Alice Guy Blatche may have made the first narrative film in 1896, but for many years there was a dearth of female directors around the world. Though historically Hollywood was exclusively a male bastion when it came to directing, there were a few exceptions - Ida Lupino (The Bigamist; The Hitch-Hiker) and Dorothy Azner (Dance Girl Dance) to name a few. The controversial Leni Riefenstahl was making films in Germany in the 1930s; Maya Deren and Shirley Clarke made experimental films in the nineteen forties, fifties, and sixties; Agnes Varda made Cleo From 5 to 7 and others in the sixties, and Chantel Akerman, Margarethe von Trotta, Diane Kurys, Joan Micklin Silver, Barbara Kopple, Lina Wertmuller, Penelope Spheeris, and others, did the same in the seventies, but the landscape did not really begin to change for women until the 1980s.

Since that time a host of other women have created a wide range of independent and studio films around the world. Names like Lizzie Borden, Julie Dash, Allison Anders, Jane Campion, Gillian Armstrong, Danielle Thompson, Sally Potter, Catherine Bigelow, Leni Riefenstahl, Joan Micklin Silver, Antonia Bird, Agnieszka Holland, Patty Jenkins, Tamara Jenkins, Isabel Coixet, Lone Scherfig, Patricia Rozema, Andrea Arnold, Mira Nair, Catherine Breillat, Susanne Bier, Nicole Holofcener, Claire Denis, and Marleen Gorris have, in their own way, contributed to cinema, making seminal films, winning awards, their efforts, talent, and skill continuing to pave the way for their fellow female directors who followed.

The world of cinema is filled with fresh female voices from a host of countries. The following list represents twelve of the top female directors under the age of fifty years old. Among them are some of the finest directors working today.

1. Sarah Polley (age 32) Candien who began acting at age six and directed her first stunning feature, Away from Her (2007) at age twenty seven, Polley is coming out with her second feature, Take This Waltz, this year.

2.Anna Bolden (age 35) Part of the writing/directing/producing duo (with Ryan Fleck) behind the films Half Nelson (2006); Sugar (2009); and It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010).

3.  Miranda July (age 37) July’s follow up to her debut feature Me You and Everyone You know (2005) is The Future, currently playing in theaters.

4. Sophia Coppola (age 40) After a less than stellar acting career that included a famously panned performance in her father’s Godfather III, Coppola directed her first feature The Virgin Suicides (1999) at age 28, and won critical acclaim with Lost in Translation (2003). Her other films include Marie Antoinette (2006) and Somewhere (2010).

5. Lynne Ramsey (age 42) Scottish native behind Ratcatcher (1999); Morvern Callar (2002) and her latest, We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011).

6. Cate Shortland (age 43) This Australian native has only made one feature, the critically acclaimed Somersault (2004) - the film that helped launch, or at least propel the careers of Abby Cornish and Sam Worthington. Since that time Shortland directed the TV Movie The Silence (2006), and is currently in post-production on Lore, a period piece set in Germany.

7. Lucretia Martel (age 45) Highly acclaimed Argentinian director responsible for The Headless Woman (2008); Holy Girl (2004); and The Swamp (2001).

8. Kelly Reichardt (age 46) Oregon native Reichardt has made two films with actress Michelle Williams, Meek’s Cutoff (2010) and Wendy and Lucy (2008). Her debut feature was titled Old Joy (2006).

9. Lisa Chodolenko (age 47) Openly gay director, who had a big bit in American theaters with last years The Kids Are All Right. Her work includes Laurel Canyon (2002); and High Art (1998).

10.Agnes Jaoui (age 47) Known mainly as an actor, Jaooui has made Parlez-moi de la pluie (2008); Look at Me (2004) The Taste of Others (2000)

11. Rebecca Miller (age 49) Daughter of famed playwrite Arthur, the former actor Miller’s output includes The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009); The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005); Personal Velocity (2002); and Angela (1995);

12. Tamara Jenkins (age 49) After her debut The Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), it took Jenkins nine years to make a second film. The result was 2007s The Savages, which starred Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney.

Any list - particularly one involving television with its massive viewership and serial nature, is open to debate. For every group of Mad Men devotees there are no doubt an equally massive number of passionate fans of Family Guy, NCIS, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, or True Blood. This is, therefore, a subjective list of the best in narrative (as in it doesn’t include reality or talk programming of any kind) television currently on the air.

1. Mad Men (AMC)

Four seasons in, the best thing on TV. Already but a few pegs below The Wire and The Sopranos, and on par with Deadwood, as one of the best shows of the past decade.

2. Dexter (SHO)

Going into season six, Dexter may well have slipped some, but remains intriguing due to its signature color drenched cinematography and a gripping lead performance from Michael C. Hall, elements that help make this serial killer/police show one of the best on the air.

3. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)

Misanthropic Larry David brings his innovative black comedy back for an eighth season (Seinfeld only ran for nine) and it shows no signs of slowing down.

4. Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

Great start to a sweeping series that hints at the possibilities of becoming an all time great. One hopes only that, ala Deadwood, budget considerations don’t force a premature end.

5. Breaking Bad (AMC)

Bryan Cranston heads a solid cast as Walter White, the ex-science teacher turned cancer survivor/big time meth dealer/manufacturer. Three seasons in, the show continues to prove itself to be a singular series without legitimate comparison.

6. Men of a Certain Age (TBS)

Ray Romano’s first series following Raymond is an insightful, tonally complex look at middle aged men and their problems. Smart, understated, and well acted.

7. Friday Night Lights (NBC via DIR TV)

Yes, it’s nearly over, but Friday is technically still alive. It will be missed.

8. Nurse Jackie (SHO)

The brilliant Edie Falco heads a marvelous cast of a show that revels in the minutiae of one morally compromised woman.

9. Weeds (SHO)

Last season (six) was not a high point in the shows history as, with the advent of the Mexican criminal plot, it began to devolve into the absurd. While the jury is still out after a few mediocre first few episodes of season seven, Weeds has been a long time quality mainstay.

10. Louie (FX)

Like Seinfeld with less set dressing than season one and way, way, way more depression. From the brilliant comedic mind of Louie C.K., something of an anti-show. It’s at times, shockingly honest, in a really refreshing (though sobering) way. Like Men of a Certain Age minus any of the good times and/or friendly banter or comeraderie, or Curb except meaner and a lot lonelier and more misanthropic.

Ten More Good Ones (in no particular order)

Episodes (SHO) Matt Leblanc (that’s right, Joey) stars as a version of himself. Surprisingly good first season.

Californication (SHO) While it dropped off some during a wildly uneven fourth season, threatening to become a kind of parody of itself, the show survives thanks to consistently profane and clever writing; David Duchovony’s mostly likable miscreant writer Hank Moody; a quality supporting cast (Evan Handler; Natascha McElhone; Pamela Adlon); fun guest stars, and a high insider Hollywood quotient.

The Office (NBC) It has become de rigueur to bash this show in recent seasons, but it’s still one of the best things on TV. Will be interesting to see where the show goes following the Michael Scott departure.

The Sarah Silverman Show (COM CENTR) Absurd, but consistently funny stuff from the twisted mind of one of the best comics out there.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FOX) Perhaps television’s most irreverent half hour keeps chugging along as it heads into it’s seventh season.

Modern Family (ABC) Disappointing fall-off after a stellar season one. This year might be make it or break it.

Parenthood (ABC) Though there are times when one wishes this family drama would take more chances, it is network television and this is about as good as it gets right now in terms of narrative drama heading into next season.

Life and Times of Tim (HBO) Critically (and critically) neglected animated series.

How To Make it in America (HBO) Another one the critics seem to have missed. An energetic show about two NYC hustlers trying to earn a buck.

The Ricky Gervais Show (HBO) Arose out of the podcast run by Gervais and his British Office partner Stephen Merchant, revolving around their animated discussions with idiot (savant?) Karl Pilkington.

1. Milk (USA)

2. The Wrestler (USA)

3. The Class (FR)

4. I’ve Loved You For So Long (FR)

5. Happy-Go-Lucky (UK)

6. The Visitor (USA)

7. Wendy and Lucy (USA)

8. Flight of the Red Balloon (TAIW/FR)

9. Chop Shop (US)

10. Ballast (US)

11. Waltz With Bashir (ISR)

12. Doubt (USA)

13. The Reader (UK)

14. Synecdoche New York (USA)

15. Trouble the Water (USA)

16.  Frost/Nixon (USA)

17. Slumdog Millionaire (UK)

18. Surfwise (USA)

19. The Bank Job (UK)

20. Frozen River (USA)

21. Che (USA)

22. Still Life (HK/CHIN)

23. Silent Light (MEX/FR/NETH)

24. Hunger (UK)

25. In Bruges (UK)

26. The Duchess of Langeais (FR)

27. Stop-Loss (USA)

28. Paranoid Park (USA)

29. The Duchess (UK)

30. Tell No One (FR)

31. Encounters at the end of the World (USA)

32. Towelhead (USA)

33. Let the Right One In (SWE)

34. A Christmas Tale (FR)

35. Shotgun Stories (USA)

36. Boy A (UK)

37. Gomorrah (IT)

38. Blueberry Nights (USA)

39. Vicki Cristina Barcelona (SP)

40. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (USA)

On August 6th, 2009 Producer/Writer/Director John Hughes died of a heart attack. Born in 1950 in Lansing, Michigan, Hughes is best known for a series of high school comedies he did in the 80s, launching the careers of some of the members of The Brat Pack. Among the actors who appeared frequently in his films were Molly Ringwald; John Candy; and Anthony Michael Hall.

