There is an interesting thread with a link done by Scout called: New School of Directors where he gives, on the link, a good analysis of a ‘school’ of directors who have emerged from the 1990’s, including many of the names mentioned here. Just in case posters to this thread missed it. I really don’t know enough of the works of many of the newer directors to comment further, so check this out for another take.
Re my earlier comments: I know it is very difficult to establish any criteria for judging how any of us pick any type of list beside the subjective methods each of us uses. Anyone can apply their own standard – I am not here to judge, especially on a topic where my knowledge of recently made films is meager. We have here, and on the other threads discussing livng or current filmmakers, a very distinguished list for our own individual evaluation. Time will tell which filmmakers and films made recently will live on and be talked about on future versions of the auteurs some twenty years hence. Time is the best evaluater, as the dust settles by then on the hype, and critical opinion has weighed in – daming some, raising others.
Woody Allen
Scorsese
Kusturica
Jarmusch
Tarantino
Ang Lee
David Lynch
Jeunet
etc
What I’m watching now:
Claire Denis
Bruno Dumont
Ozu
Hou
Twenty years hence, I believe they will remain relevant.
Yes, KJ, perhaps there’s no way to extricate past from future cinema — now that I think of it, I’d say there definitely isn’t — with Kiarostami filming beautiful tributes to Ozu, or with Dumont winning the Fassbinder Prize for Life of Jesus, etc.
David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam
Many of the most admired directors today seem to me to lack range, it feels like they’re working within the circles of their own auteurist styles.
If i were to pick one director living, it would be Manoel de Oliveira. His increasingly prolific longevity should be an inspiration throughout the world, a legend. He is not easily pigeonholed, he has a slippery elusive quality, he has done documentaries and light charmers as well as more serious, some would say pretentious, films. His best films like Abraham Valley have a timeless quality, he covers theatre, memories and ageing, doomed love, erotic desire, religion, natural beauty, different classes (the Oporto slums in the delightful Aniki Bobo, though mainly the upper or middle classes and some think him an arty snob), Portuguese history through the ages (No, or the Vainglory of Command, an astonishing mix of defeats and discovery), he’s an international humanist- deeply attached to and rooted in his own country and especially the lovely Douro and Oporto, but not in any cramped nationalist sense, his humanism reaches beyond borders-, he can be witty as well as melancholic and mysterious, there are hints of magic, he can be jaunty as well as slow and static, his films encorporate a love of music and literature, he’s straddled from the silent era to the present with an easy grace, made up with incredible energy- 100 and still going strong!- for the lost time and restrictions placed by the Salazar dictatorship. I admire him tremendously, and without him i might never have found my beloved Caminha
a young director i had great hopes for in the late 90s was Samira Makhmalbaf from Iran- The Apple was a very pomising debut and she’s done some fine follow-ups (Blackboards, At Five in the Afternoon..) but i do wonder if she really has it in her to join the greats
Not many mentions of Wim Wenders here. He’s gotta be on this list. The Coen Brothers too. Don’t think I’ve seen them on anyone’s list.
Well, i loved early Wenders, road movies like Alice in the Cities, Kings of the Road, Paris Texas, but since the late 80s his career has taken a marked downturn
In terms of relevance, I’m becoming fascinated with the period 1955-1965, thinking it may be the greatest ever in terms of film. Partly because I’m plowing through Godard’s best-of choices for those years and I’m finding that he hasn’t steered me wrong yet. Not a single bad film. And entertaining as well as thought-provoking. He had an eye for great films, and the films he chose have by and large remained relevant even today.
Paul Thomas Anderson
Martin Scorsese
(Early) Quentin Tarantino
Wong Kar-Wai
Alfonso Cuaron
Darren Aronofsky
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Malick
Wes Anderson
Sam Mendes
The Coen Bros.
mayyybeee Michael Mann, if Public Enemies is good then he’s redeemed himself after Miami Vice.
Abbas Kiarostami
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Theo Angelopoulos
Manoel de Oliveira
Michael Haneke
Béla Tarr
Lee Chang Dong
Jiang Wen
Hirokazu Kore-eda
Shinji Aoyama
Chris Marker
Wong Kar-wai
Alexander Sukurov for Russian Ark if for no other—he takes what some people call a 90 minute stunt and then spins it into a film varied. profound and ultimately sublime—his so-called stunt can not be topped these days in CINEMAH!
Abbas Kiarostami
Manoel de Oliveira
David Cronenberg
Peter Watkins
Jan Svankmajer
Alain Resnais
Hou Hsiao Hsien
Tsai Ming Liang
Alexander Sokurov
Guy Maddin
Jean Marie Straub and Danielle Huillet
Pedro Costa
Raoul Ruiz
Eric Rohmer
Danièle Huillet – R.I.P. Other than that, nice list.
Paul Thomas Anderson
Quentin Tarantino
Wong Kar Wai
Darren Aronofsky
The Coen Brothers
Martin Scorsese
Jean-Pierre Juenet
Woody Allen (though I think he was significantly better in the 70’s and 80’s)
Sam Mendes
Terry Gilliam
Wes Anderson
Gus Van Sant
Christopher Nolan
Lars Von Trier
Jean-Luc Godard
Pedro Almodovar
Chan-wook Park
I’m just always excited to see these directors new projects, even if some of them have had there flops.
And Michael Mann is pretty good, but I’m still not willing to put him in the list above; he’s growing on me, so we’ll have to see.
Jeff Nichols
Chantal Akerman
Alexander Sokurov
Sharunas Bartas
Béla Tarr
Theo Angelopoulos
Hirokazu Koreeda
Jim Jarmusch
Miklós Jancsó
Yes, her name is spelled AKERMAN. She’s a Belgian Jewess.
Mike Leigh
Theo Angelopoulous
Godard
Catherine Breillat
Lee Chang Dong
Ken Loach
Lars Von Trier
Werner Herzog
Terrence Malick
David Lynch
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Jane Campion
Gus Van Sant
Mr. Watkins
Henry Jaglom
Quentin Tarantino
David Lynch
Woody Allen
Henry Jaglom
James Cameron
Martin Scorsese
Terrence Malick
Paul Thomas Anderson
Coen br.
Sidney Lumet
Cristopher Nolan
Roman Polanski…
Terrence Malick
Peter Weir
Clint Eastwood
Christopher Nolan
M. Night Shyamalan
Darren Aronofsky
Guillermo del Toro
Alex Proyas
Michael Haneke
Roman Polanski
Henry Jaglom
Martin Scorsese
Ron Howard
Kathryn Bigelow
Jane Campion
Henry Jaglom
Coen Bros.
Henry Jaglom
Michael Mann
Martin Scorsese
Quentin Tarantino
David Cronenberg
It’s good to see some Henry Jaglom fans here.
Where did all of these Henry Jaglom fans suddenly come from? Is he undergoing a radical critical revival?
I’m in the Henry Jaglom camp, too.
David Ehrenstein
Patrice Chereau
Jacques Rivette
Manoel De Oliveira
Raul Ruiz
Guy Maddin
Terence Davies
Gus Van Sant
Todd Haynes
Tsai Ming-Liang
Wong Kar Wai
Wes Anderson