Movie Directors Specific Obsessions:
Hollywood has given us a lot of actors to idolize. But it is time to know about some of the greatest legends that sit behind the camera and say action. This list contains some of the greatest movie directors of all time and some of their very confusing and amusing obsessions.
1. Christopher Nolan – Paradoxes
The more you think about his movies, the more you get confused. Where does it begin? Where do they all end? Christopher Nolan loves to make the audience keep guessing. He has done it so many times. Take The Dark Knight for example. The greatest highlight of that movie will be the Joker. Nobody knew his origin story. Nobody knows what happened to him after Batman caught him. He is an enigma. The same goes for Interstellar and Memento. Although Nolan is a genius at making loose ends meet at the very climax of his movies, we cannot stop but notice that Christopher Nolan just loves a good old fashioned paradox. Many times we have seen scratching heads and confused looks from the audience every time they walk out of the theatres after a Nolan movie premiere! That is Nolan for you. He just fits in a Paradox into his stories like it’s a piece of cake.
2. Guillermo del Toro – Steam Punk
This is more or less an open secret. Guillermo del Toro loves steampunk related themes. The most he loves is Clockwork, which is featured in some of his greatest creations. Take Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, or even Hell Boy as an example. There is rampantly featuring Clockwork. His very first movie – Cronos, featured a machine that can turn anyone into a vampire. Cronos was essentially a machine made out of pure clockwork. Del Toro even uses clockwork themes in Hell Boy 2: The Golden Army. The movie showed an army of invincible soldiers that are actually amalgamations of massive amounts of clockwork that can dish out unfathomable levels of damage and can repair themselves if need be. Every time there is clockwork in a movie, it is Guillermo del Toro’s vision at work.
3. Terry Gilliam – Little People and Dwarves
If we did not know better, we would have thought that this is almost a fetish Terry has. Most of Terry Gilliam’s work has dwarves and midgets in one form or another. So many of his movies are literally based on the works of the little guy! His original sleeper hit – the 1981 movie Time Bandits was the tale of a band of time traveling dwarves. Jack Purvis, who had already appeared in a lot of Gilliam’s movies, was also roped in to be featured in two more of Terry Gilliam’s works – The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Brazil. In his other massively acclaimed movie The Fisher King, a lot of the extras that were featured were actually midgets. Producer Laila Nabulsi claimed that Terry’s obsession for midgets knows no bounds. Nabulsi would know better since she has worked with him on various projects.
4. David Lynch – Surrealism
Many consider David Lynch as the man that saved American Cinema. The Guardian even states that David Lynch as the Renaissance Man of Modern Film Making. David lynches works to speak for themselves. Many of his works like Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, and Blue Velvet are starkly surrealistic. Critic Pauline Kael considers Lynch as the first truly popular Surrealist after Salvador Dali, the legendary artist that immortalized that genre. Surrealist film-making involves a lot of symbolism and subtlety. So most directors stay away from them since it is not everyone’s cup of tea to sip! David Lynch did not just take the road not taken, he mastered the way. Dream logic and non-linear, subliminal narration are his absolute forte and he spares no expense at showing it off every now and then.
5. Quentin Tarantino – Bloodbaths
Some people like death. Some people like to show the world death. Quentin Tarantino definitely falls on the latter. The Guy is absolutely obsessed with showing blood and guts. Quentin Tarantino’s movies are all about blood and gore. Django Unchained had some really bloody scenes. And can we even forget that Kill Bill Yakuza massacre scene? Quentin Tarantino is even unnaturally good at showing how blood is spilled and the splatter element adorns most of his camera placement and works.
6. Alfred Hitchcock – Psychopaths
With more than 46 Oscar Nominations, we know this guy is a God of the Movie Making Industry. Alfred Hitchcock’s movies are so popular that there is actually a style of direction and camera movement to his name. It’s called the Hitchcockian style of film making that focuses on film framing and moving the camera to mimic a person’s gaze so that the viewers end up dabbling into voyeurism. Alfred Hitchcock has a thing for psychopaths. Many of his movies have featured Psychopaths as main characters/antagonists. Psycho and Rear Window are terrific examples to drive our point across. His movie Birds too featured psychopathy up to some extent (albeit by another species). Strangers on a Train and North by Northwest are something to watch out for too. Alfred Hitchcock loves psychopaths.
7. Akira Kurosawa – Shades of Grey Characters
One of the greatest legends of motion pictures, Akira Kurosawa was one of the first directors of Japanese descent to have won an international Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. Akira Kurosawa’s first acclaimed work Rashomon that won the said award had a revolutionary screenplay that has shaped international cinema to date. Rashomon was the first-ever movie to feature all of its characters as having both shades of light and black. No one was totally good or completely evil. The rest of his movies like Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, and Ikiru also featured such characters. Before Kurosawa made it popular, most Hollywood movies featured heroes and heroines with hearts of gold and the villains were shown to be completely sinister. Kurosawa has an obsession with justifying the actions and reactions of all his characters.
8. Stanley Kubrick – Dark Realism
Stanley Kubrick is always seen as a director ahead of his time. And his movies are always seen as pure master-pieces dreamt up by a sheer visionary and genius. Stanley Kubrick has given us one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time – 2001: A Space Odyssey, a movie that did not use any extensive CGI effects but still gave us special effects using the innovative screenplay and set designs. Paths of Glory and The Killing are two of his next best classics. All his movies are based on gritty and dark realistic themes. Stanley Kubrick is obsessed with making any movie into a darker version of itself. Stanley Kubrick’s vision was not understood by many and this led to him being sacked by the very Studio he helped create in the first place. Kubrick left for greener pastures after that and ended up making these dark realistic plots that were mostly novel and book adaptations.
9 Clint Eastwood – Good Old Americana
Clint Eastwood is many things. He is an actor, a producer, a director, a musician, a politician, and an absolute legend. But he is first and foremost a patriot. Clint Eastwood has dabbled into movie direction too and in most of the movies, he him-self stars. The Mule, Gran Torino, Mystic River, and Changeling are some of his greatest works. As a patriot who believes in the American Dream, Clint Eastwood makes sure the American Flag and the virtues and ideals it represents are shown in all its glory and at any cost.
10. Ridley Scott – Dark Science Fiction
When you think of the future, you think of flying cars and teleporting devices. You see robots and Artificial Intelligences. But that thought process is changing. We see the future looking bleaker and bleaker. That is in no fewer thanks to Ridley Scott, who is the one that started this trend after all. Before Ridley Scott made Blade Runner, the future looked of space ships and light-sabers. Blade Runner was a very ambitious project that intended to give the world a new kind of genre in science fiction – Dark Science Fiction. The Future is always grittier in Ridley Scott’s movies. Take Alien, Alien: Covenant or Prometheus for example. None of the movies have a lighter tone and they are considered by Ridley Scott’s greatest works for a reason.
