So who are your favorite filmmakers in the history of cinema?

For me (in no order):

-Stanley Kubrick
-Akira Kurosawa
-Martin Scorsese
-Coen brothers
-Alfred Hitchcock
-Wes Anderson
-Francis Ford Coppola

Those are just some of my favorites, I could go on, but I won't.

Scorsese
Michael Mann
Coppola, Francis not Sofia
Some Spielberg
Some Tarintino
and Kubrick has some classics as well

Taratino
Spike Lee
Frank Capra
Scorcese
Hitchcock
Clint Eastwood

and I have a major guilty pleasure thing for Tony Scott

'The Fan' is a great movie. So is 'Man on Fire'. He's done a lot of good films.

1) Coen Brothers
2) Mel Gibson (Don't tell me he's not amazing)
3) Tony Scott
4) Michael Mann
5) Wes Anderson (I still don't understand how anyone could not see the comedic genius that is The Royal Tenenbaums)
6) Clint Eastwood

Honorable Mention Steven Spielberg



and Enemy of the State
and Spy Game
and Deja Vu (trust me)
and etc etc etc


He's one of my favorites

EDIT: #3 favorite actually.

oddly enough i cry every time Dakota fanning wins that swim race in man on fire

I loved Domino too

and of course True Romance is maybe my favorite movie ever

Kodak
Fuji
Polaroid

Soderbergh probably tops my list.

i do have to say, for someone as young as you are, you really have a great start off. Good show. What u should do is now start checking out the french new wave so that you can see where a lot of modern directors get their ideas from




heh, i just figured that this was understood

Ridley Scott (Tony's brother)> Blade Runner, Alien, Gladiator, Thelma and Louise, Matchstick Men

Soderburgh> Solaris, Out of Sight, Traffic

Billy Wilder> Some Like It Hot; Stalag 17; Sabrina; Sunset Boulevard

David Lean> Lawrence of Arabia; Bridge Over the River Kwai; A Passage to India

More later...

Yea, film is something that I really started to get into over the past year.

There's probably about 200 movies that I know of that I need to see. The French New Wave films are included. Unfortunately, now that I am in school I have almost no time to watch any movies.

Seymore Butts

yeah but who's your favorite if you have to watch more than 15 minutes and can't fast forward?

Mwahaha...



Double mwahaha...

Kevin Smith
Quentin Tarantino
Todd Phillips
John Hughes
John Landis

Ok, ya got me. I've never actually seen one of his movies. I usually don't make it through the previews....

Hi.

The fact that no one has said Orsen Wells so far makes this thread a joke.

Good thing I got here in time to save it.

Go watch F for Fake.

That is all.

/Snotty rantish thing

!) Coen
2)Coen
3) Coen
4) Coen
5) Coen.


Some thoughts on some other dirrectors....

Kubrick- Coen vs Kubrick is apples and oranges. Kubrick never made a movie that didnt' just blow me away on some level or another ( eyes wide shut blowing me away the least).

Spielberg- I think he's the best dirrector of hugely popular big box office movies. Has made a couple films that are truly amazing, and I can't think of a movie he's made that I didn't at least enjoy. Underrated as a "serious" dirrector, but ultimatly not one of the greatest of all time.

Tartiintino- I have absolutely no ability to judge him objectively. Pulp Fiction changed the way I looked at film for ever. I expected far more out of movies after that, and it was the movie that truly opened my eyes, and made me look at movies for more than entertainment, so I'll always really, really love him. One of the few dirrectors that I will watch their next movie no questions asked ( the Coens were, but man, they've put out some very.. bland stuff lately ( lady killers.. and that one about the divorce attorney, I can't remember the name.. I'll still proably watch anything they put out next, but they are on watch, they may have jumped the shark)

Billy WIlder- Top fcking notch. My favorite movies of that era are his.

David lean -didn't know who dirrected Laurance or Kiwi till I read this thread, but I love those two movies, so he's instantly moved into my top list.


Sorcese (SP) another dirrector I will watch no questions asked. Abosloutely adore his movies.

Coppola- dirrected 3 of the best 10 movies of all time.


Wes Anderson- jury's still out on his greatness, but I lvoe what he's made so far.

Kevin smith- Oh, he's a mixed bag of tricks, isn't he? I love and hate him as a dirrector. He's like an old friend that has lots and lots of faults, but he's an old friend so you look past them. Clerks was also a big movie on my way to apprecaitign cinema, so I'll proably never be able to view him objectivily either. As long as he's still funny, I'll still watch his movies.


