5 Favorite Directors

To revisit another thread, this is a movie where I love it equally with the book. Sadly, just as it’s not everyone’s favorite Anderson, it’s also not everyone’s favorite Pynchon. That’s too bad. See it and read it, if you haven’t.

You guys have beat me to the punch on most of my favorites, so I won’t rehash, but let me add Andrei Tarkovsky to this conversation, too.

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Good lists, good reads, thanks for making this thread some kind of wonderful.

Chiming in to point out that I called this ‘favorites’ rather than ‘greatest’, even though that goes hand in hand at this level. But the distinction was, who do I connect with, who do I delight in and never tire of watching? Who would I have to have with me in one of those ‘deserted island’ scenarios?

Who are my directors? There are those who directed a lot of classics that I praise and applaud, but I don’t have the same affection or connection with them as I do with my top 5. Admiration and respect, yes, but not mine, the way Bunuel is mine, if you catch my meaning.

Now, If I were to name the greatest of all time, that would, IMHO, be Tarkovsky. He’s in my top 6 or 7 (I named him in Hon Mentions), so also a fave, but beyond that, I believe he’s the master of masters, he was creating on a whole different stratosphere - even directors who are tapping into that same cinematic vein, stand in his shadow.

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R (4)

Sure it’s funny, until someone gets hurt.

This is a subject I’m really into, so I gently request, please, respect the thread, and let’s not stray too far into off-topic silliness. That would really be a bummer. (which is why I want to end it here, before it can build up a head of steam)

Thanks

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That post was trying to engage the thread in a fun spirit of friendliness. Zero chance of derailing your topic. Good luck with that.

Not so much ‘favorite’ as much as 'I’ll definitely go see it if this person is directing:

In no particular order:

Peter Weir

Witness
The Truman Show
The Year of Living Dangerously
Gallipoli

Despite the fact that his overarching theme seems to be ‘You can’t keep what you love’, I still love his films

Carroll Ballard

The Black Stallion
Never Cry Wolf
Fly Away Home

You can tell he used to be a cinematographer, because everything he films is so lush, visually.

Robert Wise

The Haunting
Star Trek The Motion Picture
The Sound of Music
Curse of the Cat People

Wise does everything equally well. Big budget musical with Julie Andrews? Check. Overblown scifi? Check. Make your skin crawl psychological horror? Check. He’s not a flashy director, he’s just solid.

Ryan Coogler

Black Panther
Creed

Not a long list as yet, but what there is very impressive.

Oh, all right: Alfred Hitchcock

You do not need a list, for gods’ sake

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Most of my personal favourites have already been well covered up thread, so I’ll just throw in a couple

robertwise

Robert Wise

If you look at his filmography, including the stuff he did before becoming director, it’s a pretty comprehensive history of 20th century Hollywood. He was an (the? ) editor on Citizen Kane! I think it is easy to dismiss him as a journeyman, a safe pair of hands. And while I definitely don’t think he is an auteur I love his ability to find a perfect way to present a really disparate range of stories. Seriously, check out that filmography if you’r not familiar!

I think there were probably hard limits to that ability, for example I can’t see him doing justice to something like Panic In Needle Park**, but even so. I tend to go to his sci-fi films the most (The Day The Earth Stood Still, Andromeda Strain…Star Trek: The Motion Picture) but it is a really amazing body of work.

Cool glasses, as well.

David Lynch

Possibly the polar opposite of Robert Wise! What I love about Lynch is how he always focuses in on the importance of leaving space for intuition in our experience of Art, and is a master of honing in on the parts of Film as a form that allow you to have an intuitive experience. Which is at the expense of being a consistent narrative storyteller, but I also think the ‘his films aren’t about anything’ angle is too heavily pushed. Elephant Man, Straight Story, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart; these are hardly El Topo!

With that said I’m glad he stopped after Inland Empire as he’d probably reached the limit of what he could do within a feature film at that point. Delighted we got that third season of Twin Peaks though.

There are a couple of others with films I love, but are too spotty for me to really embrace. Let’s call them honourable mentions! Brian De Palma (Sisters, Carrie, Phantom Of The Paradise, Blowout) and Sidney Lumet (Network, 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico)

** No idea why that was the first thing that came to mind, but there you go!

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Jinx!

Robert Wise, FTW!

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Love the mentions of Robert Wise and Peter Weir. Both directors had such a wildly eclectic filmography.

Ryan Coogler’s a force to be reckoned with, too. His Fruitvale Station was an incredibly powerful film and a potent debut for the director.

