The final film of legendary directors

For roughly two decades, Alfred Hitchcock was a critical and commercial success, earning his moniker as the “Master of Suspense.” Sandwiching that time, though, you find several forgettable British films from early in his career and a handful of lackluster efforts in the late ‘60s into the ‘70s. That includes his last film, “Family Plot,” an adaptation of a pulpy novel from 1972. Granted, turning a pulp tome into a film worked for Hitch with “Psycho,” but this black comedy flagged.

It felt like acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa would never stop working, and that almost proved true. His film career spanned five decades, ending with 1993’s “Madadayo.” Based on the life of author Hyakken Uchida, the film was a critical success, though at the time it was not released in the United States. There is a good chance as an American you didn’t see it until the film aired on TCM in 1999. Though 81 when he directed “Madadayo,” it was a serious accident that kept Kurosawa from directing again before his death in 1998.

A legendary noir director, Otto Preminger played a key role in pushing the boundaries of American film and helped bring an end to the Production Code era of Hollywood. By 1979, Preminger was still interested in noir, but the film industry wasn’t necessarily interested in Preminger. “The Human Factor” was partially funded by the director’s own money, but the film didn’t come close to making its budget back, and even critics were not kind to the Graham Greene adaptation.

One of the foremost directors of epics, David Lean had not made a movie in 14 years when he tackled “A Passage to India.” With this story he returned to the sweeping visuals (and lengthy run times) of his previous works like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago.” Unlike some of the others on this list, Lean was able to go out on a high note. “A Passage to India” was nominated for 11 Oscars, including for Best Director and Best Picture. Peggy Ashcroft even won Best Supporting Actress for her role. No spring chicken herself, Ashcroft was 77 when she won her Oscar.

“Pocketful of Miracles” feels like a fitting title from the final film directed by Frank Capra. The commercial disappointment of “It’s a Wonderful Life” had effectively ended Capra’s run as a significant director in Hollywood, but after a few forgettable films his final movie, a comedy, allowed him to find some redemption on the big screen. While the reviews were more solid than glowing, and the box office return positive if only just, Peter Falk did get an Oscar nomination for her performance.

When it came to directing Hollywood musicals, few were as successful as Vincente Minnelli. Two of his movies, “An American in Paris” and “Gigi,” both won Best Picture. Sure, neither of them is good, but the Academy didn’t care! Minnelli’s final film was, fittingly, a musical. While “A Matter of Time” was not well received, it was probably a nice way to bring his career to a close for the director. This was the one and only time he got to direct his daughter Liza in a film.

Is “The Other Side of the Wind” the final film of Orson Welles? You could argue in multiple directions. Yes, this was the last project Welles was working on, and his last film to be released, but it came out decades after his death, having been touched up and completed by others. However, his last first prior to that? “Don Quixote,” also a posthumous release finished by others. Would his last film then be his documentary about filming “Othello?” Or, more aptly, his quasi-documentary “F for Fake?” What is less debatable is that Welles never quite was able to reclaim the glory that was his work on “Citizen Kane.”

John Ford was a hard-drinking maniac, but he still managed to make it to 79, and direct into his seventies. He’s also a problematic figure, but has four Best Director Oscars and is as prolific as anybody. In his life, Ford directed over 140 films in over 50 years of directing. Set in rural China in the 1930s and focused on a group of missionaries who are largely women, Ford’s final work “7 Women” was critically acclaimed, and largely remains so.

Yes, it’s not a good movie, but with “Buddy Buddy,” Billy Wilder went out the only way he could of. That is to say, directing a film costarring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. While the actors would continueto work together for years after the death of Wilder, it’s the director who helped turn them into a beloved duo with his movies like “The Fortune Cookie.”

William Wyler is perhaps not as known a name to modern audiences as some of the others on this list, but rest assured he was as successful as any director has ever been. His 12 nominations for Best Director is an Oscars record, and he won three of those awards, all for movies that also won Best Picture. Talking a story of interracial strife in the American South was perhaps a big swing for the director, and “The Liberation of L.B. Jones” did not quite land, though it did manage to court controversy for its themes (and also its sexual nature).