Hughes’ family moved to the greater Chicago area when he was thirteen, and he attended Glenbrook High School in Northbrook, Illinois. Many of his films were set in the Chicago area - more specifically, the fictional Sherman Illinois, stand-in for Northbrook.

Hughes only directed eight films (Sixteen Candles (1984); The Breakfast Club (1985); Weird Science (1985); Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986); Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987); She’s Having a Baby (1988); Uncle Buck (1989); and Curly Sue (1991), although he was a prolific writer and producer, doing much of his less critically successful work after 1992 under the alias Edmond Dante. Some of the films Hughes wrote and produced, but did not direct include Mr. Mom; National Lampoon’s Vacation films; Pretty in Pink; Some Kind of Wonderful; The Great Outdoors; and The Home Alone movies.

During his most successful period (1983-1989), Hughes was directly responsible for no less than 13 films, among them some of the most notable comedies of the decade. He excelled at stories about families, focusing in particular on the experience of suburban young people.

The following lists consists of some of Hughes’s most successful films, all made between 1983 and 1989.

Mr. Mom(1983) Directed by Stan Dragoti  Written by John Hughes  Starring Michael Keaton; Terri Garr. After becoming unemployed, Jack (Keaton) is forced to take on the household chores after wife Caroline (Garr) returns to work.

Vacation(1983) Directed by Harold Ramis  Written by John Hughes  Starring Chevy Chase; Beverly De’Angelo; Anthony Michael Hall. The Griswald’s go on a cross country drive to visit Wallyworld.

Sixteen Candles(1984) Directed by John Hughes  Written by John Hughes  Starring Molly Ringwald; Anthony Michael Hall; Michael Schoeffling. Teenager Samantha (Ringwald) feels neglected by her family, and pines for the class hunk, Jake Ryan (Schoeffling), while trying to avoid the advances of The Geek (Hall).

Breakfast Club(1985) Directed by John Hughes  Written by John Hughes  Starring Molly Ringwald; Anthony Michael Hall; Emilio Estevez; Judd Nelson; Ally Sheedy. A disparate group of high school students spend a Saturday in detention.

Pretty in Pink(1986) Directed by Howard Deutch  Written by John Hughes  Starring Molly Ringwald; Jon Cryer; Andrew McCarthy; James Spader; Harry Dean Stanton. Poor girl Andie (Ringwald) wants to go to prom with the boy of her dreams - the rich, popular Blaine (McCarthy), while remaining oblivious to the devotion of her loyal friend Duckie (Cryer)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) Directed by John Hughes  Written by John Hughes  Starring Matthew Broderick; Alan Ruck; Mia Sara. Ferris (Broderick), a high school senior, blows off school in order to spend the day in downtown Chicago with friend Cameron (Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane (Sara)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) Directed by John Hughes  Written by John Hughes  Starring John Candy; Steve Martin. Neal Page (Martin) encounters a series of mishaps, and is forced to turn to traveling salesman Del Griffith (Candy) to help him get home by any means possible.

Some Kind of Wonderful(1987) Directed by Howard Deutch  Written by John Hughes  Starring Eric Stoltz; Lea Thompson; Mary Stuart Masterson. Keith (Stoltz) lusts after Amanda Jones (Thompson), oblivious to the feelings of tomboy friend Watts (Masterson).

The Great Outdoors (1988) Directed by Howard Deutch  Written by John Hughes  Starring John Candy; Dan Akroyd; Annette Benning. Chet Ripley (Candy) takes his family on what’s intended to be a relaxing vacation, but their good times are affected by the presence of Roman (Akroyd) and Kate (Bening) and their kids.

Uncle Buck(1989) Directed by John Hughes  Written by John Hughes  Starring John Candy; MaCauley Culkin; Gaby Hoffman. Ill-equipped bachelor uncle Buck Russell is forced to care for his nieces and nephews.

Hollywood has never been above navel gazing. Classics like A Star is Born (1937); Sullivan’s Travels (1942); In a Lonely Place (1950); All About Eve (1950; Sunset Boulevard (1950); Bad and The Beautiful (1952); and The Big Knife (1953) take on various aspects of the movie business. More recent Tinseltown related flicks include The Player (1992); Barton Fink; (1991); Swimming With Sharks (1994); Get Shorty (1995); Wag the Dog (1997); Bowfinger (1999); Adaptation (2002); The Deal (2007); and What Just Happened? (2008)

The idea of directors making films about their profession and/or their creative process automatically enters into some interesting meta areas, allowing filmmakers to explore an array of ideas associated with real life versus the make believe world of movies. Certain directors - Jean-Luc Godard; Frederico Fellini; Rainier Fassbinder; Atom Egoyan (who is not included here); the Iranians Mohsen Malkhmalbaf and Abbas Kiarostami, to name as few, seem especially obsessed with the differences between, and overlapping nature of, their own lives and the fictional art they create. Auteur directors are (perhaps by nature) often interested in stories arising out of their own experience, and the actual machinations of the creative process are very much a part of the real life they are leading.

