Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Best film director

I think that it's funny how we some how manage to forget such a versatile duo as the Cohen brothers. They have made some of the most inspiring films and yet when we start to mention the most skilled directors we forget to mention them.

Spielberg IMO is nowhere close in the coverage of genre as they are and they do it so much more interesting. Not saying SS is bad but he's not as interesting. A BIG PLUS is that the Cohen brothers also write their own scripts.
 
Charles Angus said:
Stanley Kubrick is hard to beat.
Click to expand...

Right on...IMHO, Kubrick did the best job of getting the viewer into the subconscious of the character. By the end of any of his films, after the Killing and with the exception of Sparticus and 2001, the primary characters in the were always laid bare psychologicaly.

I also love the work of many of the usual suspects such as Antonioni, Fellini, Kurosawa.

As far as contemporary directors go...Scorsese, Fincher, PTA, the Coppolas (very excited to see Sophia Coppola's next film, also I really enjoyed CQ and wish Roman Coppola would make another film), Alexander Payne, David O Russell, Oliver Stone (until the late 90's), Spielberg, Woody Allen, Tarantino, and too many others to list.

Oh and one other...I really enjoyed the 2 films Jonathan Glazer has made. I really hope he is able to continue making films...it's been 5 years and counting since Birth.

Anyhow, just my 2 cents,

Omar
 
Clint Eastwood (my man)
Ridley Scott (he's the right package)
Akira Kurosawa (pure art)
Fincher (crazy dude with a vision)
Spielberg (maybe the biggest ever)
Kathryne Bigelow (that girl just rocks)

and sorry, Michael Bay (just visualy)
 
i forgot mendes, sean penn, Kelly Reichardt, Kimberly Peirce, Phil Morrison.
 
A rather ecclectic list in terms of genres, but: James Cameron, Frank Darabont, Hayao Miyazaki, John McTiernan, Stanley Kubrick
 
For me, it's a toss-up between Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. Spielberg has a string of hits, but also has several misses in his record (Lost World, anyone?). Still, you gotta hand it to the guy for sheer output. Insane that one person is responsible for Jaws, Saving Private Ryan, The Color Purple, ET, Close Encounters, Minority Report, Jurassic Park, Catch Me If You Can, and the Indiana Jones movies!

Then there's Cameron, who in my opinion, has an almost perfect track record. Terminator 1 & 2, The Abyss, Titanic (go ahead and laugh... I still think it's a great film), Aliens, True Lies... It reads like my list of all time favorite films!
 
Andrei Tarkovsky
Stan Brakhage
Carl Dreyer

Among many others. Ford, Ozu, Bresson, Tati, Mizoguchi, Kubrick, Antonioni, Hou et al. Any one list is going to be woefully inadequate.

And just to stir things up a bit, I'd argue that anyone who seriously thinks that Spielberg is the greatest filmmaker of all time is simply ignorant of the vast majority of film history. Not that the guy isn't talented (he is), but he wouldn't even be near the top of greatest American filmmakers, let alone those from other countries.
 
spielberg was / is my idol. after indy 4 i have some pain, heavy pain ...
hope he find his old shape soon ...
spielberg is one of the directors who put THE milestones (jaws, ET, indy, schindler, jurassic ...) for me, no doubt, hitchcock is here too, ... billy wilder
and don´t forget, spielberg is one of the greatest producers also, ...
back to the future, gremlins, poltergeist, transformers ...
zemeckis is a little spielberg.
lucas did star wars, well, he did it and he is legend. star wars 1, actually.
i am watchin christopher nolan at moment - a big talent.
and theres is ridley scott - a master. sometimes he has some bullshit, but there are big masterpieces ...
he is like spielberg - you always see in the first minutes - its a scott movie...
and ... sergio leone - in a club with john ford, hawks, zinneman.
the god the bad and the ugly ... yes, maybe leone ist the greatest.
the final duel, ... mmh, leone is in the first row, yes, ...
 
Careful, Murphy, or you'll be accused of being an ELITIST. :laugh:

I agree with you, though. Compare the work of Malick and Spielberg on their late 1990s World War II films, which came out the same year. Spielberg gave us "Saving Private Ryan," a by-the-numbers, NASCAR-style Hollywood product, complete (literally) with a waving American flag as its final shot. Mind you, I do think the film was in impressive in one respect: the opening D-day scene on the beach was a tour de force as an action set piece.

Then look at Malick's masterful and thoughtful "The Thin Red Line," which actually ponders why we as humans put ourselves through such ordeals, and how exactly we navigate through them.

One film is a masterwork of contemplative art and philosophy, the other is a mass-produced product. To me, this is a straight-forward "Pepsi Challenge," and Spielberg loses very badly, when put head-to-head with a true master like Malick.
 
It will be interesting to see who still makes these various lists in 20-30 years. And of course there is no "best" director as has been expressed -- only a few great and original and deepening the language of cinema filmmakers -- -- I think of Jean Renoir, who also was an early and brilliant innovator of elegant mise-en-scene with RULES OF THE GAME -- as one of the great humanitarians of cinema.

I'm a little suprised nobody has mentioned Orson Welles as one of the greats in the American pantheon.

Two recent luminaries of cinema in my book not mentioned are Yimou and Jia Zhangke.

And of course, many of the already named are giants that no one these days seems to rival: like Fellini & Kurosawa.

But there are dozens of others working out there that are not well known in this country -- the cinema of Iran has half a dozen world class filmmakers and have produced many masterful films in the past decade, such as Boran, White Balloon, The Cyclist, to name a few.

Maybe because of the commercial clout of Hollywood, and our sometimes parochial exposure, much genius on a par or even (IMHO surpassing) some of those named, is given short shift or remains unknown.
 
Tom said:
Careful, Murphy, or you'll be accused of being an ELITIST. :laugh:

I agree with you, though. Compare the work of Malick and Spielberg on their late 1990s World War II films, which came out the same year. Spielberg gave us "Saving Private Ryan," a by-the-numbers, NASCAR-style Hollywood product, complete (literally) with a waving American flag as its final shot. Mind you, I do think the film was in impressive in one respect: the opening D-day scene on the beach was a tour de force as an action set piece.

Then look at Malick's masterful and thoughtful "The Thin Red Line," which actually ponders why we as humans put ourselves through such ordeals, and how exactly we navigate through them.

One film is a masterwork of contemplative art and philosophy, the other is a mass-produced product. To me, this is a straight-forward "Pepsi Challenge," and Spielberg loses very badly, when put head-to-head with a true master like Malick.
Click to expand...


Tom, well said and I can share the same but the most ordinary people doesn't get it at ALL (you can see that at this form for example))

just because it's all a sort of mostly camouflaged and (heavy) commercial propaganda (I mean more about...)...

Sanjin Jukic said:
After ALL (jokes) the BEST film DIRECTOR that's just ME (or terribly sorry that's maybe YOU):

A RED ONE USER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top