Hello, and welcome to the first edition of There Will Be Blog, the first – I hope – of many to come, depending on the response this one gets. I should perhaps introduce myself. Hello, I'm John Lees, Scottish film buff, and I happen to love talking about films so much that I write overlong columns ranting and raving about them! The idea is that each week (or whenever I can be bothered to write) I’ll post a new film-related column. Right now, the format is going to be based around a variety of cinematic top tens, but that may change in future, if I have an issue I wish to discuss, or a film I wish to review in-depth. I by no means claim to be any kind of definitive authority on cinema, and so my thoughts are not intended as the final word, or even representative of Filmonic as a whole, but rather as a conversation starter. If anyone else wants to give me feedback on my choices, or post up their own top ten lists, then they are very much welcome to do so.
So, for this first week, I’ve decided to talk about one of the key creative figures in film, the director. A world-class director can make an average film good, a good film great, and a great film into a classic. Of course, a good story is crucial to get a truly great film (and you’ll find many of the directors on my list are in fact writer/directors), but film is also a visual medium. The best directors can generate meaning through image, through the framing of scenes, through the very rhythm of a film, to create a film that both serves the story, and stands a unique expression of that director’s creativity.
There have been many best director lists over the years, and the usual suspects tend to fill up the top spots. Kubrick, Altman, Hitchcock, Welles. And deservedly so! They are all legends in their own right. But to make things a bit different for my list, and to perhaps give some credit to deserving directors who don’t always get recognition, I am not doing a “Best Directors of All-Time” list. Instead, I’m going to look at who I believe are the ten best directors working now. Who is consistently delivering the most consistent, compelling cinema, right now? For this week, my top ten is in no particular order, as I don’t think it would be fair to rank a group of directors who are different, but all great in their own way. For each entrant on the list, I have looked up a clip from what I feel are their stand-out films, and I’ll say now that in many cases it’s been difficult to choose just one! I hope you enjoy reading, and watching, and replying.…
Continue reading There Will Be Blog: Top Ten Directors
So you are an Oscar winning writer, who has worked on movies such as Crash, Million Dollar Baby and even Casino Royal, which was greatly received worldwide. As a result you are hired to write the screenplay for the next Bond movie. You work hard to get the final draft in before the writer strike begins, and then you hand it over to the talented Marc Foster to direct your script into the masterpiece you intended. That's the life of Paul Haggis, writer of newly titled Quantum of Solace. 