All over the globe, directors have made films about various aspects of the filmmaking process. The following list, however, focuses on some quality films that are, at least in large part, concentrated on the actual making of a single movie. The list includes several documentaries, several auto-biographical films made by iconic directors, and number of films melding fact, fiction, and various forms of innovative self-reflexiveness that defy simple categorization.

Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story(BRIT) (2005) Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Post-modernism pushed to its limits in this multi-layered story about the making of what has traditionally thought to be an unfilmable novel.

Lost in La Mancha (DOC) (2002) Directed by Keith Fulton. The documenting of Terry Gilliam’s (eventually aborted) attempt to make Don Quixote.

Sex is Comedy(FR) (2001) Catherine Breillat. Anne Parrillaud is the stand-in for Breillat in this film about the difficulty a female director on location has in dealing with young, self-involved actors, coaxing performances out of them in moments that include a difficult nude love scene.

State and Main (USA) (2000) Directed by David Mamet. The story of neophyte screenwriter, playwright Joseph White (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and his attempts to remain pure during a film shoot in small town Vermont.

Close-Up(IRAN) (1990) Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Mixing reenactments with the actual participants and documentary footage, Kiarostami tells the story of Hussain Sabazian, a simple man who used a slight resemblance to Iranian director Mohsen Makhbalaf to impersonate him. Sabazian was later brought to trial for the fraud.

Real Life (1979) Directed by Albert Brooks. Brooks plays a version of himself, directing a documentary about a suburban Phoenix family who are chosen as the subjects of the PBS series An American Family.

Sweet Liberty (USA) (1986) Directed by Alan Alda. Alda stars as South Carolina novelist Michael Burgess, who is overwhelmed when a film production comes to his town to make the movie based on his book about The Revolutionary War. Michael Caine is actor Elliott James and Michelle Pfeiffer plays lead actress Faith.

Day For Night(FR) (1973) Directed by Francois Truffuat. Truffuat plays director Ferrand, in charge of the film Je Vous Presente Pamela (May I Present Pamela), starring troubled actress Julie (Jacqueline Bisset). Truffuat’s long time stand-in Jean-Pierre Leaud this time plays a self-centered actor.

Beware of the Holy Whore (GE) (1970) Directed by Rainier Fassbinder. A German film crew drinks and sleeps with one another at a Spanish seaside hotel while awaiting additional financing so their film can begin shooting. Fassbinder appears as production manager Sasha.

8 1/2(IT) (1963) Directed by Frederico Fellini. One of the Italian maestro’s greatest. A surreal look at the movie-making circus starring Fellini’s alter ego Marcello Mastriani as director Guido Anselmo, a man facing “director’s block”.

Contempt(FR) (1963) Directed by Jean Luc Godard. Godard’s cynical look at the business of film-making. Stars Brigette Bardot as Camille, wife of writer Paul Javal, who contemplates doing re-writes for a crass film based on The Odyssey. Godard appears as the assistant to the director, Fritz Lang, played by Lang himself.

Paul Newman was a character actor with movie star looks. He was married to the same woman for forty years, and they had three children together, but in order to marry her he left another wife and three children - a decision he was said to have never gotten over. His second wife, actress Joanne Woodward, and he, shared a home and raised their children in Westport CT, far from the glitter of Hollywood. He was a top movie star for much of his career, but managed to avoid some of the pitfalls that so often accompany the degree of fame he enjoyed.

Newman was born in Ohio in 1925, and grew up in suburban Shaker Heights, the son of successful Hungarian-Jewish sporting goods store owner. He went to Ohio University for a year before joining the Navy, intending to be a pilot, but instead was relegated to radioman-gunner during the war in the pacific. After three years in the Navy, he returned to Ohio after the war, finishing his undergraduate degree at Kenyon college (1946-1949). Following graduation, he married Jackie White, and for awhile ran the family business. However, unsatisfied with selling sporting goods, he decided to enroll in Yale drama.

After Yale, Newman headed to the New York, where studied at the actor’s studio and did work in a series of plays. Newman’s Broadway debut was in Picnic in 1953. He met Woodward while working on the stage, left his wife (the marriage to officially lasted nine years (1949-1958) and went to Hollywood. Over the course of the next few years he had a number of successful television roles, but his film debut came in The Silver Chalice (1954), an acting performance he was so ashamed of that he continued to refer to it in a mocking way for the rest of his life.

