Check out MRC's newest director bibliography:  Sidney Lumet: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/lumet.html

HE WAS THE ULTIMATE actor's director. Over the course of Sidney Lumet's remarkable six-decade career, his leading men and women earned a stunning 18 Oscar nominations. He may not have been the showiest director. He never tried to dazzle audiences with flash and style. He didn't have to. Lumet knew the power of a great performance. And, not surprisingly, many of our most iconic actors--Al Pacino, Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Sean Connery--delivered some of their finest, most nuanced work in his films. Lumet, who died of lymphoma April 9 at the age of 86, was also a profound moralist, peppering his pop entertainments with conscience and humanity. The loss is a huge one. [Entertainment Weekly, 4/22/2011, Issue 1151/1152, p78-78, 1p]

Everyone has to start somewhere, right?   Even cinematic icons and blockbuster big boys started small (or out in left field), in most cases.  The MRC  contains a fairly large collection of directorial debuts, early works, and  misadventures.   Check out the following for fascinating insights into the salad days of movie big names.

Their First Films

Presents eight of the very first films of several French directors who went on to become household names in international cinema. Even in their first attempts it is easy to see what differentiated them from similar colleagues, and also how their styles became so coherent and indentifiable.

L'amour existe / Maurice Pialat (1961, b&w, 19 min.) -- Le chant du styrene / Alain Resnais (1957, col., 14 min.) -- Charlotte et son Jules / Jean-luc Godard (1958, b&w, 13 min.) -- Le coup du berger / Jacques Rivette (1957, b&w, 27 min.) -- Histoire d'eau / Francois Truffaut & Jean-Luc Godard (1958, b&w, 12 min.) -- Le labaratoire de l'Angoisse / Patrice Leconte (1971, col., 11 min.) -- Les surmenes / Jacques Doniol-Valcroze (1957, b&w, 19 min.) -- 24 heures de la vie d'un clown / Jean-Pierre Melville (1946, b&w, 18 min.) DVD 3134

Reel Talent: First Films by Legendary Directors.

Side A. 9 short films: The oval portrait / produced by Department of Cinematography, University of Southern California ; directed and photographed by Richard L. Bare ; story adapted by Richard L. Bare -- 1:42.08 : [a man and his car] / written and directed by George Lucas ; produced at the University of Southern California Department of Cinema by undergraduate students in the senior production workshop -- Electronic labyrinth THX 1138 4EB (1967) / [presented by] the University of Southern California ; written & directed by George Lucas ; produced by Navy students in the Navy production workshop, U.S.C. -- Freiheit / a film by Lucas -- The lift (1972) / written and directed by Robert Zemeckis ; student produced at the University of Southern California Division of Cinema -- A field of honor (1973) / [presented by] the University of Southern California ; written and directed by Robert Zemeckis ; student produced at the University of Southern California Division of Cinema -- Silent night / [presented by] the University of Southern California ; written and directed by James Foley, Jr. ; student produced at the University of Southern California -- Proof / writer and director, Kevin Reynolds -- Perfect alibi (1987) / [presented by] the University of Southern California ; written & directed by Steve Sommers ; student produced at University of Southern California -- Side B. 3 short films and special features: Whatever it takes (1988) / directed by Jon Turteltaub ; written by Randy Runkle and Jon Turteltaub ; student produced at the University of Southern California -- Broken record (1994) / written by Mark Friedman ; produced by Shawn Levy, David Lipper, Serena Krouse ; directed by Shawn Levy -- The goodbye place / written and directed by Richard Kelly ; producers, Paola Cresti, Richard Kelly. DVD 8296

Film collector Jean Marie Boursicot's compilation of advertising films and commercials produced by famous film directors. Featured directors: David Cronenberg, Tim Burton, Luc esson, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, Giuseppe Tornatore, Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, Tarsem Singh, Jean Jacques Annaud, Ridley Scott, Emir Kusturica, Wong Kar Wai, Michel Gondry, Tony Scott, Jean Luc Godard, Tony Kaye, Jan Kounen. 74 min. DVD 3538

