Who inspires you in your aspirations to direct?

My Top Thirteen

A director must do many things. As I see it, the most important things a director must do is to compose a symmetry of story and editing with cinematography and production design.

Taking into account my favorite films, my top thirteen are:

Stanley Kubrick
John Cassavetes
Nicolas Winding Refn
Darren Aronofsky
Sam Peckinpah
John Boorman
William Friedkin
Francis Ford Coppola
Andrew Dominik
Terry Gilliam
Ridley Scott
Sergio Leone
George Lucas

Each of these men have at least one film I consider to be "most inspiring" in direction. Those films are:

2001: A Space Odyssey
Opening Night
Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Faces
Shadows
The Pusher Trilogy
Drive
The Fountain
Pi
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Point Blank
Excalibur
Sorcerer
The Exorcist
Apocalypse Now
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Killing Them Softly
Tideland
Blade Runner
Alien
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Once Upon a Time in the West
THX1138
American Graffiti
Star Wars (ep IV)

These are the directors who inspire me most in the art of directing (in above named films).

Other works that inspire:

The Trial, by Orson Welles
Dog Day Afternoon, by Sidney Lumet
and many others, of course. But those in my top twelve inspire me the most as a visual artist.

Who inspires you in your aspirations to direct?

(This is me fishing for good films I've missed)

__________________
Have you ever held a lion in your arms? I have. He smelled funky.

Who inspires us to direct? I'm not sure how this applies to a lot of people here....but to me, it kinda does.

What Sam Raimi did, with a couple of friends, in a cabin in the woods, was create a horror film that will stand the test of time (which it has). His inventive use of the camera and utter joy to work on set urged me to want to be a filmmaker. Little additional sound bits that he puts in that you would never think to add, I'm thinking of the warped swoosh when the camera passes the wooden beams from the ceiling in the cabin. Almost as if we can hear inside the wood. His use of POV for random objects (spear, nails, evil, guns). If you watch a Sam Raimi film, you know it's him.

Bruce Campbell is to Sam Raimi what DeNiro is to Scorsese, or Depp is to Burton. The two just know what each other is thinking. The master "acting backwards", then played forward to give it an odd, other-wordly feel works to great extent in The Evil Dead films.

Of course the Kubricks, Spielbergs and Finchers of this world are masters of the craft. But again, Raimi with his friends on some money they raised in the middle of nowhere made a name for himself. A feat that I admire. With the exception of Spider-Man 3, he has yet to disappoint me.

So to answer your odd question, who inspires me in my aspirations to direct?

Sam Raimi does.

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Absolutely. Raimi is a fine example of the indie filmmaker making a private film and cracking into the studio big time. So to, Darren Aronofsky and Nic Refn.


I look forward to seeing Oz. Looks fun - and it has 3 beautiful women (witches) in it.

Sam IS inspiring in that he went from private financed filmmaker to one of the top paid filmmakers in very short order.

Mine are:
Quentin Tarantino for his "no holds barred" attitude.
Takeshi Kitano for his cynicism.
Michelangelo Antonioni for his aesthetics.

Directorial aspirations? What an interesting topic. Off the top of head:


Martin Scorsese

Quentin Tarantino

Sidney Lumet

Billy Wilder

Steven Spielberg

Clint Eastwood

Stanley Kubrick

Woody Allen

Warren Beatty

Bob Fosse

Kubrick

Most recently, Lucky McKee, because he's got at least one great movie, another pretty good, and another that at least has a style. The rest I gotta watch. And he's managed to have some sort of cult status and success, and really, what else do you want?

Tarantino for sure.

Kevin Smith.

As a few people said, Raimi.

And the fact that Scorsese started out shooting cheap and on the go; and Spielberg started being the cofee boy or something, and then Jaws, and then etc etc etc.

If I had any aspirations at one time it would be:

and Werner Herzog.

All great examples.

These are the names that come to mind on the subject of great directing:

Woody Allen

Sidney Lumet

Quentin Tarantino

Robert Zemeckis

Alfred Hitchcock

Martin Scorsese

Elia Kazan

Ron Howard (yeah, I said it)

Im really inspired by Clint Eastwood

Scorsese, Spielberg, Nolan, Welles, Hitchcock.

Back in my generation it would be Steven Spielberg. James Cameron's regarded as "the man" today. In all honesty though in this smartphone world we all live in now, the #1 inspiration to be a Director today may be Kevin Smith. He showed if you can write strong, and get competent acting to sell it, you can still make your own breaks.