His big film break came in Somebody Up There Likes Me(1956), playing real-life boxer Rocky Graziano. Soon after, he became a star, and would go on to rack up nine Oscar acting nominations and one win (for The Color of Money, 1986) throughout his career. He was nominated for Oscars in five different decades, a testament to both the longevity and quality of his legacy. He also directed five films, and served as producer for a number of others. An avid car racer, he enjoyed the sport throughout his life, racing professionally and owning a team. He also established a food company, Newman’s Own, which donated some 250 million dollars to charity during his lifetime.

Newman had the kind of on-screen style, sangfroid, and presence embodied by only the greatest male movie stars. He had numerous well-known roles in popular movies over the course of multiple decades. His roles in the films chosen for this list, though (Hud; The Hustler; Cool Hand Luke; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; The Sting; Slapshot; The Verdict; Absence of Malice; The Color of Money; Nobody’s Fool; and Empire Falls) are, for the most part, iconographic characterizations, performances actors the world over aspire to match. Newman often played cocky men, full of bravado, who also seemed to carry with them a kind of heaviness from their pasts. They were heroes with flaws, contending with demons of various sorts - the kind we could identity with even if there was no escaping the fact that with Newman playing them they were all inherently better looking than most everyone else. In fact, Newman seemed to come into his own when he got a little older - grey haired, blue-eyes still ablaze, but with a kind of weariness to his countenance, a gravitas earned from living life, enduring one’s share of sadness and pain.

The Hustler(1961) Directed by Robert Rossen. Newman is pool ace Fast Eddie Felsen. Co-stars Jackie Gleason and Piper Laurie.

Hud(1963) Directed by Martin Ritt. Based on the book by Larry McMurtry. Newman plays farmhand Hud Barron, an insolent young man who rebels against hard-line father Homer (Melvyn Douglas). Co-stars Patricia Neal.

Harper(1966) Directed by Jack Smight. Newman plays the titular character, detective Lew Harper. Based on the Lew Archer books by Ross Macdonald (the name was changed to Harper for the movie). Co-stars Lauren Bacall as the wife of a missing millionaire.

Cool Hand Luke(1967) Directed by Stuart Rosenberg. Luke Jackson is a petty thief sentenced to a Southern chain gang. While there, he engages in a battle of wills with the all powerful Captain (Strother Martin), thereby serving as an inspiration to some of his fellow prisoners, including Dragline (George Kennedy).

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969) Directed by George Roy Hill. With a price on their head, robbers Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) are chased all the way to Bolivia by authorities. Co-stars Katherine Ross.

The Sting(1973) Directed by George Roy Hill. Henry Gondorff (Newman) and Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) are two con men in 1930s Chicago looking to take off a dangerous crime boss played by Robert Shaw.

Slapshot(1977) Directed by George Roy Hill. Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, aging player/coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, a minor league hockey team based in PA. Co-stars Strother Martin.

Absence of Malice (1981) Directed by Sydney Pollack. Newman plays liquor distributor Colin Michael Gallagher, son of a dead crime boss, who is falsely accused of wrongdoing by Miami reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field).

The Verdict(1982) Directed by Sydney Lumet. Based on a book by Barry Reed and script by David Mamet, Newman plays has-been attorney Frank Galvin , who stumbles upon the case of his career. Co-starring Charlotte Rampling and Jack Warden.

The Color of Money(1985) Directed by Martin Scorcese. Twenty years later, Newman reprises his Fast Eddie Felsen role. Tom Cruise co-stars.

Nobody’s Fool (1994) Directed by Robert Benton. Based on the novel by Richard Russo. Newman plays “Sully” Sullivan a contractor and failed father with a bum knee who, despite his age, is loathe to change his bad boy ways. Co-starring Bruce Willis; Melanie Griffith; Phillip Seymour Hoffman; and Jessica Tandy (in her last role).

Empire Falls (2005) Directed by Fred Schepisi. This HBO mini-series was based on another novel by Richard Russo. Newman plays an older version of Sully, and thus another stand-in for Russo’s fictional father. Here he’s Max Robey, hard-drinking, hard-living father to Ed Harris’ Miles. The stellar cast includes Phillip Seymour Hoffman; Robin Wright-Penn; and Joanne Woodward as town matriarch Francine Whiting.

(Heinrich Karl) Henry Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) is an American writer who, using various alter egos, (including Henry Chinaski), wrote largely about his own existence - working menial jobs, writing, drinking, and his various affairs/relationships with women.

Bukowski was born in Germany to a German mother and Polish-American serviceman father. In 1922 the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and then later, to Los Angeles, California, where Bukowski was raised. Growing up, Heinrich, who was called Henry, suffered through an unhappy childhood. He was picked on by other kids because of his German accent, and later, because of his terrible acne and social awkwardness. His parents were also very strict, particularly his father, who physically abused him.

