Directorial Chronology - 1979

Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens, directed by this guy

In The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929 - 1968, Andrew Sarris provided an extremely useful and entertaining appendix he called "Directorial Chronology." It was basically a best American film of the year list with a highly auteurist, idiosyncratic bent. So you would see things like Man's Favorite Sport (Hawks) ranked well above something more critically exalted (by the mainstream) like Fail Safe (Lumet). He did not numerically rank the films, but they are pretty clearly presented in order of preference (and preferred auteurs). Since it is my aim to pay tribute to the great text by the great man, I am going to attempt to do the same. Here is the next entry.

Directorial Chronology - 1979

Albert Brooks Real Life
Joan Silver Chilly Scenes of Winter
Blake Edwards 10
Ridley Scott Alien
Woody Allen Manhattan
Francis Ford Coppola Apocalypse Now
Hall Ashby Being There
William Richert Winter Kills
Walter Hill The Warriors
Philip Kaufman The Wanderers
Bob Fosse All That Jazz
John Huston Wise Blood
Russ Meyer Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens
Richard Lester Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
Abel Ferrara The Driller Killer
Paul Schrader Hardcore
Jonathan Demme Last Embrace
William Richert The Great American Success Company
Ted Kotcheff North Dallas Forty
Don Coscarelli Phantasm
Jonathan Kaplan Over the Edge
Steven Spielberg 1941
Carroll Ballard The Black Stallion
Arthur Hiller The In-Laws
Robert Benton Kramer vs. Kramer
James Ivory The Europeans
Peter Bogdanovich Saint Jack
Harold Becker The Onion Field
Pater Yates Breaking Away
James Bridges The China Syndrome
Richard Lester Cuba
Robert Altman A Perfect Couple
Alan Pakula Starting Over
Robert Altman Quintet
Milos Forman Hair
Martin Ritt Norma Rae
Don Siegel Escape from Alcatraz
Gilbert Moses The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
Robert Aldrich The Frisco Kid
Martin Brest Going in Style
Lewis John Carlino The Great Santini
Richard Pearce Heartland
Nicholas Meyer Time After Time
Carl Reiner The Jerk
Sylvester Stallone Rocky II
George Roy Hill A Little Romance
Joan Tewksbury Old Boyfriends
Norman Jewison ...And Justice for All

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