Manoel de Oliveira
I gotta agree with apursansar though.
Martin Scorsese
1st place: Quentin Tarantino
2nd place: PT Anderson
3rd place: Coen Brothers
good list Banks, I’d probably agree, but re-order 1. PT Anderson 2. Tarantino 3. Coens/Herzog (though I’ve yet to see my son, my son….
Rohmer was a contender. Now who’s left of the old guard? Rivette, Oliveira, Angelopoulos… the young uns have some way to go yet.
Jonas Mekas
Terrence Malick
Hou Hsiao Hsien
Yoji Yamada
Hayao Miyazaki
Dang Nhat Minh
Aparna Sen
Rudolf Thome
Necer Khemir
John Sayles
wong kar wai deserves a mention
maybe nuri bilge ceylan
heres a better question. which of these directors can even seriously challenge godard for the title? in terms of influence, impact, scope, and longevity. hell, any other qualifier you want to throw in there.
De Oliveira certainly challenges him in terms of impact, scope and longevity. Godard has been more influential, but this is not a valid criteria when deciding on the quality of a director’s work since it only relates to the exposure of his films. Among the living French filmmakers I’d say that Chris Marker is without a doubt the greatest, he innovated and challenged the cinematic medium in a way Godard never came close to.
how? what did marker do that godard didnt come close to? godard was a master of the essay film as well.
de olievera certainly challenges him. i have never seen on of the man’s films, so i cant comment on his aesthetics.
“heres a better question. which of these directors can even seriously challenge godard for the title?”
a lot…this Godard chit-chat is giving on my nerves to be honest, the Godard and Tarantino fanboys have swarmed this site period.
besides, there are many great living directors, underrated, forgotten and unseen by individuals who keep focusing on the “typical masters”. but i won’t get into that because i’ll end up being the bad guy.
(some of those examples are in Rudiger’s post)
You’re right that Godard’s later works are great in their own right, but I think that Marker’s recreation of memory and time through film images is among the greatest contributions to cinematic art in the 20th century. I’m aware that the personal perception of a filmmaker’s work is of importance when deciding on something as subjective as the “greatest living director”, and just wanted to point out that you can regard Godard as such, but shouldn’t be exclusive, since one can find enough justifications to apply the title to many other directors (with Alain Resnais and Jacques Rivette being two more French contenders).
Werner Herzog! with a little help of Harmony Korine…
then Sokurov, Lungin, Miike and SABU, Zhang Yimou, Godard, Chabrol, Wenders, Kiarostami, Scorsese, Jancso, Tarr, Svankmayer, Tsai, Skolimowski, Kar-Wai, Roy Andersson, Olmi, Makavejev, Polanski… but I think they are little bit tired and out of order, temporary I hope.
Abbas Kiarostami is another great choice, and certainly among the serious contenders. His films from the 1990’s are all masterpieces in my opinion.
i like marker, but his films dont hit me as hard. i think he’s a great filmmaker, to be fair. i just dont have him in “elite” status. he certainly deserves to be in the conversation though.
abbas kiarostami is at the end of his road in cinema
Ha, yes, Oliveira certainly wins for longevity- he started filming Douro Faina Fluvial in 1929, and so as he’s currently involved in making his latest film, that makes 10 different decades he’s been making films in! His variety has been impressive too, whether with shorts, documentary, avant-garde, “neo-realist” popular success (Aniki Bobo), history, theatre, international humanism…and i agree with Apursansar about influence; fools after all are influenced too (see Tarantino et al). Of course Godard must have a claim for revolutionary impact combined with prolific output. I only wish i liked and admired his post-Karina films as much as his best of the 60s, but i’m maybe inclined to warmth and hedonism more than intellect- or at least with Pierrot he put these qualities together very satisfyingly indeed
Candidates:
Abbas Kiarostami
Jia Zhangke
Godard
Chantal Ackerman
Rivette
Polanski
Hou
Wong
no clear winner
Paul Thomas Anderson
Woody Allen
Joel & Ethan Coen
How did Dimitris avoid noticing that the Rivette fanboys took over the board long ago.
Vets who still appear to have creative juice:
Terrence Malick
Hou Hsiao Hsien
Werner Herzog
Alain Resnais
A young director who I think is severely underrated, and I’m serious when I say this:
David Gordon Green – Great vision and doesn’t take things too seriously.
There are also many living directors who have already earned their spot in the cinematic hall of fame, but whose time has seemingly come and past (ie Godard, Scorsese, Polanski, Wenders, Chabrol, Kiarostami etc.) This is nothing new. Much like musicians, most filmmakers have hay-days and then later periods whose force is really only understood by dedicated fans.
Just another reason to pay just as much attention to current cinema, made by currently developing artists who have yet to hit the height of their careers.
c’mon Matt, Roger…you both know these are not the only ones ;)
oh…Rivette…well, i may have missed the fanboy period of Rivette, i thought Bay and Bergman used to be the previous winners :P
I disagree Roger about Godard anyway; his recent work is stellar, Our Music, In Praise of Love are as good as almost anything he has done.
Polanski is still making good films as well.
c’mon Matt—-
Notice I phrased my post “candidates,” not “the candidates,” Dimitris.
Herzog’s not exactly in his prime, Roger.
yes,i know that ;)
but you know, i like being the punctuality geek :P
“Herzog’s not exactly in his prime, Roger.”
neither Godard and Polanski Den.
I do think Godard is making work as interesting as his former work.
I think Polanski is still making good pictures, sure Oliver Twist wasn’t the Lean version but its still a three star picture; its well acted and well mounted and a bit sinister, beats the hell out of most pbs versions
Adam Hudson
Bela Tarr