Bukowski published his first short story (as Charles Bukowski) at age twenty four, but did not enjoy any immediate success. Between his twenties and late forties, he spent years working various labor intensive jobs, including a two extended stretches at the US Post Office (of three and ten years). Through most of this time he drank heavily, for a while traveling the country living an itinerant life, shacking up in various run-down apartments and hotels, and later, boozing and brawling in skid row Los Angeles bars. As detailed in his fiction, his early life was often marked by violence and dysfunction (including tumultuous relationships with women) brought on, at least in part, by his heavy alcohol consumption.

In the mid-fifties when he was around thirty five, Bukowski began writing poetry. At this point he was still occasionally publishing stories and poems in smaller publications. In the late nineteen sixties and seventies though, he became popular among college age readers and began getting offers to make appearances and give readings at various college campuses and coffee shops. It was around this time that John Martin, the publisher of Black Sparrow, made a deal with the 49 year old Bukowski (guaranteeing him $1000/month for life) that allowed him to quit the post office and write full-time. Soon after, his first novel, Post Office, was published.

Bukowski’s rising popularity among counterculture youth made for a strange marriage. The outspoken writer was from a different generation, and did not agree politically on many of the major issues with the vast majority of those expressing this new found admiration. He seemed to revel in the first real fame he had enjoyed, however, taking advantage of the paid opportunities (as well as the fringe benefits) that came his way. Without the burden of having to work another job, he would go on to publish six novels and a number of poetry and short story collections in the intervening years.

Bukowski spent his latter years in San Pedro, California writing and living a more placid lifestyle with his wife Linda Lee Beighle, whom he met in 1976 and married in 1985. Bukowski was married twice, and fathered one daughter, Marina Louise Bukowski, with another woman. He has been depicted in at least four narrative films and several documentaries, along with a number of taped readings that are available on DVD (Bukowski (1973); Charles Bukowski: The Last Straw (1980); There’s Gonna Be a Goddamn Riot Here (1979); and Bukowski at Bellevue (1995). He participated in the making of the film Barfly, penning the script, and working with director Barbet Schroeder to bring the project to the screen.

The following is a list of some of the best known narrative and documentary films based on his life and/or work.

Tales of Ordinary Madness(1983) (IT) Directed by Marco Ferreri. Starring Ben Gazzara. Italian production. Gazzara plays Charles Serking, an alcoholic, sex addicted poet.

The Charles Bukowski Tapes(1985) (Doc) Directed by Barbet Schroeder. Schroeder’s documentary would lead to the making of Barfly several years later.

Crazy Love(1987) (FR) Directed by Dominique Derrudere. French film based on Bukowski’s Love is a Dog from Hellthat examines three separate days over a twenty year period in the life of lead character Harry Voss (Josse Depauw) as he navigates the rough waters that constitute his dealings with the opposite sex.

Barfly(1987) Directed by Barbet Schroeder. Starring Mickey Rourke as Henry Chinaski and Faye Dunaway as his drinking buddy/lover Wanda as they frequent Los Angeles dive bars.

Lune Froide (1991) (FR) Directed by Patrick Bouchitey. Black and white French film starring Jean-Francois Stevenin as Simon and the director Bouchitey as Dede, two aimless drunks searching for booze and sex.

Charles Bukowski: Born Into This(2003) (Doc) Directed by John Dullaghan. Documentary containing interviews with some of the important people in Bukowski’s life, as well as celebrities like Bono, Sean Penn, harry Dean Stanton, and Tom Waits, who were influenced by his work.

Factotum(2005) Directed by Bent Hamer. Starring Matt Dillon. Based on the Bukowski novel, Swede Hamer’s take on Henry Chinaski, played by a decidedly better-looking Matt Dillon. Co-Starring Marisa Tomei.

Having recently watched several documentaries about the art world like Guest of Cindy Sherman (2008); Alice Neel (2007); and Agnes Martin: With My Back to the World (2002), The Cinema Guy is reminded of some other documentaries about artists and the art world in general. There have been an abundance of these films made in the past five years, and so the following list is dominated by newer films, although there are a few classics listed as well. 

The Mystery of Picasso(1956) Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. Picasso paints twenty pictures (all of which are destroyed at the completion of shooting). 

Crumb(1994) Directed by Terry Zwigoff. Classic documentary about the eccentric San Francisco comic book artist, Robert Crumb, the man responsible for Fritz the Cat.

How To Draw a Bunny (2002) Directed by John W. Walter. Ray Johnson, a pop artist who was a contemporary of Warhol, Johns, and Lichtenstein, is the focus of this highly entertaining profile. Johnson lived his life in the mode of a performance artist, respected by his peers, but never receiving the same level of acclaim and monetary success. 

Stolen(2005) Directed by Rebecca Dreyfus. In 1990 the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston Massachusetts was robbed of millions of dollars of paintings by thieves posing as Boston Police officers. The paintings included Vermeer’s “The Concert”. To date, none of the works have been recovered. 

The Gates(2005) Directed by Albert Maylses; Antonio Ferrara. After a 26 year effort by installation artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the 23 mile long art installation “The Gates” was built along paths in Central Park in New York City. It was unveiled in February of 2005. 

