Let's have another artistic shitstorm - best director ever?

[Rabrrrrrr]

And please, let's be honest, Spielberg and Lucas are totally not up to the task of being on this list, so don't even bother. We're talking the seriousest (my word invention) of the serious film directors, not just any johnnies-come-half-assly.

Sadly, many good ones had to be left off, too: Eastwood, Ridley Scott, Pulanski, Leone, Cameron, Kevin Smith, Curtiz, Rob Reiner, Godard, Eisenstein, Huston, Scorcese, and on and on and on.

[RPM]

1. coppola

sophia.... much better director than actor

[jpgray]

3. Sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little

Ahem, let's say we agree to disagree.

:D

[RPM]

12. no - i agree with you....

She makes me vurp too - that's why she's the greatest director - she's now (thankfully) behind the camera

[ThoughtCriminal]

22. Ditto (nt)

[maveric]

2. What? No Kevin Smith?

I went with Kubrik. He played by his own rules from day one.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. He's in my list of leave-offs, though

Brilliant though he is, and as much as I have loved to death every movie he's made, I just couldn't fit him in with the others.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Whaaa??? No John Waters?

OK from your list, I'll take half Bergman, half Fellini with a touch of Kurosawa since not EVERYTHING he did was a total masterpiece

[WCGreen]

6. Where is Clint Eastwood or Barry Levinson....

Just because people can actually go and see their movies and enjoy them as well doesn't mean they don't have an artistic flair.....

David Lynch is perhaps the worst director. I couldn't even make it to the Lesbian Scene in Mulhuland Drive..... It was that bad, Uhmmmmmmm

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Eastwood is in my list of leave-offs as well

Excellent director he is. Unforgiven is a true masterpiece. But, not quite enough to get him into MY top ten. But that's the problem with a top ten - it's too limiting. Really, the top 50 are all of equal caliber, except for Welles, who truly stands at the top.

Levinson isn't even ringing a bell. Sorry.

[WCGreen]

17. The NAtural.....

Avalon...

Diner....

Wag the Dog...

Bugsy....

Rain Man....

Tin Men....

Good Morning Vietnam.....

Young Sherlock Holmes.....

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. Those were pretty good movies

I wouldn't put any in the realm of genius, but they were good. The Natural even making it to the realm of great.

[WCGreen]

30. No your right,,,

But his body of work is consistently high caliber with only a few clunkers....

So many of the directors considered great have one, two or three great movies and then,,,,, a lot of crap....

But true genius is to make your art assessable, entertaining with out insulting and also telling a story that can be enjoyed across generations.......

[DS1]

21. Bullshit!

The Unforgiven was all but filmed with the mandatory television aspect ratio and cuts for commercials in mind :mad:

I just watched it recently, he had shit packed in the middle

<Stephen Colbert voice>

He didn't have the BALLS!

</voice>

[Rabrrrrrr]

24. Woo hoo! Let the shitstorm begin!

I don't see that at all - the first time I saw the movie I was blown away, and on all subsequent revisits, including about a month ago when I watched it three or four times in a couple days, I was still blown away.

I really, really like that one.

[DS1]

44. Storm, meet poo tornado!

No way, man! I think you're full of it! I think your opinion sucks! You suck! :7

[Rabrrrrrr]

49. I may suck

But not as much as your MOM!

:P

[WCGreen]

25. I'm thinking more on the lines of Mstic River...

that is perhaps one of the best movies I have seen in years.....

Watch it, look for the subtle touches that he uses, Watch how he conveys the horror without ever showing the gore....

[RandomKoolzip]

7. Coppolla.

The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, Godfather, etc.

[elperromagico]

8. David Lean.

Not sure I would call him the greatest, but he was certainly great.

[saltpoint]

9. Louis Malle? Robert Altman?

[sundog]

10. Renny Harlin dammit

:P

[elperromagico]

13. Wait a second. Who directed "Beach Blanket Bingo"?

[lib_1138]

14. KUBRIC??? LOL nt

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. I take it you aren't a Kubrick fan?

[RandomKoolzip]

41. What's wrong with Kubrick?

I thought he was a genius.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. And apologies for leaving out Ron Jeremy

But he's in a category all to himself, as well.

[elperromagico]

19. Porn ain't easy to direct.

There are so many method actors in porn - "What's my motivation for banging this guy?" It could drive a director nuts, I'm sure.

[progmom]

16. Billy Wilder? Howard Hawks?

Sigh...

[WCGreen]

18. Oh yea

And of course,

Frank Capra....

[Dukkha]

23. F.W. Murnau & Chaplin

They don't need sound to be great

[elperromagico]

32. Chaplin was a great director in the sense that he positioned the camera

and didn't let it interfere with his performance, which was the most important part of most of his films. He certainly wasn't much of a pictorial director, but that wasn't a point of his films.

As a visual director, Chaplin is surpassed by Buster Keaton, IMHO.

[elaineb]

46. Seconded for F. W. Murnau (nt)

[Elidor]

27. Eisenstein, just to be difficult

I'd almost say Kurosawa, but he's flawed. So Eisenstein it is.

Reiner?!? :wtf: Hey, don't forget Ron Howard, too.

[Rabrrrrrr]

29. Fuck Ron Howard.

Nothing but shit.

Yeah, maybe Reiner wasn't the best inclusion in the list of the greats, he's not quite really a "serious" director, but let's admit it: what he did he did damned well.

But, yeah, I probably should have left him off.

