Let's list some Old Film Directors who are still alive1

Old Hollywood cats:

Stanley Donen
Blake Edwards

Alain Resnais

Ken Russell

Peter Brook

Mel Brooks

Manoel de Oliveira

Was just about to say Manoel de Oliveira.

Kenneth Anger

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Richard Lester

de oliveira = last surviving director who shot in the silent era, i think

woody allen is, what, 70 or 71 now?

wow 99 and still working, that's nuts

Agnès Varda

Roman Polanski

Ha ha - Ray Dennis Steckler!

haha Polanski's in the new Rush Hour movie I almost spat out my drink in the theater when I saw him in the preview

Francesco Rosi

I am too superstitious to add any names to this thread!

Chris Marker

Born before 1930:

Jean Delannoy (b.1908, La Symphonie Pastorale, Maigret Tend Un Piège)
Richard Bare (b.1909, Flaxy Martin, Smart Girls Don't Talk)
Ronald Neame (b.1911, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Poseidon Adventure)
Joseph Pevney (b.1911, Tammy and the Bachelor, Man Of A Thousand Faces)
Jules Dassin (b.1911, Night and the City, Rififi)
Ken Annakin (b.1914, Swiss Family Robinson, The Sword and the Rose)
Jack Cardiff (b.1914, Sons And Lovers, The Girl On A Motorcycle, plus loads of cinematography, for Powell & Pressburger etc.)
Andrew McLaglen (b.1915, Batman, PT 109)
Roy Ward Baker (b.1916, A Night to Remember, Quatermass And The Pit)
Michael Anderson (b.1920, Around the World in Eighty Days, Logan's Run)
Lewis Gilbert (b. 1920, Carve Her Name with Pride, Alfie, Bond films)
Delbert Mann (b.1920, The Bachelor Party, Marty)
Guy Hamilton (b. 1922, An Inspector Calls, The Colditz Story, Bond films)
Michael Cacoyannis (b.1922, Zorba the Greek, Stella)
Irvin Kershner (b.1923, Hoodlum Priest, The Empire Strikes Back)
Suzuki Seijun (b.1923, Branded to Kill, Tokyo Drifter)
John Guillermin (b. 1925, I Was Monty's Double, The Towering Inferno)
Robert Mulligan (b.1925, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Other)
Youssef Chahine (b.1926, Cairo Central Station, The Sparrow)
Roger Corman (b.1926, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit And The Pendulum)
Andrzej Wajda (b.1926, Wesele, Danton)
Edouard Molinaro (b.1928, La Cage aux Folles, Oscar)
Jacques Rivette (b.1928, Céline et Julie vont en bateau, La Belle noiseuse)

Melville Shavelson (b.1917, The Seven Little Foys, Houseboat)
Norman Jewison (b.1926, In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair)

Oh, Franco Zeffirelli.

jonas mekas (1922)

Documentarians:

Albert Maysles
Richard Leacock
D.A. Pennebaker

Carlos Saura

Frederick Wiseman's 77, although Titicut was 1967, if we're still being strict about the rules of the thread.

Dusan Makavejev

As for Wiseman, he's earned it, let him in.

Manoel de Oliveira

-- C0L1N B..., Tuesday, July 31, 2007 8:35 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Link

famous for being alive. no-one has seen any of his films.

Bernardo Bertolucci

Temporarily...?

Due to unspecified medical reasons, Sydney Pollack has backed out of directing HBO Films' "Recount," leaving Jay Roach to take his place. Roach, who directed "Austin Powers" and "Meet the Parents," will take over direction of the upcoming film that follows the ballot recounts in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. Pollack will stay on as an executive producer.

I'd much prefer Sydney Pollack acting in movies than directing them.

Man, every time this thread appears at the top I'm going to wonder who died.

Most of these "old directors" are minor leaguers compared to last week's retirees.

How old is Alan Smithee?

a necessarily selective survey of over 250 directors from around the world, all of whom are 60 or older, who have had lasting impact or a moment that matters in one way or another:

http://www.mcnblogs.com/mcindie/archives/2007/08/who_are_the_old_1.html

is this a preperation for all the future "R.I.P" threads in the next year?
it is better not to be surprised i guess..

Ray Dennis Steckler no longer alive.

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/01/ray-dennis-steckler-19382009.html

One of these days I need to get around to Rat Fink a Boo Boo. RIP.

Due to unspecified medical reasons, Sydney Pollack has backed out of directing HBO Films' "Recount," leaving Jay Roach to take his place. Roach, who directed "Austin Powers" and "Meet the Parents," will take over direction of the upcoming film that follows the ballot recounts in Florida during the 2000 presidential election. Pollack will stay on as an executive producer.

I kept wondering why Pollack was mentioned repeatedly last night.

Saw Stanley Donen do a Q&A at Lincoln Center after Movie Movie last night (a mild, cute 1978 double-bill parody of Warner Bros '30s genre formulas). I give anyone props who is walking w/out support at 86, and who readily admits he can't hear or remember too well. When Scott Foundas remarked that Hollywood was making musicals again in the last ten years, Donen cut him off with "THEY ARE?"

I hope he gets to make one again so we can see a brave musical for once.

well he said he thought Chicago needed to be done with two faded stars, a la Verdon and Rivera on Broadway in the '70s. I can imagine the gasface Harvey Weinstein gave if Donen told him that.

Kev, have you ever seen Donen's Staircase? Have always heard it is horrendous (Vito Russo), but it's in this retro.

