10 directors that make my eyes happy.

Taking a cue from another blog I follow I've decided to make my own list of 10 movies that make my eyes happy. But after drafting a list, I realized it was the director's consistent style and aesthetics across all of their movies that inspire me, so I changed it up. These director's minds get my brain working on how to mimic their styles in my wardrobe, home, or life in general.
Some of the directors, I feel, it's almost cliche to go on about them because it's clear to anyone who's even mildly interested in film that they're aesthetic masters. But who cares, this is just my dopey little blog, I'll get as cliche as I want.

Here they are in no particular order.

1. Wes Anderson, clearly. Let's just get that out of the way. Seriously though, I wish I lived in one of his movies. Someday my home will have walnut paneling, hot pink walls and golden radiators. The 70's are clearly represented more than any other decade in his films and that's a-ok with me.

2. Quentin Tarantino. His movies lean into a 70's look a lot too, which despite my love for more feminine decades of fashion, I find the 70's influence my real-life home more than any other decade. Sometimes I get tired of it, but I just keep coming back.

3. Joel and Ethan Coen. They have this drive to just keep creating and creating that is beyond enviable. I particularly love Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou, and The Hudsucker Proxy. You know, for kids!

4. Paul Thomas Anderson. Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood. His movies are about the most important things in life (usually family, even Boogie Nights-- especially Boogie Nights!) His movies can be so sobering it nearly paralyzes me.

6. Michel Gondry. From Human Nature, to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind, Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind, his music videos, THIS MAN gets into my head and refuses to leave. And I love it.

7. Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Delicatessen has a special place in my heart, along with Dominique Pinon. Amelie is a classic. I even loved City of List Children even though it frightened me. Do me a favor and just forget he was ever involved with the Aliens franchise, okay?

8. Julie Taymor. So what, maybe her latest movie, The Tempest, started to resemble the work someone might put forth when getting a little crazy with photoshop filters... Still, she never fails to strike a spark in my chest and sets me wanting to paint or something. Or take up puppetry.

9. Martin Scorsese. I really can't go on, I'm not eloquent enough to describe the quality of his work. But I will say this. Sometimes I feel like it's a chore to force myself to watch his movies because maybe the plot didn't sound appealing or who knows. I'm fickle. But when I finally sit down and WATCH them, I'm awed. Everytime. Even the least profound Scorsese film is still wonderful.

10. Baz Luhrman. He's kind of the one who started it all for me, aesthetically speaking. I remember seeing the trailers for Moulin Rouge and thinking "pfff that looks obnoxious" and then seeing it and falling in love. I had to find his other work, and each movie I got my hands on became my new favorite. Romeo + Juliet, then Strictly Ballroom, the latter of which is one of my go-to movies for a pick-me-up. Admittedly, I've yet to sit through Australia in one sitting but I've mildly enjoyed what I've seen.

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I wanted to list a couple runners-up. Were this a movie-only list, these might be on here.

+Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides. I wasn't actually a fan of Lost in Translation, but I liked parts. Really, it's The Virgin Suicides that puts me in its own special mood. And again, the 70's!

+Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice. This is my feminine-fantasy at its grandest. If there was a place I could vacation and pretend this was the era I lived in, I would be there every year.

+Tarsem Singh's The Fall. The fantasy world he creates in this movie resembles a lot of what I wished for in my childhood. All things exotic and magical. For me, it's the type of beauty that verges on terrifying.