Kings of Ads, Vol. 1

Film collector Jean Marie Boursicot's compilation of advertising films and commercials produced by famous film directors. Featured directors: David Cronenberg, Tim Burton, Luc esson, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, Giuseppe Tornatore, Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, Tarsem Singh, Jean Jacques Annaud, Ridley Scott, Emir Kusturica, Wong Kar Wai, Michel Gondry, Tony Scott, Jean Luc Godard, Tony Kaye, Jan Kounen. 74 min. DVD 3538

First Films

Woody Allen - What's Up, Tiger Lily? DVD X1934

Paul Thomas Anderson - Hard Eight DVD 9292

Tim Burton - Pee-wee's Big Adventure  (first feature) DVD 9938

Jane Campion -  An Exercise in Discipline - Peel (short) - DVD 6476

Frank Capra ? The Strong Man (starring Harry Langdon) ? DVD 400

Claude Chabrol - Le Beau Serge DVD 6491

Larry Clark ? Clerks DVD X1148

The Coen Brothers ? Blood Simple DVD 3334

Francis Ford Coppola - You?re a Big Boy Now DVD X6021

David Cronenberg - Stereo DVD 4963

Clint Eastwood - Play Misty for Me DVD X3130

Rainer Werner Fassbind ? Love is Colder Than Death (Liebe ist kälter als der Tod) (first feature) DVD 1655

Sam Fuller ? I Shot Jesse James DVD 8207

Jean-Luc Godard ? Breathless DVD 8726

Amy Heckerling ? Fast Times at Ridgemont High DVD 6058

Werner Herzog - Herakles (short) DVD 6501

Alfred Hitchcock ? The Pleasure Garden (fist feature) DVD X934

Lawrence Kasden ? Body Heat DVD 3827

Akira Kurosawa  - Sanshiro Sugata DVD X2444

Ang Lee - Pushing Hands DVD X4874

Mike Leigh - Bleak Moments DVD X2023

Barry Levinson ? Diner DVD X368

David Lynch ? Eraserhead DVD X671

Satyajit Ray - Pather Panchali DVD 2081

Robert Redford ? Ordinary People DVD 3645

John Sayles - Return of the Secaucus Seven DVD X5326

Martin Scorsese ? Boxcar Bertha (first feature) DVD 3302

John Singleton ? Boyz in the Hood DVD 182

Steven Soderbergh ? sex lies and videotape DVD 471

Todd Solondz ? Welcome to the Dollhouse DVD 621

Steven Spielberg ? Duel (TV) DVD X2643

Quentin Tarrentino ? Reservoir Dogs DVD 3850

Francois Truffaut ? The 400 Blows (Les quatre cents coups) DVD 68

Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski ? Bound DVD X1071

Orson Welles ? Citizen Kane DVD 852

In recognition of the hoards returning back to school and in honor of those brave souls standing behind the podium, we've put together a Teachers and Schools in the Movies Videography:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/teachermovies.html

New listing of Black British Film in the Media Resources Center: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MR​C/ukfilm.html#blackbrit

See also interesting BFI cite on the subject: http://www.screenonline.org.uk​/film/id/1144245/

If you've visited MRC in the past few months, you've probably seen, 1)  the stacks of empty DVD cases being given away for free, and, 2) the book trucks full of movies on vhs being given away for free.  Why are we unloading this stuff ?  Simple!  We're seriously running out of storage space.  The empty DVD boxes are being given away because we're in the process of re-casing our DVD collection into slim cases--a move which will provide us with a substantial amount of storage real estate.  The up-for-grabs vhs movies are titles for which we already own one or more DVD copies.  We're dumping these vhs titles partially in anticipation of MRC moving into a new temporary location during the projected Moffitt renovation--sometime in the next few years.

Drop by and help yourself!