FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Smelodies on July 02, 2011, 03:02:27 PM
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Or the heir apparent, if you will.
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Or the heir apparent, if you will.
PTA, Darren Aronofsky, and Christopher Nolan all come to mind immediately for various reasons. Though, I think PTA is more heir apparent to Robert Altman than anyone else. I'm sure there's tons of others, his influence is pretty ubiquitous.
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I thought about it more so i had to post again. haha
I think at first Aronofsky seems like the most likely candidate looking at his visual style, use of classical music, and other superficial aspects of his work but he totally lacks Kubrick's sense of humor and that's a really important part of his legacy in my opinion.
As far as Nolan, we'll see where his foray into blockbuster comic book movies eventually takes him but I think he's probably the best candidate in many ways. A lot about the visual style, scope and tone of his films is feels very Kubrickian to me without being totally obvious. Things he does like the way he uses music, Edith Piaf song in Inception is a great example, and his use of editing as a creative tool make me think of Kubrick. Also, The Joker in Dark Knight is the most Kubrickian villain I think I've seen in a modern film, he's creepy, unsettling, darkly hilarious, and totally mysterious to the point of being almost otherworldly. Their mutual relationships to both the US and England is an interesting coincidence as well.
I could go on but I'm not trying to write an essay.
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I looked at this question as one of personal stature, and of whose films are highly anticipated artistic "events." If that's the case, I would say "no one," because Kubrick also had box office successes under his belt. But let's look at these candidates using both the artistic/commercial criteria (Warning: VERY broad generalizations ahead):
David Lynch - Was a household name for a brief period thanks to Twin Peaks, then the consensus among critics and audiences for nearly a decade was that he lost his way until Mulholland Drive restored his reputation. Now he has a strong cult following, but thanks to his current distribution methods is unlikely to have another hit even if he makes a "normal" movie.
Terrence Malick - I think he has just moved closer to this role w/ Tree of Life. He seems to have much more name recognition now than he did even a few years ago when The New World came out. I don't even actually know how Tree of Life is doing at the box office, but he is such an anachronism - and people have such visceral, negative reaction (http://www.theawl.com/2011/06/the-tree-of-life-no-refunds-sign) to his films - he will likely remain mostly a critic/cinephile favorite.
Paul Thomas Anderson- There Will Be Blood elevated him to a brand new level, but he still hasn't crossed over and had a real hit, or gotten much mainstream name recognition. The fact that his next film is a veiled look at Scientology might get some mainstream buzz, but it doesn’t have a bankable star so I’m kind of skeptical about that.
Quentin Tarantino – Oddly enough, he may be the closest, even though he obviously doesn’t have a lot in common w/ Kubrick. He’s well-known by the general public and basically proved everybody but a few naysayers wrong with Inglorious Basterds, which was both critically acclaimed and a #1 hit. His obsession with B-movie trash and his own mouth keeps him from the aura of “respectability” that directors of comparable stature would normally have though. Also the fact that he’s more than a little bit of a rip-off artist, albeit a gifted one.
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I know this might lead to guffaws but here goes:
Wes Anderson: he has the complete control over aesthetics, cinematography, soundtrack, builds entire worlds for his movies. And despite the emotion displayed in the movies by the characters, the films themselves tend to have the cool, dispassionate feel of Kubrick.
I've also been drinking a bit.
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Whoops. Didn't mean to kill the thread.
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It's PTA for me. That guy dominates whatever the genre, just like Kubrick.
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I looked at this question as one of personal stature, and of whose films are highly anticipated artistic "events."
Cool, now on a purely stylistic basis?
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Well, I think true auteurs have imitators but no real heirs. There Will Be Blood, again, felt heavily influenced by Kubrick, but that was a first for Anderson, who was really more in the Altman/Scorsese mode before that.
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I've always felt Boogie Nights has a good dash of Spinal Tap thrown in.
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I've always felt Boogie Nights has a good dash of Spinal Tap thrown in.
Yes, that too, along w/ the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" video.
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If you've seen Tree Of Life i would say Malick.
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I was waiting for it to come to the AMC. No dice. No end to the Summer of Shit festival.
