I saw something like this on Facebook not too long ago – a question about the most excellent consecutive movies a director has made (something like that). I’m not looking for the most movies, just the best series of movies a director has made. If that’s two, fine. If that’s six, fine. But what are yours?
This is a hard one, I think, because a lot of directors can make two great movies in a row. My first instinct was to say Orson Welles, who directed Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons back-to-back. As good as Ambersons is, though, I don’t think it’s as good as some of the other movies made by directors, so I’m not going to say Welles. A lot of people on Facebook thought Coppola’s 1970s streak – The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now – is hard to beat, but I haven’t seen The Conversation. I definitely think The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now – the latter is one of my favorite movies – is a brilliant back-to-back. Spielberg is always going to be around – Jaws and then Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Raiders of the Lost Ark and then E.T.; The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in succession; Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in the same damned year; but I haven’t seen some of those and the ones I have don’t quite measure up. Scorsese has an excellent filmography: Mean Streets, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and Taxi Driver in succession, Raging Bull and The King of Comedy back-to-back, The Color of Money, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence, and Casino in a row between 1986 and 1995. David Lean did The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago in a row, and that’s pretty good line-up. Tim Robbins has directed three movies, and they’re all excellent: Bob Roberts, Dead Man Walking, and Cradle Will Rock. Before James Cameron disappeared into the bottom of the ocean and out to Pandora, he directed The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, and True Lies in a row. Speaking of which, Ridley Scott did Alien and Blade Runner back-to-back, and followed it up with Legend. Peter Weir, as I’ve discussed before, had a 20-year streak, but let’s focus on Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave, Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Witness. That’s a good run.
I know I’m missing many, many others, but that’s why this is the Question of the Week! For me, it’s David Fincher. Yep. While some of the movies I’ve listed above are some of the my favorite movies, Fincher has directed two of my favorite movies – Seven and Fight Club (1995 and 1999, respectively). Those aren’t consecutive, but in between, he did The Game, which is a clever, stylish puzzle box mystery with excellent performances by Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, and Deborah Kara Unger. Prior to Seven he did Alien3, which is a wildly underrated and terrific movie. After Fight Club he did Panic Room, another terrific thriller, and Zodiac, another classic. I have not seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, his next movie, so for me, his streak ends there. For me, no other director has directed better consecutive movies than that run. I know I might be a bit iconoclastic with my love of Fincher’s Alien movie (and the next one, which is also very cool), but I don’t care. I think this is best run of consecutive movies in directorial history. Come at me, bros!
I was considering early Walter Hill, but I would have to say Terry Gilliam. Time Bandits, (parts of) The Meaning of Life, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys ,and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hell of a run.
I’ve never seen The Colossus of Rhodes, but Leone’s catalogue is close for me.
P.S. I received the Alien collection on Blu-ray this past Christmas because I wanted to see Alien 3 again after 27(?) years. I agree that it gets a bad rap. It has a few obvious flaws, but I felt it was excellent sequel, and would have been a fine ending to Ripley’s story.
Gilliam is a good pick, for me just based on The Fisher King (one of my favorite movies) and 12 Monkeys back-to-back. I haven’t seen Fear and Loathing, but the others are all quite good, too.
A friend and I saw Fear and Loathing in the theatre with no idea what we were in for. Still a favorite. I agree about Fisher King, but Brazil might be my personal favorite of all his films.
Yeah it would be Gilliam for me. I’d probably start at Time Bandits and stop before Fear and Loathing. Fear and Loathing is probably about a good an adaptation of the book as would be possible but I don’t really think Hunter S Thompson’s writing can be translated to another medium without an unacceptable amount of signal loss. An original work inspired by the spirit of a creator like Thompson is probably the better way to go. In the video game space I have recently been playing have Deadly Premonition and Alan Wake, which are both heavily inspired by Twin Peaks, but aren’t trying to be direct adaptations, and they each bring their own completely different and interesting things to the table.
Hot take on Alien 3 (and The Game, to some extent…)
Oddly enough, I think the most impressive hot streak I can personally vouch for is probably Rob Reiner’s first 7 films, from “This Is Spinal Tap” to “A Few Good Men.” Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride are movies I think everyone should see, but every film in that run is very good and Stand By Me, When Harry Met Sally, and Misery are minor classics.
I also think the Coen Brothers started their career with a long, impressive streak of films – but I have yet to see Miller’s Crossing or The Hudsucker Proxy. I’ll have to watch those and see if the Coens’ longest streak of very good films exceeds Reiner’s.
In terms of pure quality per minute of film – I will say that, much as I love Reiner’s comfort food 80s films, Coppola’s streak is probably better overall. The Conversation is great, probably below the level of The Godfather I and II and Apocalypse Now, but honestly not more than a notch below the stratospheric quality of those films.
Honestly, my immediate thought was Reiner.
The run from Spinal Tap through A Few Good Men is not only high quality, but displays an incredible variety:
Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally are sandwiched by a pair of Stephen King adaptations!