Tales of The Rat Fink (2006) Directed by Ron Mann. Detailing the life and career of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, car designer and cartoonist.

Who the $&!#%&! is Jackson Pollock? (2006) Directed by Harry Moses. In the early 90s a painting was purchased for $5 at a yard sale by female truck driver Teri Horton from Texas, who claims to this day that it is an original Jackson Pollock. Horton allegedly turned down millions for the painting after the film was made.   

Who Gets to Call it Art?(2006) Directed by Peter Rosen. A look at curator Henry Gedzahler, who is associated with the 1960s New York pop scene.   

Black White and Grey: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mappelthorpe (2007) Directed by James Crump. The relationship between curator and photography collector Sam Wagstaff and photographer Robert Mappelthorpe, and their friendship with musician Patti Smith, is examined. 

My Kid Could Paint That(2007) Directed by Amir Bar-Lev. Controversy surrounding the legitimacy of four year old Birmingham, New York artist Maria Olmstead.

The Cool School(2007) Directed by Morgan Neville. A look at a group of groundbreaking artists in Los Angeles in the late 50s and 60s that included Edward Ruscha. The Ferus Gallery, opened in 1957, served as a launching pad for a number of these modern artists. 

The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly is Not For Sale(2008) Directed by Jeffrey Stimmel. New York artist Chuck Connelly enjoyed success in the 1980s, and was the inspiration for the Nick Nolte character in Martin’s Scorcese’s section of New York Stories. Connelly fell out of fashion and is now on the outer edges of the art world.

The following list contains a selection of films about labor unions and the average working man and woman. These films are mostly centered on the fight for rights in the workplace - better wages, benefits, safe working conditions, equal treatment - things that some of us, at least in developed countries, take for granted. In a country like the United States, many have suffered, lost jobs, time away from work, money, and in some cases their lives to gain the advantages we, as workers, enjoy today. Films criticizing big business, and particularly government’s complicity in maintaining status quo, have a tendency to upset those in power. This attitude certainly has a chilling effect on the number of pro-worker, pro-union films that have managed to have gotten produced, and seen. Even a low budget film like Salt of Earth (1954) by Henry Biberman was actually banned or blackballed because it spoke about simple human rights in the work force. Three of British filmmaker Ken Loach’s films appear on this list, but there could have been more. Loach is on the vanguard when it comes to making cinema about the working class. He has been faithfully doing so for some forty years. 

1. Salt of the Earth(1954) Directed by Henry Biberman. The production included a number of people who had been persecuted during the McCarthy hearings. The film was based on the real life Zinc Miner’s Strike of 1951, and employed non-professionals involved in the actual struggle as actors and extras. Many of the miners were of Mexican descent.  

2.  On the Watefront(1954) Directed by Elia Kazan. Kazan, rather ironically given the nature of this film, named names during the McCarthy hearings. Classic tale of New York dockworkers. Stars Marlon Brando as washed-up boxer Terry Malloy. The film, Kazan, and Brando all won Oscars. 

3. The Angry Silence(1960) Directed by Guy Green. A film that is somewhat critical of British union organization. Stars Richard Attenborough as a man who bucks the party line.    

4. Man of Marble (1976) Directed by Andrzej Wadja. Story of Polish bricklayer who gained notoriety as a symbol for the labor movement.  

5. Harlan County U.S.A. (1977) Directed by Barbara Koppel. This famed documentary examines a group of 180 Kentucky coal miners striking against The Duke Power Company. 

6. Blue Collar (1978) Directed by Paul Schrader. Detroit factory workers played by Harvey Keitel, Yaphet Kotto, and Richard Pryor fight for their rights.  

7. Fist (1978) Directed by Norman Jewison. Based in 1930s Cleveland Ohio. Details the teamsters and their battles to unionize. Stars Sylvester Stallone as Johnny Kovak.  

8. Norma Rae (1978) Directed by Martin Ritt. Sally Fields shines as the titular character, a textile factory worker who stands up to vicious management tactics. Based on real life North Carolina worker and union organizer Crystal Lee Sutton.

 9. Matewan (1987) Directed by John Sayles. Story of 1920s West Virginia mine workers fighting low wages, squalid living arrangements, and even more dangerous working conditions. 

10. Moonlighting (1982) Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. Starring Jeremy Irons as a contractor in charge of a group of Polish tradesmen working illegally in the UK.

11. Riff Raff (1991) Directed by Ken Loach. Classic Loach, the master of films about the working class. Robert Carlyle stars as a London construction worker in love.  

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12. Bread and Roses (2000) Directed by Ken Loach. California janitors fight for their right to unionize. Adrien Brody stars as a union organizer. 

13. The Navigators (2001) Directed by Ken Loach. A group of British railway workers from Sheffield see their jobs privatized. Based on a screenplay from a longtime railway and union worker. 

