Stephan Elliot: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

The journey from Sydney to Alice Springs is larger than life. The director, Stephan Elliot, has also done the script. So, he is the auteur now. And he has done a marvellous film.
This is not a big movie full of everything. This is a small diamond. Perfect in it's own genre. I love this film.
Actors, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and then Terence Stamp, do all great work. They have talent to be draq queens. They are lovely.
This kind of movie could easily fail. Everything in it could go wrong.
But Priscilla goes right.

Tim Burton: Big Fish (2003)

Tim Burton sure has his own handwriting. He is real auteur (in that meaning that Frenchmen gave to this word!). When you se a piece of his movie, you know it's his.
'Edward Scissorhands' (1990) I loved. 'Batman'(1989) I first hated (main reason is that I love Adam West's Batman so much...). 'Batman Returns'(1992) was fantastic and opened my mind for Burton's first 'Batman'. And so one.
Even 'Sweeney Todd' is a Tim Burton movie (of course it's Stephen Sondheim's work too, but who else could do it than Burton?). Though it's not one of the best Burton movies.
Anyway. 'Big Fish' is great. It's no barouque or dark. It's quite beautiful and one of the kind movie. Both Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney are great as Edward Bloom. The search for father is not a new idea but this film certainly is.

Ridley Scott: Alien (1979)

Well 'Alien' was something! You went to the movies without knowing what's to come. You sat down and it started. This movie was a big surprise when it came out. Once again: it's a pity that you can't see this movie for the very first time and not knowing the plot, the shocking story.
Ridley Scott's career is not a triumph. He has done very good movies like this and then he has done movies. But what the heck. If someone can do a movie like this, he has a place in the history of movies.
Sigourney Weaver as Ripley is also great (like the rest of the cast in this first one). Alien himself (oops herself) is great too but here the greatness is that you don't know it too good. It has got some mystery around itself. Thank to H.R. Giger.
But why the sequels? Yes, I know why...

Franklin J. Schaffner: Planet of the Apes (1968)

We all know that Charlton Heston is not an actor, he is a Moses. But anyway in 'Planet of the Apes' he is the man. Talking about this movie (and the sequels) we can't forget Roddy McDowall, the heart of this movie.
Special effects are OK and the story is marvellous. The idea of a world where slaves are masters and masters slaves. And naturally the riding in the end. Everyone should see it for the first time. This is a classical science fiction movie.

Carol Reed: The Third Man (1949)

Some movies born under very lucky stars; 'The Third Man' is one of them. Story by Graham Greene, music by Anton Karas, photographed by Robert Krasker... And then the lucky stars have landed to act in this movie: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard and then of course: the one and only Orson Welles! The director Carol Reed is a professional movie maker and can really his job.
Post World War 2 Vienna is beautilful on a black and white screen. One thing I hope, that I wouldn't know the secret of Harry Lime, that I could see this movie for first time!

Robert Stevenson: Mary Poppins (1964)

'Mary Poppins' changed my life! 'Mary Poppins' is unique. 'Mary Poppins' is fantastic. 'Mary Poppins' is funny. 'Mary Poppins' can do what ever she wants. And Mary Poppins is beautiful.
And, in the end: 'Mary Poppins' has feelings too.
The music is great. You must hum the songs when you have finished the movie. Walt Disney... sorry! Robert Stevenson has made a jewel.

To tell the truth: 'Mary Poppins' was one among the first movies that my father took me with to watch. It was sixties and the world was innocent.

Steven Spielberg: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

This is why Harrison Ford is born: he's the perfect Indiana Jones. And the first Indiana Jones ('Raiders of the Lost Ark') is perfect adventure movie. The roller-coaster plot works and Ford has lovely sidekicks in John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliot.
Steven Spielberg knows what he is doing and he gets perfect help from George Lucas and Philip Kaufman (story) and Lawrence Kasdan (screenplay). What a cast to write!
There's nothing too much or too little.

Roman Polanski: Cul-de-Sac (1966)

Two wounded gangsters terrorizing middle-aged man and his young wife. Not much for a plot. And yet it is! It's magnificent. It carries from beginning to the end.
The cast is great: Donald Pleasence, Francoise Dorleac, Jacqueline Bisset, Lionel Stander and -of course- Jack MacGowran.
Roman Polanski was starting his career but he directs like he had done this for ever. 'Cul-de-Sac' is no doubt a masterpiece!