From Deep-Focus to Pan-and-Zoom/The Changing of Directorial Styles

[B-side]

I was reading this entry (http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=1139) from David Bordwell's blog about the advent of pan-and-zoom cinematography with the switch to color and the telephoto lens, and the 3 types of directors: the flexible stylist, the stubborn stylist and the polystylist, and figured it'd be a good thing to bring up here. The flexible stylist being defined as a director that sort of adapts to the times. The stubborn stylist being rather self-explanatory. The polystylist being the director that utilizes various touches and techniques to express their personal vision. Here are some examples he gives:

Flexible stylists:
Francois Truffaut
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Jacques Demy

Stubborn stylists:
Yasujiro Ozu
Tsai Ming-liang
Theo Angelopoulos

Polystylists:
R.W. Fassbinder
Steven Soderbergh
Raoul Ruiz

What I posit to you folks are the following queries:

What other directors fit these 3 profiles? What are the pros and cons to fitting each of these profiles?

What do you think was gained/lost by the advent of the pan-and-zoom style of camera work? Was cinema better off with the depth of staging that was so present in the black and white days?

[megladon8]

Very interesting article, Brightside, thanks for sharing.

Would Spielberg be a stubborn stylist? When I look at his films from Jaws all the way to Indy IV, it seems to me that while technology and effects advanced, his filming techniques remain nigh-unchanged.

Perhaps I don't grasp the concept fully, yet...

[Spun Lepton]

I was about to say Sam Raimi for Stubborn, but then I remembered the wonderfully restrained way that A Simple Plan was directed, so I'd now say Polystylist -- even though he definitely has a preference for higher-energy stuff.

[Qrazy]

Granted I haven't seen all of his films but Fassbinder seems more like a flexible stylist to me while someone like Oliver Stone would be a polystylist.

[Boner M]

Abel Ferrara would be a prime example of the polystylist, I think. He even slammed the very idea of formal rigor as 'fascistic precision'.

[B-side]

I don't have time to read that article but I'm wondering if Paul Thomas Anderson would qualify as a flexible stylist. He doesn't adapt to the times, though, as that seems to imply an adoption of a 'conventional' style (whatever that may be)... so perhaps he's more of a polystylist, despite the fact that certain signatures remain evident from film to film.

Ingmar Bergman was defined as flexible as he had adopted the pan-and-zoom style with the advent of color. Not to say his directorial touch had changed much, just that he had took advantage of the sort of painterly quality many films started containing due to the flattened nature of the widescreen lens.

[Mysterious Dude]

Bumping an old thread here. Does anyone find stubborn stylists a bit hard to get into? I liked Mike Leigh at first, but when I was watching All or Nothing, I couldn't help thinking, haven't I seen this before? This same setting? These same characters? And now I have a hard time getting interested in his other movies that look very similar. His most interesting movie, to me, is his most unusual: Topsy Turvy.

[Ezee E]

I don't see how SPielberg would be stubborn at all. Given his use of special effects, and his 2000's output of completely changing the way he lights a movie, I'd say he adapts more then anything.

[Mysterious Dude]

I have decided that Robert Altman is a flexible stylist. I submit to you two scenes, one from Nashville and the other from A Prairie Home Companion.

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Note that in Nashville, when the camera is focused on the performers onstage, it seems to have been filmed from across the room and zoomed in, whereas in A Prairie Home Companion, the camera is practically onstage with Lindsay Lohan. Also, Nashville frequently shows the audience as well as the performers, which reminds me of the film Woodstock, where the audience is just as important as the performers. In A Prairie Home Companion, the only evidence of the audience is the sound they make.

Flexible stylists are interesting because you can really see how popular styles changed while they were working.