NEW YORK (AP) ā When was contemplating whether he would come out of retirement in 2016, he put together a curiously self-critical proposal.
āThereās nothing more pathetic than telling the world youāll retire because of your age, then making yet another comeback,ā wrote the filmmaker, now 83. āDoesnāt an elderly person deluding themself that theyāre still capable, despite their geriatric forgetfulness, prove that theyāre past their best?ā
āYou bet it does.ā
Oneās prime for artists is much harder to pin down than it is for, say, gymnasts or baseball players. A fastball is much easier to gauge than a film. Stanley Kubrick was 70 when he completed āEyes Wide Shut." Akira Kurosawa made āRanā when he was 75. Agnes Varda was 89
But itās a cruel fact of creative life that the lion's share of the greatest works by most filmmakers tend to be made earlier in life. Filmmaking, a rough-and-tumble business that requires an army of collaborators and millions in financing, can be a grueling endeavor. Francis Ford Coppola once said it should be done āwith all your cards, and all your dice and whatever else youāve got.ā Itās not historically been the providence of octogenarians.
We may be living in the golden age of the aged filmmaker, though. Old age may be debated as , but not at
Miyazaki, who fought through his concerns to make āThe Boy and the Heron,ā is the oldest director ever nominated for best animated film. If he wins on March 10, he'll be the oldest winner by more than two decades. ," nominated for visual effects and production design, is the latest from 86-year-old workaholic Ridley Scott. Michael Mann, 81, also recently released (much celebrated but unnominated). Wim Wenders, 78, put out one of his very best films in (nominated for best international film), Meanwhile, Coppola, 84, completed shooting on his self-financed āMegalopolis.ā
And, of course, Martin Scorsese, 81, had the Osage epic up for 10 Oscars. Scorsese is the oldest filmmaker ever nominated for best director. At the recent , where he was given a lifetime achievement award, Scorsese recalled seeing Alfred Hitchcock accept the same honor in 1965.
āHe said, āFirst, when you receive such an award, you want to pinch yourself to make sure it isnāt being made posthumously,āā Scorsese recalled.
Is āKillers of the Flower Moonā as good as āTaxi Driverā or āGoodfellasā? That's a hard question to answer and maybe not the right one to ask. Is it essential? Unquestionably.
Marrying the crime film with the Western, āKillers of the Flower Moonā is engaged ā as much or more than any nominated film this year ā in remaking American tropes and cliches. The daring darkness and the nimbleness of the editing (by , 84, nominated for her ninth Oscar) suggest filmmakers half their age.
āIām curious about everything, still,ā . āIf Iām curious about something I think Iāll find a way. If I hold out and hold up, Iāll find a way to try to make something of it on film. But I have to be curious about the subject. My curiosity is still there.ā
We have never had an older filmmaker quite like Scorsese, just as we hadnāt had one like the younger Scorsese. Heās spoken repeatedly about urgency, knowing that his time is short. By capitalizing on the desire of streamers to make their cinematic mark, Scorseseās films have only as heās gotten older, just as they have in their willingness to pry into the darkest corners of American history.
Many older filmmakers simply arenāt offered the opportunity. Directors like Scorsese and the (whose latest is due out this year) have typically been the exception in an industry that tends to push out even its most celebrated elders. Buster Keaton, Billy Wilder, Orson Welles and Elaine May all spent their later years struggling to mount projects. In the mid-1970s, Scorsese befriended the great British filmmaker Michael Powell, who likewise was frozen out of the business after 1960's controversial āPeeping Tom.ā Since then, Scorsese and Schoonmaker ā Powell's widow ā have led an effort to revive Powellās legacy, including with .
As a generation of American filmmakers from the fabled ā70s era of moviemaking extend their careers, one of the defining directors of the ā90s (and beyond) has said he plans to stop. has said his 10th film, āThe Movie Critic,ā will be his final feature. Itās a stance heās maintained for at least 15 years, arguing that he didnāt want to dilute his filmography with the ālousyā films that āmost directorsā peter out with.
āIām an entertainer, I want to leave you wanting more. I donāt want to work to diminishing returns,ā āI donāt want to become this old man whoās out of touch, Iām already feeling a bit like an old man out of touch when it comes to the current movies that are out right now, and thatās exactly what happens.ā
Tarantinoās declaration has cofounded some of his contemporaries.
āI could never do that,ā now 53, said in 2018. āAs long as Iām able to do it, Iām going to do it.ā also 53, is expected to win best picture at the Oscars, has called Tarantinoās attitude āa very purist point of view.ā
Asked if he's simply built differently than Tarantino, Scorsese told The Associated Press in October: āI am.ā
āHeās a writer. Itās a different thing. I come up with stories. I get attracted to stories through other people. All different means, different ways. And so I think itās a different process," Scorsese said. "I respect writers and I wish I could. I wish I could just be in a room and create these novels, not films, novels.ā
The debate gets at the heart of an age-old quandary: Is it better to have youthful passion or the wisdom of experience? At least for filmmakers like Scorsese, Scott and Mann, compulsion seems to never dim. Scott, who later this year will release a āGladiatorā sequel, is notorious for a pace that would exhaust most younger directors. āEvery department,ā āhas to keep up with the speed that I work.ā
āRidley Scott is the single biggest argument for a second term for Joe Biden,ā Sony chief Tom Rothman
Mann, too, is renown for relentlessness. āFerrari,ā a film heās been trying to make for 30 years, is a prime example of the pleasures in following a master filmmaker through various stages of a career. āFerrari,ā about a plate-spinning Enzo Ferrari in the tumultuous lead-up to a deadly cross-country race, extends Mann's lifelong obsession with obsession.
āI know for myself, Iām better at doing a picture that has me on the frontier,ā āWhere itās something I havenāt done before.ā
At the Academy Awards, directors wonāt be the only ones setting records. nominated for best score for the 49th time, is, at 92, the categoryās oldest nominee ever. Others are making historic returns, too. 80, nominated for his supporting performance in āKillers of the Flower Moon,ā set a new record for longest span between first and latest acting nominations. Forty-nine years ago, he was nominated for āThe Godfather Part II.ā
As for Miyazaki, " has been celebrated as if not the absolute best by the anime master, then very nearly so. Opening with the firebombing of Tokyo during World War II, it could be called the most personal film for Miyazaki, whose early memories are of bombed-out Japanese cities. Itās also a movie that, while is as lushly and uniquely imaginative as his earlier masterworks, like āSpirited Awayā or āKikiās Delivery Service.ā
Before the film had reached U.S. theaters, where it was word had already leaked out: Miyazaki has already started work on another.
Do we judge these artists' earlier work against todayās? Or just be grateful that theyāre still working ā and at such a high level. The director introducing āThe Boy and the Heronā at the Toronto International Film Festival, chose sheer gratitude at being alive when Miyazaki is still making movies.
āWe are privileged enough,ā Del Toro said, āto be living in a time where Mozart is composing symphonies.ā
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
