Another director who directed himself (in French!) was Jules Dassin, in Rififi. He plays the technician among the gang of thieves, and puts on ballet slippers during the scene where they stealthily break into a safe.

The whole subtext of the movie is a rebuke to On the Waterfront, so it's kind of a signal that he plays the role of the betrayer who must be executed for his crime. He takes it gallantly, aceepting his doom, because he know that you don't rat out your friends!!

(Although really the reason he cast himself was that he was a penniless director in France and couldn't afford anybody else. That's also why Jo le Sueduois is played by a German making his French-language debut: it was shocking to cast a German, that soon after the war, but it was cheaper to cast a German too.)

Always wanted to see that and TOPKAPI (sp?) which was almost like Dassin remaking RIFIFI as a lighter film (and with a more substantial budget, I think).

actually find him enjoyable in small doses, like the TOP GUN riff in SLEEP WITH ME

Which remains one of my top ten scenes of all time, but then, my love for Sleep With Me is huge and irrational.

Another director who directed himself (in French!) was Jules Dassin, in Rififi. He plays the technician among the gang of thieves, and puts on ballet slippers during the scene where they stealthily break into a safe.

Good call! Maybe French directors have superior self-direction skills.

Always wanted to see that

You'd love it, Frank. Very stylish French noir. Swanky and doomed. Plus, Paris in the 50s!

Very stylish French noir

Oh, that reminds me! I saw a new French animated film called Renaissance over the weekend (they held the press screening at Comic Con, figuring that it would be a good match for the attending critics). Oddly, the film is in English, but the website is only available in French. But the important thing is that this movie is fucking gorgeous. It's done entirely in black & white, and I mean that exactly -- no gray here, everything is either light or shadow. Kind of like a sleeker version of the art in Sin City. It's weak on storytelling (and for having Daniel Craig and Ian Holm in the cast, weak on voice talent as well), but the visuals make up for it 1000%.

I also saw Miami Vice on Monday night, and it was pretty dreadful. I wanted to like it because it's a beautifully shot film, but...it's not good. I actually had some of the same issues with it as I had with PotC:DMC in that the plot is only workable if you assume from the outset that everyone involved is very, very, very stupid (except for Gong Li, whose only weakness is wanting to have lots and lots of sex with Colin Farrell, for which I really can't blame her). Colin Farrell is overacting in a bad way, and Jaime Foxx seems to just be playing himself. It's a toss-up which was the better choice. Gong Li is the exception in the cast, mostly because she's Gong Li, and is therefore awesome. She's flinty and tough and smart and her scenes with Colin Farrell are unbelieveably hot. Those two should be naked onscreen together more often, mrowr.

As I said, it's visually stunning -- the action sequences are gorgeously shot. Unfortunately, it's kind of the same gorgeously shot action sequence over and over and over, and so by the nonclimactic third act, I was too bored to care anymore.

So glad to know...the trailer had me a little tempted. I'll wait for it to show on cable.

I can think of one actor who does this (Clooney); I doubt there are more than half a dozen who could.

Really? I can think of an awful lot of actors who made their directoral debut at the helm of a multi-million dollar movies. Often, though not always, starring themselves. I'm not a conspiracy nut, but that seems like a remarkable coincidence.

It is a good point, that you can't not-see the bad performance as easily as you can avoid a vanity project.

From way back:

It's frustrating, because I feel like he could be the next Kubrick, and instead he's gonna wind up as the next Spielberg

Really? When I think of Kubrick, I think of sophisticated intellectualism (and other less flattering things); when I think of Shyamalan, I think of empty-headedness.