My favorite directors are Tinto Brass , Vincent Gallo and Harmony Korine because they all have their own ways to express futility and create a certain aura among what us , normal people call freaks. The best director is either Francis Ford Coppola(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000338/ – this list will show you why) or Pedro Almodóvar(Tacones Lejanos , need I say more).
Why Coppola? Aside from the Godfather Part I, Part II, and Apocalypse Now he’s very hit and miss, especially since after 79. So what are the reasons you would say Coppola, it’s certainly not his ability to come in under budget. What is it about his work that hits you?
I don’t really know nearly enough to have a good, informed opinion here, but i suspect my favorite would be Shuji Terayama
I can’t decide between Bergman and Tarkovsky for best.
‘Favorite’ would either be one of them or one of the American directors who’s really fun to watch like Tarantino.
(runs)
Favorite is becoming John Derek due to a project I am working on. I am very partial to Chaplin too.
Best is prob Godard or Chaplin (this is based on track record out of a hundred or so Godard films I have only disliked 3 and I have yet to dislike a Chaplin)
i enjoy both Chaplin and Coppola but i have to agree with uli….. I kind of only like the godfather (part 1&2).
Fassbinder! … is my favorite.
Best director I’d have to think about.. I don’t think I’d be able to narrow it down to one person..
Uli, Which of Coppola’s films have you seen?
With only five of his twenty-one films left to go, I’ve been pleasantly surprised quite a few times with his less famous works.
I think The Rain People, Rumble Fish, and Tetro fit right along side his 70s work and then he has quite a few more films that aren’t amazing, but are still quite good.
I can’t say who’s the best, but as far as my favorite it’s currently a three way tie between Allen, Welles, and Bresson at the moment.
Godard/Godard
If this time were essentialized down to two directors, one of them would be Godard.
His childlike naiveté forces his intellect to struggle with human indifference.
The other, laughed at human indifference.
Akira Kurosawa. His influence and ability to balance sheer entertainment with satisfying subject matter is unparalleled in my eyes. From Seven Samurai and Yojimbo to High and Low and Ikiru, the man just knows how to make film, period.
Truffaut is my favorite, because while all of his films may not be flawless, every movie he made celebrates film like no other.
Stanley Kubrick. Utterly dominant in every facet of filmmaking. He’s influenced everyone that came after.
Norman Taurog, whose directing career went from silent comedies starring Larry Semon in 1920 to the Elvis musical, Live a Little, Love a Little in 1968. 48 years. Not a bad run, eh?
Some of his notable films in that time span: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Mad About Music, Boys Town, Broadway Melody of 1940, Young Tom Edison, Presenting Lily Mars, Little Nellie Kelly, Girl Crazy, Jumping Jacks, The Stooge, The Caddy, Living It Up, Onionhead, Don’t Give Up the Ship, G.I. Blues, Blue Hawaii, Sergeant Deadhead, Tickle Me, Spinout, and Speedway (1968).
What a lineup of people he worked with: Deanna Durbin, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Martin & Lewis, Jerry Lewis (solo), Andy Griffith, the Beach Party crew, and Elvis Presley in some of his better musical features. Not to mention Juliet Prowse, Angela Lansbury, Deborah Walley, Shelley Fabares, Diane McBain, and Nancy Sinatra. I believe he’s the only director to have directed both Durbin and Garland. That alone should have cemented his place in the history of the American movie musical.
Nicolas Roeg
Performance, Walkabout, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Bad Timing are all completely unforgettable and will help rethink identity within cinematic form.
Michelangelo Antonioni
L’Eclisse is a movie where every element and every frame adds up and supports each other while all capable of standing alone, Blow-Up is a perfect thriller about the truth remaining only in what is unseen, and L’Avventura’s drama is propelled forward by the shadow of a forgotten plot point, significantly…
Buster Keaton
Sherlock Jr. is one of the closest things to “a perfect film” I have ever seen, The General is a stunning showcase of technical achievement mixed with personable and memorable characters, and Steamboat Bill, Jr, is elemental filmmaking at its finest.
Darren Aronofsky
pi is one of those thrillers that may just cause you to see things that aren’t there all over again, Requiem for a Dream is still one of the most compelling and disturbing films I have ever seen, and The Fountain is is an epic formulist poem.
Hal Ashby
Harold and Maude is the perfect blend of dark pessimistic humor and bright optimism, The Last Detail is bitter hysterics, and Being There is Peter Sellers’ best performance ever.
—PolarisDiB
@ ULI — Uli, if Coppola had only directed The Godfather Part II his place in any pantheon would have been cemented. When you add The Godfather and Apocalypse Now it becomes more than clear why he should be mentioned.
My entire list is on my homepage here, but you’ll notice Monsieur Malle is at the top.
With good reason.
“Favorite/best director”
a lot but if i were to mention one, i’d go with one in my country.
don’t ask me who, it won’t be a definite one.
