Best Director of All-Time

[Krakalakachkn]

Right now I'm thinking David Lean.

 

Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India, Oliver Twist.

 

He might not be the most prolific director, but his movies are astounding both in scope and tale. He's one of my favorite directors and I'm throwing his name out there for best of all time.

 

 

Some obvious choices: Spielberg, Scorsese, Hitchcock, Kubrick, DeMille, Lynch, Wilder, Wyler, Fellini.

[Majsju]

#1 Bergman.

#2 Pasoloni, Fellini, Tati, Lynch, Kubrick, Fassbinder, (daddy) Coppola, Kieslowski, Kurosawa, Truffaut...

[Krakalakachkn]

Hey Maj, did you enjoy Bergman's Seventh Seal?

[Majsju]

I love it, though it is not my favourite.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

james whale.

[Krakalakachkn]

Interesting choice, are you a big fan of horror films?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

i'm a big fan of universal horror, and i love a few other b&w horror films, like the haunting. but i honestly think bride of frankenstein is one of the most perfect films ever made. and the old dark house, and the first frankenstein, and the invisible man, are magnificent as well.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

(and by the first frankenstein, i mean the first whale frankenstein.)

[dapianoplay3r]

I really need to see more of these films (this is my little tag so i will keep tabs on who to watch, I dont actually have much to say)

[Emperor]

I would throw in a few other names as well.

 

Woody Allen - Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, etc etc.... He isn't my favorite but you can't overlook what he has accomplished.

 

The Coen Brothers - Fargo, No Country for Old Men, O Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, etc etc Almost every movie they make is guaranteed to be great (Ladykillers being the exception).

 

Spielberg has made some great movies... no doubt. Jaws, Schindlers List, Close Encounters, and Saving Private Ryan. He has dropped many many eggs though. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, War of the Worlds, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and 1941 to name a few. He also produces many big budget tent pole movies that I think sours his name (All the Transformers movies, Eagle Eye, etc). I rarely trust movies he is involved with because it seems he is out to make a buck and not bring me quality movies.

[Krakalakachkn]

Almost every movie they make is guaranteed to be great (Ladykillers being the exception).

 

 

Let's not forget Burn After Reading. While it wasn't terrible, it's easily one of their worst and, in my opinion, very unenjoyable.

[Red2111]

Tarentino is high up on my list honestly. Pulp Fiction, Unbreakable, Kill Bill just to name a few. i'm suprised he hasn't been mentioned tbh.

 

 

another one i liked for his earlier work woudl be M.Knight. his movies pre-dating "Village" were good, but after that he dropped the ball and lost the game

[Majsju]

I would throw in a few other names as well.

 

Woody Allen - Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, etc etc.... He isn't my favorite but you can't overlook what he has accomplished.

 

 

 

My main problem with Allen is that he just makes the same movie over and over and over and over again. Sure, the execution is great, but his movies does fall a bit flat when you know exactly what's going to happen before you have even pressed Play.

 

The Coens...meh. They only look good because they are active today, when there is no real competition. But, since I had to give those active today a thought, i realised I had forgotten Lars von Trier.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

i think radio days really stands out for allen, and purple rose of cairo. and when he was funny, he was funny. still, mostly the same movie, as you say.

[Krakalakachkn]

Tarentino is high up on my list honestly. Pulp Fiction, Unbreakable, Kill Bill just to name a few. i'm suprised he hasn't been mentioned tbh.

 

 

another one i liked for his earlier work woudl be M.Knight. his movies pre-dating "Village" were good, but after that he dropped the ball and lost the game

 

 

I thought Unbreakable was Shyamalan?

[Majsju]

Thinking about it, I should probably mention Kusturica aswell.

[Joshua Hendrickson]

Stanley Kubrick, tip-top of the list. I think every single one of his movies is amazing, and 2001: A Space Odyssey is the pinnacle, at the very least, of genre cinema.

 

Steven Spielberg. Yes, he's made some stinkers, but when he is good he is very very good. I can't imagine my childhood without movies like Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters, and E.T.

 

Jean Renoir. The Rules of the Game is easily the best non-genre film ever made.

 

Martin Scorsese. The true American master. We can't praise him enough.

 

Akira Kurosawa. A legend in every sense. And his battle scenes are to die for.

 

Coen Bros. Every film is distinctive, creative, and energetic, and I like how they alternate between serious films and comedies.

 

David Fincher. There are a couple of films of his that I shrugged at--The Game and Panic Room--but when he's at the top of his game, in films like Se7en, Fight Club, and The Social Network, he's one of the best directors working today. I even liked Benjamin Button--I thought he took on a challenging concept there, and although he failed, I enjoyed the effort.

 

Peter Jackson. I was a huge fan of Heavenly Creatures--one of my all time favorites--and when I learned he was set to do The Lord of the Rings, I knew, from that early film, that he was the man for it, because here was a director who understood what fantasy is all about. And I wasn't wrong.

 

Orson Welles. Citizen Kane is of course every bit as good as they say it is--not a deep film, to be sure, but probably made with more excitement and invention than any other film before or since.

 

And so many more that I can't think of right now....

[Dewairah]

Stanley Kubrick, tip-top of the list. I think every single one of his movies is amazing, and 2001: A Space Odyssey is the pinnacle, at the very least, of genre cinema.

 

Steven Spielberg. Yes, he's made some stinkers, but when he is good he is very very good. I can't imagine my childhood without movies like Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters, and E.T.

 

 

 

I agree. kubrick is at the top for me. His movies were simply amazing. not necessarily the funnest (2001) and not necessarily the most palatable (full metal jacket/clockwork orange/etc) but always so very well done and always make such a massive pyschological impact upon the viewer. Everything he touched was simply epic.

 

Spielberg would probably come in near the top as well for me, simply because his movies were always so fun -- not necessarily because they were truely great or had the kind of impact quality of kubricks works.

 

I'm a big fan of guillermo del toro. I think he has a great potential to be the greatest modern fantasy/scifi/horror director.

 

I really really wish del toro had gotten the chance to make his planned rendition of HP Lovecrafts "At the mountains of Madness". I think, given that james cameron was goign to do the special effects, it would've been absolutely amazing.

[John E. Kelley]

I think John Huston deserves a nod. Best known probably for directing most of Bogart's movies, the most notable ones being Key Largo, the Maltese Falcon and the African Queen. He also directed the Misfits with Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.

 

Main reason for my mentioning him is Bogart and Lauren Bacall are easily my favorite Hollywood couple of all time.