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Movie chatters… Introductions

Introductions by way of answers to a question on Twitter from Aaron Michael (@subsahaaron) ‘if you were only allowed to bring the filmographies of 3 directors and/or actors to a deserted island, who would you choose?’

Rules: producer credits do not count, and you must have a mix of actors and directors, cannot have three directors or three actors.

Martin

Christopher Nolan

Nolan has his detractors, but for me this was a shoo-in from the moment the question was posed. With his brand of cerebral, weighty thrillers, and his almost ‘one-for-me / one-for-you’ relationship with studios, the catalogue he’s accrued in a relatively young career is second to none. I’ve heard that his work is all brains and no heart, but with the brain represented like this, I can get my heart elsewhere.

I’ve always rationed myself with my favourite films – a habit that also extends to albums – to not wear them out; become too familiar. Films like Memento and The Prestige reward rewatches, so littered with details and clues that you can still be discovering them many years later.

There’s Heath Ledger’s Joker, and everything happening around him, in The Dark Knight. The odd (only?) misstep, the impossible-to-compete-with-its-predecessor, The Dark Knight Rises, still has a lot to like, mainly due to the insistence on in-camera effects giving it such weight. And then Inception, Interstellar, and Dunkirk… I’m assuming we have an IMAX screen on this island.

Steven Spielberg

The other places were not so nailed-on. With choice two, I’ve plumped for volume and range. Every kid of my generation grew up on Spielberg, and I’m no different. First thoughts go to E.T., Jaws, Jurassic Park and Close Encounters. With more recent output, his name might not quite be the iron-clad guarantee it once was – I’m not sure Indie 4 or Tin Tin would get much love – but how else could you get that diversity?

Sci-fi, you’d get AI, Minority Report and War of the Worlds. Adventure, you’ve got Indies 1-3, Catch Me If You Can and Hook (!). And for the rare occasions you fancy them, you’ve got the heavier Schindler’s List and Munich.

Tom Cruise

This was a tough one, and was swayed after recently seeing Mission: Impossible – Fallout. That series has proven to be reliably excellent. It’s that mix of smarts, and peerless action. Fallout was more like a Bourne than some of the M:I instalments, and proves that the series is still fresh, with a new texture and slant to them each time. Varying in tone, but rarely in quality.

I was always considering an actor for choice three. For a long time I thought I’d settled on Natalie Portman, in an attempt to give the list a perceived balance, if only on gender terms. I’ve gone for Cruise, again, for volume and variety. He’s not one of my favourite actors, per se, and can even be mildly annoying. But you get M:I. You get Vanilla Sky, Magnolia, The Firm, A Few Good Men. You get Cocktail and Top Gun. You get thirty years of everything in between. And yes, the small waste from crossover with Spielberg is not unnoticed, and frustrating.

Notable mentions:

  • Natalie Portman
  • David Fincher
  • Quentin Tarantino

Lynsey

Realising this is ridiculous and I will look back and regret my choices (which are not in any order) …

Steven Spielberg

We have duplication on this list!? Is that ok? Anyway, it’s Spielberg, it’s not like he’s an obscure choice. I just decided I couldn’t be expected to live forever without Jaws and Jurassic Park.

Bette Davis

For her filmography and the range of roles and her towering genius in the craft, plus damn it I needed films that went back prior to the 1970s (ignoring a Spielberg directed short from ’59 and some 1960s bits and pieces), and Davis’ films give me almost everything.

Diane Keaton

Finally, Diane Keaton, because that way I get all of The Godfather films, Annie Hall, as well as a slew of modern romantic comedies. Plus, I get The First Wives Club.

Notable mentions:

  • George Cukor
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • George Lucas (really… Anthony Daniels)
  • Robert Altman… because of a mammoth filmography most of which I have yet to watch

NB: I hate that all the women I’ve mentioned are actresses, and all the men are directors. Creating a new ‘Women Directors’ category for the blog, and will pro-actively seek out and discuss the work of women directors.

Emmett

Bette Davis

Lynsey got there first. I wanted to, therefore, pick someone else.

Vivien Leigh? For her star, her magnetism, that she was one half of a Golden-era Hollywood power couple, for her Scarlet O’Hara. Perhaps her stage work could have swung it for me. (If this was a theatre blog and I’d ever seen her stage work(!))

Hitchcock. Well for a start I only have to use his surname.

Christopher Nolan – A brilliant innovator who, like his predecessor in this list, ensures that his creativity (read technique) enhances his storytelling.

Barbara Stanwyck – A brilliant character actor who, despite always being Barbara Stanwyck in her roles, ultimately never failed to make me believe.

It goes on and on. But in the end it had to be Davis. Arguably (a strong argument) the finest body of starring work of any Hollywood actor past or present.

An actor of supreme skill, who paved the way for women actors to embody their roles, not just emotionally, but physically too (think Charlize Theron in Monster, Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry).

Daniel Day-Lewis

Perhaps the finest screen actor of all time. But who is DDL? Well, frankly, I don’t know! For I’ve never seen him. Not even a flicker or a frame. He becomes.

Stanley Kubrick

As innovative and visionary a filmmaker as there’s ever been, yet never is technique visible. Like the magician you know there’s a trick but you never see it.

Disbelief, I’ll be back in a couple of hours.