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Pick 3 Film Directors

Orson Wells
Akira Kurosawa
Chang Cheh

Bonus
Zhang Yimou
 
Michael Bay
Michael Bay
Michael Bay

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Michel Gondry
Wes Anderson
Christopher Nolan

That doesn't mean I've loved all their movies, but they're my favourites.
 
- Ridley Scott - for the Alien (my favourite movie ever) and Blade Runner combo.

After this I'm gonna put 2 directors together, maybe I'm a fucking pussy, but it's too hard at the time of me writing this.

- Christopher Nolan/Quentin Tarantino
- Steven Spielberg/Denis Villeneuve
 
These are not necessarily the best but I consistently enjoy their style:

Francis F. Coppola - The Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974), The Godfather Part II (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), Rumble Fish (1983), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), & The Rainmaker (1997).





Coen Brothers - Raising Arizona (1987), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), The Ladykillers (2004), & True Grit (2010).





Terry Gilliam - Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Brazil (1985), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), & The Zero Theorem (2013).




Honorable Mentions: John Landis [The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), Animal House (1978), Blues Brothers (1980), Into The Night (1985), Spies Like Us (1985), ¡Three Amigos! (1986), Coming To America (1988)] & Robert Zemeckis [Romancing The Stone (1984), Back To The Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Death Becomes Her (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000)] & Mel Brooks [The Producers (1967), Young Frankenstein (1974), High Anxiety (1977), Spaceballs (1987), Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993), Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)].
 
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kunonabi said:
My favorite movies of all time are pretty much defined by Dario Argento, Tim Burton, Takashi Miike, and George Lucas.
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Damn, I forgot about Takashi Miike. He's so prolific, and I love Ichi the Killer, Visitor Q, Audition, the Dead or Alive trilogy... A great director who's often overlooked due to making 5 movies per year.

Absolutely no nonsense, just get it done and move on to the next project. But he's made a lot of stuff that created a big splash and will stand the test of time.
 
NeverYouMind said:
Terry Gilliam - Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Brazil (1985), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), & The Zero Theorem (2013).
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Terry Gilliam is great, a real visionary. I saw his production of Into The Woods at my local theatre, after it was drummed out of the West End when he got cancelled for some stupid shit a few years ago. Probably the best stage production I've ever seen.
 
calistan said:
Terry Gilliam is great, a real visionary. I saw his production of Into The Woods at my local theatre, after it was drummed out of the West End when he got cancelled for some stupid shit a few years ago. Probably the best stage production I've ever seen.
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I am jealous. I would have loved to see it.
 
Kathleen Kennedy

As actual creators

George Lucas
Kevin Feige

For Directors

David Fincher
Paul Verhoeven
Francis Ford Coppola

Some of my other favorites

Spike Jonze
Martin McDonagh
Robert Eggers
Alfonso Cuaron
Guillermo Del Toro
Marc Foster
Christopher Nolan
P T Anderson
Quinten Tarentino
Martin Scorsese
Steen Spielberg
David Cronenberg
Robert Eggers
 
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Nobody likes John Ford? I thought he was American's favorite son. I have only seen 2-3 of his films so I won't pick him, but The Searches has cinematography on another level.

I am trying to think of a director who has more than 1 movie I truly love, and it's hard.

Kurosawa for sure, Seven Samurai and Ikuru are in my top 5. He also got so much other stuff, High and Low, Yojimbo, Rashamon, etc.

I want to pick Scorcese because of Taxi Driver, and I have seen all of his movies, but nothing quite hit that peak for me, even with Raging Bull and Goodfellas under his belt.

I think I have to pick Ridley Scott. Blade Runner, Alien and Gladiator. His style is among the best in history. Some of the sets and customes in films like Kingdom of Heaven and Gladiator is designed to perfection.

I think the third has to be Sergio Leone, Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good the Bad and the Ugly is hard to argue against.

So my three is:
Akira Kurosawa
Ridley Scott
Sergio Leone
 
ResurrectedContrarian said:
Just the Nolan/Scorsese thread had me wanting to know... what's everyone's top 3 (in any order)?

1 sentence justification max per director.

