We’ve had so many filmmakers of late claiming that they will be directing their “final” films, with the likes of Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino having all been hinting at it. IndieWire decided to look back on some of the great final statements from major filmmakers.
25 years ago, Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” was released in theaters. It was the longest continuous film shoot in movie history, but more than anything else, the film was notable for having been the final statement from the great Stanley Kubrick.
“Eyes Wide Shut,” although originally met with mixed reviews, is now seen as another worthy addition to Kubrick’s staggering filmography. It’s also one of the 15 “great” films I found that also happen to be their maker’s final statement:
An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu)
The Dead (John Huston)
Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman)
Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick)
L’Argent (Robert Bresson, 82)
Gertrud (Carl Theodor Dreyer)
Before the Devil Knows (Sidney Lumet, 83)
Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)
Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone)
That Obscure Object of Desire (Luis Buñuel)
Saraband (Ingmar Bergman, 85)
Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky)
Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
Red (Krystof Kieslowski)
F For Fake (Orson Welles)
Speaking of Tarantino, as you know, he has been insisting for a few years now that he plans to quit making movies after his 10th feature. Of course, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was his ninth film, so that just leaves us with one more (“The Movie Critic”).
This whole notion of retiring after ten movies comes from Tarantino’s theory that a director’s quality of work only gets worse as their career goes along. Tarantino wants his filmography to be perfect or, as he puts it, “without a misfire.”
“Most directors’ last films are fucking lousy,” he told the Pure Cinema podcast. The key word there is “most,” there are still many exceptions to the rule. It’s a flawed theory that doesn’t have much substance to it. An assortment of great filmmakers kept making wonderful films well into their twilight years.
It’s quite interesting what’s happening right now in cinema, something that’s not really occurred ever before, where you have a bunch of filmmakers over 80 still making films, and some of them are very good films. I’m thinking in particular of Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, David Cronenberg, Clint Eastwood, Ridley Scott, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen …