The Directors on Sky Arts - Series 7

 Episode 1   Steven Spielberg

Somehow I missed the first episode of Series 7 of The Directors on Sky, and that just happened to be Steven Spielberg. This is unavailable to view at the moment so I will have to wait until it is shown again.

What I do know is that we have lost two of the presenters and are left with Steven Armstrong, Neil Norman and Ian Nathan.

The first episode is now back and starts with the clip "you're gonna need a bigger boat", followed by clips from Indiana Jones, Close Encounters and ET.  Neil Norman says that Steven Spielberg has created "a most extraordinary body of work". He was born in 1946 in Ohio to an Orthodox Jewish family that had roots in Ukraine. He grew up in Phoenix Arizona and was obsessed with film at a very early age.

He turned up at Universal Studios day after day watching what was going on and in the end was given bits to do on the lot. He went to film school and his short film Amblin. This led to work on TV and he actually shot the first ever episode of Columbo. However it was his first feature in 1971  that made him as a director. Duel was a huge hit and is still watched today. 

There is nothing else to say except to just list his movies:

The Sugarland Express - 1974, Jaws - 1975, Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 1977, 1941 - ..., Raiders of the Lost Ark - 1981, ET - 1982, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom - ...., The Colour Purple - ...., Empire of the Sun - 1987, Always - 1989. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade - 1989, Hook - 1990, Jurassic Park - 1993, Schindler's List - 1993 (and a Best Director Oscar).

Amistad - ...., The Lost World: Jurassic Park -....., Saving Private Ryan - 1998 (Another Best Director Oscar), AI - 2001, Minority Report - 2002, War of the Words - ..... (A trilogy of sci fi movies), Catch Me if You Can - ....., and then more human stories with The Terminal - ....., Munich - 2005, Bridge of Spies - ...., Lincoln - 2012 (Daniel day Lewis was the only actor who could play that part) and The Post - ...., Then back to sci fi with Ready Player One - 2018, then The BFG - ...., and The Adventures of Tin Tin - .....,  

And most recently West Side Story in 2018. Phew! There are some films not mentioned but those were enough.

Episode 2    The Coen Brothers

Steven Armstrong introduced this episode with the background of Ethan and Joel Coen. They are independent film makers in the truest sense. Their parents were both academics and they lived in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The boys were introduced to cinema and they soon had their first camera. Joel was going to be the director and they started making short films despite no formal training. Joel then went to University to study film.

Their first movie was, amazingly, the excellent Blood Simple. They first made the trailer that then led to to full film. This led to studio backing for their next feature Raising Arizona that proved to be a big hit. Not surprising as it starred Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage. The Coens turned down a Batman film and instead made the gangster movie Miller's Crossing with Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney. The critics loved it, and it certainly looked great 

I have seen all these films, but not the next one Barton Fink with John Turturro and John Goodman. It was described as being dark and weird and although it won the Palme D'Or, it did not do well at the box office. Nor did The Hudsucker Proxy.

However, their next film was a huge critical and commercial success. I can distinctly remember when I saw Fargo that starred William H Macy and Frances McDormand. I was in London and between jobs, so probably an interview. Afterwards, with time to spare, I found a cinema showing a film I knew nothing about and it made a huge impression. The Coen brothers had gone back to the snow of their home state. It won the Oscar for best screenplay and a best actress award for Frances McDormand as Marge. 

Another brilliant film followed, one of my all time favourites. The Big Lebowski stars Jeff Bridges who has never been better. Then came Oh Brother Where Art Thou with George Clooney. I loved the blue grass soundtrack. I missed the black and white The Man Who Wasn't There that was described as being very dark. But next came Intolerable Cruelty with again George Clooney, this time with Catherine Zeta Jones. The programme skipped over The Ladykillers to concentrate on No Country For Old Men, a huge commercial and critical hit. Dark and sometimes terrifying with the dangerous Javier Bardem and also Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin. It won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. 

I enjoyed Burn After Reading but missed A Serious Man and True Grit with Jeff Bridges in an adaptation much closer to the book than the John Wayne version.  Although this film received ten Oscar nominations and became their biggest commercial success. I did see Inside Llewelyn Davis (unlike most people) but I agreed it was unremarkable. After The Ballad of Buster Scruggs came Hail, Caesar with that starry cast that the presenters and I thought was great fun. George Clooney was so funny.

And finally we were told that a Coen Brothers movie will always be well written, entertaining and sometimes outstanding. I have to agree.

