Beginners luck? Or just raw talent?
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Now all great artists have to start somewhere. Every great singer has a low-quality CD of them
00:04 doing karaoke or something somewhere in their attic. All the best athletes start out on their
00:09 peewee football teams. Michelangelo probably drew crude pictures of farm animals before he even
00:13 heard the word 'Sistine Chapel'. And when it comes to film directors, their first movies are usually
00:18 a bit sloppy, a little underwhelming, and largely forgettable. But not these ten, though, because
00:22 they basically nailed it the first time around. So let's take a look at them as I'm Jules,
00:26 this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 Overlooked First Films by Great Directors.
00:31 10. Hunger - Steve McQueen
00:33 Rather than the actor from The Great Escape, this Steve McQueen is a British film director best
00:38 known for the Best Picture Oscar-winning drama, 12 Years a Slave. Outside of that film, he also
00:43 directed the TV anthology Small Axe, the heist movie Windows, and the sex addiction thriller
00:48 Shame. However, McQueen's on-screen career started with a dirty, naked Michael Fassbender.
00:53 In 2008, the director brought us Hunger, a story about the 1981 Irish hunger and no-wash strike.
00:59 Fassbender plays Bobby Sands, a real-life IRA prisoner who died in jail as the result of the
01:04 action. I mean, I could have said spoilers here, but come on, these events happened over 40 years
01:08 ago. Hunger was almost unanimously well-received by critics upon its debut at the Cannes Film
01:13 Festival in 2008. Fassbender was praised for his nuanced performance, whilst Queen was labelled as
01:18 an emerging talent for his use of artistic flair to tell a story. And those critics were definitely
01:24 correct, as McQueen is now one of the most treasured British film directors. He was even
01:28 knighted in 2020. As for Hunger, it's very different from McQueen's later work, but still
01:33 a very enjoyable, if somewhat challenging piece of cinema.
01:36 9. Sweetie - Jane Campion
01:39 The only woman to date to be nominated for two Best Director Oscars, Jane Campion is,
01:43 quite simply, a legend. Her 1993 movie The Piano is a heart-wrenching period piece about a young
01:49 woman sold into marriage by her father. Then, in 2021, came The Power of the Dog,
01:55 the beautiful, sprawling western that challenged audiences to dislike Benedict Cumberbatch. She
02:00 got started in her native New Zealand with a short film called Peel, which won the short film
02:05 Palme d'Or at Cannes. She then followed this up with her feature-length debut Sweetie in 1989.
02:10 Now, Sweetie is about a young woman who struggles with family, romance, and life itself. So,
02:15 basically, everyone in their 20s, right? The titular Sweetie is played by an actor named
02:18 Genevieve Leman. An excellent name withstanding, the movie also received praise for its twisted
02:24 view of family life and unconventional presentation. Being a New Zealand indie film,
02:28 the movie didn't actually create much of a splash when it first arrived. However,
02:31 if you like a bit of Jane Campion, then you might have a sweet tooth for Sweetie.
02:34 8. Play Misty for Me - Clint Eastwood
02:37 Though definitely more famous as an actor, Clint Eastwood has stood behind the camera
02:41 more than a few times as well. Although, more often than not, he's also been in the films
02:45 he's directed. What an ego, right? His first directorial effort was Play Misty for Me,
02:50 which sounds like Clint really wanted somebody to pretend to be the redhead from the original
02:53 Pokemon anime. Instead, the film actually stars Eastwood as a radio DJ being stalked by an
02:58 obsessive fan. Instead of demanding autographs and video messages, though, the fan instead
03:02 demands that Eastwood's character fall in love with her. And this goes about as well as you'd
03:06 expect. Play Misty for Me is a far cry from Clint Eastwood's regular roles as an all-action man.
03:12 Here he plays a regular fella, completely at the mercy of his fanatical follower. And said
03:16 follower is portrayed brilliantly by Jessica Walter, who was nominated for a Golden Globe
03:20 for her performance. The success of this film opened the door for the Dirty Harry star to
03:24 helm future projects like The Bridges of Madison County, Million Dollar Baby, and Gran Torino.
