Flipside Movie Emporium

[matt header]

Are there any directors you feel a particularly strong bond with? Does anyone speak specifically to you, and have a strong place in your moviegoing memory? Who are the filmmakers closest to your personal tastes?

Thinking about this a little while ago, these would probably be my absolute favorites:

Woody Allen

Paul Thomas Anderson

Luis Bunuel

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Carl Theodore Dreyer

Federico Fellini

Howard Hawks

Alfred Hitchcock

Stanley Kubrick

Akira Kurosawa

Patrice Leconte

Sergio Leone

Georges Melies

Jean-Pierre Melville

Roman Polanski

Preston Sturges

Jacques Tati

Francois Truffaut

Billy Wilder

And now you know what I'm going to ask.....who would your personal favorites be?

[The Third M?n]

Here's my list:

Darren Aronofsky

Ingmar Bergman

Tim Burton

James Cameron

Charles Chaplin

David Fincher

Alfred Hitchcock

Stanley Kubrick

Akira Kurosawa

David Lean

David Lynch

M Night Shyamalan

Ridley Scott

Martin Scorsese

Steven Spielberg

Quentin Tarantino

Orson Welles

Robert Zemeckis

[the night watchman]

David Lynch

David Cronenberg

Hayao Miyazaki

Alfred Hitchcock

Joel & Ethan Coen

Stuart Gordon

Sergio Leone

Fredrico Fellini

Stanley Kubrick

Akira Kurosawa

John Carpenter

Martin Scorsese

Orson Wells
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"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

[Danny Baldwin]

After extreme debate, me and my fellow movie-buffs have basically boiled the list down...

The three greates living (we also included some who died in the 90's when boiling it down, but they've been eliminated) directors are obviously:

-Francis Ford Coppola

-Steven Spielberg

-Martin Scorsese

Kubrick was a finalist, as was Spike Lee, and well, even though most people would think I'm crazy--Francois Ozon was one of my top picks, despite the fact he's only done a few movies.
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Danny Baldwin

View My Reviews

[matt header]

Yeah, I really like Ozon too, although for contemporary French directors I'd have to choose Patrice Leconte. His passion for telling a unique story with grand, individualistic flair (as in "Girl on the Bridge" or "Man on the Train") make him one of my new favorites.

[The Third M?n]

[Danny Baldwin]

[The Third M?n]

Glad to know that. Still, Apocalypse Now remains his last great film.

[beltmann]

[the night watchman]

Indeed. You've obviously neglected such auteurs as Paul W.S. Anderson and Michael Bay, Danny. For shame. A pox on your three choices.
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"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

[beltmann]

Too tempting to rattle off a hundred names. Parameters are required: 1) I can only name twenty. 2) My choices must be highly subjective, directors whose work speaks enormously to me, somehow rubbing shoulders with my psyche. 3) My choices must be directors who have made at least 4 pictures, thereby forcing me to judge actual achievement rather than potential. 4) My choices must be directors whose work consistently speaks to me on a personal level, not just the occasional highlight.

I?ll name the filmmaker and elaborate via contrast: I?ll also list a similar/related filmmaker whose voice I don?t respond to as much (I think the differences in tone, style, and approach helps explain my preferences). Finally, I?ll list the two works by each filmmaker that I love the most.

Directors Who Groove On My Wavelength / ?Radiation Vibe?

Woody Allen, not Jerry Lewis; Annie Hall; The Purple Rose of Cairo

Ingmar Bergman, not Federico Fellini; The Virgin Spring; The Seventh Seal

Albert Brooks, not Mel Brooks; Lost in America; Mother

Jonathan Demme, not Francis Ford Coppola; Something Wild; Beloved

Vittorio De Sica, not Pier Paolo Pasolini; Umberto D.; The Bicycle Thief

Elia Kazan, not George Cukor; East of Eden; America, America

Buster Keaton, not Charlie Chaplin; Sherlock, Jr.; Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Spike Lee, not John Cassavetes; Malcolm X; Clockers

Anthony Mann, not John Ford; The Man From Laramie; The Naked Spur

Jafar Panahi, not Abbas Kiarostami; The Circle; The White Balloon

Satyajit Ray, not Luis Bunuel; Pather Panchali; Aparajito

John Sayles, not Michael Moore; Lone Star; City of Hope

Paul Schrader, not Martin Scorsese; Auto Focus; Mishima

Tran Anh Hung, not David Lynch; The Vertical Ray of the Sun; The Scent of Green Papaya

Agnes Varda, not Catherine Breillat; The Gleaners and I; The One Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema

Luchino Visconti, not Michelangelo Antonioni; La Terra Trema; Ossessione

Peter Weir, not Stanley Kubrick; The Truman Show; The Mosquito Coast

Wong Kar-Wai, not Jean-Luc Godard; Chungking Express; In the Mood for Love

William Wyler, not Frank Capra; Best Years of Our Lives; Roman Holiday

Zhang Yimou, not Akira Kurosawa; Raise the Red Lantern; Hero

A Few of Many Runners-Up

Pedro Almodovar; Robert Altman; Wes Anderson (exception on rule #3); Peter Bogdanovich; Stan Brakhage; David Cronenberg; Cameron Crowe; Carl Theodor Dreyer; Atom Egoyan; Sergei Eisenstein; Howard Hawks; Todd Haynes; Alfred Hitchcock; Stanley Kwan; Ang Lee; Mike Leigh; Mitchell Leisen; Richard Linklater; Harold Lloyd; Ernst Lubitsch; Lukas Moodysson; Errol Morris; F. W. Murnau; Jean Renoir; The Tavianis; Francois Truffaut; Orson Welles, Billy Wilder.

Two points if you can explain my reasoning for pairing up each of the directors above!

Eric

[Monkeypox]

Paul Schrader, not Martin Scorsese; Auto Focus; Mishima

Interesting...

My list is pretty much right there, but it would read:

"Schrader/Scorcese"

as the films that they've made together are the ones that move me the most. I consider them together to be one great filmmaker, and my personal favorite.

However, were the three of us stranded on a desert island, and I were forced to kill and eat one of them for survival, we'd be serving Scorcese sandwiches for a fortnight.

Honorable mention to another favorite team of mine in the Coen Brothers.
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Rattlesnake's Texas Cobra, you sonofabitch!

[the night watchman]

Monkeypox has come up with a great sub-topic for this thread: If you were stranded on a desert island with your top two favorite film directors and you were forced to kill and eat one of them, which would it be?

For me: The two Davids -- Lynch and Cronenberg. This is tough, but for purely practical reasons I think we'd be having some damn fine Lynch meat pie, because it seems like Cronenberg knows his way around the inside of the human body better, and hence, be able to pick the good stuff.
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"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

[matt header]

[night watchman said:] This is tough, but for purely practical reasons I think we'd be having some damn fine Lynch meat pie, because it seems like Cronenberg knows his way around the inside of the human body better, and hence, be able to pick the good stuff. [/quote]

LOL. Next time I watch "Dead Ringers," that's all I'm going to be able to think about.

Well, for me it would be between eating Federico Fellini or Jean-Pierre Melville. I guess Melville would have to go; at least Fellini could entertain me with some bizarre anecdotes.

[beltmann]