Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

Imo, the list would have to start with Orson Welles.

then maybe

2.kurosawa
3.kubrick
4.hitchcock
5.bergman
6.tarkovsky
7.fellini
8.spielberg
9.ford
10.wong kar-wai

pt anderson and fincher both definitely have got a shot to make it in there.

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

I've probably attempted this a million times, but my list changes constantly (except for #1, of course):

1) Hitchcock
2) Bergman
3) Altman
4) Lynch
5) Kubrick
6) Scorsese
7) PT Anderson
8) De Palma
9) Coppola
10) Antonioni

It's really kind of arbitrary. Some of these guys are really quite far ahead of the others I named, IMO.

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

From the films I've seen, in no particular order:

Paul Thomas Anderson
Quentin Tarantino
Stanley Kubrick
Martin Scorsese
Alfred Hitchcock
Clint Eastwood
David Lynch
Coen Brothers
Steven Spielberg

Roman Polanski
Francis Ford Coppola (only seen 2 films, same with Polanski, but both masterpieces)

Others that I think are good, or I know are probably great but just haven't seen many of their films:

Hawkes, Ford, Bergman, De Palma, Gilliam, David Lean, George Roy Hill.

Edit: Just remembered Wes Anderson, he'd probably make top 10.

Greatest Directors

Top ten in objective terms or in terms of personal preference? In objective terms, the top ten directors would be those that were most influential over other directors, the industry and over popular culture. These would be (in rough chronological order):

- Carl Dreyer
- Jean Renoir
- Orson Welles
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Yasujiro Ozu
- Akira Kurosawa
- Stanley Kubrick
- Steven Spielberg
- Hayao Miyazaki
- George Lucas

Honorable mention: John Ford, Martin Scorsese, Robert Bresson and Ingmar Bergman.

Comments:

I think that in objective terms, George Lucas is a greater director than the likes of Martin Scorcese, John Ford or Ingmar Bergman, for the following 5 reasons: 1: Star Wars, 2: Star Wars, 3: Star Wars, 4: Star Wars and finally, 5: Star Wars.

Indeed, this single movie has had similar influence over modern Hollywood (post 1980's movies) as Citizen Kane had over Classic Hollywood and a vastly greater cultural influence than Citizen Kane. Star Wars is greatly underrated among film critics, it's landmark status is supreme: no other movie in history had comparable commercial success, drawing a total of 18% of all US box office receipts in 1977 and similar massive receipts in other countries. No other movie had comparable influence over the film industry and popular culture and no other movie has touched the hearts of more persons than Star Wars.

Star Wars transcends film and became part of the modern mythology of the western world. Nothing else can compare to it, specially in the US and the rest of the English speaking world.

In every popular poll made today in the US and UK, Star Wars always win the title of greatest movie ever made. It's impact over the industry and over the artists working in it is enormous. James Cameron, for instance, was a truck driver who decided to make movies after he watched Star Wars. :p

Star Wars is seriously underrated among film critics, its landmark status, its capacity to touch the hearts of over a billion people and influence over most movies made after it, is enormous. In some ways, Star Wars can be regarded as the single greatest work of art of the 20th century: no other work of art touched so many people, in absolute terms, as did Star Wars.

Spielberg and Miyazaki's works are also underrated among film critics, given their cultural influence. While none of Spielberg's films had similar cultural impact to Star Wars, his combined output matches well the cultural influence of Star Wars. Miyazaki's popularity in Japan is equal or greater than Spielberg's in the US and his influence is gigantic as well, both inside and outside of the borders of Japan (the whole global animation industry today is profoundly influenced by Miyazaki, plus much of the live action film industry).

Thinking about it, Miyazaki's influence is greater than Disney's (specially over the industry today), considering that there existed many full length animated features before Snow White (which is mistakenly believed as the first animated feature) and the main influences over Miyazaki's own work has been the work of Russian, French and Japanese animators, and that the "Disney movies" were made by several writers and directors besides Disney himself (Fantasia had like a dozen different directors).

Akira Kurosawa's work has been the single most influential body of work of the second half of the 20th century. Hidden Fortress is the prototype of Star Wars, Yojimbo is the prototype of the "cool movie", which inspired Sergio Leone, who inspired Tarantino. Seven Samurai is the ultimate action movie while Ikiru is the definitive tearjerker and Rashomon pioneered storytelling techniques that were used in a million subsequent movies.

Ozu is another director whose historical influence measures up to his critical praise. His dramas set the standard not only in his native country but over the whole world.

