No More Director's Jail!

No More Director’s Jail!

by Karenna Umscheid

photograph: IMDB

Last week, while watching Babylon for the first time, I found myself astounded at Chazelle's brilliant direction, and how mesmerizing Margot Robbie’s coked-out dancing was in the midst of a ridiculous old Hollywood party. I haven’t finished the movie yet, and I heard it’s all downhill from here, so maybe take this with a grain of salt. But no matter how bad the rest of the movie is, the beauty of the beginning sparked a thought about the so-called “Director’s Jail” Chazelle is currently in.

This week’s blog post, therefore, is driven not by a specific repertory screening, but by an unquenchable thought about the state of cinema. However, if any of you really do clamor for my recommendation on a weekly viewing, I’d go ahead and see Monkey Man - it’s an incredible, thrilling, and violent revenge epic that is even more potent on the big screen. 

Truly great directors should not be afraid to fail, and we should support artists even when they do so. Martin Scorsese, for example, made a commercial and critical failure in New York, New York, and, had he been placed in “Director’s Jail” for this, we would’ve never gotten masterpieces, timeless works of art like Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino. Scorsese is often grouped in with Quentin Tarantino as a sort of “film bro” director, with films appealing to a stereotypically male audience. I have a lot of qualms with this sentiment, but for now, I’d like to point out a glaring, essential difference between Scorsese and Tarantino, besides Tarantino’s obvious pastiche.​ Tarantino has explained that his tenth film will be his last, whereas Scorsese’s drive to continue making films and telling stories is boundless. Tarantino stops himself short, squaring his filmography away in a neat little number, perhaps afraid to fail, to make a bad film, or stray from the violent, bloody success he has become known for. 

But where would cinema be without the cult classic? The sophomore slump or the absolute box-office bomb? A swing and a miss from a driven director is better than nothing at all; to me, it’s emblematic of an unshakable passion for cinema, the most essential trait a filmmaker can have. It’s a beautiful thing, to watch public opinion shift over a film once deemed terrible – think of Eraserhead, which just barely survived and landed David Lynch his unforgettable career, or the entire new collection on the Criterion Channel dedicated to Razzie award winners. Simply put, it’s okay for directors to make bad films. 

I can’t pinpoint why ‘Director’s Jail’ has become a thing, because extinguishing the career of artists for anything bad/strange/unpopular is just so antithetical to the pursuit of good art. All I can hope for is Damien Chazelle, and any interesting filmmakers to keep directing! Who knows what incredible films their futures hold for us? For now, I’ll finish watching Babylon. 

Until next Wednesday,

Karenna