Who do you think is the greatest film director? At least for you.I am going to go with the Coen Brothers here. I know there are artier choices like, well, you know the names. But for pure enjoyment it's the Coen Brothers for me.
My first inclination was to choose Alfred Hitchcock. But his films are pretty similar. Second Claude Chabrol but the language barrier interferes with my complete trust in a choice.
Consider the range of:
Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty (yes, I liked it), No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, and True Grit.
Bliss.
Yes, there were three missteps along the way (Hudsucker, Ladykillers and Burn This for me), but my goodness, look at the versatility above. There are at least three films here that rank among my very favorite movies.
Okay, name names.
41 comments:
I agree, Patti. They're my favorite directors, too, and the ones I thought they missed on were the Clooney ones right after O Brother, but other than those, they're the best.
My vote for second best would be Wes Anderson. For originality but also for the "look" of his pictures, which is due to his brother who designs his movies.
Like him except for THE AQUATIC LIFE, which really eluded me and I need to see it again. I admire someone with a different view of the world and he sure has it.
I'm glad it's not just me. Every time I mention how much I hate HUDSUCKER someone else comments how much they loved it.
But I'm not ready to anoint them my favorite[s] yet. I have to think about it first. Among currently active directors, they'd certainly be at or near the top.
Jeff M.
I also agree about the Coen boys. And I actually quite liked Burn After Reading.
Aside from them, I'd say Scorcese, Sergio Leone, Fellini (I can't help it, his work just really moves me), and Billy Wilder.
Scorcese and Billy Wilder is right up there. THE APARTMENT is one of my favorites for sure.
The audience enjoyed HUDSUCKER when I saw it but I just found it labored despite my love for Paul Newman.
From classic era to present: William Wyler. Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Coen Brothers.
Yes, I like Scorsese and Clint and early Woody Allen, but not everything of theirs.
Howard Hawks
John Ford (can't believe no one has mentioned him)
Jean Renoir (though I haven't seen enough of his films)
Jeff M.
I would have to go with John Carpenter because of Escape from New York alone. I think it's the ultimate guy flick. Add Starman, which shows that the best sci-fi is about people, and I'm sold.
He does tend to go off the rails with too much time and money to work with, e.g., Escape from L.A.
Has Bergman become passe?
And what a shame there are no women here and yet I can't really name one of this caliber.
I loved Hudsucker Proxy. It's such a wonderful homage to Frank Capra. I also liked the Lady Killer--not one of their best, but very clever in its own way, but I could see being disappointed if you're expecting a more faithful remake. The only Coen Brother movie I hated was No Country For Old Men.
It's easier for me to pick my favorite movie (The Third Man) than my favorite director. It's impossible to compare directors like Ernst Lubitsch and Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles and Frank Capra, Nicholas Ray, Hohn
Huston. Or Coen Brothers, Stanley Kubrick, Scorsese, Peckinpah, Milos Forman. Or even someone like Charles Laughton, who makes one movie, The Night of the Hunter, that is absolutely stunning and mesmerizing.
Yeah, Howard Hawks, even if just for "His Girl Friday."
I could never get into the Coen brothers movies, I always find them smug and making fun of people not as smart as they are (I may be overly sensitive ;).
And, you know, John Sayles.
Orson Welles (CITIZEN KANE), Brian De Palma (SCARFACE), David Lean (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA), Robert Wise (THE SOUND OF MUSIC), Frank Darabont (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) Francis Ford Coppola (APOCALYPSE NOW), and John Sturges (THE GREAT ESCAPE). More than one director, I know, but I liked their work.
These guys have great range, love hardboiled and noir, can do screwball- I loved Hudsucker, unabashedly- so they are high on the list. Hitch is my fave oldie. I like Kubrick a lot, Herzog too. But for the films I watch the most, and the ones that have affected me, I'd agree on the Coen Brothers. Blood Simple and Raising Arizona are in my DNA. And Lebowski's in my drug test sample...
Smug, have to think about that one.
Perhaps here and there are snooty ones. But they are paying homage with most of them.
The early Coen ones are more jubilant than the later ones. I think they began to think more of their "legacy" and went for bigger themes.
Each of those directors, Prashant, made at least one masterpiece IMHO. And perhaps better than any single film from the Coen Brothers.
The Coen brothers are great, but I'm also a big fan of Christopher Nolan. I love it that someone's making intelligent commercial films.
Memento was astonishing at the time. Need to see it again.
Lubitsch, yes.
Glad Jeff mentioned Renoir and Hawkes, also glad Preshant calls on David Lean and Sturges... all great choices. And Pattie, I don't think Bergman is passe at all. More people need to watch his work. He gets dismissed as arty and pretentious too often by viewers afraid to be challenged.
