Folks, who can give me that decisive, helpful bit of advice? What school in your opinion would give me the best film education?
The reason I am itching to study film (now, at 36, after about 10 years in design and advertising racket in NYC and Hamburg, Germany) are the great films by directors listed above.
I know quite a bit about still photography, film history, art in general, etc. I made a 15 min short, video art rather, it was shown at Transmediale in Berlin. But the last few years were - financially - bleak, so 30K a year for a private school is very, very, very unlikely (especially considering how un-commercial my aspirations are).
I know that VGiK first comes to mind, but I heard that it's not what it used to be,
and Moscow can be a bit hard on one's nerves, wallet and digestive tract
(language is no problem, it's my mother tongue).
Other considerations:
The two best German schools don't take students over 30.
Other German schools produce unbearable, uniformly saccharine "telenovela"-style melodramas (makes one yearn for a good car chase with explosions and good old ultraviolence).
Lodz is probably underfunded, but what a great tradition.
What about MFA programs stateside? After reading the postings here, I am even interested
in Brooklyn College - no MFA, but good program from what I could gather.
What are your opinions on the subject?
P.S. I don't want anyone to think that I am putting anybody down who makes or likes Hollywood films. Some of my favorite films are by Sigel, Frankenheimer, Fleischer and Mann. It's just Hollywood is not what it used to be, and it's not what I want to (or think I can) do.