The World's Top Forty Directors

Ok, you wouldn't believe what kind of a mess a swedish-english online dictionary can put you in.

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

What I don't understand is how they chose some directors for their lifework and others they focus on their current activities. They actually say that Quentin Tarantino would have been higher up on that list if this had been a few years ago. Whatever, its nice to see Takashi Miike and Beat Takeshi on that list..

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THE WORLD'S TWENTY BEST DIRECTORS AND THERE BEST WORK
list compiled by Reece Gratton

01. Joel and Ethan Coen | The Man Who Wasn't There [2001]
02. Spike Lee |Do the Right Thing [1989]
03. Francis Ford Coppola | Apocalypse Now [1979]
04. Clint Eastwood | Unforgiven [1992]
05. Terry Gilliam |Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [1998]
06. David Fincher |Se7en [1995]
07. Quentin Tarantino | Pulp Fiction [1994]
08. Ridley Scott | Blade Runner [1982]
09. Martin Scorsese | Goodfellas [1990]
10. Richard Linklater | subUrbi@ [1996]
11. Tim Burton | Batman [1989]
12. David Lynch | "Twin Peaks" [1990]
13. Steven Spielberg | Saving Private Ryan [1998]
14. Brian De Palma | Carlito's Way [1993]
15. Cameron Crowe | Jerry Maguire [1996]
16. Roman Polanski | Chinatown [1974]
17. James Cameron | The Terminator [1984]
18. Kevin Smith | Clerks. [1994]
19. Robert Rodriguez | El Mariachi [1992]
20. Guy Ritchie | Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels [1998]

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It's a god-awful small affair, To the girl with, the mousy hair, But her mummy is yelling "No", and her daddy has told her to go, But her friend is nowhere to be seen, Now she walks through her sunken dream, To the seat with the clearest view, And she's hooked to the silver screen, But the film is a saddening bore, For she's lived it ten times or more...

Here is my list. . .

1.Steven Spielberg
2.Stanley Kubrick
3.Quentin Terentino
4.Alfred Hitchcock
5.Ridley Scott
6.David Fincher
7.Martin Scorsese
8.Tim Burton
9.Terry Gilliam
10.Clint Eastwood

Francis Ford Cappola would have been 11.

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Here's my version of the list. It sucks to leave off so many other great directors though. By no means is this a)in order; or b)final. It's just off the top of my head. Also, I wasn't sure of the actual parameters of the list-making itself, so I just chose the most interesting filmmakers to me.

Hou Hsiao Hsien - The Puppetmaster
Wong Kar-Wai - Happy Together
Tsai Ming-Liang - What Time is it There?
Stanley Kwan - Actress
Edward Yang - Yi Yi
Abbas Kiarostami - Close-up
Martin Scorsese - The Age of Innocence
Spike Lee - Do the Right Thing
Cameron Crowe - Vanilla Sky
Olivier Assayas - Irma Vep
Guy Maddin - The Heart of the World
David Lynch - Mulholland Dr.
Steven Spielberg - A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Joel and Ethan Coen - O Brother Where Art Thou?
Werner Herzog - Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Terence Malick - The Thin Red Line
Atom Egoyan - The Sweet Hereafter
Jean Luc Godard - In Praise of Love
Jim Jarmusch - Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Wim Wenders - Wings of Desire
Charles Burnett - Killer of Sheep
Jane Campion - The Piano
Chantal Akerman - D'est
Bela Tarr - Satantango
Todd Haynes - Safe
Terry Zwigoff - Bad Santa
Jacques Rivette - Celine and Julie Go Boating
Manuel de Oliveira - I'm Going Home
Claire Denis - Beau Travail
Brian de Palma - Femme Fatale
Mike Leigh - All or Nothing
Patrice Leconte - The Girl on the Bridge
Catherine Breillat - A ma Soeur
Takeshi Kitano - Fireworks
Gus Van Sant - Elephant
Quentin Tarantino - Kill Bill
Alexander Sokurov - Mother and Son
Richard Linklater - Waking Life
Hirokazu Kore-eda - After Life
Lynne Ramsay - Morvern Callar

I think that's 40...

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Yawn! What was with all of those dance club scenes in the movie? I thought it was going to be extremely erotic. I was wrong.

I think I will change the title of my list to: Living Directors Who Are Inspiring Young Filmmakers With Their Current or Recent Work.

Of course, Scorsese is my favourite director, and has been the most influential to me in the long run... but nothing he's done in the last decade has really moved me. The new wave of filmmakers in their early teens, would have been around five years old when his last great film (Goodfellas) came out.

Some working filmmakers who are currently shaking things up are...

Jim Jarmusch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Gasper Noe, Todd Solondz, Quentin Tarantino, Wong Kar Wai, Harmony Korine, Vincent Gallo, Gus Van Sant, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Darren Aronofsky (what's this guy doing now), Christopher Nolan (I'm not a big fan of the guy, but I wont drop him from the list because of my vanity), Katia Lund/Fernando Meirelles, Danny Boyle, Baz Luhrmann, Jean Pierre Jeunet, Neil LaBute, Steven Soderberg, Sofia Coppola... I'd like to say The Hughes Brothers small legacy is still lingering in peoples heads, Peter Jackson and The Wachowski Brothers are inspiring those people who are inspired by $100+ million budgets, Lars Von Trier, The Coen Brothers, Spike Jonze, David Lynch... I know I'm leaving some out.

