Just like the lot of music I listen to, as I get older, the ability to choose a "favorite" is more and more difficult and the desire to state it, gets lost in the translation.

I suppose that I could tell you that if I chose one, it would be Terry Gilliam, and the main reason for it? We have the same birthday (Nov 22nd) and his sentiments are so much like my own, with the movielike imagination, and cartoon imagery all day long (if you will!) ... so it could be said that "I get it" regardless of what he does ... and in the end, I find the La Mancha film very sad ... because he is Don Quixote ... the man whose dream can not be filmed because it is so far out there that no one can relate to it ... and I can see this ... I write from a "dream-like" state and the funny/weird thing to it all is that the next night, the story continues as if it had a mind of its own, which I like to say it does ... and I never worry about what it means ... it's more important to "see the movie" and "appreciate it" than it is to find that it means something ... its meanings are all an illusion anyway, regardless of how we try to define it all, and see if we can find a "reason" for anything, which we do all the time!

But all in all, there are many directors that have stood out in my mind ... and here are some.

Jean-Luc Godard, for being the craziest loon with a camera in his hand. The ultimate kid just turning the camera on, and putting anything together that comes out, and the creativity and fun found in those films is insane, and so "unlike" film ... that most folks can't handle watching them! It is 100% "anti-film".

Nicolas Roeg, specially in the early days, starting with "Performance" and going all great for about 10 years, until the stories kinda fizzled out beyond "Bad Timing/A Sensual Obsession" which is a fabulous film, but scares many folks ... as it comes off weird, specially in the ending.

Luis Bunuel, for being one of the most original of all film makers in his time, and making sure that things were well written and filmed with a certain care that is hard to explain, but makes sense when you see it on the screen. It has been said that many of his films in the 20th century were just like paintings for hundreds of years, and it is hard to not agree or think so when he ends up using so many dramatic images from these paintings ... and the appreciation he has to UNDERSTAND what so much art is all about ... it isn't even surrealism ... it's just the human nature.

Peter Greenaway, one of the most bizarre of all directors, but also the one that has the guts to do something that most won't dare. His thing on the Mozart film is totally insane, but the choreography and bizarre "story" is something that you would love to see in a theater ... even though in this case the nudity is offending to some, but the whole thing is not sexual ... it is extremely symbolic and clean ... and if that is not enough you get a film with a PIP that could be said to be the character's mind, which to us viewers is distracting and scary at the same time ... we don't even know why sometimes as we get confused right the first time we see it. And then, if this is not enough, a version of Shakespeare that is out of this world, with Sir John Gielgud making a few simple lines shine so beautifully, that you wonder why you never bothered to go read that play ... I'll tell you why ... the movie is better than the reading of the play and it has all the visuals! And if that is not enough ... the wife having her lover and then offering him to her husband ... try the (cooked!) cokk ... it's a delicacy ... and a crazy film, just got crazier!

Werner Herzog ... the visuals and the way the music was used ... is something that most film makers never learn ... and it all ends up bad in follow ups ... similar to what happened to the Blade Runner films. But I like a comment that was made ... Werner comes over and wants music for a film, and I have plenty of tapes in the closet ... Werner grabs two or three of them and leaves ... and next week comes in and says ... I got a new film with the music you gave me!

I guess you could say that "insanity" drives me, just like it did don Quixote, even with seeing the original in Chicago in 1968 (I think!!!) with Richard Kiley ... the same night we got to see "East Meets West" (Menuhin and Shankar) ... and we got to see fat old made up ladies leaving the theater ... "how can anyone call all that improvisation music?" ... 

So much of this stuff still makes me cry ... and laugh ... I'm not sure we could ask for more!

It's not about the "meanings, I don't think ... it's the images ... that make it all special!

Recently Denis Villeneuve gets massive love from me for not ruining Blade Runner, and that could easily have happened , not to mention he has also done Arrival, Sicario and Dune. Not bad.

Most of my names would be the obvious ones so I don't know if it's even worth a list.

In no particular order:

Chris Marker

Johan van der Keuken

Jean Vigo

Jørgen Leth

Béla Tarr

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Artavazd Pelechian

Otar Iosseliani

Santiago Alvarez

Norman McLaren

...

in no particular order

Dario Argento

Kathryn Bigelow

John Carpenter

Francis Ford Coppola

Wes Craven

David Cronenberg

Brian De Palma

Richard Donner

Philip Kaufman

Stanley Kubrick

Michael Mann

George Miller

Christopher Nolan

George A. Romero

Martin Scorsese

Don Siegel

In no particular order:

Joel and Ethan Coen

Pedro Almodóvar

Ingmar Bergman

Carl Th. Dreyer

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Tim Burton

For me, it's, again, very difficult. I even left out the person that is, for me, the most creative and experimental director of all time in theater in the 20th century and the amazing amount of work he came up with ... PETER BROOK.

