The Ageless Masters: Hollywood Directors Still Going Strong in Their 80s and Beyond

One of the oldest great masters of cinema, Billy Wilderdied at 95, but directed his last film (“Here, a Friend,” with Jack Lemmon y Walter Matthau) at 75. He spent the last twenty years of his life retired, something that most of the protagonists of this report have not considered, to the happiness of his millions of followers.

Martin Scorsese He will turn 81 on November 17. The multi-award-winning American director only has, incredibly, one Oscar. This may change with “The Assassins of the Moon”, which will be released on October 20 and which is in the race for the statuettes. Led in the cast by its two fetish actors, the also octogenarian Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, it is an adaptation of the book “The Killers of the Flower Moon: The Murders in the Osage Nation and the Birth of the FBI”, by David Grann.

Scorsese has more projects in the works, including a biopic about the Grateful Dead. The director of “The Last Temptation of Christ” also plans to shoot another film about Jesus Christ, as he told Pope Francis last May.

Ridley Scott He will turn 86 on November 30. A week before, on the 24th, “Napoleon” will premiere in the United States, with Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby as Empress Josephine. It is a blockbuster that will include no less than six major battle sequences. On July 10, the trailer was released, which promises a movie.

The British director of “Alien” (1979), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Thelma and Louise” (1991) and “Gladiator” (2000) eludes the Oscar. His audiovisual career began more than 60 years ago, when he began working for the BBC, although it was not until he saw Stanley Kubrick’s “2001” (1968), when he knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. He is now filming “Gladiator 2,” with Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington. Its premiere is scheduled for November 22, 2024, when Scott is about to turn 87.

He will also have his birthday on November 30 Woody Allen: 88, two more than Ridley Scott. He is already in theaters, and with good reviews, his 50th film, “Golpe de Luck”, a thriller romantic and his first feature film shot entirely in French.

The prolific New York filmmaker has made almost one film a year in recent decades, although he says he finds it increasingly difficult to find financing for them due to accusations of abuse leveled at him by Mia Farrow, for which no charges were ever filed. . “I have so many ideas for movies that I would be tempted to do them if it were easy to finance,” Allen told “Variety” -. In a few months I will be 88 years old. I have never been to a hospital and nothing terrible has ever happened to me. I have been very lucky all my life,” he confessed at the last Venice Festival.

Also affected by events in his private life, the conviction for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977 (for which he has an Interpol alert and rarely leaves France), Roman Polanski He is still active at 90 years old. The Franco-Polish director of such notable films as “The Devil’s Seed” (1968), “Chinatown” (1974) and “The Pianist” (2002) presented at the Venice Festival his new and, for many critics, his worst film: “The Palace”, a black comedy with Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant and John Cleese in the cast. It is the great slip of this list of veteran directors and the demonstration that long experience does not always guarantee a good result.

The dean of the great Hollywood directors, Clint Eastwood, turned 93 years old on May 31. At 74 he became the oldest filmmaker to win an Oscar for best director, for “Million Dollar Baby” (2004). With his work in this film and in “Unforgiven” (1992), the Californian won the Oscars for best director and best film, in addition to receiving nominations for best actor.

The next film to be released will probably be the last of his long career. According to “Variety,” “Juror No. 2” takes place in a murder trial and follows a juror, played by Nicholas Hoult, who realizes that he may have caused the victim’s death. He must then decide whether to manipulate the jury to get away with it or reveal the truth and turn himself in. Toni Collette plays the prosecutor. The premiere is scheduled for next year.

In Spain, after the loss this year of Carlos Saura – at the foot of the canyon until his death, on February 10, at the age of 91 – another great master of filmmaking has returned in a big way, Victor Erice, at 83. The director of “The Spirit of the Beehive” (1973) and “El Sur” (1983) had not directed a feature film since “El sol del membrillo” (1992), a documentary about the creative process of the painter Antonio Lopez. “Close your eyes,” with José Coronado, has been on the shortlist of candidates to represent Spain at the Oscars and has received very good reviews. It has been on display since September 29.

With Francis Ford Coppola (84 years old) practically retired from directing for decades, other Hollywood masters such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Terrence Malick are close to turning 80 and maintain a rather low profile in terms of directing.

Directing beyond the 80s was rare in classic Hollywood: John Ford, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock died before or just after reaching that age. John Huston directed “Dubliners”, his last film, at the age of 80, already in a wheelchair and with an oxygen mask due to pulmonary emphysema that cost him his life months later.

Film critic Carlos Pumares said that no producer would risk financing a Billy Wilder film because of his advanced age. Now the big Hollywood production companies seem to be betting on the box office guarantee provided by the most veteran masters, although the public always has the last word and, as Wilder himself said – this is what appears in his epitaph – “no one is perfect.”