By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Waning Waxman: Bordwell revises writer's 1990s nostalgie
David Bordwell offers some cogent reservations against the “Rebels on the Backlot” author’s recent, undernourished assay of several slowed careers. “Why, asks Sharon Waxman in the New York Times, have the much-touted directors of the 1990s slowed their output so drastically? [Many] of their generation have, Waxman points out, “taken long hiatuses before stepping back up to the plate.” Immediately, exceptions spring to mind. Some filmmakers who built their careers in the 90s are pretty prolific. 
Soderbergh is the prime instance; he sometimes releases two movies a year. Christopher Nolan has given us several one-two punches: Memento in 2000 and Insomnia in 2002, Batman Begins in 2005 and The Prestige in 2006. James Mangold is now doing postproduction on 3:10 to Yuma, his seventh movie since 1995. Kent Jones reminds me that Richard Linklater has finished 12 features in under 16 years! … Waxman’s explanations, culled from interviews with Hollywood cognoscenti, intrigue me. Probably no one explanation will provide the answer, but it’s worth thinking about the many forces at work.” Bordwell’s analysis is well worth reading in full; he agrees with Waxman that “[f]ilmmakers undergo closer scrutiny and quicker judgments than at earlier times. Critics, audiences, and studios pounce on every failure,” citing the fury aimed toward M. Night Shyamalan after Lady in the Water. Of the idea that filmmakers are pressured to go commercial, Bordwell cites “a producer friend [who] commented… that a lot of indie filmmakers whom he meets sincerely want to direct big films. Bryan Singer, who admires Spielberg, hasn’t made a secret of his desire to be a mainstream filmmaker.” Of the supposed lack of a shared creative community, he writes, “Oddly enough, James Mottram’s book ‘The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood’ maintains that just this sort of community exists among several 90s directors. The book opens with a meeting of the Pizza Knights, a cadre of young filmmakers who gather every month to watch 70s classics. The group includes Fincher, Jonze, Anderson, Peirce, and Payne…—the very directors whom Waxman lists as surprisingly unproductive. They may not bond with older directors, but according to Mottram they constitute a pretty tight group.” Bordwell also cites a “Gen X’ lassitude;
“the possibility of burnout”; and “making just one film takes a long time.” Most notable is this point: Hong Kong and Japanese directors can be more prolific because the industry is more small-scale and there isn’t the same demand to promote the film afterward. Johnnie To turns out two films a year, Miike Takeshi [pictured, a Miike-san image] more than that. They get to develop a body of work that, despite its ups and downs, has a texture lacking in one- or two- or three-shot wonders.” [More good stuff at the link.]
