The director Michael Caine calls the “greatest”
With a career spanning seven decades and hundreds of films, Michael Caine has worked with his fair share of directors. Amongst them are some of the greats – Joseph K. Mankiewicz, with whom he collaborated on Sleuth; Brian De Palma; Nora Ephron; and countless others. His catalogue is full of associations with the best of the best, but there is one filmmaker that Caine ranks above the rest.
Caine may be a firm lover of the classics, imploring everyone to watch Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia, but he has a real appreciation for contemporary cinema, too. This is clear in his continued collaborations with Christopher Nolan, whose filmography he also considers to be essential watching.
During a conversation with Esquire, Caine even deemed Nolan the “greatest movie director,” suggesting he’s the “new David Lean”. It’s a bold claim, but not one that Nolan is unworthy of. Since making his debut in the late 1990s, Nolan has forged a place for himself as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in modern cinema.
The director has proven that superhero adaptations don’t have to rely on clichés and cringeworthy writing with his Batman series, ventured into dream worlds and time travel with Inception and Tenet, and took on real-life events with Dunkirk and, most recently, Oppenheimer. The latter even won Nolan his first Academy Awards, taking home ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’.
Each new offering has only added to his reputation as one of the most masterful and ambitious filmmakers working today. He’s always looking to widen his scope further, to tell bigger stories and use bigger effects than ever before. Few other directors are working on the same scale or skill level, so it’s easy to see why Caine rates him so highly.
Caine’s admiration for Nolan is certainly not one-sided. While he was reinventing the blockbuster and forging one of the most revered filmographies in modern cinema, Nolan was also honing a close relationship with Caine. The pair first worked together on Batman Begins, when the director recruited the Cockney actor to play butler Alfred Pennyworth. He went on to appear in the entire Dark Knight trilogy, but their partnership didn’t stop there.
Caine has become Nolan’s go-to actor, with each film they forge together guaranteeing critical and commercial success. From a main role in The Prestige to a tiny cameo in Dunkirk, Nolan can’t seem to keep himself away from casting Caine. “I’m his lucky charm, he says!” Caine added, “I am lucky, because Dunkirk has taken over half a billion dollars.”
Caine does seem to be joking. Dunkirk’s success had little to do with Caine’s cameo – most won’t have even noticed it – but it is true that any collaboration between the pair will draw crowds to the cinemas. They’re each masters of their craft with a mutual respect for one another and a fruitful collaborative relationship.
It’s not luck that beckons audiences to their filmmaking; it’s pure skill. While Caine has spent decades honing his acting style and endearing himself to film fans, Nolan has become widely known as one of the most exciting directors working today. They’re both peerless and, like Caine, many others would consider him to be up there with the all-time greats.
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