It is really difficult to sit and listen to "MARAT/SADE" which most folks will state is too many words, when it is one of the most with it piece of work, and staged beautifully with the asylum members behind bars and the rich folks in the front ... and us behind them all ... !!! The lines, themselves in both the film and the stage version of the LP ... are simply magnificent and say a lot more than we really want to go through and admit.

If that is not enough, his experiments in theater brought us things like "THE MAHABHARATTA" which consisted of actors that could not even talk to each other from different places on the earth, and the presentation of it on stage is ... if you EVER get to see the film, an amazing event.

Hard to deal with, but his original "LORD OF THE FLIES" allowed kids to do a lot of things on their own, and the film ends up looking like an adult thing, but the kids were amazing to watch.

And for good measure, is a sort of documentary about his DIRECTING, done by his son, called "THE TIGHTROPE" and it is, nothing but an acting exercise, but you get to see what it takes to help an actor achieve something ... it's enchanting and lovely ... but something that many folks here will not sit through, and in every way, few realize how revolutionary and progressive that is in the definitions of theater in the 20th century and how it started doing things that were completely away from a script and what we thought theater was all about ... nothing but our emotions. All of a sudden, it is something else.

Of all of his things, the one I wish I could have seen, though you can a film,  although the story is about ... the hundreds of performances they did (Keith Mitchell at the lead), and how in each and every night the repetition portion of the script that is well known, was done totally different, and PB say in his book that he never could find two of them that felt the same! That is supreme acting and touch ... and few directors can accommodate that beauty and use it! 

It was a sad day for my imagination when he passed away a few months ago ... if anything, he was and will forever be one of my "teachers" ... and the only one that can SHOW YOU THAT THE MAGIC IS IN DOING ... not in your imagination!

I assume you mean Frank Darabont, director of The Shawshank Redemption and also a major force behind the TV series The Walking Dead?

The last would get on mine for just Jaws alone.

I would also add William Friedkin for The French Connection films as well as The Exorcist.

Not to mention David Fincher, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Guillermo Del Torro and Danny Boyle!

Top man out of all those for me is Fincher. Even Alien 3 is reasonably watchable. Seven gave me nightmares and The Game was massive fun with all the twists.

I would also mention Sean Penn just for The Pledge, a very underappreciated film that really hit me. Stars Jack Nicholson as a cop who makes a big mistake and then finds his life crumble slowly away to dust as an obsession to find a killer grips him.This is impressive dark psychological stuff. 

Hitch -

Hi,

The list would be endless!

Here's my conceptual view of these 3 ... and you don't have to think it means I don't like them. They are fine in my book, but not the best.

Tarantino, while putting a lot of help into some foreign films, has spent a lot of time copying many of them. Cameron, is the biggest rip off artist of all ... and Roger Dean, for one, has never got a single cent for it ... and nowadays, World of Warcraft is not giving Roger Dean a single cent either for a character that he had created and was ripped off senseless and directly! Spielberg is the ultimate directing professor at college ... and you can learn more about directing watching his work than almost anyone else except Hitchcock and Kubrick. For me, and his actors make his work better, he's too mechanical ... and a part of the great bunch of well known folks that spend their time at USC and UCLA telling the students what film "is" ... even though they know very well that things are very different in other places in the world ... but Hollywood is what matters! You get caught with a camera in your hand and your project just got a C-.

richardh wrote: ... David Fincher, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, Guillermo Del Torro and Danny Boyle! ...

Guillermo is neat ... but I'm having a hard time watching some of his films, and I have not quite figured out why ... I kinda like things that are free from being tied up (so to speak) and I find his films are too tied up to something or other. But I have to watch a couple of things again, because saying this here makes it look like I did not see anything. 

