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| About |
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| "Directing
is a nice job. It's the best job for me. If I had to pay money to
do it, I would do it. If they changed all the rules and they said,
"You've got to stand in line to pay money to do this work,
"I would be the first guy in line. It's problematical. It's
disappointing often. It's very challenging. It's frustrating as
hell. It's extremely demanding and totally satisfying work. And if
I wasn't doing this, I would have to do legitimate work for a
living. There are guys out there really working for a living,
cleaning streets or coal mining, teaching. Directing is playing.
Acting." - William Friedkin |
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| They Shoot
Pictures, Don't They? is
dedicated to the art of motion picture film-making and most specifically to
that one particular individual calling the shots from behind the camera -
the film director. The 700-plus directors listed within these web pages range from
the great geniuses of cinema (Godard, Welles, Hitchcock, etc.) to the
great studio auteurs of the 40's and 50's (Hawks, Siodmak, Fuller, etc.),
to the European masters (Buñuel, Renoir, Bresson), to the modern-day breed (Tarantino, The Coen Brothers,
Kiarostami). |
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| They
Shoot Pictures, Don't They? should be
viewed primarily as a cinematic traffic cop. In other
words, we'll guide you in the direction of each director's best
work (both from our own perspective and also from a
critical-acclaim perspective). We'll also point you in the direction of each
director's full filmographies (courtesy of links to the Internet
Movie Database and the All-Movie
Guide) and other valuable resources (via links to relevant
pages and relevant reading materials). We firmly believe that
They Shoot Pictures is, if nothing else, an excellent
starting tool for aspiring movie buffs to begin (and also plan)
their 'serious' film-viewing experiences. |
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| At this
stage, They Shoot Pictures doesn't provide in-depth analyses
on the work of any of the 700-plus directors listed. However, this should be zero-cause for alarm. In general, there is already a remarkable collection of internet
resources that offer valuable examinations and information on the
history of film and filmmaking. See here. |
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The directors listed (with individual pages) within this website (Directors
A-L;
Directors M-Z)
are those directors whose work we are familiar with. In some cases,
very familiar (Hitchcock, Ford, Godard), and in some cases, not so
familiar (Zulawski, Yuzna, Widerberg).
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| What's currently on
each director's page? |
| We are
(very) slowly expanding, but for the moment, on each director's page (Directors
A-L;
Directors M-Z)
you'll find the following information-: |
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| Biographical Details
Date/year of Birth, year of death, location of birth. |
| Key Genres
These are the types of films that each director - generally
speaking - most often directed. |
| TSPDT Rating This
is our rating out of 10 for each director. It is based primarily on
films we have seen and it takes into
account quality of work as well as quantity. For a full explanation of our ratings system,
please go here. |
| Key
Collaborators These are some of the performers, craftsmen
and craftswomen that each director often worked with. |
| Film Recommendations
We've recommended - for each director - a minimum of 3 films. The
recommendation categories are as follows: Highly Recommended (masterpiece/near-masterpiece);
Recommended (very good);
Worth a Look (good); Approach with Caution (average; not great,
but not a disaster); Dud
(A disaster). All of our highly recommended and recommended films
are listed here. |
| Links
We've linked each director to their respective pages at IMDB (the
Internet Movie Database),
TCMDB (Turner Classic Movies Database)
and the All-Movie Guide. There, you will
find full filmographies and (sometimes lengthy) biographies. Where
possible, we've also listed other links of interest relating
to each director. Highly recommended links are those that point to Senses of Cinema's
Great Director pages and also
to the Film Reference
resource. |
| Books
Where possible, we've linked each director to books written about
them or by them. |
| DVD's
We've linked each director to the Amazon.com DVD Search
engine. |
| 1,000 Greatest Films
To counterbalance our own recommendations, we've also listed each director's most critically-acclaimed films. These films
are derived from the 1,000 Greatest Films
section of this site. |
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| Directors weren't the only
people on the set, you know!? |
| Yes,
well, by dedicating this site to the film
director, we in no way mean to detract from the important artistic
contributions made by other crew members who sometimes surpassed the
director's vision with their own, sometimes more vigorous artistic
flavour. In
particular: the screenwriter, the producer, the cinematographer, the
editor, the composer, the production designer/art director and of course the actor. Down the
track, we hope to feature a section dedicated to these great craftsmen
and craftswomen. Please view The
Shooting Gallery, which was added in late-2003. |
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| Where did you get that silly web title?
