Posts by Cameron Beyl
The Directors Series: Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards
The Director’s Series: Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards Director Quentin Tarantino’s seventh feature film, 2009’s , is a very personal film for me, in that various facets of its existence coincided with my own at the time. I had moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2008, and my first job was as an intern…
Read MoreThe Directors Series: Quentin Tarantino’s Four Rooms (The Man From Hollywood)
The Directors Series: Quentin Tarantino’s Four Rooms (The Man From Hollywood) Every director experiences a misfire at some point in his/her career. Even Stanley Kubrick, widely considered to be one of the greatest directors that ever lived, felt the bitter string of failure once or twice. It’s as inevitable as the sun coming up each day. For a…
Read MoreThe Directors Series: Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill – The Whole Bloody Affair
The Directors Series: Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill – The Whole Bloody Affair The 4th film by Quentin Tarantino (as it reads in the film’s advertising copy), KILL BILL: VOLUME 1, was released during an odd time in my cinematic development. The year was 2003, and I had just entered my senior year of high school. …
Read MoreDirectors Series: Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk
Directors Series: Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk Along with the mass devastation and the loss of millions of lives, World War 2 brought about something positive: a recognition of the innate heroism in every person. It wasn’t just a conflict fought by unseen general and soldiers on some distant field by– it was a harrowing ordeal that…
Read MoreDirectors Series: Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner
Directors Series: Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner As I sit here writing this essay, it is the year 2018, in the city of Los Angeles, California. It’s a sunny, slightly chilly morning. When I look out my window, I see the stubby trees, freshly-watered green lawns, and the stately bungalows of Larchmont— a sleepy residential neighborhood…
Read MoreDirectors Series: Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise
Directors Series: Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise A good friend once likened a director’s cultural relevance to a tuning fork— after so many strikes, the fork can begin straying from perfect pitch. Similarly, a director can deliver a number of films that strike a chord with audiences before finding him or herself eclipsed by their…
Read MoreDirectors Series: The Coen Brother’s The Big Lebowski
Directors Series: The Coen Brother’s The Big Lebowski When the Coens made their debut with ., they managed to develop a personal friendship with their sales rep, Jeff Dowd. The brothers were fascinated by Dowd’s eccentric character, known throughout LA as a good-natured stoner/slacker nicknamed “The Dude”. Around the time of Barton Fink, they started…
Read MoreDirectors Series: Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained
Directors Series: Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained The success of 2009’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS sent director Quentin Tarantino off on another career-high. It was the realization of an idea that had been a long time coming, with Tarantino purportedly first conceiving the idea around 1994, after the production of PULP FICTION. In 2012, he realized yet another…
Read MoreChristopher Nolan: The Ultimate Guide to His Films and Directing Techniques
Christopher Nolan: The Ultimate Guide to His Films and Directing Techniques Nolan has built a reputation in the film industry as a grand showman and visual magician firmly in command of his craft. He’s infamous for assembling his complex and intricately layered plots like a puzzle, presenting them in such a way that respects the…
Read MoreDavid Fincher: The Ultimate Guide to His Films and Directing Style
David Fincher: The Ultimate Guide to His Films and Directing Style 1999 was a watershed year for people in my generation, as it no doubt was for other generations as well. On the eve of the new millennium, we were caught in a place between excitement and apprehension. The 21st century loomed large with promises…
Read MoreTony Scott: The Ultimate Guide to His Films & Career
Tony Scott: Breaking Down His Cinematic Visual Style The Director Series is at its most effective when I’m analyzing the careers of the deceased, as I can view their works in totality and make observations about the course of their full development. For the living, obviously I’m tracking developing careers that are still evolving and…
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