Favorite Director and Why?

Stanley Kubrick for me as well. He basically wrote the entire book on cinema. Tarkovsky and Lynch though aren't far behind.

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My mind says Stanley Kubrick but my heart says Takeshi Kitano. His work is probably the best personal discovery I've made in the last couple of decades. Aside from the simplicity and elegance of his direction, his visuals and short-burst, without-warning approach to violence, I love how personal and authentic his movies feel. They all provide a sensation that they're based on his own personal experiences. Plus, when he's funny, he's very funny. Even though he barely says a word or emotes in any of the movies in which he stars, the comic relief in his movies makes me laugh out loud.

Sonatine is probably my favorite movie of his and I recommend it as a good place to start.

David Lean because Bridge Over the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago and Summertime.

How do you mean Kubrick wrote the book on cinema?

I'm referring to the influence and impact he had on the medium, which is more profound than all other directors. 2001, in particular, was influential enough to dictate the construction of most films which get released today. Something which helps is that his filmography spans multiple genres.

That's simply not true. There are many directors that came before Kubrick that had a more profound influence. No Chaplin / Welles / Bergman / Fellini = no Kubrick.

I do agree that '2001' is a game changer in film. I have a relative that worked on it too, so maybe I'm biased.

I won't pretend to be a film historian. I'm just going off of what I've heard as I usually see Kubrick's name come up.

Oh wow, that's cool. Out of curiosity, what part of the film did your relative work on?

Costume and make up. He also worked on the first Star Wars film! To be fair it's not a close relative and we only found out a year or two ago, but still cool.

Quentin Tarantino.
I used to be really into the links between his movies, like The Vega Brothers ( vincent and Vic) and The Fox Force Five vs. Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. But i have dropped out of that knowledge loop a long time ago.

Ah, nice. Nobody in my family worked with any directors from what I know, but my Dad got to meet Ansel Adams and his wife once. My dad was an avid photographer in the past and, evidently, Adams lived really close to him, so he called my dad up once. He still has a scrapbook, which shows a few photos of them together.

That's neat, and there's a link with Adams and Kubrick - 'Monolith'!

Thank you!