Saturday, January 24, 2009

Actors, and the Directors who love them

Something tangential.

What do you think about the relationship between particular actors and directors...and because there are WAY more male directors than female directors, this consequently means less chance of this for women?

1. Ford and Wayne
2. Hawks and Grant
3. Capra and Stewart
4. Hitchcock and Grant
5. Hitchcock and Stewart
6. Scorsese and DeNiro
7. Scorsese and Dicaprio (last three films, PLUS next two films)
8. Anderson and Wilson
9. Soderbergh and Clooney
10. Kurosawa and Tofune
11. Herzog and Kinski
12. Scott and Crowe
13. LaBute and Eckhart

There are some director/actress relationships.
1. Griffith and Gish
2. Cukor and Hepburn
3. Hitchock and Bergman
4. Hitchcock and Kelly
5. Lynch and Dern

Any ideas about this phenomenon?

2 comments:

Kenneth M. Camacho said...

umm...female directors and actresses? Oh, how quickly you dismiss the timeless pairings of Penny Marshall and Meg Ryan and Sophia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst?

Kidding aside, I don't know, man--I have just always thoughts of it as a comfort or aesthetic thing--if a director is comfortable working with a particular actor, and s/he believes that actor is talented and capable, it makes sense to keep using them. I'm not sure there's much more to it than that, unless what you really wanted to talk about was what these pairings reveal about the statements the directors are trying to make (this seems particularly (self)conscious in the Hitchcock pairs--he liked to make the kind and gentle everyman Stewart morally ambiguous, turn Grant into a tool, etc.). I suppose that conversation could be interesting. If we go down that road, it seems like the reason a director might stick with a particular actor is because of his/her LACK of range...the director seems to be trying to turn the actor's 'type' on its head.

Anyway, let me know what rabbit you want to chase, if any. And don 't leave my man Spielberg out of this:

S'berg-Dreyfuss
S'berg-Ford
S'berg-Hanks
S'berg-Cruise

??

Gaston Monescu said...

Here's one route. Does Scorsese choosing Dicaprio do anything to your estimation of him? Soderbergh and Clooney?

S-berg doesn't do that really. Ford appears in the most (four) and it's all as the same character. He doesn't have real stretches...

What does that say about Spielberg?

Run down the list and see whether or not this relationship corresponds to great films.

Ford's best? The Searchers
Hawks's best? Hmmm...most def. the best comedy is a Grant
Capra? Def. Stewart although Gary Cooper was in another couple
Hitchock? My fave is Notorious...but Vertigo and Rear Window are
Scorsese? Raging Bull and Taxi Driver

Let's comment on aesthetics. Let's comment on the connection between our great actors list and great directors.

What about Soderbergh? Is Clooney in his best films? I say no.