Ahead of Jameson’s showing of John Crowley’s class debut Intermission next week, here’s a few more epic acts of first-time helming.
Next week the good people at Jameson are running another one of their Cult Film screenings and they have picked the classic Intermission. Now 10 years old (gulp!), it marked the directorial debut of John Crowley, who has since gone on to make Boy A and the upcoming Closed Circuit, but Intermission remains his best known work.
Here’s a few other directors who hit it out of the park first time.
Ben Affleck – Gone Baby Gone
Remember when we all thought Ben was just a bit of a pretty boy who was going to be more famous for appearing on magazine covers and his time with J-Lo than for his movies? Following some less than brilliant on-screen roles (Gigli anyone?) Ben went behind the camera, threw his brother Casey out front and made a mini-classic.
Gone Baby Gone, a story set in his native Boston, is a gripping bit of storytelling and Affleck coaxes great performances out of his brother and Amy Ryan as the mother of the titular missing baby.
Since then Affleck has proved Gone Baby Gone was no fluke as he went on to win an Oscar as a director, for last year’s hostage flick Argo.
Quentin Tarantino – Reservoir Dogs
Now we all go to see a Tarantino film knowing what we are going to get. Lots of violence, lots of cool dialogue, some great tunes and a plot that may never fully reach its destination but the ride makes it worthwhile.
But back in 1992, we had no idea what to expect and that’s why Reservoir Dogs blew everyone away. Featuring a very cool gang of very cool criminals in the wake of a diamond heist. Jammed with references to lots of old gangster flicks the film became a massive cult hit and many only discovered it after the release of his next, and arguably even better movie, Pulp Fiction.
Made for next to nothing, the film made a star of Tarantino and it us seen by many as the film that turned ‘indie’ mainstream.
Orson Welles – Citizen Kane
Regularly cited as the greatest film ever made, Welles’ opus on media mogul Charles Kane is now over 70 years old and it is still as relevant as ever.
Packed with revolutionary filmmaking tricks that are the basis of many a film studies class, the tale is based on the real-life media giant William Randolph Hearst and tells how Kane rose to enormous power and wealth and the consequences of his pursuit of power and influence.
With parallels to every modern day industrial giant, from Murdoch to Mr Burns (there are endless references to the movie in The Simpsons over the years) it is well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.
Welles, who also played Kane, was just 26 when he made the film, a frankly ridiculously youn age to produce such a deep and mature film. He would make other classics like The Third Man but Citizen Kane remains his, very lofty, peak.
Jameson will be screening Intermission as their next infamous Cult Film Club night, to be in with a chance to win tickets simply register on their blog here.
Brought to you by the Jameson Cult Film Club
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