Filmmakers : Best directorial debuts

[djross]

The "Directorial debut" collection now contains 250 movies, representing the first feature films of 250 directors. On the basis of that collection, below are my top twenty* best directorial debuts:

1. John Huston: The Maltese Falcon (96)
2. Terrence Malick: Badlands (95)
3. Orson Welles: Citizen Kane (95)
4. Gaspar Noé: I Stand Alone (93)
5. Mike Nichols: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (93)
6. Andrei Tarkovsky: Ivan’s Childhood (90)
7. Satyajit Ray: Pather Panchali (90)
8. François Truffaut: The 400 Blows (85)
9. Spike Jonze: Being John Malkovich (85)
10. Jean-Luc Godard: Breathless (85)
11. Barry Levinson: Diner (85)
12. Larry Bishop: Mad Dog Time (85)
13. Charlie Kaufman: Synecdoche, New York (85)
14. Roman Polanski: Knife in the Water (85)
15. Paul Schrader: Blue Collar (80)
16. David Lynch: Eraserhead (80)
17. Philip Haas: The Music of Chance (80)
18. Victor Erice: Spirit of the Beehive (80)
19. Jim Jarmusch: Stranger Than Paradise (80)
20. Steve Buscemi: Trees Lounge (80)
21. Federico Fellini: Variety Lights (80)

In my view the top five entries in the above list are masterpieces, making Huston, Welles, Nichols, Malick and Noé the only directors who in my opinion began their careers with a masterpiece (Huston and Welles in the same year). The top 13 entries are all in my top tier. Note also that for a number of these directors, the first film was also the best of their careers.

*Note: this has now been edited to include Polanski's Knife in the Water, which I had forgotten to add to the collection, and which, with a score of 85, is a tier 10 debut.

[FitFortDanga]

These are my tier 10 films from that cllection:

Pather Panchali (1955) 98
Eraserhead (1977) 97
The 400 Blows (1959) 95
In the Loop (2009) 95
Un Chien Andalou (1929) 94
Citizen Kane (1941) 94
I Stand Alone (1998) 92
Force of Evil (1948) 91
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wo… (1966) 91
Spirit of the Beehive (1973) 90
Lola (1961) 89
Moon (2009) 89
Ordinary People (1980) 89

[frederic_g54]

glad Sidney was mentionned, here's mine:

EDIT: skimming through my rankings, I noticed Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko was missing from djross' collection , hence the following edit:

1. Richard Kelly: Donnie Darko (98)
2. David Lynch: Eraserhead (97)
3. Darren Aronofsky: Pi (95)
4. François Truffaut: The 400 Blows (93)
5. Satyajit Ray: Pather Panchali (93)
6. Orson Welles: Citizen Kane (93)
7. Vincent Gallo: Buffalo '66 (91)
8. Andrei Tarkovsky: Ivan's Childhood (91)
9. Sidney Lumet: 12 Angry Men (90)
10. Quentin Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs (90)

honorable mentions:

Terrence Malick: Badlands (88)
Tony Kaye: American History X (88)
Duncan Jones: Moon (88)

[movieboy]

I have watched exactly 20 movies from the collection

Tier 10 Films
Love Actually (2003) 90
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking… (1998) 85
Two Weeks Notice (2002) 80
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) 75

Tier 9 Films
American History X (1998) 74
Reservoir Dogs (1992) 73
In Bruges (2008) 72

Tier 8 Films
Layer Cake (2004) 71

Tier 7 Films
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005) 70
Gone Baby Gone (2007) 69

Tier 6 Films
American Beauty (1999) 68
The Lives of Others (2006) 68
The Women (2008) 68

Tier 5 Films
Being John Malkovich (1999) 67
Chicago (2002) 67

Tier 4 Films
Michael Clayton (2007) 65

Tier 3 Films
Charlie's Angels (2000) 62
The Invention of Lying (2009) 62

Tier 2 Films
The Lookout (2007) 60

Tier 1 Films
Confessions of a Dangerous … (2002) 25

[ShogunRua]

From the collection,

1. 12 Angry Men (90, T10)
2. Citizen Kane (85, T10)
3. Moon, (76, T9)
4. Payback (76, T9)
5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (75, T9)
6. American Me (75, T9)
7. District B13 (74, T9)
8. Mad Max (72, T9)
9. Alien 3 (71, T8)
10. Demolition Man, (71, T8)

Near miss with Reservoir Dogs (70, T8). Good movie, but a plagiarized, inferior version of "City on Fire" will only get you so far.