Peter Bogdanovich seemed old when I saw him last week, and sure enough, he's 71. Which actually isn't all that old, but, as was said when introducing him, he's also a living link to Ford and Vidor and all those ancient guys he interviewed and wrote books about, and that makes him seem even older.

Three of the seven I listed in the first post all died this year :-(

...and Manoel de Oliveira is still alive! He'll be 102 in about a month.

Yeah I saw his latest film about a month ago. It seemed very much like a movie a 102-yr-old would make.

rumor has it MdO is even older than his official age...

thx -- yeah don't know if you need to know any bits about the 1st part of the trilogy. I'd guess not, from reading about him it doesn't look like he does plot.

What has jancso done lately?

He had a historical film called So Much For Justice on the festival circuit last year but i don't think it was well received.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/11/16/quentin_tarantino_final_four_films_are_typically_directors_worst_really.html

Good subject for debate. I bet Tarantino himself is headed for the list.

It'd be almost a Kael (yes) vs. Sarris (emphatically no) debate verbatim.

One of the most obvious counters would be John Huston, who finished with Under the Volcano, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead.

James Ivory

bet Tarantino himself is headed for the list.

broke the streak!

John Waters, or is he too young for this category?

he's 73! not in this company is he old.

CLINT is still working at 89 (six months older than Godard).

“Directors don’t get better as they get older,” said Tarantino to Scorsese.

Alexander Kluge
Edgar Reitz
Jean-Marie Straub

... all born within a year of one another.

Michel DeVille (Nouvelle Vague-era but non-Nouvelle Vague dude)

Claude Lelouch

Paul Verhoeven is 81.

Woody Allen will be 84 in December, and they'll keep releasing his films overseas.

Roman Polanski's still going too. 86.

Marco Bellocchio, 80 next month

John Boorman is 86

Carlos Saura is 87

Richard Lester is 87, though hasn't made a film since his 50s

^ neither has Waters

Forgot that A Dirty Shame was that long ago.

Corman 93, hasn’t directed since 1990 but been active as a producer (although practically retired by his standards)

Jodorowsky is 90 btw

(Also I noticed he has a son called Brontis, which reminded me that a friend of mine - surname, Harris - always used to say he would name his first born son, Brontis or Tyrannis.)

sic semper brontis

Lina Wertmüller (first feature in 1963, was also an A.D. for Fellini on 8 1/2)

what does she think about the mcu?

Not sexist enough, probably.

haha, i read Lina Wertmuller as "Leni Riefenstahl"

HER take on Marvel i can imagine

Alain Tanner, 89.

Michael Snow will be 91 next month. He introduced Wavelength at MoMA yesterday.

wau

ive seen it several times so didnt go

Happy 90th Birthday to Carlos Saura!

Here's an IMDB list that seems to be up-to-date (except for Lina Wertmüller):

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000963382/

Oldest living director not mentioned in this thread: Bert I. Gordon, 99
Oldest living director already mentioned in this thread: Peter Brook, 96
Mentioned by me in another thread: Ruy Guerra, 90
Probably should not have been mentioned: Theo Angelopoulos, 72 at the time (and died at 76)

Happy 90th Birthday to Richard Lester!

(Also raise a glass to John Boorman, who turned 89 yesterday!)

Thanks! Don't forget about The Running Jumping Richard Lester Thread
(Note: that thread has a Jesse Garon Presley twin for some reason)

I want to think Lester and Boorman partied together, but Boorman lives in Ireland and Lester in England presumably

Costa-Gavras, 88

Inspired by a reference to a 2019 film of his.

Alejandro Jodorowsky is 93 today. ¡Feliz cumpleaños, señor!

Kenneth Anger recently turned 95. Is anyone else living who made films in the 40s?

Also if he was really in A Midsummer Night's Dream (disputed) he's one of the few people alive who were in films in the 1930s. 104-year-old Marsha Hunt would be another in that small group.

Is anyone else living who made films in the 40s?

If you allow a loose interpretation of "made" and "films", according to the IMDB link above, both Peter Brook and Mel Brooks got their first credits as writers for TV in 1949.

I was thinking more first directing credit.

Marco Bellocchio, 80 next month
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, October 7, 2019

Saw a trailer for an upcoming film the other night, had to do a double-take. Fists in the Pocket was 1965; he was only 26 when that came out, so still a sprightly 84.

Mel Brooks
― Phil D., Tuesday, July 31, 2007 2:35 PM

Sidney Lumet died 2011
Roger Corman died 2024
Claude Chabrol died 2010
Jean-Luc Godard died 2022
Eric Rohmer died 2010
Arthur Penn died 2010
Nagisa Oshima died 2013

With Roger Corman dead C. Grisso/McCain's original list is all done.

Worst bingo game ever.

Is anyone else living who made films in the 40s?

Michael Roemer is 98 and directed a film (albeit a student film) in 1949.

"Roemer’s film, A Touch of the Times (1949), is considered the first student film ever made in America. It was featured in TIME Magazine, who described it as 'a string of imaginative, rather cockeyed episodes about four individualists whose innocent pastimes, like flying kites, somehow set off vast conflicts between businessmen and workers.'"

https://mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/the-nonconformist-a-conversation-with-michael-roemer

dammit, i was just going to post him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Roemer

already in his mid-thirties when Nothing But a Man was released. just watched The Plot Against Harry on Criterion (wonderful)