Hitchock- Seen woefully few hitchcock movies, loved psycho and rear window.

Kurosawa- love him so much, loved every movie of his I've ever seen...



Here are som other diirectors up for discussion

John Woo- Another love/hate thing. HE does some things soooooooo badly, andy ou can get caught up in that when watchign his movie. But he does some things sooooooo well that I forgive him. No one makes a gun fight as artistically as woo.


Jean-Pierre Jeunet -City of lost children/amalie/delicatestian. In order for me to really get into a foreign film maker. the movie has to be visually stunning. This froggy makes them, and makes them amazingly.


Terry Gillam- Hit and miss, but when he hits, it's out of the park good ( Brazil, Fear and lothing)

TIm BUrton- Used to be on my Watch what ever he puts out list... no longer. He's put out too many clunkers in a row. But he's early movies were remarkable, quircky and beautifully shot. Which he'd go back to his Dark Fairtale style of movie.

Terrance Mallick- Very small library, but Thin red line, days of heaven and Badlands are three of the best movies ever... just a completely different vision of making a movie than anyone I've ever seen. Not for everyone, but I love him, particularly Days of heaven.

Jim Jarmusch-loved ghost dog and dead man, need to see movie of his work....

and finally, perhaps the most hit and miss dirrector around.... david lynch.

some of his movies are brillant, some are unwatchable, some are both. You have to be a great dirrector to fail as spectacularrly as he did with dune. there is no one like lynch, and I'll always watch his next movie.. I may not like it, but at least it will be bad in a completely unique way.



Oh, and mel gibson's a fuking hack of a dirrector.

okay, I'm gonna break this all apart kinda 1 by one. I agree with most of your sentiments, I just like talking about film



Kubrick- yea, I fully agree, he is a master filmaker and while he was hard to work for, he was a pure genius in everything he did

speilberg- Ironically, when he has little time to shoot a film, he usually puts out his best work. Munich is a prime example of that

tarantino- I love him to death, but he maybe needs to start worrying about his legacy(since that is something he does think about) and get away from pulp films and homages. He may end up being straight jacketed by pulp fiction for the rest of his career. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it does present its problems




anderson- I also love what he's done, I just think that he needs probably a good 4 or 5 more films before we can finally look at his historical place. I loved Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and the Royal Tennenbaums. I haven't seen the life aquatic yet, but even if I don't dig that, he will be 75% with me and that is a good hit/miss rate

smith- I think in some ways he just doesn't care. I loved Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma, but couldn't care less for Jay and Silent Bob and Mallrats(though I did see this like ten years ago, so I may have to see it again to look at it in a different light). He is an interesting director as I don't think that he will ever really make another amazing film, but continue with solid efforts




seriously, he's one of those barometer directors for me when talking to people. If you have seen his films and aren't a big fan, I have to greatly question your taste in film. Call it pretentious, call it shallow, but for me it shows me where one's intellect is and/or maturity





Jeunet- He just really needs to make more film, plain and simple. He has tons of talent and he directed one of my favorite films of all time in amalie(which if people haven't seen it, go out and rent it ASAP. seriously)

Gilliam- Everything that I've seen from him I've really liked, and i haven't even seen Brazil. He has generally had a lot more hits with me then misses. But they haven't really been blow away hits ya know. Time Bandits is fun and the fisher king is solid. But He does have Fear and loathing, Brazil, 12 monkeys, and Monty Python and the Holy grail to his credit, so you can't deny how good he is


Malik- is a conundrum. How on earth he has only done 5 films is far beyond me, but one can easily argue quality over quantity. Every picture he does is flat out beautiful, and he got Colin Farrell to do his best acting job since Tigerland


I do wish you had talked about RIchard Linklater though. I can't wait to see fast food nation and he is looking to be at a creative height right now with having done Before Sunset, School of Rock, a Scanner Darkly, and Fast Food nation in the past 5 years. Granted though he has had some duds and lame films to his credit in the Newton Boys and Bad News bears, though he is definetly running at about 60% for me liking his films, that works pretty well considering his top films are stupendous.

You also didn't bring up Ang Lee either. He is one of my favorite directors going right now along with Pedro Almodovar and both of them are great at getting at human emotions.