John Huston was not afraid of a little nepotism, but it was largely justified. His father Walter was an acclaimed actor and Oscar winner before John even directed a film. John’s daughter Anjelica won an Oscar for “Prizzi’s Honor,” which her father directed. Anjelica is the star of “The Dead,” which was also written by John’s son Tony. Once again, the nepotism panned out, as Tony was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.

Mike Nichols was a wunderkind director, his first two films were “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Graduate,” but he kept at it all the way until 2007, when he was in his seventies. “Charlie Wilson’s War” did not just feature an acclaimed director. The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin, and it stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and an Oscar-nominated Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Perhaps the movie didn’t make the splash all that star power would indicate, but it is a good film worth watching once.

Technically, the final film of director (and acclaimed character actor) Sydney Pollack is “Sketches of Frank Gehry,” but that’s a breezy documentary from a director entirely known for narrative work. Thus, we will go with “The Interpreter,” which came out the year prior. The Nicole Kidman thriller is kind of boilerplate and probably more of a B-/C+ kind of film, but it made back more than double its budget, so Pollack did go out with a hit.

Depending on your taste, you will forever identify Jonathan Demme with either “Silence of the Lambs,” or “Stop Making Sense.” Demme’s final film is technically a 2016 concert movie featuring Justin Timberlake – Demme never stopped shooting concert films – but “Ricki and the Flash” ended his narrative efforts. Fittingly, it’s also by a musician, played by Meryl Streep no less! And yet, the movie is…a curio at best? We don’t want to fully blame the idiosyncratic writing style of Diablo Cody, but Cody certainly takes big swings, for better or worse.

Hey, character actor Sydney Pollack is in “Eyes Wide Shut.” For the last couple decades of his life, Stanley Kubrick barely directed anything. He did get around to directing “Eyes Wide Shut” before he died, though. The film starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, married at the time. It was a classic Kubrick shoot, which is to say fraught, tense, and brimming with take after take. While the sexually explicit oddity (you try pinpointing a genre for this one) was received coolly at the time, “Eyes Wide Shut” has since been reclaimed as a true classic from Kubrick.

For a guy who avidly and vocally loved to gamble and smoke weed, Robert Altman was a prolific director. In the last decade of his life he directed seven films, including “A Prairie Home Companion,” which came out the same year he passed away.

After a career as a successful screenwriter, Nora Ephron turned to directing films (which she typically co-wrote with her sister Delia). A few classic romantic comedies are in the mix with her filmography, but her last film was “Julie & Julia,” best remembered for Meryl Streep’s turn as Julia Child (though the Julie stuff is a bit better than you may recall). Fortunately, Ephron got this movie made. Otherwise, her last film would have been that woeful reimagining of “Bewitched.” No director deserves to go out on that note.

In addition to acting (including playing a “Batman” villain on the Adam West show), Ida Lupino was a trailblazer when it comes to female directors. She even got to direct grittier fare, such as the noir film “The Hitch-Hiker.” While “The Trouble with Angels” sounds like it could be another noir, it’s actually a breezy comedy about an all-girls Catholic school. The film was successful enough to direct a sequel, though Lupino didn’t direct it. Unusual on this list, Lupino lived a few decades after her last directorial effort, but she also retired from acting a good 20 years before she passed on, so perhaps health came into play.

Let’s turn to Europe. Francois Truffaut is probably the face of French New Wave, and a director beloved by the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg. “Confidentially Yours” is a comedy about that most obvious source of humor, multiple murders. The movie was nominated for a BAFTA and also two Césars, the latter of which is effectively the “French Oscars.” Truffaut would die the next year.

Acclaimed actors have been known to have posthumous films come out, and sometimes even win awards from beyond the grave. On occasion, though, a director has a posthumous film as well, and not always in the vein of “The Other Side of the Wind.” William Friedkin got too weird for most people with “Bug” and “Killer Joe.” He did not direct a film for over a decade after “Killer Joe,” but then directed “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.” The film is an adaptation of a play that is itself adapted from a book (though the novelist also wrote the play). Friedkin was able to finish shooting it, but he died a month before the film’s festival premiere.