[pres2032]

35. um, "Apollo 13?" "A beautiful mind?"

some incredible movies if you ask me.

[Rabrrrrrr]

38. barf

I watched Beautiful Mind with a friend of mine, we were all excited (or at least I was) because it was about a mathematician, and when it was done, we looked at each other and said "Who directed that piece of shit?" so I looked at the DVD box and lo and behold it was Ron "I suck" Howard, and we both said, "Yeah, of course - it totally sucks in that Ron Howard way of sucking".

No, that was not an incredible movie. It was a movie that COULD have been incredbile, and SHOULD have been incredble, except for Howard's sophomoric, lackluster, unartistic directing.

If I were ever putting a movie together, I would insist that in the contract it say that if Ron Howard so much as comes NEAR the filming, the shoot is off.

Every movie he's touched has been cliche, lackluster, and, like Spielberg, constantly telling us how we're supposed to feel. He's not awful - there are far worse directors. But he's consistently nothing more than mediocre; and the problem is that he most times gets really excellent actors and excellent scripts. And then kills them.

[Elidor]

36. Hehehe

Reiner isn't bad, but he's not immortal either.

[democracyindanger]

28. The problem with Hitchcock

is that he didn't do anything outside of thrillers. The best director should have directed a range of genres. My vote's for Kurosawa.

[elperromagico]

37. Hitchcock did do some comedies and dramas,

early in his career. And while a film like The Trouble With Harry involves a murder, it is more a black comedy than a thriller. Rebecca isn't exactly a thriller either.

Problem is that, yes, he's most recognized for his thrillers. And his technique was put to best use in thrillers.

I like Hitchcock, but I get the sense sometimes that - in a film like Frenzy, for instance - he is technique for technique's sake, rather than technique in service of the story. I'm sure others would disagree.

[SKKY]

31. I'm an Almodovar fan personally.

...I could pick his movies out of a million others. Very unique style.

[CanuckAmok]

33. Scorsese, you mutha-fuckin' jaggoff! I should but your fuckin' head open.

KING MISSILE - MARTIN SCORSESE LYRICS


This one' called Martin Scorsese
He makes the best fucking films (x2)
If I ever meet him I'm gonna grab his fuckin' neck and just shake him
And say thank you thank you for makin' such excellwnt fuckin' movies
Then I'd twist his nose all the way the fuck around
And the rip off one of his ears and throw it
Like a like a like a fuckin' frisbee
I wanna chew his fuckin' lips off and grab his head and suck out one of his
eyes and chew on it and spit it out in his face
And thank you thank you for all of your fuckin' films
Then I'd pick him up by the hair swing him over my head a few times
And throw him across the room and kick all his fuckin' teeth in and then
stomp on his face 40 or 50 times
Cuz he makes the best fucking films he makes the best fucking films
I've ever seen in my life
I fuckin love him
I fuckin love him

[Rabrrrrrr]

34. I love that song!

And also "Jesus was way cool"

[CanuckAmok]

39. D'ya hear the little girl cryin' Frankie? Whare's the big tough guy told..

,,,my friend here stufff a fuckin pen up hus ass, huh?

[WCGreen]

43. Are you or have you ever been a Sensative Artist.....

[WCGreen]

40. Lest we forget Michael Curtiz.......

Director of such wonderful movies as

The Elvis Presley classic King Creole...(Tounge firmly in Cheek)

The Humphrey Bogart Classic We're no Angels.....

White Christmas.....

The Kirk Douglas Classic Young Man with a horn....

Mildred Pierce, the Joan Crawford CLassic....

A Passage to Marseilles, a tear jerker about WWII

Angels with dirty faces, the James Cagney Pat O'Brien Classic

Yankee Doodle Dandy

and
Perhaps one f the best movies of all time

Casablanca......

[Rabrrrrrr]

42. Yep, he's in the list of leave-offs

Almost popped him into the A-list because of Casablanca, but couldn't see fit to do it. Not consistently excellent like the others.

But we're really at the point of trying to determine which Faberge egg is the best, or which Beatles song is the best. At a certain point, you've got a whole host of "best" ones and realistically can no longer whittle the list down.

[sendero]

45. Ok - I know they are not in the top 10...

... but I've never seen a bad film from Jim Jarmusch or John Sayles :)

[WCGreen]

51. City of Hope is all over the place....

A rambling mess that, to me, put Sayles in the second tier of really really good directors. I enjoy his films and will watch one just because he is involved...

As far as Jarmusch,,,,,

I just guess you have to like that sort of stuff...

Stranger than Paradise, I know is considered a masterpiece by some, but, and I have tried three times to watch the film, take it as an affront to ordinary day to day life. A "cool" persons look down on the little people. I found it self indulgent to the point of distraction and although many feel this is,in and of itsdelf, a course in minimalism, is that an oxymoron, I just find it very very dreary.....

Four Yawns.....

Night on Earth, that was a very clever film and well concieved.....

[terrya]

47. I'll agree with Kurosawa. Fellini and Ingmar Bergman a close second.

American directors - Orson Welles, Billy Wilder.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

48. Kurosawa all the way!

[Ron Green]

50. Don't forget.........Sidney Lumet

[Joe Power]

52. I love Gilliam, Peckinpah, and Carpenter

But how they make the list when Scorcese, Pulanski, Smith and some of the others don't is beyond my comprehension.

Raging Bull vs. Escape From New York? I don't think so.