Amistad falls in this category as well.


I"m sure you'll like it.


He ain't lying. It's good.


12 Monkeys is his best, AINEC.



Malik is great.



You haven't seen any of his movies, if you really think this. Either that, or you're clinically retarded.

Brazil is Gilliam's master piece.. go see it now. I hated Bros. Grimm, and the fisher king was okay, but not spectacular. 12 monkeys was another one of my eye opening movies. Man, there was a short pierod in the mid to late ninties where there were so many mind blowing films.. I thought hollywood was on it's way to quality, it's a shame...


As for Gibson.. I haven't seen a man without a face, but I have seen braveheart and the passion.

as a matter of fact, I saw braveheart very recently. The action scenes were very well done.. I'm just not a fan of the glorification of the individual hero war films.. I think the overall concept of freedom in the movie completely is at odds with the historical reality of the scots. How were the average peasant scot any more free under scottish rule? It was basically taking a modern notion of freedom, and slapping it onto that movie ( which is very historically inacurate, but I don't really care about that in the slightest when it comes to my enjoyment of a movie..) I just found this movie to be absurd and hokey... except for the fighting scenes, which were brutal and sweet. Gibson does nothing ground breaking dirrectorially, excpet for new levels of violence porn ( which I am a fan of).


As for the passion.... When you film the movie in aramaic, it really releives the direrctor the responsiblity of handling actors. It's very hard to say how good of an acting job was done when it was done in a dead language. The overall movie I found to be manipulative, exploitatitve, offensive and hilarious. I think his devil imagary in the movie to be bizzare and funny, I found his insane amount of violence porn christ torture to be completely to manipoulate people in feeling guilt over the death of christ. I think it is a very anti semetic film, using classic jewish sterotypes for the pharasees, and overall I think that movie is a travesty. I am an agnostic, so I view this movie from a somewhat more objective POV than the average Xian. As a former Xian, I will say that Gibson did make a powerful guilt trip of a movie, and if it was his intentio to guilt millions of xian's, then he accomplished his goal as a filmmaker brillantly.

As a side bar, I watched this movie with a former catholic priest in training who was now an agnostic. The movies, as I understand it is very catholic, so I think I missed some of the content ( as I was raised baptist). Me and my friend laughed through the entire first half of the movie, getting dirty looks all around from xian's paying homage to the death of their savior on easter. Then the torture set in, and it was no longer funny, but turned into the most unbarably uncomofrtable movie to watch ever.I pity xians who were guiltied by this movie.

rent Vertigo

I'll hit up blockbuster tonight to see if they have it.

as far as hollywood, the nature of hollywood isn't to produce masterpieces. Its very evident that the independant film movement really took hold in america in the mid to late 90s and is now producing all of the best films. Last year was a high water mark for the movement as 4 of teh 5 films up for best film were under the independant films umbrella. Almost all of the best american films in recent years have been independants. Hollywood is hollywood and to expect better I think is expecting too much

Kevin Smith

North by Northwest is Hitchcock's best movie IMO.

Have you seen A Very Long Engagement? It's fucking good.

http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-foru...c=73704&hl=

I agree with you except I like Monkeys quite a bit more than Brazil


Are you insane? Gibson didn't write the movie and I don't care what movie you like I will find 'historical/whatever inaccuracies'. Give me a break.



I find it hilarious that you would judge a movie from a religious perspective all while claiming to be agnostic. And if you actually knew anything about Christianity you would understand that no real Christian would feel guilty at all.

This is Ebert's review....


This is the difference between him and you... but hell, Ebert doesn't know crap, have you seen the movie he directed? What a steaming pile of crap.

He's not amazing.

Braveheart was good

The Passion is just a glorified snuff film that was about the most boring two hours I ever spent in a theater.

your opinion is incorrect. Although I'll give you a pass on this one, since we Iowa boys have to stick together... and the fact that I normally agree with what you say.

I missed where I agreed with another Iowa boy, I was more or less in shock at him being #2 on your list I actualy responded to it before reading the rest of the thread.

I have a serious hatred for the Passion, there is no way anyone will ever convince me is a good film. He doesn't have a large enough body of quality work to be considered a great director.



I've heard lots of good things about him, and watched the Seven Samurai for the first time this weekend and really enjoyed it. I'll be looking up more of his stuff to get from Netflix, any recommendations?

