the City (1950). After a five-year hiatus, he returns with Rififi (1955). That's a spectacular run.
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Post by ando on Jan 22, 2023 11:48:52 GMT
Andrei Tarkovsky from 1962 to 1986 is hard to top: Ivan's Childhood (1962), Andrei Rublev (1966), Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975), Stalker (1979), Nostalghia (1983), and The Sacrifice (1986).
Fritz Lang's final consecutive stretch of films in Germany before defecting: Destiny (1921), Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1923), The Die Nibelungen Saga: Siegfried and Kriemhild's Revenge (1924), Metropolis (1927), Spies (1928), Woman in the Moon (1929), M (1931), and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933).
Jules Dassin also made a succession of great films before his untimely blacklisting: Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), Thieves' Highway (1949), and Night and the City (1950). After a five-year hiatus, he returns with Rififi (1955). That's a spectacular run.
Excellent examples. In regard to Tarkovsky, artistry at that level is beyond “comparison”. Beyond the marketplace’s strictures of “a good movie”. Tarkovsky, Bergman, Tarr, Fassbinder, Dreyer, Kurosawa and even Ford set the bar, their work really isn’t concerned with falling within it. So good runs are almost beside the point. |
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Post by ando on Jan 22, 2023 19:52:49 GMT
That said, in my book Sidney Lumet had a couple of great runs in his career:  Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962) The Pawnbroker (1964) Fail Safe (1964) The Hill (1965) and later Murder on the Orient Express (1974) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Network (1976) Equus (1977) All classics. The rest of his varied carrer alternates between great, unsung but good and complete misses. |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 25, 2023 20:27:01 GMT
Robert Wise had a good run:
1959 Odds Against Tomorrow
1961 West Side Story
1962 Two for the Seesaw
1963 The Haunting
1965 The Sound of Music
1966 The Sand Pebbles
OK, Two for the Seesaw is a hit-and-miss, but I really like this film due to the odd pairing of Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine.
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Post by Unwatchable on Jan 25, 2023 21:31:24 GMT
Robert Wise had a good run: 1959 Odds Against Tomorrow 1961 West Side Story 1962 Two for the Seesaw 1963 The Haunting 1965 The Sound of Music 1966 The Sand Pebbles OK, Two for the Seesaw is a hit-and-miss, but I really like this film due to the odd pairing of Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine. I like Two for the See Saw especially Mitchum's turn as regular guy attorney from Nebraska. I believe MacLaine wrote in her memoir that they had an affair during filming. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 25, 2023 21:54:39 GMT
I like "Two for the Seesaw" a lot, too. You can feel movies making the turn from Code-era to not Code-era in that one. Plus it's a darn good movie.
I've noted my appreciation of Wise in some other threads as I am impressed with how much I like his movies even though they are all over the map from a genre perspective.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 26, 2023 0:40:41 GMT
I like "Two for the Seesaw" a lot, too. You can feel movies making the turn from Code-era to not Code-era in that one. Plus it's a darn good movie.
I've noted my appreciation of Wise in some other threads as I am impressed with how much I like his movies even though they are all over the map from a genre perspective. All over the map from a genre perspective is so true of Wise. Until I created the above list I forgot that he directed, what I consider to be the last noir film of the classic-noir-era, Odds Against Tomorrow, and then the musical\love story West Side Story. That is one major difference in productions. Glad to see people like Two for the Seesaw as much as I do. |
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Post by Unwatchable on Jan 26, 2023 18:03:29 GMT
Sydney Pollack?
Out of Africa (1985)
Tootsie (1982)
Absence of Malice (1981)
The Electric Horseman (1979)
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Post by vannorden on Jan 29, 2023 2:31:24 GMT
Andrei Tarkovsky from 1962 to 1986 is hard to top: Ivan's Childhood (1962), Andrei Rublev (1966), Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975), Stalker (1979), Nostalghia (1983), and The Sacrifice (1986).
Fritz Lang's final consecutive stretch of films in Germany before defecting: Destiny (1921), Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1923), The Die Nibelungen Saga: Siegfried and Kriemhild's Revenge (1924), Metropolis (1927), Spies (1928), Woman in the Moon (1929), M (1931), and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933).
Jules Dassin also made a succession of great films before his untimely blacklisting: Brute Force (1947), The Naked City (1948), Thieves' Highway (1949), and Night and the City (1950). After a five-year hiatus, he returns with Rififi (1955). That's a spectacular run.
Excellent examples. In regard to Tarkovsky, artistry at that level is beyond “comparison”. Beyond the marketplace’s strictures of “a good movie”. Tarkovsky, Bergman, Tarr, Fassbinder, Dreyer, Kurosawa and even Ford set the bar, their work really isn’t concerned with falling within it. So good runs are almost beside the point. That's true: The filmmakers above made deeply personal works that such "runs" do not apply to their magnificent oeuvres. Most of them steered from conventional taste and the shackles of commercial objectives. When Bergman appeared with Bibi Andersson on Dick Cavett's show, he was adamant that he was his "own master" and that if anyone uninvolved in artistic work interfered with one of his projects, he would tell them "go to hell." |
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