03:29 All of which ended up starring himself. I told you about his ego.
03:32 7. The Loveless - Catherine Bigelow
03:35 Before stealing the show with her war drama The Hurt Locker, Catherine Bigelow was mostly
03:39 known for action thrillers. She directed Point Break, the movie that gave us that steamy Reeves
03:44 Swayze bromance, and K-19 The Widowmaker, easily one of the best submarine-based films ever. And
03:50 yes, I know that really that category just boils down to The Hunt for Red October and this,
03:54 but come on, give me something. Bigelow's first outing as a director was The Loveless,
03:57 and the film was basically about a group of bikers who roll into a small southern town.
04:01 Vance, played by Willem Dafoe, becomes entangled with a local girl and her abusive father who wants
04:06 to rid his settlement of the greasers once and for all. Tense, moody, and emotionally dense,
04:11 The Loveless is a great entry point into the catalogue of one of modern cinema's
04:15 most groundbreaking filmmakers. Also, Willem Dafoe in leather is never a bad shout, so yeah,
04:19 there you go. 6. Hard 8 - Paul Thomas Anderson
04:22 Not to be confused with Paul W.S. Anderson, who makes some very different films,
04:26 Paul Thomas Anderson is considered one of the 21st century's greatest directors.
04:30 Best known for his work on There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, and Licorice Pizza,
04:33 as well as directing music videos for Radiohead, Fiona, Apple, and Haim,
04:37 Anderson's work is often bleak, spotlighting realistic characters with tons of personal
04:41 flaws. His first movie, 1996's Hard 8, is a bit like that, only way more extreme.
04:46 It stars Philip Baker Hall as a successful Las Vegas gambler who takes a homeless man under his
04:51 wing. A series of events transpired that lead to the protégé marrying a sex worker and taking
04:56 a man hostage. The film is stacked to the gills with star power. Alongside Hall, there's John C.
05:01 Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Samuel L. Jackson. Not bad for a first go
05:06 around, right? Exciting, gripping, and with a strong cast of enjoyable characters, Hard 8 is
05:10 well worth taking a gamble on. 5. Blood Simple - The Coen Brothers
05:15 Joel and Ethan Coen are so synonymous with one another that it's genuinely unsettling when one
05:19 of them does something without the other. And the siblings are responsible for some very famous
05:23 films, including Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, the 2010 True Grit remake, and No Country
05:29 for Old Men. And if you haven't heard of at least one of those, then seriously, how did you even
05:33 come across this list? Their success can be traced way back to a picture from 1984 called Blood
05:38 Simple. A mixture of noir crime, psychological thriller, and straight-up horror, Blood Simple
05:43 is about the horrifying fallout of a bartender having an affair with his boss's wife. "Do not
05:47 mix business and pleasure" seems to be the motto here. It's very well acted, with future Oscar
05:52 winner Frances McDormand in the lead female role. It's also shot beautifully, adding a new spin to
05:57 the traditional crime story formula. It's not hard to predict the brothers' trajectory based
06:01 on Blood Simple. Their films continue to be dark, broody, and full of shady characters to this very
06:06 day. The only difference is that they've got a lot more money to play with.