There are many directors that deserve a mention ... Jane Campion, although she was way better and more to the point in the early days, instead of the great this or that now. Peter Weir did a bunch of far out and neat things ... look up one of his really early pieces ... The Plumber, or the one short about the cars in a rally/demolition thing. George Miller, also deserves some credit. Paul Cox is another far out director that has done some nifty things ... and difficult things that came off well. Zhang Yimou ... stands out for me, and so does the slew of other film makers that he brought with him in china.  Giuseppe Tornatore has put out a bunch of really nice films, and his Cinema Paradiso is a gem, as is Everybody's Fine, both with some incredible performances. Jim Sheridan is magnificent, although he gets more credit as a theater director than he does as a film director. Carlos Saura for his forays into dancing ... and a new version of Carmen (the old against the new!). Ken Russell, that did the most bios of anyone, from his early days ... is a great. Sam Peckinpah who created one of the best westerns ever, and made violence in a couple of films look like a dance on Broadway! Mike Newell is well known for his theater and film directing and really good stuff. Nikita Mikhalkov is another far out director, and has gotten himself an Oscar in his closet courtesy of his daughter. David Lean the master of long shots and visuals in film ... something that is a long lost art these days with some "action" cartoons more important for the money it makes for some. Akira Kurosawa ... not much else needs be said except that he is remembered and the names of the folks at the Japanese Studios that hated him are long forgotten. Krzysztof Kieslowski is fantastic and his Veronique is a gem and then some! Not to mention how the music is used. Derek Jarman, for his insane imagery ... Juzo Itami, for his far out and totally eccentric comedies. Federico Fellini, for his crazy antics, and above all the most important image EVER in film, that we don't like to see ... the kid at the start of INTERVISTA ... and we don't like him, because we think he is simply being a jerk ... the kid just wanted to take a pee!!!!! And .. that's Fellini in one take! Bernardo Bertolucci deserves a mention as to how he uses colors and creates images in his films ... some really nice stuff and almost all of them with outstanding music!

There you have it  ... a quick look through my spreadsheet of films I have reviewed and are posted on my website (over 600!) ... all foreign films ... and yeah, I suppose I should include Huston and Hitchcock and one or two others ... but there is so much stuff out there being ignored my friend ... just so much ... and it deserves the attention!

You mention Peckinpah, noted for films with extreme violence. I do enjoy Straw Dogs and not just for Susan George getting her kit off. Apparently she had some misgivings about 'that scene' being a young actress but still decided to audition and was happy to get the role. Peckinpah and Hoffman called her in to give her the news (that she had got it) and when she entered the room then realised both were sitting in their chairs buck naked!

Stanley Kubrick in my book is the current Gaspar Noe, or the bad boy that wanted to shake things up!

One can appreciate some early stuff, but it all ended with 2001, when all of a sudden he was the "master" and in the end, I think it was over blown and not that great and even the author of the book thought is was another Ken russell adaptation of his novel. In one film he let the actor go free, which he learned to do right then. In the next, Peter Sellers told him what to do, and Peter was the master improvisationalist and did 6 voices in the film, and things like various announcements were done ad lib off Peter's experiences in WW2 (see Spike Milligan books (they were in the same bunch, and Peter played drums!). Tacky, but the novel is also in that vein was Lolita that brought to the front some lines ... listen to Shelly Winters talk about her daughter getting a cavity filled ... it wasn't a dental joke just so you know and both her and James Mason are grinning! I did not like what was made of Clockwork Orange, which was IF2 in my book, but taken out of the boys college! When it got to the Stephen King story, he ended up learning that if he did not allow Jack Nicholson to go ranting day and night all over the film ... he had no film!!!!!

In many ways, he takes the "acting" out of his actors and for me it hurts ... a lot of Shelly Duval's stuff is actually scary for women, and not funny, but it helped make Jack's character stronger and crazier.

The one thing that he probably should get credit for is his knack for camera angles, although it seems like these are few and far in between, but they show up full force in Clockwork Orange. There was no room for acting chops with all the space gear in 2001. And, in general, his use of music ... which is excellent in Barry Lyndon and almost tells the story by itself if one could imagine that. 

I imagine that he was a critic's favorite because the "meaning" in his films was not hidden and you knew right away what the whole thing is about, although 2001 would be the oddball in this equation.

There you have ... my non-take on Stanley Kubrick!

Hi,

And that is, by far, the one version that stands by the book a lot more than any other version.

