Of the 89 movies that have won Best Picture, 63 have also won Best Director, nearly 70%. Lately, though, this correlation has been fraying. Does this mean directorial authorship is on the wane? A veteran director, whose films have been honored with retrospectives in various countries around the world, provided some insight.
NOLAN POWERS Can I ask who was on your short list this year?
HONORED DIRECTOR Sean Baker…Jordan Peele…Michael Haneke…Edgar Wright…Martin McDonagh…and the guy who directed Norman…
NP Joseph Cedar. I agree. Totally overlooked. Any favorite here?
HD McDonagh. He did a good job.
NP So you regard his omission as a snub.
HD Yes, but I’m not fanatical about it.
NP What about Greta Gerwig?
HD Didn’t care for it.
NP Nolan?
HD Couldn’t tell the soldiers apart.
NP Del Toro?
HD He was fine.
NP The last six Oscar years have been weird. Four of the Best Directors, their movies didn’t win Best Picture: Chazelle, Iñárritu, Cuarón, and Ang Lee. That’s way off the norm. Any theories?
HD Well, things are more chaotic these days. The P.C. factor. More directors around, because of the indies, so more confusion. The superhero movies, half the time I don’t recognize the names. Back in the day you had a core list of A-picture directors: Wyler, Ford, Wilder, Mankiewicz, Preminger, Stevens, Huston, Kazan, Hitchcock…
NP Who famously never won an Oscar. Though he was nominated five times.
HD Five? Rebecca, Rear Window, Psycho?
NP Yes. And Spellbound. You’ll never guess the fifth.
HD Not Vertigo.
NP Nope. Greatest movie of all time, according to Sight and Sound, and the director didn’t get a nomination.
HD The Birds?
NP Lifeboat.
HD Well, it was wartime. So yeah, these days, you have all these outliers. The guy who directed The Artist…
NP Michel Hazanavicius.
HD Has he been heard of before or since?
NP Not in this country. Best Picture winners and Best Director noms, they correlate almost 100%. Only two exceptions since 1932: Ben Affleck didn’t get nominated for Argo, Bruce Beresford didn’t get one for Driving Miss Daisy. Do you still believe in the auteur theory?
HD Absolutely. The crafts are important, but directing, at its best, is the art.
NP And at its worst, it’s a total sham.
HD Unfortunately, yes.
NP One movie I wrote, the director was basically MIA on set. The D.P. did all the work. Another director I met with, the A.D. rehearsed the actors, then called the director out of his trailer to say “Action.”
HD He couldn’t get away with that in theater. To direct theater you have to know what you’re doing. But there the writer is supposed to be the artist.
NP Screenwriting is basically a craft. Except I would call Preston Sturges an artist.
HD As a writer-director.
NP Aaron Sorkin.
HD Sorkin, yes, he has an imprimatur. As a writer.
NP He’s a long shot for Adapted Screenplay. I thought his direction of Molly’s Game was terrific. Reminded me of Casino.
HD Not even close. Two different universes.
NP Do you consider McDonagh an artist?
HD Not as a director. As a playwright. You might be able to identify a McDonagh movie, but it’s the subject matter that gives him away: all those yahoos and psychopaths.
NP And if recognizability were the only criterion, Ed Wood would be an artist. Since actors are the largest branch, doesn’t that influence which movies win Best Director? Or Best Picture? Don’t actors tend to focus on performances?
HD That’s the only thing they’re interested in.
NP So that would mean Dunkirk is out of luck. Some famous faces, but no performances.
HD And it doesn’t deserve to win.
First published in The Ankler.