The thread title is 'favorite filmmakers'. I agree, he needs more movies, and has one being released soon that I'm sure will be awesome.

josh, everything he's done is far better then what 98% of directors can do at their best. I know that doesn't really give you a starting point, but its true. I guess you could start off with Yojimbo, the Hidden Fortress, Rashamon, Throne of BLood, o hell, just load up on his stuff. He is easily in that top 5 category of directors and I'd love to hear someone try to claim different

Your right, but I am still shocked to see him on anyones list.



Adding them to my queue tonight, looking forward to seeing more of his work.

He's certainly very good.

Roger Ebert never directed a movie he did write Beyond the Valley of the Dolls for Russ Corman and it is horrible but that doesn't impeach him as a film critic

I liked valley of the dolls way better than passion.





start with roshomon.

oh god, How did I forget Woody Allen. Though he hasn't mad a masterpiece in years, he has made 4 movies in my top 10 favorite comedies of all time. He certainly has flaws, personally and professionally, but when he's on, he's the funniest out there.



Also, I'll throw Mel Brooks out there. Again, scattershot.. at his best, he's brillant and hilarious ( blazing saddles, the producers, Young Frankenstein.) At his worst, he is unwatchable. He jumped the shark decades ago.




Russ Meyer, whom is a very flawed dirrector, but I will say this about him, he has a vision.... I have thought every one of his movies that I've seen is hilarious and really wierd. And full of large breasted women, which I am a sucker for.

While some might not consider this his best film, it's certainly the pinnacle of undiluted, distilled Hitchcockian splendor

Great lead performances: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint
Solid, well-defined side characters: James Mason, Martin Landau,Leo G Carroll
An amazing plot: NY ad man mistaken for spy that doesn't really exist! Mayhem ensues
Much trickery and duplcitous doings
A train going into a tunnel at the end
It's got blockbuster written all over it: explosions, chase scene on Mt Rushmore, evil spies

All the greatest elements of Hitchcock superbly wrought into one great film.

My favorite Hitch flick.

Yeah and you left out the amazing crop-dusting scene.

My favorite line from that movie:

Eva Marie Saint: I can handle it, I'm a big girl.

Cary Grant: And in all the right places too.

That was my whole point. I didn't want BigMcDee to dismiss what Ebert said about The Passion by saying that Ebert doesn't know a good movie from a hole in the ground.

I can't believe I didn't think about Clint Eastwood... but that dude is amazing.

Flags of our Fathers review

I like ebert some one, I liked siskel much, much more, and miss him... but frankly, I don't know how Eberts opinion on the subject matters to me in the slightest... the best thing he does as a dirrector is spectacle. Nothing ebert says on passion is going to make me think it's any better of a movie, any less offensive, any less manipulative.

As far as foreign films go Amelie is definitely my favorite

No one has mentioned the german flick Run Lola Run which is very original. Apart from rehashing some lame cartoon cut scenes it is very good

True, true, it's a famous one. Equally good, in it's way, is the auction house scene.

And here's an IMDB page with a ream of good quotes from a movie that's almost as quotable as Casablanca.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/quotes

i thought that movie was decent but not really anything more.

best foreign film ever is Oldboy

Hitchcock was pretty racy for the 1950s -


Roger Thornhill: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
Eve Kendall: What makes you think you have to conceal it?
Roger Thornhill: She might find the idea objectionable.
Eve Kendall: Then again, she might not.


And yeah, the auction scene is hilarious. And it has pretty much the nicest opening shot I've ever seen, with the green with white lines fading into the skyscraper reflecting the street.

It's a North by Northwest love-in!

Let's not forget the great screenplay by Ernest Lehman (West Side Story, the King and I, Sabrina, The Sound of Music).

And, especially, let's not forget the great score by Bernard Herrmann, best known for Psycho, also winning an Academy Award for Taxi Driver, his final film.

A truly complete film is NxNW

bump

What are all of your thoughts on David Lynch?

I haven't seen his entire collection, but he has some great work (Mulholland Dr., Inland Empire) and some not so great ones (Dune, Lost Highway).

Thoughts?

I think his only big clunker was dune.. I enjoyed lost highway, though it was a bit of a WTF? but I like that part of Lynch. I haven't seen Inland Empire, I'll have to check it out.

Yea, I probably shouldn't put Lost Highway in the same category as Dune, I still didn't like it though.

the cohen brothers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!