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I was waiting for it to come to the AMC. No dice. No end to the Summer of Shit festival.
That Festival sounds like a rough idea, but there's no accounting for what movie theater operators will do.
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I'm surprised no one's mentioned Michael Haneke yet -- particularly Funny Games and The Piano Teacher, but all of his films have that chilly intellectual vibe, and he exhibits similar sadistic tendencies toward his audience (can you tell I'm not a huge Kubrick fan?).
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Yo Leroy!
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I've always felt Boogie Nights has a good dash of Spinal Tap thrown in.
Yes, that too, along w/ the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" video.
And of course, Stanley famously scribbled all of R. Lee Ermey's dialogue after listening to "Hold It, Now Hit It."
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I'm surprised no one's mentioned Michael Haneke yet -- particularly Funny Games and The Piano Teacher, but all of his films have that chilly intellectual vibe, and he exhibits similar sadistic tendencies toward his audience (can you tell I'm not a huge Kubrick fan?).
I think there's something to this, but Haneke's mode has always been primarily didactic, which wasn't the case with Kubrick.
I'd say the Coens are pretty good heirs: technical wizards, darkly comic sensibility, leapfrogging around genres...
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Trent L. Strauss
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Trent L. Strauss
Eh, I suppose there are similarities between Kubrick's films and certain works in the TLS Filmography. For example, Eyes Glued Shut, Parts-A-Gus, Paths of Gory and Dr. Strangle Glove. But I think those are more coincidental than anything else and the comparison does Strauss a disservice.
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I see that you conveniently left out Bury Lyndon, TLS's scathing indictment of the LBJ presidency (and one of the most banned films in South America). Fans of his later, mainstream ouevre tend to omit it from discussions because they either haven't seen it or can't deal with TLS's political views.
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There's not really any American filmmaker i can think of off hand that uses long shots like he did working today.
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There's not really any American filmmaker i can think of off hand that uses long shots like he did working today.
Well Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson do. That Wes Anderson credit card commercial comes to mind, along with a lot of scanning shots in Darjeeling Ltd. And when it comes to PTA, Magnolia is full of steadycam. Isn't there a tremendously long shot when the father and son enter the gameshow studio following them down the halls?
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If you've seen Tree Of Life i would say Malick.
That and the fact that both directors made the war movie genre all their own.
I will say though that if the two were to be compared, I think that Kubrick never quite made it to where Malick is right now. I love following the career trajectories of both directors because it seems like they were/are striving to make a film that was supremely 'their' vision. Malick is almost there I think. Maybe Kubrick got there with Eyes Wide Shut.
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Raja Gosnell
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Raja Gosnell
Chris Columbus
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I've only seen a few things but I think Bela Tarr would be worthy.
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Oh geeeeeez, I suppose the one the gives you 02:39 secs of genius then 2 hours of pure crap then 2 more minutes of genius then throws-up on you.
Stay on groovin' safari,
:o Tor :o
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Those who aspire to be the next Kubrick may be interested in his fan letter to Ingmar Bergman, from 1960:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/07/you-are-greatest-film-maker-at-work.html (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/07/you-are-greatest-film-maker-at-work.html)
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Those who aspire to be the next Kubrick may be interested in his fan letter to Ingmar Bergman, from 1960:
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/07/you-are-greatest-film-maker-at-work.html (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/07/you-are-greatest-film-maker-at-work.html)
I wonder if Bergman had a crank file.
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How about Alfonso Cuaron?
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David Bowie's son.
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David Bowie's son.
If only Bowie had given him a name!
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David Bowie's son.
If only Bowie had given him a name!
YOU probably know him as Zowie.
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Not Baba?
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Obsession with strange ideas that are not in keeping with the mainstream?
Fascination with violence?
Crazy eclecticism?
Usually on target, but occasionally overreaches in ways that are hard to fathom?
Fondness of wrapping surrealism around otherwise realistic settings to invoke a sort of dissociative dream-like state?
Focused on the interplay of heightened manners with the complete lack of said?
Cronenberg.
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As much as I appreciated The Road, imagine Cronenberg's The Road.