Your 5 favorite cinematic directorial debuts

Mine (in no particular order):

Eraserhead--David Lynch
The Virgin Suicides--Sofia Coppola
Citizen Kane--Orson Welles
The Maltese Falcon--John Huston
Knife in the Water--Roman Polanski

Would have liked to include Charles Laughton for Night of the Hunter.

Your five?

 

Orson Welles - Citizen Kane
Dennis Hopper - Easy Rider
George Miller - Mad Max
Terry Malick - Badlands
Sam Raimi -Evil Dead.

Would have liked to include Collin Higgins for my beloved "Foul Play".

 

Nice call on George Miller. I overlooked him.

 

Steve Soderberg -Sex Lies and Videotape
Robert Redford -Ordinary People
Kevin Cosner -Dances with Wolves
James L Brooks -Terms of Endearment
Sam Mendes -American Beauty
John Houston -Malteese Falcon
Charles Laughton -Night of the Hunter-
Sidney Lumet -12 Angry Men
MIke Nichols -Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolf
Mel Brooks -The Producers
Rob Reiner- This is Spinal Tap
Quiten Taratino -Reservoir Dogs



Sorry I just listed many great debuts of several directors

 

That's cool. It'll give others ideas for their lists.

Nice call on Sidney Lumet, btw.

 

Well, Huston, Lynch, Malick and Welles would probably all make my top 5, but I wanted to come up with some favorites of mine who haven't been mentioned.

Paul Thomas Anderson - Hard Eight
Joel Coen - Blood Simple
Akira Kurosawa - Sanshiro Sugata
Barry Levinson - Diner
Francois Truffaut - The 400 Blows

 

I love Diner. It still might be my favorite Levinson movie after all this time.

 

It's hard not to include Welles, Laughton, and Huston, those are three all time greats. Since those have already been said, I'll list:

Jean-Luc Godard - Breathless
Lawrence Kasdan - Body Heat
Lindsay Anderson - This Sporting Life
Mike Nichols - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Gavin Lambert - Another Sky
--This film is virtually unknown despite being readily available on DVD. It's haunting. A contender for "best film by a director with only one directing credit".
I'll slip in a sixth title with
Peter Fonda - The Hired Hand

 

Citizen Kane- Orson Welles
Night of the Hunter- Charles Laughton
Maltese Falcon- John Huston
None But the Brave- Frank Sinatra
This is Spinal Tap- Marty DiBergi (not surprising considering his dog food commercials with the covered wagon)
61*- Billy Crystal

 

Woody Allen - Take the Money and Run
Steve Gordon - Arthur (first and last film - he passed away very young)
David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams - Airplane!
Harold Ramis - Caddyshack
The Wachowski Brothers (credited as) - Bound

Jeff

 

How did I forget 'Breathless?!' Stunning debut.

 

I think it's mine as well, although I'm very partial to 'Avalon.' It mirrors my family's 20th century experience in many ways.

 

How could I forget Airplane? Its my favorite movie......They did write Kentucky Fried Theater

 

But a John Landis film...

Jeff

 

Haven't seen this one mentioned:

Ridley Scott: THE DUELLISTS

 

You guys can proceed as you like, but I'd rather hear your five favorites than five that haven't been mentioned yet. Unless of course some of your top five haven't been mentioned.

Btw, if I was expanding my list to 10 I would add Diner, Bound and Mad Max. I'm leaving one slot open to see what else you guys come up with.

 

Even though it gets a bum rap these days for winning the Oscar over "Raging Bull", I'll add this one "

"Ordinary People"- Robert Redford

 

I second Welles and Laughton (his only turn as director.....brilliant!)......

 

Actually, it was What's Up, Tiger Lily?.

 

He didn't direct that of course.

Jeff

 

Orson Welles - Citizen Kane
Terry Malick - Badlands
Monty Python and The Holy Grail-Terrys
Eraserhead -David Lynch
Sugerland Express- Steven Spielberg
Michael Mann -Thief

 

When people make lists of great directors or actors, men always seem to dominate (only one woman has been listed in this thread so far).

I figured I'd give an all-female list of great debuts:

Amy Heckerling "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"
Julie Taymor "Titus"
Mary Harron "American Psycho"
Patty Jenkins "Monster"
Kasi Lemmons "Eve's Bayou"

 

I'll list ones that haven't been mentioned

Kevin Smith- Clerks
Joss Whedon- Serenity
Steven Spielberg -Duel ( I know it was originally a TV movie but it did get a cinema release in Europe)
James Cameron- The Terminator ( he did work on Piranha 2 but was sacked)
Neil Blomkamp- District 9

 

Honourable mentions-
Play Misty for Me- Clint Eastwood
Buffalo 66- Vincent Gallo
Cube- Vincenzo Natali
Say Anything- Cameron Crowe

 

I couldn't decide to remove any of these movies from my list.

Wes Anderson - Bottle Rocket
Duncan Jones - Moon
Dan Gilroy - Nightcrawler
Charlie McDowell – The One I Love
Lynne Ramsay – Ratcatcher
Spike Jonze – Being John Malkovich