[paulofilmo]

Tier 10 Films
Spirit of the Beehive (1973) 97
12 Angry Men (1957) 79
Citizen Kane (1941) 78
American History X (1998) 76
Badlands (1973) 76
Pather Panchali (1955) 76
Tier 9 Films
Boys Don't Cry (1999) 74
Easy Rider (1969) 74
Pi (1998) 74
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) 74
The Three Burials of Melqui… (2005) 74
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wo… (1966) 74
Tier 8 Films
Disco Pigs (2001) 72
A Guide to Recognizing Your… (2006) 72
Ivan's Childhood (1962) 72
Jump Tomorrow (2001) 72
The Lives of Others (2006) 72
Terms of Endearment (1983) 72

I'm surprised The Lives of Others is a feature debut.

The trivia of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck:

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Date of Birth
2 May 1973, Cologne, Germany

Birth Name
Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck

Height
6' 8¾" (2.05 m)

Spouse
Christiane Asschenfeldt (? - present) 3 children

Trivia

Graduated from Oxford University with a degree in philosophy.

Studied at the School of Television and Film in Munich, where he broke the student record for the number of short film awards won at festivals. Upon finishing all of his course work in 2001, he decided to make a feature film instead of another short as a graduation movie. The result - five years later-was The Lives of Others (2006).

Lived in New York, Berlin, Frankfurt and Brussels during his childhood.

Has three children with his wife Christiane: Lara Cosima (born in 2003), Leo Sylvester (born in 2005), and Alexis Jaguar (born in 2007).

Trainee of Sir Richard Attenborough in 1997.

Son of Maria Lazarus Leo-Ferdinand Romwolt Wilhelm Edwin Gerhard Stefan Graf Henckel Von Donnersmarck (b. Beuthen, 26 Dec 1935), a manager of Lufthansa, and his wife Anna Maria Von Berg (b. Magdeburg, 5 Mar 1940). They married in Cologne on 31 May 1968 (religious marriage on 3 Jun 1968).

Younger brother of Sebastian Henckel-Donnersmarck.

Has an uncle, Ulrich Maria Karl Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck (b. Breslau, 16 Jan 1943, unmarried), a Cistercian abbot.

After studying in St. Petersburg, Russia for two years, he taught Russian for a while.

To prepare The Lives of Others (2006), he spent some weeks at the Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Austria, which is led by his uncle.

One of 115 invitees to join AMPAS in 2007.

Moved to Los Angeles, CA (2007).

Holds German and Austrian citizenship.

Speaks German, English, Italian, French and Russian fluently.

[aney]

Tier 10
1. Eraserhead (1977)
2. 12 Angry Men (1957)
3. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
4. Being John Malkovich (1999)
5. American History X (1998)
6. Un Chien Andalou (1929)
7. American Beauty (1999)
8. In the Loop (2009)
9. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)
10. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking… (1998)
11. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

[by Devol]

we're talking feature-length, here?

94 Remy Belvaux - "Man Bites Dog"
93 Shari Springer Berman - "American Splendor"
93 funny-haired guy - "THX 1138"
92 John Coney - "Space is the Place"
92 Jared Hess - "Napolean Dynamite"
90 Donald Shebib - "Going Down the Road"
89 Jonathan Glazer - "Sexy Beast"
89 Roman Polanski - "Knife in the Water"
84 Peter Bogdonavitch - "Targets"
83 Charles Laughton - "Night of the Hunter"
79 Tina Rathborne - "Zelly and Me"
Spielberg - 86 "Duel" (tv); 77 "Sugarland Express" (theatrical release) (not too many other titles by this overrated boob I'm interested in) (Jaws, Schindler's List, SPR - I think that's it)

[djross]

Roman Polanski - "Knife in the Water"

Yes this should have been on my list also, but I had neglected to add it to the collection.