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| They Shoot Pictures, Don't
They? is lifted from the Horace McCoy novel They Shoot Horses, Don't
They? Sydney Pollack directed a film version in 1969. |
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| How old is this
website? |
| They Shoot Pictures, Don't
They? was first posted on Geocities during March 2002 and
then - thanks to some very kind folks - was moved onto it's own domain
name and server during May 2003. |
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| Who are we and
why They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? |
| Just
a couple of film lovers based in Adelaide, Australia. TSPDT is a completely
hobby-driven, non-profit enterprise which merely aims to provide a
reasonable cinematic resource for fellow enthusiasts. Be rest assured,
we spend a lot more time watching films than maintaining this website! Additionally, please note that we are computer/internet cave people. Please do not email us any technical questions! |
| Webmaster:
Bill
Georgaris | Partner-in-Crime:
Vicki
Platt |
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| Man
cannot survive on film lists alone (The TSPDT Soapbox, Volume
1) |
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As you can tell, by glancing
through our website, we take film lists very seriously. It is our
bread and butter. We love to compile them, we love to refer to them,
and we love bringing them to you. We - quite frankly and
embarrassingly - have databases and spreadsheets
coming out of our a---s. Make no mistake, referring to
and utilising film lists is an extremely useful tool (otherwise, we
probably wouldn't be here) that can assist in the discovery of many
wonderful films and filmmakers that you may have previously not
encountered. They Shoot Pictures is indeed primarily a film
list resource, and, as we mention above, we make no bones about
that: We firmly believe that They Shoot Pictures is, if nothing
else, an excellent starting tool for aspiring movie buffs to begin
(and also plan) their 'serious' film-viewing experiences.
Jonathan Rosenbaum in one of his recent Chicago Reader blogs
(in which he cited They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?) stated
that “lists have always played an important role in my own film
education, and over the last decade or so they’ve taken on an
increasing importance in my writing.” ‘Important role’ is the key
phrase here. The importance of film lists cannot be underplayed,
however, as useful a tool as they are, in helping us make decisions
on what to watch next – they should not be considered the be all and
end all of a film lover’s reading diet. Additionally, no matter how
many films one watches, a deeper understanding of film, as an art
form, cannot be attained unless one hits the shelves and digests
some of the more important, educative and influential texts on
cinema. These texts assist us in thinking
about film in a new, and more often enlightened way, and
subsequently aid us in our analysis of an individual film or of a
director’s body of work. The internet is a wonderful resource for
film lovers. There is a wealth of intelligent
material available to us, and we should be incredibly thankful
for that. Unquestionably though, it will always run a distant
second-best when compared to the incredible range of essential books written on the cinema (by the likes of Manny Farber,
Andrew Sarris, David Bordwell, James Monaco, André Bazin, and many,
many others), but it is still an important avenue of information and
insight for all serious film followers, and thus cannot be
dismissed. An influential film-friend of mine once suggested to me
that for every 50 films you see, you should try and read at least
one academically-inclined film book. This comment came from a gentle, complex
man who had just finished reading Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie Guide
from cover to cover! - Bill Georgaris |
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| Thanks to... |
| Roy the Man and Dave
the Rave for their technical assistance and server space between 2003-2005. Also,
thanks to Alex Gein for his help with the mysterious language of the
world wide web! Further thanks to Jeffrey Chen (Window
to the Movies.com) for his kind advice and assistance with
respects to some of our crappy html coding. Thanks also to Harold
Wexler, Bill Spiby, Lee Price, Angel Gonzalez Garcia, Zlatan Skobic,
Kevin B. Lee, Kevyn Knox,
Dan Schneider... and everybody else
who has contributed to and/or supported TSPDT. |
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| Amazon/Google
Banners |
| As you
would have noticed, we have
placed some Amazon and Google banners on TSPDT in an attempt to help cover our small server/web hosting
costs. We hope that you don't find them too intrusive. And, oh yes,
please click them if you're interested in buying stuff. |
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| Link to
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| Please use the
banner/logo below if you'd like to use a visual link to They Shoot Pictures,
Don't They? |
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| Banner/logo 'scene' is
from Husbands (1970). |
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