There's something missing from our American movies. After watching a mess of films in Telluride, Toronto and New York, I realized I was seeing great foreign films and mediocre American ones. What's the missing ingredient? Many of our great directors. Where's Lawrence Kasdan, Jim McBride, Bob Rafelson, Joe Dante, Walter Hill, Phil Kaufman? What other directors are we missing?

When foreign directors like Caroline Link (Nowhere in Africa) come to America, they have the option of skipping town and going back to work in their own countries, where they can work at the top of their local food chain on modestly-budgeted movies with their top movie stars. (She finally made the terrific A Year Ago in Winter in Germany after developing it in Hollywood.) American directors are stuck here with our messed-up studio system that spoils and overpays people when they hit it big and then drops them cold when they become "irrelevant."

Here's my column.