Are Directors Overrated?

Yes! Just kidding (kind of). Ann Hornaday has a great piece in the Washington Post about this. Thanks to our partner Cassandra for the lead to this!







Behind the screens

Are directors overrated? We challenge Jason Reitman, Richard Linklater and Tom Ford to explain the power of the invisible hand.



By Ann Hornaday

Washington Post Staff

Writer Sunday, December 13, 2009



"Directing a movie is a very overrated job, we all know it. You just have to say yes or no. What else do you do? Nothing. 'Maestro, should this be red?' Yes. 'Green?' No. 'More extras?' Yes. 'More lipstick?' No. Yes. No. Yes. No. That's directing."



Thus speaks an acerbic costume designer played by Judi Dench in "Nine," an upcoming musical about an addled movie director played by Daniel Day-Lewis. The film, based on the Broadway musical, is about many things: men, women, sex, guilt, life, death. But it's also about the complicated meaning of the two words "Directed by."



We know when a movie's been well directed, right? It's been well directed when it works. When it looks great, sounds great, captures actors at their peak performances, leaves the audience feeling satisfied.



But wait: We liked the story and that dialogue was hilarious -- doesn't that mean the movie was well written? And that actress we love -- she's good in everything. The director didn't design the costumes. She didn't operate the camera for that unbelievably cool tracking shot. She didn't write that lush musical score or invent the sound effects that nearly rattled our teeth out of their gums.



Maybe Dame Judi is on to something -- maybe directors are overrated.



Er, not so fast wardrobe lady. Yes and No sound easy enough, until you say No when you should say Yes. Or say Yes to the wrong thing. "A director makes a thousand binary decisions a day," says Jason Reitman, who directed "Thank You for Smoking," "Juno" and, most recently, "Up in the Air," starring George Clooney. "Now, let's say I get one of those questions wrong. It wouldn't be a big deal. Even if I got 5 percent wrong, it'll probably fly by.



"But let's say I got half of it wrong," Reitman continues in a recent interview in Washington. "What if this was a really intimate scene and it didn't feel intimate because the location seemed too modern? Or the background actors brought too much attention upon themselves? All of a sudden enough questions come up that, for whatever reason, you've stopped believing in the reality of this movie. . . . And all of a sudden the movie is poorly directed.



Read the full piece HERE.