Search found 2 matches: Andrei Tarkovsky

I can't think of a better final film than The Sacrifice by Andrei Tarkovsky. I hold him in particular high esteem, usually regarding him as one of the top players in filmmaking, and he really directed a number of very personal, very strong films throughout his career that influenced the cinema of the world. But I think his best film was his last, which is where he really honed in all of his artistic and filmic ingenuity, and bringing in Erland Josephson and Sven Nykvist certainly helped. Tarkovsky died not long after finishing the film (he did a lot of post-production from his bed) and it's likely the stressful production of this film may've taken a few months or years off his life, but what good is a gift if there is no sacrifice?

While I really liked Eyes Wide Shut I would class it as one of Kubrick's weaker films.

Off the top of my head three directors come to mind that went out on a high, although Charles Laughton's first film Night of The Hunter is a cracker. It was so poorly received at the time though that he never made another, so I guess that qualifies.

Andrei Tarkovsky's last film The Sacrifice is in my opinion one of his best - and that's saying something.
Ingmar Bergman's final theatrically released film Saraband is excellent.
Satyajit Ray's The Stranger ended his career with a very strong outing too.


I'm sure there's a bunch more, but it does seem that, as a general rule, a director's work tends to follow a bell curve in terms of quality.