Anyone who asks you, "Who's your favorite director?" deserves to be a Cinema Studies major. Punch the pretentious asshole in the face, but do please answer him. Clearly the questioner needs some guidance. Everyone wants everyone else to think they know a lot about movies so they claim they can't pick favorites since "God, there are so many good ones." Grow some balls, stand behind something and inflict your so-good-it's-bad taste on other people.
Here's mine. The undervalued classic and the smart woman's Hollywood dream lay? Terrence Malick.
The man's only made four films. In the early '70s he directed Badlands and Days of Heaven. Hollywood jerked off, called them both masterpieces of cinema and Terrence was out. He moved to France and stayed there for 20 years. No one knows what the hell he did, but he came back, made The Thin Red Line and took home a satchel of Oscars.
Not only is The Thin Red Line my favorite movie, which, let's be honest here, is a huge endorsement, but it recently received the Dr. Thomas Childers stamp of approval. Run, do not walk, to Video Library.
And yeah, whatever, he's a Rhodes Scholar. But Malick finished up at Oxford without taking his doctorate because he battled to the intellectual death with his advisor over Kierkegaard and company. "Fuck Heidegger, I know Colin Ferrell."
Yes, his movies are long and require attention. But this makes them excellent for all your Penn needs. Academically justifiable during the week and ideal for "background" cinema when the time counts. My favorite.
