Movie Directors

Life for an independent filmmaker -- especially a first-time writer-director -- isn't easy. Jeff Nichols knows that all too well. Nichols' feature directorial debut, "Shotgun Stories," is a stark, Eugene O'Neill-esque tale set in southeastern Arkansas about a feud that erupts between two sets of half brothers after their father dies. Nichols, who was born in Arkansas and now lives in Austin, Texas, finished principal photography on the film in late 2004. Only now is it opening, on Friday.

CANNES, France -- Abel Ferrara's new film, "Chelsea on the Rocks," represents a kind of homecoming for the Bronx-born director and longtime chronicler of the New York City underbelly. Ferrara, best known for urban tales of damnation such as "Bad Lieutenant" and "King of New York," moved to Italy several years ago, fleeing a city transformed by the Rudolph W. Giuliani regime and the Sept.

Robert E. Relyea witnessed an odd exchange between John Wayne and his horse Alamo while working as a first assistant director on the Duke's 1960 directorial debut called, appropriately enough, "The Alamo." The epic was in the pre-production stage when Wayne was discussing with Relyea where the sets would be constructed. "About that time, Alamo bit him on the butt," says Relyea.

Don't expect to see any of David Lean's lavish epics such as "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago" at UCLA Film & Television Archive's retrospective of the Oscar-winning British director. The festival, which marks the filmmaker's centenary, shines the spotlight on Lean's first 10 British films, which were made during the 1940s and early '50s. Opening the tribute Friday evening at the Billy Wilder Theater is 1942's World War II epic "In Which We Serve."

The new film "Role Models" finds cultish comedian and filmmaker David Wain making his first bid for a broader mainstream appeal. In the film, happy-go-lucky party boy Wheeler (Seann William Scott) and acerbic sad-sack Danny (Paul Rudd) are co-workers and unlikely friends. After a seriously bad day lands them facing a choice between jail time or community service, they find themselves involved in a mentoring program called Sturdy Wings.

To some, it might seem a bit of a stretch for the director of an odd and obscure documentary about the '80s arcade game Donkey Kong to become the man in charge of the big-budget holiday-season comedy "Four Christmases," starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. Even the movie's 32-year-old filmmaker, Seth Gordon, describes it as an "unprecedented, staggering, irrational leap."

It feels as much like a celebration as a wake: There's a scene toward the end of "Frost/Nixon," as Richard Nixon's landmark interviews with talk show host David Frost draw to a close, when the disgraced president sits down at the piano. As performed by Frank Langella and directed by Ron Howard, Nixon is both hopeful and doomed -- he knows his televised clash with Frost isn't yet over, that "victory isn't necessarily at hand," as Howard puts it.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is launching a new lecture series that will feature director Michael Govan engaging in one-on-one conversations with contemporary artists. "The Director's Series: Conversations With Michael Govan" begins Feb. 1 with Govan and artist Jeff Koons discussing the museum's exhibition "Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images" as well as the influence of 20th century art on contemporary artists and Koons' recent work.

Sarah Polley, the best actress not enough people know about, is poised to become a director everyone is talking about. "Away From Her," Polley's first feature as a writer-director, comes to the Sundance Film Festival after an opening at Toronto that had local critics calling it "one of the most astonishing feature debuts by a Canadian director in ages."