Top 6: Directorial Swan Songs
Directing is a young man's game, so say many older directors. It's a gross generality riddled with exceptions, yet, at the same time, it does seem that a great many of the great directors blossom early, then peter out over time. So it is remarkable, usually, when a director's very last movie is a great movie, ranking up with his or her best work. Our Top 6 list for Episode 47 is about our favorite directorial swan songs: the last movies of great directors.
What are your favorites?
As always, we recommend listening to the episode before reading further.
Stephen
- Charles Laughton, with The Night of the Hunter (1955)
- Krzysztof Kieslowski, with Red (1994)
- Luis Bunuel, with That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with Sleuth (1972)
- Cecil B. DeMille, with The Ten Commandments (1956)
- Robert Altman, with A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
Sam
- David Lean, with A Passage To India (1984)
- Sergio Leone, with Once Upon a Time In America (1984)
- Sergei Eisenstein, with Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (1958)
- Michael Curtiz, with The Comancheros (1961)
- Jean Vigo, with L'Atalante (1934)
- Francois Truffaut, with Confidentially Yours (1983)
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