My favourite directors

In movies as well as literature, there are some people whose works resonate with us more at a personal level, often more than the bigger and more celebrated names. It may be due to a number of reasons – we may find their style easy to access, or their message close to our heart. Or we can identify with the characters they create, given our personal experience. For such an author or director, you cannot just have enough of them – you savour their latest work, and eagerly wait for the next one. In movies, there are some directors whose work I particularly like, and always look forward to watching more of their films:

Spike lee: He is really my top favourite. His movies transport you briefly to a different world. You identify with the characters, you empathize with their situations, you enjoy their conversations. At the end of the movie you feel you know the characters like you know your close friends. Even though you may not have like all of them, you always understand them. I would recommend everybody to watch ‘Do the right thing’ – which is really the finest movie he directed. However, ‘25^th hour’ and ‘Malcolm X’ are not to be missed as well.

Larry clark: I loved his ‘Kids’ and ‘Bully’. His portrayal of teenagers who have somehow failed to find any meaning to life – and sunk into the abyss of drug, sex and animal gratification – is so real that it is frightening. There is always a lot of sex in his movies – but given the bleak story, you are unlikely to enjoy those scenes.

Oliver Hirschbiegel: The German director who gave us ‘Downfall’ – a grim portrayal of Hitler’s last few days at the bunker, and ‘The Experiment’ – a movie which encompasses many genres at once – thriller, documentary, philosophy.

Robert Mulligan: I have a personal reason for liking his movies. Two of his best movies – ‘To kill a mockingbird’ and ‘The man in the moon’ – are set in a small town. Small towns have their own charm, and idiosyncrasies – most people know each other, people drop by your house without prior announcement, life moves at a tranquil pace. If something happens that is out of the ordinary (an accident, or a scandal), the entire town would be abuzz with discussion, opinions and gossip. With my childhood in a similar small town – I felt quite nostalgic watching those movies.

David Cronenberg: I do not normally like thrillers with their routine shootings, fights and chases – but I sat absolutely riveted when I watched ‘Eastern Promises’, and ‘A history of Violence’ – movies that contain quite a few of those elements. These are the two most recent movies he directed in his 40 year long career. He is 66, and at his best now. I eagerly await his next release.

Sam Mendes: His ‘Revolutionary road’ was overlooked for Oscar last year, but I thought it was much better than the likes of Slumdog and Benjamin Button. Roger Ebert wrote “This film is so good it is devastating.” His ‘American beauty’ is milder in comparison, but also explores similar issues of existential crisis and loneliness.

Jill Sprecher: He directed two little known gems – ‘Thirteen conversations about one thing’, and ‘Clockwatchers’. In ‘Thirteen conversations…’, he explores some of my favourite themes – life’s unfairness and unpredictability, and how fragile our happiness is in the face of chance events.

This is just a partial list – hope to add to this post soon. Specifically, we cannot forget Indian directors like Mira Nair, Vishal Bharadwaj or Raj Kumar Hirani!