|
If you like Billy Wilder's style of dialogue, you should definitely like Bringing Up Baby or another screwball comedy he made, His Girl Friday (both of which have some of the fastest talking you'll ever hear). The problem some people have with his films is that, unlike say Hitchcock or Ford, they tend to be very different from one another, spanning across almost every genre imaginable. You can't go wrong with his comedies, though. Saying that, everyone should watch Only Angels Have Wings. The perfect Sunday afternoon film.
The Godard thing is weird in that none of his films are (from what I can see) even remotely similar to Hawks - maybe Pierrot Le Fou. But two filmmakers who I know are massive fans, and for whom the Hawks influence is far more evident in their actual work, are John Carpenter (Assault on Precinct 13 (a 're-imagining' of Rio Bravo)) and The Thing, obviously) and Steven Spielberg (Jaws). A lot of the fast talking female-centric comedies of the 80s (Working Girls, etc) also have a definite Hawks feel to them. If Reese Witherspoon was around in the 30s and 40s, she'd have definitely been a Hawks fave.
If I was gonna start exploring his work, I'd start with Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, Rio Bravo and Only Angels Have Wings.
|