We have a lot of more specific and sometimes complex threads going around. After we all spent years practicing to become true blue movie buffs, it might be fun to just go back to roots and say "here's a top ten list for ya'."
Based on every movie I've seen so far, here's mine, along with my personal footnotes:
1. Coppola. I consider his entire 70's run to be a tetralogy of flawlessness. Also, there's Tetro, the most "Coppola" thing you will ever see, and it all has meaning and style. Sometimes Coppola struggles to match substance with style, but his sense of mystique and cinematography is unmatched. And of course, after so many misfires, he was the perfect director to get for Dracula.
2. Kurosawa. I can't think of another director who works so well with "character" whenever the focus is necessary, except maybe Billy Wilder. And he's made it perfectly clear that he can handle more than just historical dramas with movies like Ikiru and High an Low. He's the kind of director where you just gotta sit through the whole length of his epics if you're a true fan. Controversial opinion: Red Bear beats Ran. And more personally, I feel closer to Dad when I watch them. He always wanted to show me some samurai movies before his death, but could never find them.
3. Tarkovsky. I admit I'm not quite as sold on his slow cinema works as I am with Bela Tarr. But his experimental movies and historical movies are seriously heavy hitters. You can imagine how much I related to Andrei Rublev for its focus on art itself. It's like the inner me was freakin' out for three hours like Gusto Gummi high on his own paint. Solaris got me to check out the book, which is also incredble, and my favorite is The Mirror for its unique premise and perfect delivery.
4. Miyazaki. I remember when I was first shown Spirited Away in school. I fell in love. Once I became a REAL movie buff, Miyazaki was pretty top priority. Around that time, my sister got a couple Ghibli movies for her kids: Totoro and Ponyo. Great stuff, but the best Miyazaki movies are the weirder ones IMO, not the modernized Little Mermaid or the cute but lacking in plot Totoro. Both are still great on their own, though.
5. Fellini. I caught 8 1/2 on YouTube and I was sold. After that came La Dolce Vita, which flt like a spiritual parent to The Player. Fellini's sense of art comes from his ability to read and create people and their thoughts. Everything about his best movies is about working around the more absurd aspects of his characters. This is especially true for more personal movies like Amarcord and La Strada, and more surreal movies like 8 1/2.
6. Hitchcock. I'm a sucker for excitement. Maybe I haven't seen all of his essential classics, but Hitchcock was my favorite director for a while before switching over to Coppola. He's one of those directors twhose got a bunch of movies that I just have to go back to on occasion, because it makes it easier to compare all of the best of his movies with each other.
7. Raimi. Yes I'm putting Sam Raimi of all people this high. Raimi is all about putting his personality into his works, the horror, the comedy, etc. You can sense both the Evil Dead and Spider-Man influences just bleeding out in Doctor Strange 2, which might make it my new favorite personal movie (tied with Aliens). However, I find his best movie no to be in his typical style: A Simple Plan. Thrilled me to death.
8. Spielberg. Spielberg can make a good movie out of any style he touches. Maybe he's most well known as a sci-fi director, but the man understands the art of genre without falling flat on his face into the terror of the trope. We're talking reinventions of genre conventions here, and it typically pays off.
9. Welles. The guy understands balance between story and art, and I admire how he doesn't allow himself anything less, as evidenced by his constant arguing with studio executives and the fact that he had many unfinished projects and still put out some very clever ones with incredibly interesting characters.
10. Wilder. The guy understands both comedy and thrills (sorry, Hitchcock, but Champagne fell on its ass). Whenever his characters aren't deeply intriguing, they're riotous. He can even combine the two well enough for comfort, such as in the war comedy Stalag 17, which had a jovial presence and a deep mystery with a great climax. For a man to get both tones so right so often is IMO a very impressive feat.
Based on every movie I've seen so far, here's mine, along with my personal footnotes:
1. Coppola. I consider his entire 70's run to be a tetralogy of flawlessness. Also, there's Tetro, the most "Coppola" thing you will ever see, and it all has meaning and style. Sometimes Coppola struggles to match substance with style, but his sense of mystique and cinematography is unmatched. And of course, after so many misfires, he was the perfect director to get for Dracula.
2. Kurosawa. I can't think of another director who works so well with "character" whenever the focus is necessary, except maybe Billy Wilder. And he's made it perfectly clear that he can handle more than just historical dramas with movies like Ikiru and High an Low. He's the kind of director where you just gotta sit through the whole length of his epics if you're a true fan. Controversial opinion: Red Bear beats Ran. And more personally, I feel closer to Dad when I watch them. He always wanted to show me some samurai movies before his death, but could never find them.
3. Tarkovsky. I admit I'm not quite as sold on his slow cinema works as I am with Bela Tarr. But his experimental movies and historical movies are seriously heavy hitters. You can imagine how much I related to Andrei Rublev for its focus on art itself. It's like the inner me was freakin' out for three hours like Gusto Gummi high on his own paint. Solaris got me to check out the book, which is also incredble, and my favorite is The Mirror for its unique premise and perfect delivery.
4. Miyazaki. I remember when I was first shown Spirited Away in school. I fell in love. Once I became a REAL movie buff, Miyazaki was pretty top priority. Around that time, my sister got a couple Ghibli movies for her kids: Totoro and Ponyo. Great stuff, but the best Miyazaki movies are the weirder ones IMO, not the modernized Little Mermaid or the cute but lacking in plot Totoro. Both are still great on their own, though.
5. Fellini. I caught 8 1/2 on YouTube and I was sold. After that came La Dolce Vita, which flt like a spiritual parent to The Player. Fellini's sense of art comes from his ability to read and create people and their thoughts. Everything about his best movies is about working around the more absurd aspects of his characters. This is especially true for more personal movies like Amarcord and La Strada, and more surreal movies like 8 1/2.
6. Hitchcock. I'm a sucker for excitement. Maybe I haven't seen all of his essential classics, but Hitchcock was my favorite director for a while before switching over to Coppola. He's one of those directors twhose got a bunch of movies that I just have to go back to on occasion, because it makes it easier to compare all of the best of his movies with each other.
7. Raimi. Yes I'm putting Sam Raimi of all people this high. Raimi is all about putting his personality into his works, the horror, the comedy, etc. You can sense both the Evil Dead and Spider-Man influences just bleeding out in Doctor Strange 2, which might make it my new favorite personal movie (tied with Aliens). However, I find his best movie no to be in his typical style: A Simple Plan. Thrilled me to death.
8. Spielberg. Spielberg can make a good movie out of any style he touches. Maybe he's most well known as a sci-fi director, but the man understands the art of genre without falling flat on his face into the terror of the trope. We're talking reinventions of genre conventions here, and it typically pays off.
9. Welles. The guy understands balance between story and art, and I admire how he doesn't allow himself anything less, as evidenced by his constant arguing with studio executives and the fact that he had many unfinished projects and still put out some very clever ones with incredibly interesting characters.
10. Wilder. The guy understands both comedy and thrills (sorry, Hitchcock, but Champagne fell on its ass). Whenever his characters aren't deeply intriguing, they're riotous. He can even combine the two well enough for comfort, such as in the war comedy Stalag 17, which had a jovial presence and a deep mystery with a great climax. For a man to get both tones so right so often is IMO a very impressive feat.