Relatively Simple Thread: Your Top 10 Directors of All Time

Tools    





I'd be up for this sort of idea. I wonder how everyone else feels.

I've got a whole top 100 scoreboard based on the movies scores of each director. As you can see, I am gleefully autistic. So I wouldn't mind this kind of countdown. However, I feel like there are others that should be done first since the MoFo's have been waiting longer for them.


Yeah, it holds up, too. Kind of like Coen Lite. I've heard people mistakenly think it's part of their filmography more than once (and it makes sense, they worked together just a few years earlier).

It's fun to imagine/realize he could've made films like that basically whenever he wanted to, he just felt like mostly making other stuff. Very talented guy.

Always gotta admire a director with good range. Hell's most wouldn't even guess that Braindead is a Peter Jackson movie.



Maybe it could be a side project, non official MoFo countdown. A top 50. LETS GO!



Maybe it could be a side project, non official MoFo countdown. A top 50. LETS GO!
Now that's a good idea! We use to do that in the past and anybody could run one and at any time. Some examples of these non-official MoFo countdowns:

Top 53 Music Artists Countdown
The Movie Forums Top 56 TV Shows Countdown
Top 50 (or whatever it ends up) TV Shows Countdown
The Movie Forums Top 82 Movie Stars Countdown

A Top Directors non official countdown is very doable. Should note that there was no long watch period for the above countdowns, they were done quickly for fun.



1. Stanley Kubrick
2. Orson Welles
3. Andrei Tarkovsky
4. David Lynch
5. Billy Wilder
6. David Lean
7. Alfred Hitchcock
8. Ingmar Bergman
9. Stan Brakhage
10. Akira Kurosawa
__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd



Alphabetical by last name since it's too hard to rank them. I also included what I think is a good introductory movie for each one.

Robert Bresson - Pickpocket
Francis Ford Coppola - The Conversation
Werner Herzog - Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Takeshi Kitano - Sonatine
Stanley Kubrick - Paths of Glory
Akira Kurosawa - Throne of Blood
David Lynch - Eraserhead
Jean-Pierre Melville - Le Samourai
Hayao Miyazaki - My Neighbor Totoro
Andrei Tarkovsky - Solaris

Believe it or not, Stalker was my introduction to Tarkovsky. It was the highest rated on RYM so I checked it out first, and headed to Solaris immediately afterwards. Definitely the best intro to him. I also agree with Throne of Blood.

My intros go as follows: Coppola: Godfather, Miyazaki: Spirited Away, Kubrick: 2001, Kitano: Sonatine, Kurosawa: Seven Samurai, Lynch: I don't remember...

I haven't checked out Bresson, Melville or Herzog yet, so I'll take your word for these. I might, however, check out Rescue Dawn for Herzog first, and The Silence of the Sea for Melville before heading to Army of Shadows. That's how I usually operate, checking out a few lesser-regarded works so I can get a taste of a director's style before heading to their giants.

I wasn't super-impressed with Sonatine. A bit too slow for me, and this is coming from the guy who started Kurosawa with Seven Samurai.



I wasn't super-impressed with Sonatine. A bit too slow for me, and this is coming from the guy who started Kurosawa with Seven Samurai.
Oh well, I'd take another chance with him because his filmography is 99% great (the only one of his I don't like that I've seen is Kikujiro, FWIW). Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman, Kids Return or Violent Cop may be more to your liking. Or, you can take a chance with his silliest work, Getting Any? (look up any plot summary to see what I mean).



Oh well, I'd take another chance with him because his filmography is 99% great (the only one of his I don't like that I've seen is Kikujiro, FWIW). Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman, Kids Return or Violent Cop may be more to your liking. Or, you can take a chance with his silliest work, Getting Any? (look up any plot summary to see what I mean).

Oh I love mob movies. It's just that the plot and the director seemed more interested in faint expressions looking at the camera more than anything.



1. Hayao Miyazaki (his capacity to make masterpieces goes beyond human)
2. Francis Ford Coppola (big fan of Apocalypse Now, since I re-watched the Godfather I think he is indeed the greatest American director)
3. Hideaki Anno (although his masterpieces were for video and TV, he revolutionized anime)
4. Stanley Kubrick (the most conservative choice, he was like Miyazaki in terms of superhuman capacity in consistently making masterpieces)
5. Akira Kurosawa (the godfather of asian cinema)
6. Yasujiro Ozu (godfather of slice of life movie, Tokyo Story is the best drama movie ever made)
7. Andrei Tarkovsky (the king of European art film)
8. Akiyuki Shinbo (highly innovative director of anime, like Hideaki Anno his masterpieces are for TV)
9. James Cameron (king of the blockbuster movie: they are great and consistently entertaining, critics like to say he is not great but I think he will be remembered more than most hot hollywood directors of recent decades)
10. Ridley Scott (made many great movies, although his recent movies are pretty meh I have high hopes for Napoleon and Gladiator 2)



Martin Scorsese
Akira Kurosawa
Stanley Kubrick
The Coen Brothers
Robert Altman
David Fincher
Alfred Hitchcock
Billy Wilder
Howard Hawks
Wes Anderson
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



Well after Rebecca, my number 2 changed to Hitchcock. I'm happy I chose that over Rope.

Of course I have a bit of a confession. The top ten I posted is based on a scoreboard I keep regarding the director's: films, but the footnotes really do represent the way I feel about thise movies. If I had to pick based on how much I like watching certain movies that happen to be made be certain director's as opposed to measuring quality, the list would like more like this:

Coppola
Cameron
Raimi
Tarkovsky
Lynch
Jackson
Miyazaki
Spielberg
Scorsese
Burton



Ghouls, vampires, werewolves... let's party.
Alfred Hitchcock
Steven Spielberg
John Carpenter
Roger Corman
Stanley Kubrick
James Cameron
George Romero
Robert Wise
Brian De Palma
Robert Zemeckis



quick update: 18 ballots / 77 directors

Does this mean the unofficial Directors Countdown is happening?



Does this mean the unofficial Directors Countdown is happening?
I decided screw it, I'm keeping tabs.



Welles
Tarkovsky
Scorsese
Spielberg
Coppola
Leone
Hitchcock
Kubrick
Malick
Carpenter



Okay, Let me see...


Numero Uno: David Lean
Billy Wilder
Vincente Minnelli
Eric Rohmer
John Huston


This is hard. I'll be back.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Yoji Yamada
Nobuhiko Obayashi
Keisuke Kinoshita
Bela Tarr
Andrei Tarkovsky
Theo Angelopoulos
Ingmar Bergman
Kenji Mizoguchi
Akira Kurosawa
Masaki Kobayashi
+
Dreyer, Ozu, Green, Sono, Hamaguchi, To, et al.
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.