Mine:
  • David Lynch: Mulholland Drive may be the peak of the entire history of filmmaking for me, and is a perfect example of how Lynch alone is able to take cinema seriously as its own medium, not chained to the form or structure of stage plays, books, or any other familiar plot containers.
  • Kubrick: 2001 is the greatest sci-fi film ever (closely followed by Solaris 1972), and one of the top 3 films of all time easily, with absolutely gorgeous photography.
  • Hitchcock: while he made a ton of forgettable films along the way, his peaks are magnificent, where a film like Rear Window (or the under-appreciated Rope before it) is a brilliant construction of set and scope like a puzzle box, and films like Vertigo produced an entirely new kind of psychological tension.
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You can't beat those three; in fact, they're probably my top 3 picks as well.
 
Scorcese, David Fincher and Villeneuve at this point in time.

Honorable mention: John Carpenter, Ridley Scott and 80s/90s James Cameron.
 
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SJRB said:
Honorable mention: John Carpenter, Ridley Scott and 80s/90s James Cameron.
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It's crazy how these directors helped to define entertainment in those decades.
 
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Yesterday it was Preston Sturges, Johnnie To, Paul Verhoeven
Today it is Quentin Tarantino, Coens, Spielberg
Tomorrow it will be Scorsese, De Palma, Elaine May
Sometime next week it will be Corbucci, Jonathan Demme, Fukusaku.

I can do this all day.
 
Hard to pick 3...
So I will name a few more:
Scorcese
William Friedkin
Spielberg ( he has so many great movies in so many different genres)
Ridley Scott ( for he's older movies)
Sergio Leone
Edit:
Why could I forget:
Coppola
Kubrick ( he's my actualy top 1)
 
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1. John Carpenter. I mean, where do I start? The Thing. Escape From New York. Halloween. The Fog. Christine. Big Trouble In Little China. They Live. Prince Of Darkness. In The Mouth Of Madness. Guy is just a fucking genius. Plus, his soundtracks are the best soundtracks of all time as well! He's brilliant!

2. Steven Spielberg. He defined my childhood. Raiders. Temple. Last Crusade. Jaws. Close Encounters. Schindler's List. Jurassic Park. Another genius who, in my eyes, can do no wrong.

3. John Landis. This was a tough one as I could've put David Lynch here. Joe Dante here. James Cameron here. Yet For Animal House, Into The Night (fucking brilliant film), Blues Brothers, Coming To America, Innocent Blood and An American Werewolf In London, it was a no brainer for me. Plus, sue me but I enjoy Beverly Hills Cop 3 (yes I know, it's nowhere near the original 2 but it shits on the Netflix version).
 
MacReady13 said:
2. Steven Spielberg. He defined my childhood. Raiders. Temple. Last Crusade. Jaws. Close Encounters. Schindler's List. Jurassic Park. Another genius who, in my eyes, can do no wrong.
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Yeah, if I'd go with childhood defining directors then it'd be without a doubt Spielberg and Lucas. The original Star Wars trilogy was pure magic to me, I can't even imagine my childhood without it. And to grow up with E.T. and Jurassic Park too as a 90s kid, just wow.

If I'm forced to choose a third director in that specific category it'd be Wolfgang Petersen for making The Neverending Story. It blew my mind as a kid and was probably the most emotional experience in film for a long time. Such amazing atmosphere and storytelling.
 
Trilobit said:
Yeah, if I'd go with childhood defining directors then it'd be without a doubt Spielberg and Lucas. The original Star Wars trilogy was pure magic to me, I can't even imagine my childhood without it. And to grow up with E.T. and Jurassic Park too as a 90s kid, just wow.

If I'm forced to choose a third director in that specific category it'd be Wolfgang Petersen for making The Neverending Story. It blew my mind as a kid and was probably the most emotional experience in film for a long time. Such amazing atmosphere and storytelling.
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Don't get me wrong, Spielberg (and Lucas) WERE my childhood but Spielberg is a PHENOMENAL director and I adore his work. Genius might not be enough praise for him to be honest.
 
James Cameron - Terminator 1 & 2, Aliens, Avatar 1 & 2, Titanic.

Steven Spielberg - Jurassic Park, Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan

Ridley Scott - Alien, Gladiator, Prometheus.


Number three was the hardest. Maybe it should be Quentin Tarantino, but Ridley Scott movies look better and I turned off Once upon a time in Hollywood after the 2nd foot shot.


George Lucas – Star Wars: A New Hope
John McTernan – Predator
Wachowski (brothers) - The Matrix
 
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