Ten Directors with Extraordinary Five-Film Runs

(After I made my five-albums list, I began wondering which of the directors I admire could pass a five-films test—that is to say, five consecutive releases of the very highest caliber: all A’s and no B’s. Some of these are the usual suspects, while some are not. I’ve arranged the list alphabetically by artist.)

 

  • Albert Brooks: Real Life - Modern Romance - Lost in America - Defending Your Life - Mother

  • Terry Gilliam: Time Bandits - Brazil - The Adventures of Baron Munchausen - The Fisher King - 12 Monkeys

  • Nicole Holofcener: Walking and Talking - Lovely and Amazing - Friends with Money - Please Give - Enough Said

  • Mamoru Hosoda: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - Summer Wars - Wolf Children - The Boy and the Beast - Mirai

  • Hirokazu Kore-eda: Air Doll - I Wish - Like Father, Like Son - Our Little Sister - After the Storm

  • Terrence Malick: Badlands - Days of Heaven - The Thin Red Line - The New World - The Tree of Life

  • Hayao Miyazaki: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind - Castle in the Sky - My Neighbor Totoro - Kiki’s Delivery Service - Porco Rosso

  • John Sayles: Matewan - Eight Men Out - City of Hope - Passion Fish - The Secret of Roan Inish

  • Jim Sheridan: My Left Foot - The Field - In the Name of the Father - The Boxer - In America

  • Denis Villeneuve: Incendies - Prisoners - Enemy - Sicario - Arrival

— June 20, 2021


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