S/D: Directors whose entire oeuvres consist of the relationship between themselves and God

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Bergman, duh.

(Note - the oeuvres don't have to be 100% all about this, but an overwhelming majority should be.)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 1 December 2003 03:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Woody Allen, in a way.

Oliver Stone. As in "I am bigger than..."

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 1 December 2003 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Kieslowski (his features, and if his agnostic Author-God counts)

― Leee Majors (Leee), Monday, 1 December 2003 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

would Bresson count? (only seen about 5)

also Tarkovsky

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 1 December 2003 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Bresson would not count, except in the most metaphysical way possibly.

Joao Cesero Montiero

― antexit (antexit), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know if I'd count Kieslowski. Yes, there are religious and certainly ethical questions raised in some of them. But as I remember it, he was basically an agnostic or atheist and had little interest in God the entity - he was more concerned with people at emotional crossroads, and thus their faith (if they had faith) was examined. But I don't think he really was trying to struggle with God himself. I just think he was curious as to how someone else would struggle with it, among other things.

Richard Attenborough?
Caveh Zahedi
Carl Dreyer?
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Terrence Malick?
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Godfrey Reggio
Nicolas Roeg?
Andrei Tarkovsky?

― Girolamo Savonarola, Wednesday, 3 December 2003 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm kind of surprised that Fellini hasn't been mentioned. The Catholic guilt or imagery is always there, although not always as blatantly as in "la dolce vita" or "8 1/2".

The same could be said of most Italian filmmakers, and even Italian Americans--Scorsese seems an obvious choice.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno...I'm not really talking about people who have a problem with their religion, clergy, or Catholic identity. I think that Fellini and Scorsese have more problems with Catholic identity than with God itself. Scorsese gets more towards God in Mean Streets, but honestly, what else? I tend to think of each of them more has men who occasionally had the odd urge to take on the idea of God, but certainly not frequently or across their whole body of work. It's just that some of their more famous ones lightly touched on it.

Do you really think that 8 1/2 was about a man's relationship with God? Although he has some anxieties about it, I think his predominant concerns lie elsewhere, even when dealing with his concerns regarding the church.

― , Tuesday, 16 December 2003 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess that's up for theological debate, but I don't really ever think there can be that extreme of a dichotomy betwen "religion" and "god"; in the same way that it is easy in theory to delinate between "individual" and "society", when you get deeper into the structure, it becomes nearly impossible to separate the two.

I don't think "8 1/2" was about man's relationship with God, but also don't think "8 1/2" was about any one thing, certainly not about filmmaking or relationships any more than God, at least. I think the great thing about "8 1/2" is that it shows the inter-relatedness of man's motivations, and how no experience exists in a vacuum. You're absolutely right that Guido's concerns are elsewhere while dealing with the church, but the same can be true of his concerns in the bedroom, or on the film set.

I guess I can see where Fellini or Scorsese would not be considered filmmakers dealing directly with God as a theme in their films, but I have a hard time determining what level of subtlety draws the line in saying that a director is exploring a relationship between God and themselves. Does it have to be the existential angst of Dreyer of Bergman ("god's silence") or could you include a film like Jem Cohen's "Lost Book Found," which I think is less about a push-cart vendor and a big city than a man coming to terms with God's existence and his place within a "great plan" that either may or may not exist.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Tuesday, 16 December 2003 14:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I guess I'd say look at the few I suggested - don't you think that most of their work deals with the concept of God a lot more openly (not necessarily overtly) than Fellini or Scorsese? I'd agree with you on the Cohen - and Woody Allen's stuff is a good argument that it doesn't need to be dramatic, existential, or bleak to be considered a part of this club.

But (for me) religion is the social thing. God is personal and internal - which is why I refuse to admit Fellini into it - at least on the basis of 8 1/2. Few of his other films that I've seen really have much to do with God, although religion does frequent them from time to time. I'd say that Fellini is more interested in the religious (social) conditions of Italian Catholicism than in the divine implications. His concerns are the mortal and the profane.

― , Tuesday, 16 December 2003 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

Scorsese gets more towards God in Mean Streets, but honestly, what else?

Obvious answer: The Last Temptation of Christ

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 19 January 2004 23:02 (twenty-one years ago)

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