In a special I saw on Prime Video, one scholar said that the original story was not a "horror" story at all, and the film kinda brings that out, but it was all the pubs all over Europe and Britain that "corrupted the story" from its original into something that the public ended up believing more than anything else ... never mind that so many folks will never read the book, specially when it is written by a woman, right with Byron, Shelly, Polidori, Le Fanu and others ... during many nights in castles amidst the candles and storms! Even Ken Russell kinda made fun of this and made their stories be a bit gorier than they needed to be, although the story by Polidori is very bloody ... and he was their DOCTOR! ... and in those days they bled sick patients!

Another view is that the whole "gothic" thing got its stink and blood from the French Revolution and its murderous and bloody public spectacles!

Brian Trenchard-Smith

and their apprentice Tarantino. 

Terry Gilliam

Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead

Alex Garland

Alfonso Cuarón

Christopher Nolan

Stanley Kubrick

Duncan Jones

Franklin Schaffner

The Spierig Brothers

John Krasinski

Roland Emmerich (mostly for Stargate; later are hit and miss)

Robert Schwentke

M. Night Shyamalan

Shane Carruth

Alexander Payne

Pella Kågerman/Hugo Lilja (just for Ariana; haven't seen anything else by them)

Spike Jonze

David Twohy

Steven Spielberg

I used to like Olive Stone but haven't seen anything by him in a while. I think he retired. I'm not sure who my favorites are (other than SS) but I have enjoyed stuff by James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, The Cohen Brothers and Spike Lee. I'm sure there are others too. Usually I go more by the movie or even the actors than the director. 

James Cameron

In my book, the most important thing is to find/list directors that are not media darlings and a part of the top ten society. It is very sad that so much film gets left behind because the majority of "directors" named here, were folks that did films that made money for the studios.

Compare that to Akira Kurosawa that had to go to Italy, France, England and America, just to get 100K to get ONE film done, because the Japanese folks wouldn't help him ... he wasn't making films to get them lots of money ... and as I used to say at the Portland International Flim Flam Festival, you got to see the other stuff, because you will never see it again (easier now with the toob, but not really!) ... while all the American and English stuff will come out on video (then) or DVD (now)!

The sad thing is how much one misses when finding out that there are some other far out films out there! Well, not for Paul, though his intentions are good, but his film tastes have not reached the music tastes as much. At list his lists, anyway!

He also directed Paths of Glory. I thought it was quite good. 

In my defence, I've watched Zardoz, so I have seen at least one far out film. 

Hi,

I'm don't think that it is one of the "greatest", though one could say it was one of the most seen and known ... I still think a lot of the Sci-Fi stuff that was done with Ray Harryhausen, Forbidden Planet, The Day The Earth Stood Still (for example) stand out a lot more ... specially as they were the forerunners of the style and themes. SK's film is nice, and I agree with the cinematography, the effects created for the film, but I tend to think a bit about the author that was not all that happy with the film, though he appreciated the "new audience" that came to read more of his work. Like the Ray Harryhausen stuff, Stanley Kubrick used a lot of music and did it very well in most of his films. 

However, when compared to other directors around the world that created a lot of mesmerizing things that were not just "a show" ... I would say that SK is one of the good ones, and not exactly the best. There are many films where the Sci-Fi current is more important, and valuable to its story ... the original Blade Runner, takes 2001 to school in my book. And the writing in it is far superior to SK's though the only part of the whole thing that can have any dialogue is the astronaut stuff.

enigmatic wrote:   ... A Clockwork Orange - one of the best dystopian crime movies with prog-rock reference. Anyone knows what I am talking about? ...

I do not dislike this film, however it is, in many ways IF2 (Lindsay Anderson's film IF) and it is simply more visual and violent with the added music to make a point even stranger than fiction. The premise of the two opposites is very strong, and makes the whole thing rather ... weird, for me. But, a lot in the film is blurry and weird and I think that too much of it was made from the fact that the lead actor made a go of it, and it was hard to ignore some of the fun things he was trying as he was moving around ... great actors tend to extend their work, and film, is often a bad place for it if the director does not know how to work with those kinds of actors, but he had experience, going back to Kirk Douglas, Peter Sellers, and later jack Nicholson as well as others ... who were outstanding at their free form, and deadly on ad libs and slight "asides" while acting. Peter Sellers hones this down in 12 years with The Goons on BBC Radio ... still the most surreal and funniest comedy around.

enigmatic wrote:   ... The Shining - one of the best horror films. ...

Take away Jack Nicholson and this film falls apart and every one will say that Shelly Duval was over-reacting to everything, and shouldn't have been there! What makes it great is the way the cinematography adds and hides so much of the film ... and creates moments that make us wonder ... what is going on? ... what's over there? ... kind of thing.

