Robert Wise, anti-auteur
This will probably turn out to be old news to the film buffs in my audience, but it was a surprise to me - I'll try to remember to cut you a little slack in areas that seem old hat to me.
So I came across mention of director Robert Wise (1914-2005), and looked him up to see what else he had done, and got completely blown away. To name only his Academy Award nominations and wins: Citizen Kane (for Best Editing), I Want to Live, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and The Sand Pebbles. Then add great, famous pieces that didn't get Uncle Oscar's nod like Curse of the Cat People (the sequel: no curse or cat people, but far and away the better psychological suspense film), The Day the Earth Stood Still, Run Silent Run Deep, The Haunting (you know, as in "of Hill House"), The Andromeda Strain, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the first Trek feature film, perhaps more accurately called Star Trek: The Still Life). And many, many others less well-known.
The point isn't that I hadn't heard of these movies: I'd heard of all of them and seen most of them. The point is that I had no idea they were - that they could be - by the same director, they're such very different movies! I mean, West Side Story and Sound of Music: both Oscar-winning movie musicals, sure; but that both musicals won Best Director *and* Best Picture for the same man? Inconceivable! So I read up a bit on Wise and yes indeed, he had (still has) a big reputation as an anti-auteur: he made each movie the best it could be on its own terms, never trying to make a great "Robert Wise movie."
My hat is definitely off to the man, and I'm going to start looking for more of his stuff and pay closer attention. Beginning yesterday with The Andromeda Strain - not Sand Pebbles-quality enduring merit maybe, but I think the split-screen effect as the scientists explore the dead town of Piedmont is visually new and distinctive, and very effective at signaling "something weird is going on."
So I came across mention of director Robert Wise (1914-2005), and looked him up to see what else he had done, and got completely blown away. To name only his Academy Award nominations and wins: Citizen Kane (for Best Editing), I Want to Live, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, and The Sand Pebbles. Then add great, famous pieces that didn't get Uncle Oscar's nod like Curse of the Cat People (the sequel: no curse or cat people, but far and away the better psychological suspense film), The Day the Earth Stood Still, Run Silent Run Deep, The Haunting (you know, as in "of Hill House"), The Andromeda Strain, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the first Trek feature film, perhaps more accurately called Star Trek: The Still Life). And many, many others less well-known.
The point isn't that I hadn't heard of these movies: I'd heard of all of them and seen most of them. The point is that I had no idea they were - that they could be - by the same director, they're such very different movies! I mean, West Side Story and Sound of Music: both Oscar-winning movie musicals, sure; but that both musicals won Best Director *and* Best Picture for the same man? Inconceivable! So I read up a bit on Wise and yes indeed, he had (still has) a big reputation as an anti-auteur: he made each movie the best it could be on its own terms, never trying to make a great "Robert Wise movie."
My hat is definitely off to the man, and I'm going to start looking for more of his stuff and pay closer attention. Beginning yesterday with The Andromeda Strain - not Sand Pebbles-quality enduring merit maybe, but I think the split-screen effect as the scientists explore the dead town of Piedmont is visually new and distinctive, and very effective at signaling "something weird is going on."