Episode 3     Wes Anderson

I have always been a big fan of Wes Anderson films. Steven Armstrong sid that he was possibly the only "auteur" working in American cinema. He has control over everything and does what he wants and doesn't pander to public opinion. Ian Nathan added that he is an institution with a huge fan base. Neil Norman thought he was more of an international film maker.

Anderson was born in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The single most defining event in his life was the divorce of his parents while he was still a child. He went to a private prep school and on to the University of Texas in Austin. There he met Owen Wilson and they were to become life long friends and collaborators. Anderson wrote plays at Austin and in 1996 he made a short film, written partly with Wilson, who also acted,  called Bottle Rocket. about a heist in a bookstore. Steven Armstrong told us this was an experiment and Ian Nathan that the critics became immediately interested. 

He was still young when he wrote and directed the 1998 autobiographical film Rushmore. Bill Murray made his first appearance of many with Anderson. It was a big success and this led to him engaging an all star cast for 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums. Ian Nathan said that his films did not cost too much and were made mainly in the studio, and made money. Owen Wilson was a regular actor as was Bill Murray and they both appeared in 2004's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizoo. Notable for it's amazing set and bizarre characters.

In 2007 came The Darjeeling Ltd, yet another film I thought was really good, Although I missed the animation The Fantastic Mr Fox from 2009, I loved 2012's Moonrise Kingdom. Even better (perhaps my favourite) was 2014's The Grand Budapest Hotel that became a critical and commercial success. Ian Nathan also thought it was his best with Ralph Fiennes, more big stars and that wonderful 1930's setting. 

Another animation I missed was 2018's Isle of Dogs but I saw 2021's The French Dispatch twice in a week at the cinema. It was that good. Another starry cast about the New Yorker magazine, told in a series of short stories. It was left to Neil Norman to sum up Anderson's film as eccentric but extraordinary, one of cinemas greatest. Once again I have to agree.

Episode 4      John Singleton

I thought I didn't know any of John Singleton's films, that is until we reached his fifth. Neil Norman told us he was very young when he made his first film that was a big hit. So he was a fully fledged film maker right from the start. Ian Nathan said it just showed what films can be made by the  studios with black American directors. Steven Armstrong thought he was way ahead of his time , making films in the 1990's. 

Singleton was born in 1968 in Lost Angeles. His parents were not together when he was young, but separately were good advisors and role models. John was very smart and loved to watch classic movies. At school he was writing film reviews. The University of Southern California's, School of Cinematic Arts took him on the basis of some of the writing he submitted. Neil Norman thought he wanted to make films for young black Americans and knew he could write the screenplay.

In !991 he gained funding of $7million based on the script for 1991's Boys 'N The Hood, even though he had made nothing before and he was still at USC. The studio thought there was a market there and were proved right. It is an autobiographical film with wonderful dialogue between father and son.

I had not heard of the following films: 1993's Poetic Justice, Higher Learning from 1995 and 1997's Rosewood that Neil Norman thought was a very important film. But then came that movie that most people would know, including me. Shaft was released in 2000 with Samuel L Jackson who leaves the police force to become a private detective. This urban thriller became a massive hit. It should have produced a sequel but the studio thought not. Until many years later.

Baby Boy in 2001 was followed by 2 Fast 2 Furious, the second in what was to become a huge franchise. We were told it was a big improvement on the first and was instrumental in influencing the future movies. In 2005, Singleton released Four Brothers followed by Abduction in 2011. It was then that he moved to television with more success. 

Episode 5      Jonathan Demme

If you had asked me what movies had been made by Jonathan Demme, I could not have told you. But Steven Armstrong said he had an enormous range as i was about to find out. Demme was born in Baldwin, New York in 1944, so a good year. He grew up in Rock Island and went to the University of Florida to study veterinary science of all things. However he noticed that the University newspaper did not have anyone writing film reviews and took this on himself. He was working as an assistant to Roger Corman, writing publicity material and then helping with scripts. 

Eventually he was given some small funding to make 1974's Caged Heat, despite reservations from Corman himself. Neil Norman mentioned the music being good, and that was the start of things to come. In 1979 Demme made Last Embrace and it was his association with Corman that he was able to collaborate with some experienced people. Then in 1980 came Melvin and Howard that won a best screenplay Oscar for  Bo Goldman and a best supporting actress Oscar for Mary Steenburgen. There were also lots of other association awards and nominations that really put Demme on the map.

This led to a big studio production in Swing Shift in 1984 with Goldie Hawn (a huge star at the time), Kurt Russell and Holly Hunter. it was a box office disaster with reshoots against the director's wishes. His next film was Something Wild in 1986 with Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith. A comedy drama that Neil Norman said was great fun and a fantastic film. I had not heard of any of these movies, nor 1988's Married to the Mob. These were all my missing cinema years. Alec Baldwin and Michelle Pfeifer starred in what was described as a great comedy.