I’m repping Coppola in the Directors’ Cup, and Apocalypse Now is my favorite All Time film, with the Godfather and Godfather Part II my fourth favorite and the Conversation and Rain People are two the films that inform most on my style of screenwriting.
I just wanted a little more on why she thought he was the best director.
I know I’m going to regret this, but I just can’t resist …
@ Dimitris — You state, “If I were to mention one, I’d go with one in my country.” Yet when all the rest of us sometime do the same, you call us chauvinistic, nihilistic and snobbish.
i also enjoy Stanley Kubrick ’s work…… he does mostly adaptions right?
Yeah, pretty much everything Kubrick did was based on a book…except Fear and Desire, his little-seen first feature; Killer’s Kiss, his more widely-seen second feature; and…2001: A Space Odyssey, in which the book by Arthur C. Clarke was a result of the work they did together on the script, not the basis for the script. (Although, the script includes ideas from two of Clarke’s works, “The Sentinels” and “Childhood’s End,” or so I recall. Or maybe just “The Sentinels.” I read “Childhood’s End” and I don’t remember anything in it that connected to 2001.)
it’s difficult to say who my favorite director is, I’ll give my top 3
I’d have to say Stanley Kubrick; every film I’ve seen of his has left me amazed and in awe
I absolutely love Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger, their collaborations are beautiful and well written
and lately I’ve been watching a lot of Louis Malle, another great
I think the best of all time is probably Alfred Hitchcock, simply a master
You can never go wrong with Kurosawa. Since you like an exploration of guilt and the darkness of people, I’d say start with Rashomon. He has a particular style, mixed with brilliant compositions. Ran is full of sumptuous imagery that’ll stay with you. Yojimbo is a personal favourite of mine. and of course, the brilliant Seven Samurai. He’s very good at exploring the darkness inside every person. And also Ikiru… beautiful.
Amongst those still directing, i love Martin Scorsese. Christopher Nolan is also great, all his works have a tragic feel to them without ever being upsetting.
Another director i would urge you to try out is Chang-dong Lee. He’s korean and has directed a few brilliant movies encompassing the feeling of naivety lost. His protagonists often go through a stage of a loss of their innocence which is shown spectacularly. try ‘Peppermint candy’ and ‘secret sunshine’. very touching.
Both my favorite and the best in my opinion is (I agree with many) Akira Kurosawa.
The problem with Kurosawa is I can’t really find the words to say about him that hasn’t been said by so many others. He’s a true cinematic genius and the best artist the medium has ever seen. In the history of art he is up there with Shakespeare (literature), DeVinci (painting) and Beethoven (music)…Ontop of that, he is an auteur I can trust. Alot of filmmakers I love have movies I didn’t care for, but not Kurosawa. I love every film in his entire career, the man, to me, can do absolutely no wrong.
Other candidates for favorite, however would also be Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Godard, Mizoguchi, and Wong Kar-Wai…As well as Kobayashi.
For best, Kubrick is deffinately a runner up.
Cassavetes/Fassbinder. They’re two directors whose films I never get tired of, they always speak to me.
“Cassavetes/Fassbinder.”
Nice one Deck – Both among my all time favorites!
Kubrick. He remains on the short list of directors whose films I cannot stop once I start viewing.
People often critique his work as misanthropic. I believe the opposite is true and many of his films can be read as dire warnings against conformity, loss of individuality, concern for the influence of technology, apprehension about the motivations of family and lovers.
Strictly in terms of pure craftsmanship, A Clockwork Orange is one of the greatest films in the history of the medium.
Eyes Wide Shut reveals new surprises with each viewing. Take it apart structurally some time and compare to James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Paths of Glory stunned me to the core on first viewing and packs a wallop even today.
Dr. Strangelove is redolent with perverse sexual imagery in the service of jet-black comedy from the opening shot.
Quentin Tarantino built the foundation of his career on Kubrick’s The Killing, as has been well-discussed elsewhere and need not be rehashed here.
Barry Lyndon is one of the most underrated pictures of the 1970s.
And 2001 is always fun to watch. Look at the details, when not contemplating the ideas. Here, truly, was a director who knew how to paint in the corners.
I like Bergman, Scorsese, Kurosawa, Pabst, De Sica, Clouzot and Hitchcock a helluva lot, too.
Cheers,
Steve
CinemaUprising.Blogspot.com
tarkovsky, bresson, bergman, sokurov, tarr, kiarostami, kurosawa and hitchcock.
elyzabeth
What is your favorite director and why? Who do you think is the best director? Use films to explain. I’m asking this so i could start seeing some more movies. Currently some of my favorites are Martin Scorseses because he’s movies tend to have some allusions to guilt and loneliness which i find interesting. I’m currently loving Wes Anderson’s stuff to, i like his auteur approach when it comes to directing.