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You’re right, you did have Tarkovsky as honorable mention. Sorry about the oversight on my part.

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No problem, the more Tarkovsky, the better. :wink:

I like Peter Weir too. I remember in my college days - when the library was just carrying video, I grabbed Picnic At Hanging Rock, along with The General and Wild Strawberries. It was first-time viewings for all 3 directors, and oh what a fantastic movie night.

Robert Wise certainly has an eclectic filmography, two I really enjoyed was the scary, The Haunting and noir boxing flick, The Set-Up

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OMG, how could I have forgotten David Lynch? OK, he’ll have to replace someone in my list.

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I was looking at a Top 50 Directors list I made for my all-time stats page at Letterboxd.

A few that have been named here…

Clint Eastwood is included in my 50, and I named these as my favorites in the notes… Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima, High Plains Drifter, A Perfect World, Outlaw Josey Wales, Gran Torino, Richard Jewell

I recall enjoying others that I haven’t seen in ages, and don’t know how well they hold up. I should probably give Bronco Billy, Play Misty for Me, Pale Rider, and Honkytonk Man another look-see.

John Ford was on that list as well, with 10 favorites named… The Searchers, Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, 3 Bad Men, My Darling Clementine, The Quiet Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Wagonmaster, Sgt Rutledge, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Apart from those, how about Rainer Werner Fassbinder?

He ranked high on my list - are there any fans of his work? Or other German filmmakers from around that time, Herzog, Wenders, etc. (the best German era since the silent period, on through the Weimar Republic era and all that expressionism and such)

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This has been a great thread.

So there are two auteur film directors that I don’t think anybody’s mentioned yet…

Terrence Malick? Quentin Tarantino?

Anybody?

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I would yet it would mean me taking a second bite of the apple and I wanted others to list their favorites.

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Not a fan of Tarantino

Malick I really liked at the start - Badlands, Days of Heaven, Thin Red Line, were works of art - but then he hit a valley with movies that came off like self-parody (To The Wonder was tolerable, but then he repeats it in Knight of Cups, and Song to Song). Thankfully he bounced back with A Hidden Life.

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Yes to Herzog! Especially the movies he did with Kinski. Those collaborations resulted in some of the most iconic images in my personal history of movie watching.

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A hastily put together list:

Hayao Miyazaki
Wes Anderson
Akira Kurosawa
Martin Scorsese
Sergio Leone

There are a few like Kubrick, Lynch, Kon and McTiernan, and Tarantino who are definitely on my list if I could have a top ten.

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Nice, I like that 5 (and the honorable mentions are welcome). I think that’s a first-time mention for the great Leone.

So is Kon for Ichikawa or Satoshi? Both are great, Satoshi, the imaginative animator who died too soon, I own all the features he directed. And Ichikawa, with An Actors Revenge, Fires on the Plain, The Burmese Harp, etc…

Whatever Kon it is, is a great choice.

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One of filmdom’s great actor/director pairings.

My favorite without Kinksi is Stroszek, with Bruno S

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Alfred Hitchcock
Buster Keaton
(Previously mentioned)

F.W. Murnau
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Most famous for Nosferatu, Murnau’s films could perhaps be described to a modern audience as “Hey, remember the first ten minutes of Up? Yeah, like that, but for an hour and change.” His films are elemental, sparingly using title cards because he knows you know what’s going on well enough to not bother with spelling things out. The Last Laugh, Sunrise, Faust–he did horror, drama and comedy. Died at the young age of 42 (in a car crash?) after coming to Hollywood in the talkie era.

Ernst Lubitsch
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Ninotchka, Shop Around The Corner, To Be Or Not To Be and (my favorite) Heaven Can Wait, nobody before or since had his lightest of touch dealing with frail humans and their dodgiest aspects. (Except maybe Preston Sturges at his best.)

William Wyler
image

Ben-Hur, Roman Holiday, The Best Years of Our Lives, Friendly Persuasion He directed Bette Davis at her best (Jezebel, The Letter). He was willing to tackle tough subjects, and he did a good job at it, but he didn’t have to be overly serious while doing it.

Howard Hawks would be an honorable mention and might also replace any of these directors (as might Charlie Chaplin and a few others). You could almost think of Hawks as the anti-Murnau, with his love of snappy dialog and convoluted plots. But he didn’t need either to make a good film—Rio Bravo, for example, is often considered his best, and it’s a simple story simply told.

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