However, here comes the biggie that everyone knows. The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 was rightly called a masterpiece. Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster spar like the best. At the time it seemed strange for Demme to be chosen as director, but he brilliantly shoots scenes like the escape. It became a massive hit and won five Oscars including a best director for Demme. He followed this with the equally well received Philadelphia in 1993 starring Tom Hanks and Denzil Washington. However, the weird ghost story Beloved in 1998 did poorly. 

But Demme was back on form with 2004's The Manchurian Candidate starring Denzil Washington again and Liv Schreiber.  It was called a subversive cold war thriller by Neil Norman. Rachel Getting Married in 2008 starred a brilliant Anne Hathaway that Ian Nathan said was very personal and emotional to the director. Last of all came 2015's Ricki and the Flash starring Meryl Streep. We were left with the view that so many other directors loved the work of Jonathan Demme and that he worked with many big stars.

Episode 6      Christopher Nolan

Ian Nathan introduced Christopher Nolan by saying he was "the true modern film maker". Nolan was born in London in 1970 and started with film camera at a very early age. His first film was Following, shot as an experimental on a very small budget. But it became his calling card and gave him the chance to direct Memento in 2000 with Guy Pearce and Carrie Ann Moss. It was a big success and made his name.

In 2002 he directed Insomnia with Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank and this was followed in 2005 by Batman Begins. He was hired to relaunch the franchise to a new generation and he started with a Bruce Wayne origin story. Then The Prestige in 2006 reunites the stars from the previous movie: Christian Bale and Michael Caine. 2008's The Dark Knight was the Batman sequel which Nolan never intended to revisit.

The next film became more complicated. Inception in 2010 had huge special effects. Then the last in the Batman trilogy in 2012 The Dark Knight Rises. A big sci fi movie followed in Interstellar in 2014 and then Dunkirk in 2017. Here he had to convince a big American studio to finance a war film with no Americans. Last of all came Tenet in 2020, an even more complicated film about time travel. The plot was impossible to describe.

Episode 7     Nora Ephron

Ian Nathan told us that Nora Ephron was a "huge inspiration" to film makers who followed. Stephen Armstrong said she let the characters tell their own story and Neil norman referred to her combination of cynicism and sentimentality. 

Ephron was born in 1941 in New York City and this place would always influence her work.  Her parents were both screenwriters and she graduated from Wellesley College in 1962. After working as an intern in The White House, she worked as a mail girl for Newsweek and then as reporter for The Post. Her screenwriting career started when she  co-scripted Silkwood that was nominated for best original screenplay in 1984. 

Ephron's novel Heartburn was adapted for the movie by her and starred Meryl Streep. Nora had written a screenplay called When Harry Met Sally in 1986 and the movie was released in 1989 for which another Oscar nomination followed. We were then told that the only way she could keep control of her work was to direct as well. Her movie This Is My Life was released in 1992 and Neil Norman called it very funny and interesting. 

Then in 1993 came the huge hit that was Sleepless in Seattle starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.  Ephron was brought in to lighten the script and with others dropping out as a result, took over the direction. This film put Nora on the A-List of directors.

In 1994 came the frenetic comedy Mixed Nuts with a young Steve Martin, Adam Sandler and an amazing cast. Called here as an "undiscovered Christmas movie". And in 1995 came Michael, another odd comedy about an arc angel played by John Travolta and also starring Bob Hoskins, William Hurt and Andie McDowell. 

This was followed by another hit in 1998 with You've Got Mail that reprised the success of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. In 2005 came Bewitched, a reboot of the tv series with Nicole Kidman and Michael Caine. It was described here as charming and a great comedy. Next came Julie and Julia in 2009 with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. However, Nora has been diagnosed with cancer in 2006 which she kept hidden until her death in 2012 at the age of 72. This was called a great loss with Neil Norman saying that she re-defined romantic comedy for the modern age. Ian Nathan added that she made careers and Stephen Armstrong that her films were documents of their time.

Episode 8    Antoine Faqua

I have to admit that I didn't know the name, never mind what movies he made. Antoine Fuqua was born in 1966 in Pittsburgh. His parents lived in the ghetto but were a church going family. At the age of 15 he was wounded by gunfire and so from then on stayed inside studied, and made cinema his other home.  he went to West Virginia University where he took an art class. This combined with his love of movies led to him making storyboards that needed his artistic accomplishment. 