14. North Country (2005) Directed by Niki Caro. Charlize Theron starred in this look at women being harassed by co-workers and management alike while working for a Northern Minnesota union mine company in the late 80s. Based on real life story of Lois Jenson.

The 70s brought us a stunning array of great directorial talent - Scorcese, Altman; Coppola, Friedkin, Bogdonavitch, and Peckinpah; artists at the height of their powers who’d been influenced by cinema from the French New Wave, Italian Neo-realists, Bergman, Kurosawa, and Fassbinder; as well as American iconoclasts like Samuel Fuller and Nicholas Ray. With the studios, run by aging executives, in a state of flux, and younger writers, directors, and creative producers seizing the reigns, suddenly a slew of films with edgy, daring subject matter got financed that never would’ve never been made in the past.

As a result of this creative explosion, we got Easy Rider (1969) and Midnight Cowboy (1969), films which paved the way for the emergence of lead characters like Travis Bickle in Scorcese’s Taxi Driver (1976); Sonny Wortzik from Sydney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975); and Randall McMurphy in Milos Foreman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975) - misfits who drew us into their altered reality. Mavericks like Hal Ashby, John Cassavettes, James Toback, and Paul Mazursky are examples of period directors with outsider perspectives, a rebellious viewpoint manifested in the stories they chose to tell, and personified by the characters populating these stories. The following list contains examples of lead characters who were not at all like the ready-made, like-able “heroes” of the past. Each and every one of them has serious flaws - they are, in turn, depressed, violent, angry, resentful, promiscuous, unfaithful, selfish, egotistical, addicted, profane, loud, jealous, disaffected, disillusioned, and defiant. These characters demonstrate ugly human characteristics most traditionally assigned to movie villains, but are instead assigned the role the protagonist, and thus the anti-hero was born. There had been some examples, in the past, of true anti-heroes in film noir and in Westerns (John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards from The Searcherscomes to mind), but the 70s brought about a proliferation of these roles, in major films, being played by some of the biggest names of the decade - Jack Nicholson; George Segal; James Caan. No longer did the “bad” guy have to get it in the end; no longer did the “bad” character have to learn his lesson, or at least not in the same overt way. In many cases, these characters are hard to like, but conversely we often identify with them anyway, because of their flaws, because of their very fallibility and humanness.

It’s no mistake probably that only one of the characters on this list appeared in a film made after 1976. The success of Jaws (1975), and later, Star Wars (1977) helped bring about the idea of the tent-pole/block-buster/summer popcorn movie - big budget “event” films that had the potential to garner huge profits for the studios and remove some of the guess work from the green-light process. This move toward “high concept,” combined with some runaway egos and excesses, as well as several colossal box office failures, like Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980), to help re-align the Hollywood power structure and snuff out the greatest stretch of film-making ever seen here, and perhaps anywhere else. Thirty years-plus down the line the industry still hasn’t recovered creatively.   

Five Easy Pieces(1970) Directed by Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson is Robert Eroica Dupea, a womanizing, hard-living oil rigger, who comes from a wealthy, musically inclined family. 

Wanda (1971) Directed by Barbara Loden. Loden, wife of famed director Elia Kazan, wrote, directed, and starred as the title character, Wanda Goronski, a wife and mother who leaves her family to embark on a cross-country trip with a criminal. 

The Heartbreak Kid(1972). Directed by Elaine May. Charles Grodin starred as Lenny Cantow, who falls in love with another woman while on his honeymoon. 

Play it as it Lays (1972) Directed by Frank Perry. Tuesday Wells is the beautiful, but depressed and dissatisfied model/actress Maria Wyeth Long

Blume in Love(1973). Directed by Paul Mazursky. George Segal plays bad behaving Stephen Blume, desperate to get his wife back. Segal played a series of these type of characters in films like Loving (1970) Born to Win (1971); and California Split (1974). 

The Last Detail (1973) Directed by Hal Ashby. Jack Nicholson is tough as nails navy man Billy “Bad Ass” Buddunsky. 

The Gambler(1974) Directed by Karl Reisz. Based on the James Toback script, James Caan plays Axel Freed, a college English professor with a serious addiction.  

A Woman Under the Influence (1974) Directed by John Cassavetes. The indie director’s real life wife Gena Rowlands is alcoholic Mabel Longhetti.

Shampoo(1975) Directed by Hal Ashby. Warren Beatty co-write the script, produced, and played lead George Roundy, the stud hairdresser with all the women but very few solutions for the turmoil in his life. 

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) Directed by John Cassavetes. Long time Cassavetes collaborator Ben Gazzara plays Cosmo Vitelli, a strip club owner with a serious gambling debt.

Fingers(1978) Directed by James Toback. Harvey Keitel plays pianist/criminal Jimmy Fingers in Toback’s directorial debut.