Yeah, I forgot about Reiner, because I remember someone once writing about his amazing streak to begin his career. That’s a great run!
I haven’t seen Blood Simple, but Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, and Barton Fink are an excellent run. Hudsucker Proxy kind of gets in the way (with Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Are Thou? following it), because while it’s an interesting movie, it’s not quite on the level of the ones around it.
Yeah, I think you and the other commenters pretty much mentioned any I would pick, most notably Terry Gilliam (Fisher King is one of my favorite movies ever, and his follow-ups were excellent) and the Coen brothers (I was thinking of them when reading your post).
I was just going to add Gordon Parks for the back-to-back awesomeness of Shaft in 1971 and Superfly in 1972, but when I went to confirm I found out something I never knew before (which again confirms how not well-versed in cinematic lore I am): Shaft director Gordon Parks was the father of Superfly director Gordon Parks, Jr. Oh, well.
The first name that I could think of is John McTiernan.
Predator, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Medicine Man, Last Action Hero, Die Hard with a Vengeance and The Thomas Crown Affair. Medicine not so great as his first 3 but still.
Alien3 is NOT a terrific movie. The start of the movie still doesn’t make sense to me. After all that happened at the end of Aliens they didn’t check if there were any eggs? Come on! Also the end with Sigorney and her “penis”…
You may disagree and that’s ok. 🙂
The Game at the other hand. I saw that one as a sneak preview and blew my mind.
I like the Rob Reiner pick. The Conversation, which I saw maybe 20 years ago, s very good.
That said, the first name that came to mind was the guy who did Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds between 1958 and 1963 (and I have never seen the movies immediately before or after.)
Before Vertigo, Hitchcock did The Wrong Man which is very good. Prior to that one, we had the remake of Man Who Knew Too Much ad The Trouble With Harry which were not.
Yeah, Hitchcock is a good pick. That dude knew a thing or two about directing a movie. I’m sure he won multiple Oscars for it!!!! 🙂
Silly me. How could I forget John Carpenter?
Assault of Precint 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing (his best IMO), Christine, Starman, Big Trouble In Little China (his second best), Prince of Darkness and They Live (my wife and son are no fan of this movie, they’re stupid 😉 )
Starman is the only I don’t own on dvd/blu-ray.
The commentary track on Starman (I rewatched the movie for my Aliens Are Here book) is really good. As is the movie. When I saw it in theaters I didn’t appreciate how really amazing Karen Allen was in her role.
I don’t love The Fog, which is weird and a bit dull. I haven’t seen Christine, Starman, and Prince of Darkness, so Carpenter kind of slipped my mind.
BURGAS: how about Richard Donner and his Lethal Weapons films?
Scrooged comes between 1 and 2, Radio Flyer comes between 2 and 3.
Yeah, Donner goes Ladyhawke (wildly underrated), The Goonies (wildly overrated), Lethal Weapon, Scrooged, Lethal Weapon 2, Radio Flyer, Lethal Weapon 3. I haven’t seen Radio Flyer and Lethal Weapon 3 isn’t very good, so only the middle three would count for me!
Gotta be Miyazaki Hayao. I haven’t seen his first feature, the Lupin III spinoff The Castle of Cagliostro, but after that we’ve got Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away, all of which are terrific and endlessly rewatchable. (A lot of people would probably include Howl’s Moving Castle in the streak as well, but I’ve honestly never been a huge fan of that one.)
seconded.
Castle of Cagliostro is very good. I think spin-off is the wrong word – it is a Lupin III story and probably less representative of Miyazaki than his later films, as a result.
I would include Howl’s Moving castle – though I feel Ponyo – while still good, was not up to the standards of the earlier works
Castle of Cagliostro is a wonderful thrill ride, and I’m fond of Lupin III to start with. So yes, though not typical of Miyazaki, it’s well worth seeing. And the Cagliostro scheme is good too.
I’ve always thought of Cagliostro as very much a Miyazaki movie (and probably my favorite Miyazaki movie) particularly since his version of Lupin is quite different from the original character. (Reportedly Monkey Punch, the character’s creator hated the movie) Unfortunately none of the later Lupin movies really come close in quality. There is one that pitted two Lupins against each other, in sort of a Miyazaki Lupin versus original Lupin fight, that was quite fun but most of the other Lupin movies don’t stand up well at all. I’ve heard some good things about the more recent TV anime Lupin series’s, especially the Fujiko spin off, but I haven’t gotten around to getting them out yet.
I’m woefully bad at seeing anime, so I’ve only seen Princess Mononoke. Dang, that was a cool movie. I should watch more of Miyazaki, I know.
I have to go with Stanley Kubrick. His entire filmography is basically a consecutive streak. Not only that but most of his movies had some kind of groundbreaking cinematic achievement as well.