It didn't even dent the variety of horror films that were very big at the time, and even Dario Argento in Italy. Heck, even The Stalker (Russian film from 1973) is a better horror film, and there is no "violence" but the camera is scary as heck through all the 3 hours ... you never know what is in the next bend!

enigmatic wrote:   ... What else? Spartacus, Barry Lyndon, Full Metal Jacket. One exception, I've never understood the love for Dr. Strangelove. I've made couple attempts but never finished it. Not my cup of tea. By many regarded as Kubrick's best film.

Of these three I think that Barry Lyndon is the best of them ... it is not filmed to show off anything, and instead uses the music really well ... but acting wise, I would think it is a film that is not very strong ... at least compared to other things SK did.

Dr. Strangelove makes little sense today because we think that the "cold war" is long over and the paranoia is a joke ... it was probably one of the best satirical films ever and iot has a stupendous cast. You can't EVER forget George C. Scott (... you know you're not supposed to call me when ... and you know she is being sexy on the other end of the phone by his reaction! Priceless!) ... Sterling Hayden ... fluoride Manfred, fluoride as he discusses his feelings and paranoia in sending out a bomb ... Slim Pickens is absolutely insane and incredible. And the cowboy in him won't die!

But, all in all, the hard part of this particular film is that it has to have dialogue, and there is "no action" for us to get excited, so in essence, someone saying the film is crap, is not surprising ... but you must realize that it was made what ... some 58 years ago at a time when a lot of folks were very worried and scared of the Soviet everything. Today with the Internet adding so much mis-information and lies, you and I don't even care anymore!

SK was brilliant in his time ... he has not exactly aged well ... and somethings he did are not exactly appreciated today ... the suggestive lines in LOLITA are incredibly sexist and suggest worse. The violence in ACO is gratuitous and I think it suited the acting ability and style for MM. Two thirds of 2001 today is wasted on audiences that want to see Tom Cruise go silly ... (assuming that it is not all just advertising!!!) ... and no one gives a damn about SPACE ... something that everyone was getting their very first glimpse at the time, making it more important than it is now that we don't care.

But I can tell you one thing that was really FAR OUT ... TODAY'S audiences will never experience ... seeing 2001 at the Cinerama Dome in 180 degree screen and with music flying all over the theater aobe, below and every side you have! That added to the "experience", and of course, the accolades for the film maker!

I forgot Mel Brooks. I love his movies!

11- Cohen Brothers

12- Clint Eastwood

Erm, yep I undertand that 2001 showed space as it really is - terminally boring! Ridley Scott was a big fan and made a much more entertaining sci-fi film Alien.

I'm very much with Stephen King on that film version of The Shining. Didn't really convince me in any respect, way too over the top acting wise by both Nicholson (who is way better in many other films) and Duvall. Perhaps the scene 'Here's Jonny!!' has been way too parodied as the spinning head thing in the Exorcist although I much moee enjoyed the latter. Kubrick is certainly uncompormising in his vision and I perhaps should respect that but at the end of the day I want to be engaged and his films don't do it for me.

Ghost Dog and Broken Flowers and Mystery Train. I will check the Paterson movie you mentioned, I am really curious because I always like all the movies i have seen from him.

It's been long since I saw Broken Flowers, but I didn't care much for it. I need to see it again. The Limits of Control is weird and not entirely in a good way I think. Only Lovers Left Alive and Paterson I liked quite a lot. Haven't seen The Dead Don't Die yet. 

And that's not all. Tom Waits has one of the main roles in Down by Law and he made music for Night on Earth. Down by Law also has John Lurie (of The Lounge Lizards) who was in Stranger Than Paradise as well (in which there also was one-time Sonic Youth drummer Richard Edson). 

Jarmusch also directed Stooges documentary Gimme Danger that's very much worth seeing. And then there's Neil Young tour documentary Year of the Horse. 

Hi,

A good director with an outstanding listing of films ... you will note that he WROTE most of them, which is/was very much in line with a lot of the European directors, as opposed to America where things were mostly dominated by the studios. Even despite that, he was able to get the actors to get it done, which allowed for the studios to put their money behind it, instead of telling him where the laundry and the garbage was!

Thank you, Pedro, yes his process was unique for directors.   I see his influence in much later work by Woody Allen, Buck Henry, Neil Simon, etc.   And of course Wilder was an ardent anti-Fascist.