Peter Bogdanovich passed away on January 6, 2022, but his legacy will surely live on, mediated by the moving images he so loved. Bogdanovich was simply one of the best directors of the past sixty years; this is less a subjective opinion than it is a fact, at this point. Taking his time with each of his 17 pictures over the span of nearly five decades, Bogdanovich not only directed some of the greatest American films of all time, but was a unique champion of cinema through his support, restoration work, and critical commentaries.
Beginning as a film critic, Peter Bogdanovich carried his immense passion for the medium with him throughout every project he undertook. His audio commentaries for home video releases have become some of the best in the business; his scholarly works on film are unmatched by any other living and successful director; his dozens of acting credits (including his acclaimed work in The Sopranos) are subtle and fascinating; his restoration of lost masterpieces, like Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind, have been crucial to cinematic history. Along with Martin Scorsese, he has been a leading champion of film as an art form, rather than a commercial medium for marketing.
The movies he’s directed may not have been international box-office successes, but they have been revered and adored by film lovers since 1968’s Targets. His interest in early 20th-century American culture and focus on psychological rather than physical conflict makes his films an essential component of understanding the progression of culture and cinema over the past hundred years. These are the best films directed by Peter Bogdanovich, ranked.
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9 The Cat’s Meow
Lionsgate
This late-career, delightful and immensely enjoyable dramedy is set in 1924, during the first quarter of the 20th century that Bogdanovich loved to explore so dearly. The film has great fun assembling a cast of historical characters, like Hollywood stars Charlie Chaplin (deliciously played by Eddie Izzard) and Marion Davies (a great, early Kirsten Dunst), on real-life tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s private yacht as they gossip and bicker, leading to one of the most notorious of Hollywood’s still-unsolved murders. Directed with a kind of grace which matches the smooth charms of its characters, The Cat’s Meow is a luxurious, entertaining theatrical comeback.
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8 Noises Off
Buena Vista Pictures
Bogdanovich had some of the most interesting comedic sensibilities in Hollywood, which is displayed with subtlety throughout most of his films but is on full bast in Noises Off and What’s Up Doc? The director loved to combine mild screwball comedy with obnoxious characters, but within a completely realistic and dramatic setting, and his approach excels in this adaptation of the well-received play. Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, and Christopher Reeve lead the pack as the film follows the mishaps of a terrible theatre troup as they attempt to put on an equally awful play, with a kind of bad-luck chaos hovering over them throughout. Bogdanovich is efficient and clever here, and though the film was a box office failure which kept Hollywood away from the director for a decade, it deserves a reappraisal.
7 Runnin’ Down a Dream
Skot Bright
While Bogdanovich obviously devoted his life to film and the study thereof, he also created one of the best music documentaries of all time with Runnin’ Down a Dream, about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. This four-hour examination of creativity, artistry, boredom, and beauty is extremely unique and wonderful in a leisurely sort of way. Though Variety called it, “A feast for Petty fans and a joyous confirmation of the vitality of the collective creative process,” it’s honestly a film any music fan can enjoy, with its backstage meditation on musical development.
6 Daisy Miller
Paramount Pictures
A beautiful film which gave Bogdanovich acclaim with cinephiles but sabotaged his chances at Hollywood success, Daisy Miller remains one of the most unconventional and original literary adaptations ever made. Based on the Henry James novella, the film uses gorgeous set designs and costumes to follow the romantic escapades of socialites near the end of the 19th-century. Starring Cybil Shepherd (the director’s girlfriend at the time) in an excellent and complex role, the film remains one of the most lavish period pieces ever made. Bogdanovich regretted making the film, saying, “If I had been smart about things […] I would not have done something so completely uncommercial. [It] threw the studio’s confidence in me, that I would do a picture like that instead of thinking only in terms of box office.” Regardless of his regrets, the movie is a classic.
5 Mask
Universal Pictures
One of the most emotionally wrenching films of Bogdanovich’s career, Mask follows the tender love of a mother as she cares for and protects her son, who suffers from craniodiaphyseal dysplasia. With commanding performances from Cher, Sam Elliott, Eric Stoltz, and a young Laura Dern, the movie is a famously heartbreaking true-story about inner beauty, human dignity, and basic compassion. Bogdanovich didn’t usually embrace sentiment and melodrama in his films, opting instead for a more distanced and intellectual approach, but here he somehow combines the two to create a truly unforgettable, viscerally emotional experience.
4 What’s Up Doc?
Warner Bros.
The modern screwball comedy What’s Up Doc? features Bogdanovich at his funniest, and is hilariously led by Barbara Streisand and Ryan O’Neal. Frequently ranking on lists of the funniest films of all time, What’s Up Doc was a successful homage to the zany madcap movies of Hollywood’s golden age, such as Bringing Up Baby. O’Neal is the uptight musicologist who comes across a beautiful trouble-maker and begrudgingly falls in love as she upturns his life. The Streisand character is downright Bugs Bunny-esque, making the titular reference to the cartoon wholly understandable. It’s a fun, ridiculous, and yet tightly written and executed masterpiece of mayhem.
3 Paper Moon
Bogdanovich teamed up with Ryan O’Neal again, along with his daughter Tatum (whose performance here helped her become the youngest person to ever receive an Academy Award) in this fondly recalled gem. Paper Moon was shot in black-and-white to mimic the dated imagery of Bogdanovich’s favorite time period (the early 20th century), the film follows a con artist who is tasked with transporting an orphan from Kansas to Missouri during the Great Depression, but instead decides to use her in his profitable cons. This sweet movie mixes the desperation of the Depression with the comedy of survival-at-all-costs, creating one of the most memorable films of the ’70s in the process.
2 Targets
Targets was Bogdanovich’s first credited film; the director understandably chose a pseudonym for his first studio job, Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. Here, the director tapped into his own cinephilia and film knowledge, ironically casting ageing horror icon Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) as an ageing horror icon who unwittingly stops a mass murderer. Very loosely based on the infamous University of Texas tower shootings, the film is utterly fascinating in its detached observation of psychosis, and brilliantly opines about the healing power of cinema.
1 The Last Picture Show
Columbia Pictures
Arguably Bogdanovich’s most well-known film, The Last Picture Show is a sad, desolate look at small-town America in the early-to-middle 20th century. Career-making performances from Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms propel this ensemble drama toward its melancholic resolution, in a film which languishes in the detritus of the American dream. Beautifully composed shots of shuttered windows and close shops, wind-blown dirt and broken-down trucks are filmed in black-and-white, perfectly complimenting the thematic motifs of the film– time passes and people get left behind; clinging to youth and history are futile in the face of change. Of course, cinema itself is a highlight in the movie, with the titular movie theater becoming a powerful metaphor for change and history. The film is one of 21 movies which has scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, features Peter Bogdanovich’s most masterful direction, and is sure to be remembered as long as cinema thrives.
