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[proximoception]

Other narcissist film directors: Neil LaBute, E. Elias Merhige, M. Night Shyamalan. All deep in, insufferably so, maybe Seventh, Ninth and Eighth circles, respectively (yes, I think Merhige is as bad as anyone ever here, worse even than Haneke). Can't tell if Richard Kelly is on the basis of the one film of his I saw - had that impression at points, but surely there's other ways to fail.

If you like some of their movies you're not necessarily wrong to. Narcissists razzle dazzle well at times, and they're definitely unconventional.

And I'm not sure they're malignant ones - the kinds that poison significant others and progeny - though I suspect it, and find it pretty likely in LaBute's case based on those early films where he's shedding the harsh light of truth on sexuality. He was probably telling it like he saw it.

Can't tell if Ozon's one or just working through having grown up with one.

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I forgot all about The Box, which had my wife and me in stitches. Taking someone else's excellent idea and then making it more elaborate and ridiculous = pretty common narcissist move, but I'm still not positive about Kelly. He could be a Tarantino type and just love smooshing action figures together in his head. Which could be narcissism also but I don't know enough about it to say.

Haneke's Piano Teacher I loved, before getting a handle on the shambles that's his mind, but I think just because of Huppert, who ran away with it. And narcissists may come closest to knowing what they're talking about when the topic is narcissism or something like it - the author of the book he adapted sounds like a pretty terrible one herself in interviews.

Note Nurse Betty worked with someone else's pretty good screenplay, though I'm sure LaBute messed it up plenty. Narcissism is probably a neutral, maybe even benign trait for a mere director to have. It's when they go auteur that these people smash trains. E.g. All that Jazz, though to be fair Fosse clearly wasn't well by that time. I didn't mind Lakeview Terrace too much because it similarly wasn't LaBute's. Lot of narcissist fingerprints on it, but it managed to maintain its structure as a genre piece. Unlike, say, The Wicker Man remake where the screenplay was all him.

Swimming Pool was tedious, but also completely fascinated with Charlotte Rampling, the face of a mother who doesn't love you. I'm not lumping in artistic obsessions per se, or failure per se, which can both be at least honorable.

I don't think I'd put Lynch, Allen or the Coens in any circle of narcissism - which doesn't mean self-involvement, which can be fine, but the assumption everyone else is or should be just as involved in appreciating you and your special, if unspecific gloriousness. Among other things, they're all masters of comedy, therefore of understanding what others find funny, therefore have empathy. I know you have particular trouble with the Coens. They're pretty negative in their view of people, it's true, but pessimism can also be honorable. And when for viewing purposes you agree to take on their amused horror at our universal selfishness and childishness you find they actually have affection for their creations.