I thought of Kubrick, then forgot to put him in the post. Sorry! I haven’t seen his first movie or Lolita, and The Killing is … pretty good, but not great. So that means we have Paths of Glory and Spartacus, which isn’t a bad one-two punch. Then we get Dr. Strangelove and 2001, another great duo … and then A Clockwork Orange, which is trash. I’m sorry, it just is. I haven’t seen Barry Lyndon, but then we get The Shining and Full Metal Jacket, which is yet another good back-to-back. And I haven’t seen Eyes Wide Shut. So yeah, Kubrick has some impressive achievements!
These are all good choices. I would add Tarantino to the list. As time goes on he is indulging more and more in his worst instincts but there isn’t a film that I would call bad in the bunch.
Tarantino is an excellent choice. I think Kill Bill is a bit of a lesser movie than his first three, but those first three are so good!
Akira Kurosawa:
1950-1954 – Rashomon, The Idiot, Ikiru, Seven Samurai
1957-1965 – Throne of Blood, The Lower Depths, The Hidden Fortress, The Bad Sleep Well, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, High and Low, Red Beard
1980-1991 – Kagemusha, Ran, Dreams, Rhapsody in August
It probably goes without saying that I’m a major Kurosawa fan and have seen all of the titles above more than once. That said, he made quite a few other movies that I haven’t seen – interspersed with terrific titles that I did enjoy, like Sanshiro Sugata I & II, No Regrets for Our Youth, Drunken Angel and Stray Dog — so his winning streaks might actually have lasted even longer than is indicated above.
Clearly, I’m biased (aren’t we all?) but I can’t think of another filmmaker whose output comes even close to Kurosawa’s in terms of thematic depth, cinematic artistry, industry influence (I’m looking at you, in particular, George Lucas!) or, well, just about anything else you choose to judge him by.
On the choices of others… I have to admit it would never have occurred to me to think of Terry Gilliam but, yeah, looking at the titles in his filmography all lined up like that, he’s eminently deserving. Might just be time to revisit a few of his movies…
Hitchcock, Kubrick and Miyazaki are certainly worthies and I think the case can also be made for Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and — dare I say it? — Oliver Stone (Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, JFK, Heaven & Earth).
I would have suggested Kurosawa but didn’t have the focus to look up and see how big a streak he has.
Yeah, I’m not familiar enough with Kurosawa to make a judgment. The few I’ve seen have been very good, though!
Billy Wilder: Sunset Blvd, Ace in the Hole, Stalag 17, Sabrina, The Seven Year Itch, Spirit of St Louis, Love in the Afternoon, Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment; One, Two, Three; Irma La Douce, Kiss Me, Stupid; The Fortune Cookie, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Avanti, The Front Page
Not a clinker in the bunch.
Wilder was another name who came to mind because of both his quality and his range. As great as some of our modern directors like Christopher Nolan or Paul Thomas Anderson can be, it’s hard to imagine them doing something as legitimately funny and crowd-pleasing as Some Like It Hot or something that shifts from comedy to drama as well as The Apartment. (I think Anderson has more range and has almost done pure comedy, but it’s still a bit arch compared to the laugh-a-minute pace Wilder was sometimes able to conjure up).
I’ve seen very little of Wilder, so I’ll take your word for it. I don’t really love Sabrina, though, although it’s not bad. Sunset Blvd. is superb, though.
Sam Raimi: Evil Dead 2, Darkman, Army of Darkness, The Quick and the Dead. (And a lot of folks love A Simple Plan after that.)
I guess I’ll be the one to say Christopher Nolan: Dark Knight, Inception, Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Dunkirk. (Of these, I might like Interstellar the least.)
Edgar Wright: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Maybe Sidney Lumet: Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon, Network.
Coen Bros: I *love* Hudsucker Proxy, but I wasn’t crazy about Fargo the one and only time I saw it many years ago. I should revisit. Because the one-two punch of Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou? are their best.
Wes Anderson: Royal Tenenbaums and Life Aquatic are back-to-back masterpieces. I know people love Rushmore, which comes right before, though it left me a little coolish. I do like Darjeeling, but not as much as the two preceding it. Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and French Dispatch is also a good run.
I’ve never seen Legal Eagles, or I’d be tempted to say Ivan Reitman: Stripes through Dave.
Michael Curtiz might have a good streak, but he made so many movies that I haven’t seen enough in a row to know for sure.
Current directors to watch: Leigh Whannell; Robert Eggers; Jim Cummings; Julia Ducournau; Christopher McQuarrie (okay, most of ’em are Missions Impossible, but still)
The problem with Nolan is that the second two Batman movies aren’t that good. Yeah, I said it! If you want to go Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, you might convince me more! 🙂
Anderson’s first two movies – Bottle Rocket and Rushmore – are excellent. So there you go.
Legal Eagles is … fine. Nothing great, but pretty entertaining. It helps that Redford and Winger are good in it.
I had considered Kurosawa, but haven’t seen enough of his movies.
Another director I think we may have missed is Del Toro. Mimic being his low point.