Complete: Intro and Index
At Least It's An Ethos
I started my personal website The Completist, of which (All (Parentheses)) is now the blogging offshoot, intending to cover full filmographies. Of directors, certainly, since I have a fair share of auteurist in me. But also of actors, writers, cinematographers, genres, production houses, etc. The guiding principle was, as the title suggests, completism — watching everything made by a given artist or entity, preferably in order, and then composing an evaluative summary. I also liked how completism, as an ethos, had more than a whiff of presumption to it, and was therefore likely to humble the practitioner. Strutting around with the idea that you can truly see “everything” (given such fickle factors as availability and access) is sure to result in a few Sisyphean boulders flattening you Wile E. Coyote-style.
My worst enemy, as usual, proved to be myself. I only posted some short entries on Akira Kurosawa and a full piece on Michael Cimino. Nowadays, I feel more in the groove of the completist ethic, so am resurrecting the project (retitled “Complete”), and protecting myself with no promises of regularity. Each entry leads off with a filmography — not necessarily unabridged, though comprised of everything I’ve seen — that semi-mimics the style of Andrew Sarris’s The American Cinema. Differences: All titles are italicized, the year of release is in parentheses, and peaks/personal favorites are bolded. The filmography is followed by a critical overview of the artist, sometimes touching on every title, sometimes not. I may make additions to published entries should I find I have more to say. And the index below will be updated as I “complete” a new subject, so keep checking back.
Thanks for reading, and I hope these pieces lead you in your own enriching directions.
—Keith Uhlich (March 2nd, 2021)
Index (alphabetical by last name or first letter of subject)
John Carpenter
Captain Voyeur (1969) • Dark Star (1974) • Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) • Halloween (1978) • Someone’s Watching Me! (1978) • Elvis (1979) • The Fog (1980) • Escape from New York (1981) • The Thing (1982) • Christine (1983) • Starman (1984) • Big Trouble in Little China (1986) • Prince of Darkness (1987) • They Live (1988) • Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) • Body Bags (1993) • In the Mouth of Madness (1994) • Village of the Damned (1995) • Escape from L.A. (1996) • Vampires (1998) • Ghosts of Mars (2001) • Masters of Horror: “John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns” (2005) • Masters of Horror: “Pro-Life” (2006) • The Ward (2010) • John Carpenter: Distant Dream (2016) • John Carpenter: Escape from New York (2016) • John Carpenter: Christine (2017) • John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams, “Phone Stalker” (2023)Michael Cimino (revised)
Stanley Kubrick
Flying Padre (1951) • Day of the Fight (1951) • Fear and Desire (1953) • The Seafarers (1953) • Killer’s Kiss (1955) • The Killing (1956) • Paths of Glory (1957) • Spartacus (1960) • Lolita (1962) • Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) • 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) • A Clockwork Orange (1971) • Barry Lyndon (1975) • The Shining (1980) • Full Metal Jacket (1987) • Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Jacques Rivette
At the Four Corners (Aux quatre coins) (1949) • The Quadrille (Le quadrille) (1950) • The Diversion (Le divertissement) (1952) • Fool’s Mate (Le coup du berger) (1956) • Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous appartient) (1961) • The Nun (La religieuse) (1966) • Cinéastes de notre temps: “Jean Renoir le patron, 1e partie: La recherche du relatif”; “Jean Renoir le patron, 2e partie: La direction d'acteur”; “Jean Renoir le patron, 3e partie: La règle et l'exception” (1967) • L’amour fou (1969) • Out 1 (Out 1, noli me tangere) (1971) • Out 1: Spectre (1972) • Essai sur l’agression (1973) • Celine and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau: Phantom Ladies Over Paris) (1974) • Birth and Death of Prometheus (Naissance et mort de Prométhée) (1974) • Duelle (Duelle (une quarantaine)) (1976) • Noroît (une vengeance) (1976) • Merry-Go-Round (1980) • Le Pont du Nord (1981) • Paris Goes Away (Paris s'en va) (1981) • Love on the Ground (L'amour par terre) (1984) • Wuthering Heights (Hurlevent) (1985) • The Gang of Four (La bande des quatre) (1989) • The Beautiful Troublemaker (La Belle Noiseuse) (1991) • Divertimento (1992) • Joan the Maid 1: The Battles (Jeanne la Pucelle I - Les batailles) (1994) • Joan the Maid 2: The Prisons (Jeanne la Pucelle II - Les prisons) (1994) • Up, Down, Fragile (Haut bas fragile) (1995) • Lumière and Company, “Jacques Rivette/Paris” (1995) • Secret Defense (Secret défense) (1998) • Who Knows? (Va savoir) (2001) • The Story of Marie and Julien (Histoire de Marie et Julien) (2003) • The Duchess of Langeais (Ne touchez pas la hache) (2007) • Around a Small Mountain (36 vues du Pic Saint Loup) (2009)
John Sayles
Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980) • Lianna (1983) • Baby It’s You (1983) • The Brother from Another Planet (1984) • Matewan (1987) • Eight Men Out (1988) • City of Hope (1991) • Passion Fish (1992) • The Secret of Roan Inish (1994) • Lone Star (1996) • Men with Guns (1997) • Limbo (1999) • Sunshine State (2002) • Casa de los babys (2003) • Silver City (2004) • Honeydripper (2007) • Amigo (2010) • Go for Sisters (2013)Andrei Tarkovsky
The Killers (Ubiytsy) (1956) • There Will Be No Leave Today (Segodnya uvolneniya ne budet) (1959) • The Steamroller and the Violin (Katok i skripka) (1961) • Ivan’s Childhood (Ivanovo detstvo) (1962) • Andrei Rublev (Andrey Rublyov) (1966) • Solaris (Solyaris) (1972) • Mirror (Zerkalo) (1975) • Stalker (1979) • Nostalghia (1983) • Voyage in Time (Tempo di viaggio) (1983) • The Sacrifice (Offret) (1986)