But where's the love for my man Fellini? Movies as touching as La Strada and Nights of Cabiria are hard to come by.
I agree.
Fritz Lang, Soderberg, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach.
I'll go with Hitchcock, Hawks, Kubrick and Lynch. Runners up would be David Cronenberg and the Austrian Michael Hanake. I do love the Coens at their best, but they're wildly uneven.
I'll go with Hitchcock, Hawks, Kubrick and Lynch. Runners up would be David Cronenberg and the Austrian Michael Hanake. I do love the Coens at their best, but they're wildly uneven.
I forgot Quentin Tarantino. Pulp Fiction created an almost revolutionary change to film, just as Miami Vice did to TV.
I like three Tarantinos a lot. Jackie Brown especially.
The Coens are pretty even to me. BTW I did not care for the new Cronenberg film. No flare at all-so surprising. It could have been directed by anyone. I wonder if the play handicapped him.
John Ford. Howard Hawks. Orson Welles.
Sidney Lumet.
Jackie Brown is my favorite Tarantino film also--such a soulful film, and significantly better than the book Rum Punch (which was very good).
Grier, Jackson and Forster were a great ensemble.
Coen brothers rock! Definitely up there. I'd add other contenders like Lina Wertmüller, Fellini, Buñuel, Werner Herzog, Leni Riefenstahl (at least for propaganda skills), Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, Woody Allen, Jean Renoir and more . . . and more than that even . . .
A very well-cast film. The problem with director lists is that the script, that much abused and maligned device, matters so much more than directors want to admit, unless of course like Bergman, or the Coens, they write them or like Hitchcock they tend to collaborate or edit, usually without seeking credit for it (this being somewhat different than the masturbatory directors who want to toss pages at whim or demand that they be film-edited out if they have that sway).
So, Bergman, of course, and such overlooked folks as Rene Clair. Jean Cocteau. People don't cite George Roy Hill much, but his average was comparable to that of the Coens (and like Kubrick, specialized in literary adaptations...Kubrick's being another hit and miss career)...you'll be bigger fan of both O BROTHER (a HEE HAW sketch at distended length by me) and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP I suspect than I, though the film of the latter is vastly easier to take than the source novel. Gillian Armstrong is certainly comparable to either or both of the Coens. Patricia Rozema, Nicole Holofcener, Mary Harron, Amy Heckerling, Barbara Kopple (HAVOC is underrated) and others have done excellent work when allowed...and of course Claire Denis, not actually needing to cite Ida Lupino and Maya Deren and the other pioneers?
Robert Wise and the other graduates of the RKO finishing school presided over by Val Lewton (with Welles handy in the early years); Robert Altman when he's on; Peter Weir. So many, really.
Oh, Altman Should not have forgotten him. But so few of the women seem to have more than a film or two before they have funding problems. Never have seen Harlem County.
Well, happily Armstrong and Denis haven't had funding problems which were insurmountable...and HARLAN COUNTY USA isn't the only Kopple to see (even if HAVOC is the only feature-length drama so far, I think). Mira Nair has about half good or better (MISSISSIPPI MASALA) and half bad or worse (KAMA SUTRA), without being too circumscribed...but they are among the luckier ones.
Early Robert Wise, yes.
I'm with Dave Z. on THE THIRD MAN. I never get tired of watching it. Going to Vienna and riding the giant ferris wheel in the Prater was an amazing experience. Too bad we didn't get to run through the sewers!
Jeff M.
And Carol Reed had more in his quiver than solely the twist of Lime...
Ernst Lubitisch, Rene Clair, Howard Hawks, Alan Rudolph.
Clever, Todd.
Rudolph, oh yes.
How about Pakula?
He's not considered as artistic as some directors, but when I think of the movies I've enjoyed over the years, the common thread through many of them is director Michael Curtiz: Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, White Christmas...
I don't know if he had a definable style -- looking at the diversity of his films he may have just done whatever the studio threw at him -- but I like a lot of what he did.
That's what counts most in the end. Someone who can make movies that bring pleasure. They certainly are diverse, aren't they. I never would have been able to name any of these.
In addition to all the ones mentioned so far:
Peter Bogdanovich (but only for THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, WHAT'S UP DOC, and PAPER MOON)
Mel Brooks
George Lucas (but only for AMERICAN GRAFITTI and STAR WARS)
Don Siegal
Budd Boetticher
Sam Peckinpah
I know I'll think of more later, and if some of these were mentioned previously and I overlooked them, my apologies.
John Huston
George Stevens
I'll stop now. Maybe.
George Cukor - especially "The Women."
Joseph Makiewicz - especially "All About Eve."
Billy Wilder - especially "Sunset Boulevard."
That should be Mankiewicz. Sorry!
All great choices.
I am anxious to read the new bio of Spencer Tracy although at 1000 pages, yikes.
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