Best directorial debuts

[djross]

x

[MmzHrrdb]

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

[MmzHrrdb]

The films in my tier 10 are:
Tony Kaye's American History X
Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men
The Coen's Blood Simple

The films that are close are:
David Michod's Animal Kingdom
Neill Blomkamp's District 9

[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)

[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]

x

[astrakhan]

Note also that for a number of these directors, the first film was also the best of their careers.

I'm interested to hear opinions on why this is the case. Is it because as unknowns their vision and talent were as yet "uncorrupted" by studios, budgets and external pressures? One would think that the more films a director makes, the better he would get at making them...