My analysis of the greatest directors is not from the perspective of a film buff or film critic but from the perspective of a historian, trying to measure greatness by it's cultural influence, both in terms of film and outside of film.

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

I agree that people have a tendency to underrate Star Wars in part because of Empire Strikes Back but mostly because its unprecedented popularity puts a sour taste in a lot of anti-mainstreamers. The world is so saturated with the Star Wars brand that it's easy for people to want to go against the grain. It is a remarkably well-made film. I wish Lucas would have kept working after Star Wars because I'd have liked to see him take advantage of his youth and reputation. He came back and did the prequels after being out of the game for so long that it was as if he was back to square one. He lost a few steps through stagnation.

Though, film critics top 10 lists sent to polls such as the Sign and Sound poll are not objective. In these lists the directors list their own favorite movies from their favorite directors, nothing more, nothing less.

My list above has nothing to do with favorite directors (which would be those that made the most movies among my top 100 favorites, see my thread), instead I tried to think about it in purely historical terms. For instance, critic's favorites, such as Andrei Tarkovsky (one of my top 4 favorite directors) doesn't rank among the greatest directors because his influence over global film has been rather small relative to the influence of the 10 directors listed above.

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

Lynch, Kubrick, Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Spielberg, Cameron, Tarantino, The Coens, Hitchcock and Demme.

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

As far as a personal top goes...

1. Andrei Tarkovsky
2. Stanley Kubrick
3. Alejandro Jodorowsky
4. Federico Fellini
5. Carl Theodor Dreyer
6. Ingmar Bergman
7. Béla Tarr
8. Paul Thomas Anderson
9. Michael Haneke
10. Jean-Luc Godard

Honorable mentions: Luis Buñuel, Seijun Suzuki, David Lynch, Roman Polanski, Terrence Malick, Mike Leigh, Werner Herzog, The Coen Brothers, and Hiroshi Teshigahara

Directors worth mentioning, but I haven't seen enough of their films to comfortably fit them in: Peter Greenaway, Akira Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, Martin Scorsese, and Michelangelo Antonioni

Right, so your first list is based on legacy. What would your list of your favorite directors look like?

1. Alfred Hitchcock
2. Stanley Kubrick
3. Martin Scorcese
4. Francis Ford Coppola
5. Clint Eastwood
6. David Lynch
7. Woody Allen
8. PTA
9. Steven Spielberg
10.David Fincher

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

This was a good topic, though I'm sure we've had it before. It would have to be awhile before I submitted a true top 10, but these are surefire:

Hitchcock
Eastwood
Wilder
Scorsese

Give me some time to think about the rest.

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

1. Sergio Leone
2. Akira Kurosawa
3. Bela Tarr
4. Charles Chaplin
5. Billy Wilder
6. Alfred Hitchcock
7. Orson Welles
8. D. W. Griffith
9. Jean-Luc Godard
0. Stanley Kubrick

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

I'm surprised to see Paul Thomas Anderson being named in quite a few of the lists so far.

Tarr
Angelopoulos
Dreyer
Leone
Tarkovsky
Ki-duk
Bergman
Jancso
Kieślowski
Kobayashi

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

Orson Welles
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
Jean Renoir
Akira Kurosawa
Frank Capra
Ingmar Bergman
Luis Bunuel
Erich Von Stroheim
Stanley Kubrick

He hasn't made a bad film yet and four of the six he has made are absolute masterpieces. He'll only keep climbing up my list.

In no particular order:

1) Scorcese
2) Coppola
3) Spielberg
4) Welles
5) Hitchcock
6) Allen
7) Fellini
8) Godard
9) Bergman
10) Tyler Perry

One of these things is not like the others ;)

Re: Who do you consider to be the top ten directors of all time?
 

1) Alfred Hitchcock
2) David Lynch
3) Martin Scorcese
4) Francis Ford Coppola
5) Steven Spielberg
6) Stanley Kubrick
7) John Ford
8) David Lean
9) Orson Welles
10) Victor Fleming

I'll agree that he hasn't made a bad film yet, but I personally wouldn't call any of them masterpieces. Not yet anyway. So far my favourites from him have been Punch-Drunk Love and The Master, both are great films. But for quite a few people to group him amongst the top ten directors of all time is still surprising to me.

I am however planning on re-watching Magnolia soon. I remember it well but have only seen it once. I liked it first time around but who knows, maybe I'll end up loving it this time.