Which film or filmmaker piqued your interest?

This was a thread from another forum that I found quite interesting, so I thought I'd ask it here. I'm sure that most people here started watching movies as just entertainment - so which film or filmmaker really opened your eyes and discover the medium?

This is a question I'll find difficult to answer myself; since I've been obsessed with film since forever, really. Tarantino and Pulp Fiction did have a massive effect on me and - probably like every film fan - I went through a Tarantino worship phase for a while. I think my earliest cinematic obsessions were...

Tarantino and Rodriguez > Hitchcock > Kubrick > Kurosawa

Heh...I don't even like Rodriguez anymore.

I instantly thought Kubrick when I saw this thread.

Others would have to include...

Terry Gilliam
John Carpenter
Quentin Tarantino (yeah, me too)
Kevin Smith
Martin Scorsese
Steven Spielberg (what can I say? I love Indiana Jones)

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Just like you Nexus it was also Pulp Fiction and Tarantino for me. I then went through my Tarantino is the best director of all time phase. Then I started watching alot of Scorsese then moved to Kubrick and Hitchcock now im here just watching any type of movies.

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"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theater admission and the babysitter were worth it."
- Alfred Hitchcock

Don't laugh too much, but the first film that really got my interest beyond just what was on screen was Batman, the first Tim Burton one. I saw that the day it opened (i was 12), and my father bought me a book on the making of the movie because I loved it so much. I read the book from cover to cover, and was enthralled by Tim Burton, who seemed a lot like me and my friends. He loved horror movies and Batman and comic books (or so he said in the book), and he was a bit of an outcast. He also had cool hair. lol. I still love Tm Burton, even if Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Planet of the Apes were garbage.

Of course I went through a Scorsese phase, I mean who doesn't, but currently, my favourite filmmaker is Wes Anderson.

For me, it was Donnie Darko. The film's effect fades with each viewing, and I've heard the whole style over substance argument, but this was the moment for me. I'd never seen a film that was so unflinchingly experimental, yet stylized enough to be appreciated by the average person. It was wonderfully ambiguous and left me wanting to learn more about it so I could understand it's concept. That led me here and....

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"Like all dreamers, Steven mistook disenchantment for truth."

Sorry to be boring, but it's Kubrick. Lolita, Clockwork Orange and 2001 are some of my favourite movies and I really respect his directorial style.

On a more visceral level, I've always been fond of Coppola (Francis Ford, not Sofia) and James Cameron. Both have had their share of duds, but when they're responsible for some of the most entertaining movies I own.

Directors who got me into watching film:

Kurosawa
Bergman
Kubrick

Directors who got me interested in analysis and criticism:

Wong Kar-Wai
Malick

Hey, looks like you guys are missing Oliver Stone here?

Thumbs up for "Born on the 4th of July"

The thing that started it all was the first few seasons of a BBC TV show called Moviedrome, hosted by Repo Man director Alex Cox and beginning in the late 80s. Moviedrome was basically a weekly trip to the land of the offbeat film, it's listing shown here.

To this day, if I met Alex Cox I'd give him a kiss on his big, ugly head.

It was around this time that I first saw David Mamet's House Of Games and Dennis Hopper's Out Of The Blue...

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

The Faculty was the first film i academically analysed, though the Evil Dead trilogy were the first films that turned me into, what i'd say, more than a casual film fan so i guess they were my launching pad.

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John Carpenter was the first Director that sparked my interest. Escape from NY hooked me and then when I saw the credits and realised just how much of an effort he puts into his movies.. I had final found my favorite!

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Gort! Deglet ovrosco!

When I first saw The Big Lebowski and L.A. Confidential.

The first got me interested in Coen, the second got me interested in the Film-Noir genre.

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Hitchcock

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It'd be a sad day if one would need to point out that "Coppola" means, "Not Sofia." A truly bad day.

Escape from Witch Mountain - I was about 7 and read the book and wanted to be Tia SO BAD. And I thought if i couldn't be Tia, then to play her would be the next best thing. So I got curious about acting.

The Dead Next Door - perfectly horrible low-budget straight-to-video film shot in Akron, Ohio. Stars.... uh... someone I knew. Heard much about the production process.

12 AM - never completed, but I did a 4 page role that was my first acting on-camera. Really interesting and very different process from being on stage.

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Review: Cabin in the Woods 8/10

Katherine Brooks - Indie Film Maker

Her and her work is utterly amazing!

I have a pretty ecclectic taste in movies but I will generally be more than happy to watch films involving any of the following -
Wes anderson
Wes Craven
Hitchcock
Tarentino
Coehn Brothers
Jerry Bruckheimer
Tim Burton
David Lynch
Baz Luhrman
Ron Howard

I used to be a real horror nut, so probably Carpenter.

My vote goes to Hitchcock.

I'd go for Hitchcock, Wes Craven, John Carpenter and Tarrantino, There are a few others but those spring to mind.

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