Great directorial debuts....

[j_scott_stroup04]

There have been some ongoing debate in a separate forum about whether or not Pi is a better debut film than Sydney, so I wanted to know other people's opinions on what they think are the greatest directorial debuts of all-time.

My list goes as follows:

 1. Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino)
 2. Citizen Kane (Welles)
 3. Being John Malkovich (Jonze)
 4. Blood Simple (Coen)
 5. Hard Eight (PT Anderson)
 6. Bottle Rocket (W. Anderson)
 7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Gilliam)
 8. Fistful of Dollars (Leone)
 9. Pi (Aronofsky)
10. Evil Dead (Raimi)

honarable mentions:
american beauty (Mendes), bad taste (Jackson), the producers (Brooks), killing zoe (Avary), say anything (Crowe), Swingers (Liman), Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (Ritchie), El Mariachi (Rodriguez), and Clerks (Smith)

I'm sure Eraserhead by Lynch, Drugstore Cowboy by Van Sant, and Sex, Lies, and Videotape by Soderbergh would be on their too, but unfortunately I haven't had the privelage to see any of those three.

I'm sure I'm gonna get a shitload of complaints, suggestions, and what not, but that's expected whenever lists are involved.  So feel free to say what you feel, I won't take it personally.

[ono]

Good topic.  My top ten debut films:

Paul Thomas Anderson - Hard Eight
Terrence Malick - Badlands
Joel and Ethan Coen - Blood Simple.
Orson Welles - Citizen Kane
Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko
Sam Mendes - American Beauty
Steven Soderbergh - sex, lies, and videotape
Kevin Smith - Clerks.
Spike Jonze - Being John Malkovich
Darren Aronofsky - Pi

American Beauty is one of my favorite films ever, as is Donnie Darko.  Still, though, as debuts, they don't really smack too much of auteurism.  Kelly hasn't made another film so it's yet to be seen just how good he is.  And Mendes's Road to Perdition was an okay film, definitely beautiful, but a bit underwhelming.  And it did have shades of auteurism, but I'd like to see a third film before making a judgment.

Badlands was amazing, and it sucks, sucks, sucks that Malick is so inactive.  Hopefully that will change after he gets that Che Guevara biopic finished.

Hard Eight is just beautiful.  I love it probably just as much as all of Anderson's other films, and I've seen it so many times because of the invaluable commentary and the ease of getting through the film casually.  Plus, it just gets better and better as a film each time I view it.

Blood Simple. shows the power the Coens had to do something simple, and thrilling, and silent, with minimal dialogue and no real heroes.  It's a shame they've crept away from this style of film, and I'm finding it harder and harder to take them seriously as auteurs because everything they do is so tongue in cheek, but still, The Big Lebowski is a masterpiece and one of the most consistently funny movies ever made.  You obviously aren't a golfer.

sex, lies, and videotape is flooring.  And because of it, I wish I could see more of Soderbergh's work.  The Limey, Schizopolis, Full Frontal, and Traffic are all on my must-see list.

Kane is Kane.  'Nuff said.

Clerks., Being John Malkovich, and Pi are all admirable first efforts, but nothing incredibly amazing.  Clerks is profane and quirky.  Being John Malkovich falls apart at the end.  That much everyone knows.  But that's more a script's shortcoming than Jonze's.  Pi tries to be smarter than it usually is, attempting to dazzle its audience with fuzzy math and logic and an ending that really doesn't make too much sense.  All the while, the filmmaker is missing what makes the material compelling: the protagonist's reclusiveness and his relationship with the world around him, and the woman who he keeps on avoiding, for one.

[Banky]

no Roth Fever?

[godardian]

sex, lies, and videotape is flooring.  And because of it, I wish I could see more of Soderbergh's work.  The Limey, Schizopolis, Full Frontal, and Traffic are all on my must-see list.

If you're anything like me, you'll find that while his other work is varying degrees of worthwhile, none of it touches sex, lies, and videotape, which is a movie I really love.

I consider Todd Haynes's directorial debut, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, in which all characters are "played" by Barbie dolls, noteworthy.

Drugstore Cowboy wasn't van Sant's first film; that's Mala Noche, from 1986.

I think Diva is a rather prodigous debut in many ways...

[SHAFTR]

some more off the top of my head.

Godard's Breathless
Truffaut's The 400 Blows
David Gordon Green's George Washington

[cine]

Marc Forster's "Monster's Ball"

[phil marlowe]

eraserhead
the element of crime (really good and underrated movie, everyone should see it.)
badlands

[Weak2ndAct]

Marc Forster's "Monster's Ball"

His first film was "Everything Put Together."  It's a wonderfully creepy film that is very much in the tone of Polanski's "Repulsion."  Definitely worth checking out.

[cine]

Wow, thanks. I wonder why the hell I thought it was his first film.  

[Chest Rockwell]

Being John Malkovich (Jonze)
Sydney/Hard Eight (PT Anderson)
I Stand Alone (Noe)
Mean Streets (Scorsese, I think this was his first.....maybe not)
Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson)
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Soderbergh)
Pi (Aronofsky)
Eraserhead (Lynch)
American Beauty (Mendes)
Blood Simple (Coens)
Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino)
Crumb (Zwigoff...once again I'm not sure if this is his first)
Citizen Kane (Welles, if it's his first)
Strictly Ballroom (Luhrman....I guess this is good...I guess)
The Deullists (Scott...another I guess)

Whatever, that's my list, if it means anything

[Redlum]

Burr Steers - Igby Goes Down

[phil marlowe]

bob roberts deserves mention also i think.

and bad taste.

[rustinglass]

remember dolly bell
blood simple
kane
violent cop
reservoir dogs
the element of crime
bottle rocket
fucking amal
eraserhead

[Pubrick]

amores perros.

[Gamblour.]

The Usual Suspects
Gattaca