06:09 4. Pie - Darren Aronofsky Pretty much every single one of Darren
06:14 Aronofsky's movies is regarded as some sort of classic, except for Noah. We don't talk about
06:19 Noah. Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan, The Whale - these movies all have their
06:24 place in the hearts and minds of cinema fans. But one of his most overlooked entries is actually
06:28 his directorial debut, Pie. Filmed in black and white, because of course it is, Pie stars Max
06:33 Cohen, a mathematician obsessed with finding order and balance within the world. Because Max
06:37 meets a Jewish character attempting to decode the Torah as if it was a string of code. There's a
06:42 number that's meant to represent the true name of God, which comes in the form of some very big
06:46 ideas for Mr. Aronofsky and crew, but he absolutely nails them. As well as making your brain hurt in
06:51 a good way, Pie will also make your eyes just utterly happy in a good way as well. Beautifully
06:55 shot, masterfully acted, and cleverly written, Pie is everything you could want from an Aronofsky
07:00 feature. 3. Shallow Grave - Danny Boyle
07:04 The Doctor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Catherine D'Amidici all have to work out what to do when
07:08 Lily Allen's dad dies in their apartment. Now that sounds like a recipe for success,
07:12 and that's what goes down in 1994's Shallow Grave. Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor,
07:17 and Kerry Fox not only have to deal with Keith Allen's sudden demise, but also the large sum
07:21 of money that he left behind. What follows is a grimly funny crime caper as the three
07:25 friends deal with the fallout of their actions. The screenplay was written by John Hodge,
07:29 and the movie was directed by Danny Boyle, who would go on to work together several more times,
07:32 including on Trainspotting and The Beach. Boyle's recognition would far surpass that of his writer.
07:37 He would go on to win the Best Director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, and very nearly directed
07:42 a Bond movie, but that's another story for another time. In terms of British talent before they hit
07:46 it big, you really couldn't do much better than Shallow Grave. Both the Scottish director and
07:50 actor would become megastars, and the English one would become part of the biggest franchise
07:54 in sci-fi TV history.
07:56 2. Following - Christopher Nolan
07:58 Few directors can match up to Christopher Nolan in terms of fanatical devotion. Maybe
08:03 Quentin Tarantino, but then again his first film was Reservoir Dogs, so there's no way we can call
08:07 that overlooked. As for Nolan's first film, he took the Aronofsky approach and filmed 1998's
08:12 Following in black and white. The director went to extreme lengths to get this picture made. He
08:16 made his actors heavily rehearse scenes ahead of time to save on film, he paid for equipment out
08:21 of his own salary, he pitched him with editing, and he even cast his own uncle in one of the roles.
08:26 Safe to say that he was keen to get The Following off the ground. Once it did get off the ground,
08:30 though, it went down a storm. A neo-noir crime thriller about a young man drawn into a seedy
08:35 underworld, Following was praised for its snappy action, atypical narrative structure,
08:39 and nail-biting mystery. It also got Nolan's name out there, which allowed him to get the
08:43 resources together to make his next feature film, a little picture called Memento. You might have
08:48 heard of it.
08:48 1. Bad Taste - Peter Jackson
08:51 The man behind the epic Middle Earth series of movies started his directorial career making
08:55 schlocky horror movies in New Zealand. Before making one of the greatest film trilogies ever,
08:59 and I guess some Hobbit movies, Peter Jackson was best known as the mind behind Brain Dead
09:04 and The Frighteners. But before any of these, though, Jackson was making another movie about
09:08 a group of murderous aliens harvesting human meat for use in their fast food chain, which was 1987's
09:13 Bad Taste. The director also wrote this film, edited it, and played two parts, and it was
09:18 backed up by future collaborators Peter Hearn and Peter Ver Jones. In the end, Bad Taste is a funny,
09:23 silly, over-the-top, low-budget comedy horror movie with plenty of laughs and gore stuffed into
09:28 its 92-minute runtime. More importantly, though, it gave Jackson an entry point into the world of
09:33 cinema, and for that, we are all eternally grateful. Jackson came from very humble beginnings
09:37 and went on to achieve greatness, much like a certain resident of the Shire.
09:41 And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 Overlooked First Films by Great Directors.
09:45 I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the
09:48 comments section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Instagram
09:51 @retroj but the O is a zero and you can come check out all of my Warhammer miniatures that
09:55 I've been painting. I know, I am a nerd. But before I go, I just want to say one thing. Hope
09:59 you're treating yourself well, my friend, and not overlooking how much of a big ledge you are. You
10:04 deserve love, happiness, and success, and do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise,
10:08 alright? I want you to go out there and smash your life goals today because I believe in you,
10:11 and you need to believe in yourself as well. As always, I've been Jules, you have been awesome,
10:15 never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.