The List of MOST INFLUENTIAL OF ALL TIME would certainly be different, and possibly a good next topic.

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"I know a man who was born with his heart on the outside. Every man's worst fear, he also had heavy hands. he couldn't touch his lovers face, he couldn't hold a baby." - Buck 65

Yep, that's exactly how old I was [and I'm eighteen].

But luckily for me [and yourself, no doubt], I'm not biased against older films. Scorsese, for that reason, is still influencing me quite considerably [interestingly, however, not in terms of style. I'm much more influenced and inspired by his passion for cinema history.]

I'd also argue that The Age of Innocence (1993) was Scorsese's last "great" film. It's not Goodfellas, but it's great.

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The Age of Innocence, yet a far cry from brilliant, is indeed a decent film. In my eyes, by the way, Casino (1995) was really his last great film. I refrained from mentioning it before, because it has recieved some unnecessary labelling since it's debut, as being a carbon copy of Goodfellas. I extol Casino, and I am proud to be a proponent of it.

Okay, the thread was introduced as "working" directors. I interpret that as any director who has something in the works, and their past accomplishments should be considered, even if it was 50 years ago.

I won't bother with a list of my own. I'll only add a few who haven't been mentioned. These directors may not belong in the Top 40, but they may be worth considering for some. Before I do, I was surprised to see that Peter Jackson and Darren Aronofsky weren't mentioned until yesterday!

Kevin Costner - (despite his reputation as an actor, Dances With Wolves is the reason he's worth mentioning).

George Lucas - (hasn't been mentioned yet )

Jonathan Demme

Woody Allen

Christopher Guest

Mel Gibson - (worth mentioning for Braveheart, and The Passion may prove he belongs in the top 40).

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You know, Godard is still alive and working... same with Eric Rohmer, Bertolucci, Antonioni and many more giant directors.

Woody Allen would for sure be up there on a writers list... Christopher Guest deals too much with improve.

I don't claim to be an expert on Guest or how he does movies, but I'm not so sure he deals so heavily with improv. To my knowlege his mockumentaries all have scripts. (And even so, I don't think whether or not a director deals with improv is grounds to give him less praise)

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"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" - Howard Beale

I would have to add Gilliam to that list...
Arnofsky someone mentioned....
Bryan Singer is top notch as well (and can direct actual actors too!)

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Sorry, I was actually referring to Guest in the same sentence as Allen, as a writer. I guess I never made my point clear enough. I like all of Guests films, but I would not add him to the top forty directors. Anybody who gets a bunch of great improv actors together, and says action, is (in my eyes) not a great director, but a smart filmmaker.

Kong couldn't understand this film. It's not that it's topic was confusing, but that Hsiao Hsien placed his camera so far away that Kong couldn't distinguish one actor from another. It was practically impossible to follow.

Oh yeah, Movern Callar is one of the most overrated pieces of work from this year.

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kevin smith

I don't want to be known on this post as the guy that argues with everyone, but....

As for Kevin Smith, I don't think he is a great director. He is good, but not great. I am a huge Kevin Smith fan, and I think he is a great and brilliant filmmaker, but as a director, he can't compete with most. D*mn fine screenwriter though.

dude im sure he can compete on the levels of hollywoods finest he has a already got a line movies

I agree with Beale (Mr Confrontation). Kevin Smith is far from a great director... Smith has even admited that he knows nothing about directing, he just turns the camera on and gets his script on the screen (and that's not just him beeing modest). "Chasing Amy" by the way, is the high water mark of his career, and will forever be known as his magnum opus. A great, great film.

Now...to do my own list:

(I'll do by director and their two best films. Forgive me, but I'll only do to 20...subect to slight change)

20.Guy Ritchie-Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels/Snatch
19. David Fincher-Se7en/Fight Club
18. Francis Ford Coppola-The Godfather/The Godfather Part 2
17. Wes Anderson-The Royal Tenenbaums/Rushmore
16. Sergio Leone-Once Upon a Time in the West/The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
15. Luc Besson-The Fifth Element/Leon
14. James Cameron-Aliens/Terminator 2
13. David Lynch-The Elephant Man/Blue Velvet
12. Billy Wilder-Stalag 17/Witness for the Prosecution
11. Howard Hawks-Rio Bravo/Red River
10. Joel Coen-Blood Simple/The Big Lebowski
9. Michael Curtiz-Casablanca/The Adventures of Robin Hood
8. Steven Spielberg-Schindler's List/Raiders of the Lost Ark
7. Martin Scorsese-Goodfellas/Raging Bull
6. John Ford-The Searchers/The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. Quentin Tarantino-Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction
4. Stanley Kubrick-A Clockwork Orange/Paths of Glory
3. John Huston-The Maltese Falcon/The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
2. Akira Kurosawa-Yojimbo/Seven Samurai
1. Alfred Hitchcock-Notorious/Vertigo

I left out a few of the greats because I hadn't seen two of their films...an example of which would be David Lean, of whose films (much to my eternal shame) I've only seen The Bridge on the River Kwai.