Films/DVD Asylum

Re: England swings like a pendulum do - Brit directors

213.1.112.210

In Reply to: England swings like a pendulum do - Brit directors posted by Harmonia on November 28, 2002 at 22:31:01:

Perhaps if you had seen Gumshoe you might rate Stephen Frears more highly?

I rate Frears... - Harmonia 10:59:00 12/01/02 (0)
...very highly. If I had had one less glass of Zinfandel on Thanksgiving, I'd have probably put him in at #10. The Grifters is one of my all-time favorite films. I actually enjoy his best films more than those of say...Ken Loach. If the list had been a list of "favorites" instead of "greatest", Frears would have been right up there.
But in considering his output as a whole, after that astonishing run of good films from the eighties to the early nineties, his unevenness from then til now is a bit troubling, the misses are so unwatchable. Takes down the overall ranking, perhaps.
In truth, however, he probably ranks with Losey, and like him, is very uneven and does his best work outside Hollywood - Dangerous Liasons, the Scorsese produced The Grifters, and the John Cusack produced High Fidelity being the exceptions. Who knows what Losey might have achieved had he not been Blacklisted? (But I already goofed with Losey, putting him with Brits instead of Yanks.) Lists are really just a platform for discussion anyway. ;-)
I will make it a point to try to watch Gumshoe again.

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