Saving the Best for Last?

Perhaps no archetype is more prevalently insidious in Western art and criticism than that of the diminishing star–the poet, artist, athlete, or performer who dazzles us and youth but gradually becomes a shadow of his or her former self.

In the anthology Growing Old in Christ Rowan A Greer surveys the views of the aged in the early church and uses the depiction of the history of Abraham and Sarah to remind us that old age is often a time of unexpected fruitfullness.

That got me thinking about directors who worked well into what we might consider old age and whose final films were, if not their best, within the pantheon of their best work. I initially posed this question at Cinevox (an online discussion board) in the wake of writing about John Huston. Since I’ve resurrected that post about Huston here, I decided to pose the question here as well:

Can you think of an auteur whose final film was among one of his or her best? (Obviously, I’m not thinking here of people who died prematurely.)

The three that jumped to my mind were Robert Bresson (L’argent made at age 83), Carl Theodor Dreyer (Gertrud at 75) and Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut at 71). Not sure how I didn’t think of Huston when this discussion came up, but a friend quickly rectified that mistake and gave a few others (pictured above).

Also pictured: Max Ophuls, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yazujiro Ozu, Luis Bunuel, Ousmane Sembene, Jean Renoir.

In the weeks to come, I’ll try to be adding some meditations on these final films.

What is your favorite directorial swan song?