He actually made a promotional video for Dangerous Minds that did so well to publicise the film that the director Jerry Bruckheimer was so impressed he found a job for him at Columbia Studios. This led to him directing The Replacement Killers in 1998 and Bait in 200. Ian Nathan called the first an over the top high octane action movie. For the second, Fuqua was parachuted in with five weeks left of the shoot. 

Then came the huge hit that was Training Day in 2001 with Denzel Washington playing the bad guy. I could never have told you who directed this film. Neil Norman told us it had extraordinary tension and was really authentic. It won Washington an Oscar nomination. Then in 2004 came a real departure with Arthur starring an (as usual) wooden Clive Owen. Norman said it was a very dark and violent film, like a Magnificent Seven with Roman soldiers.

In 2007 came Shooter which Steven Armstrong called a good action movie, as Fuqua continued his speciality of this genre. We were advised to miss 2009's Brooklyn's Finest and instead go for the huge box office success that was 2013's Olympus Has Fallen. Fuqua was becoming the go-to action movie director. Next came The Equalizer in 2014, called another nonsense take on the 1980's TV series, followed by Southpaw in 2015. 

The following year came a remake of The Magnificent Seven and in 2021 The Guilty. This was called a brilliant piece of work by Neil Norman. Ian Nathan summed up his career to date with saying Fuqua was especially good on the world of law and order. In the future I will look out to see if any of his movies are shown on TV, having seen three of his films more than once.

Episode 9    Barry Levinson

In Nathan introduced this episode by saying that Barry Levinson was one of the great Hollywood directors and didn't know why he was not recognised so highly as his work is astonishing. He was born in 1942 in Baltimore to a Russian Jewish immigrant family. He went to the University of Washington DC and studied broadcast journalism. As an intern at a local TV station, he learnt how to put footage together. He was noticed by Mel Brooks when he was contributing on two scripts: Silent Movie and High Anxiety. He was encouraged to write the screenplay for his own movie and this became Diner in 1982 about five young men that Neil Norman hailed the dialogue as truly amazing and very funny.

Somehow Payne was given his first big project that was the famous baseball drama The Natural with Robert Redford. Neil Norman said it was a dream film. In 1987 came Tin Men that took Payne back to his home town. Salesmen Danny de Vito and Richard Dreyfuss go head to head (in that diner again). A huge hit followed the same year with Good Morning, Vietnam. Steven Armstrong said that this was Robin Williams' best film for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Equally huge was 1988's Rain Man that was called the director's most famous movie. It won Oscars for best film, director and actor for Dustin Hoffman. It also starred a very young Tom Cruise, who played a nasty character really well.

Next up was Avalon in 1990, the next in Levinson's Baltimore quartet. Then Bugsy in 1991 with Warren Beatty and Anette Benning in a kind of mafia romance. Sleepers in 1996 was about four New York boys, starting in a reform school and meeting in later life, with an amazing cast including Robert de Niro, Kevin Bacon, Dustin Hoffman and Brad Pitt. De Niro and Hoffman again appeared in Wag The Dog from 1997. Neil Norman called it very funny, dark and edgy. This was followed by Bandits in 2001 with Cate Blanchett. Then What Just Happened in 2008, yet again with Robert de Niro. With Bruce Willis playing himself. 

Summing up, Neil Norman said how great the director was with actors and Steven Armstrong and Ian Nathan mentioned the stories were a great commentary about America.

Episode 10    Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne was born in 191 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father ran a restaurant and his mother taught languages. He attended Stanford University to study Spanish followed by an MA at UCLA in Film Studies. It was in his final year that he made a short film The passion of Martin that was shown at Sundance where it garnered a great deal of attention. This led to a contract with Universal Studios where he co-wrote and directed Citizen Ruth in 1996 with Laura Dern. It gained good reviews at Sundance and led to Payne, after three years,  getting his next film made. Election in 1999 starred Mathew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon and was a huge hit taking Payne into the top rank of directors. Ian Nathan called it a marvellous film and I remember it well. 

In 2002 came About Schmidt that was turned down by Universal when he first started there. Steven Armstrong said that this was a great part for Jack Nicholson where he was mesmerising. Then came the movie for which Payne is best known. Sideways was released in 2004 starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church. Despite it's subject matter about two middle aged men touring vineyards, it was very well received with a huge audience. We were told that it was the performance of her career for co-star Virginia Madsen. Neil Norman commented that it was at the same time very funny and deeply sad.  

Next came The Descendants in 2011  starring George Clooney and was almost a black comedy. Then in 2013 the black and white movie Nebraska ( Payne's home state) and then Downsizing in 2017. In conclusion, Neil Norman said he was a very particular director with a unique perspective. I was surprised at how many of his films I had see.