Best Director

Rocktopus wrote: Peter Greenaway would be in the poll if it was possible. Same as with ca. 30 other worthy directors not included.

Anyway, I vote for Peter Greenaway

Logan wrote: I love Wong Kar-Wai movies... I must admit that his most commercial hit, in The Mood For Love was my favourite.  I almost mentioned him, I was really absorbed by this director a year or so ago when I was anticipating 2046.  I couldn't wait for it it to hit the cinemas here (took a long time for its North American release), and so bought a Hong Kong DVD of it instead. I think it was the flimscore that really appealed to me -- it just worked so well with the images.  Must buy some Shigeru Umebayashi music (and Peer Raben and Michael Galasso). A few more directors I like that haven't been mentioned are Peter Greenaway,  Lindsay Anderson, Chen Kaige, Bigas Luna, Agnieszka Holland, Juzo Itami, and Volker Schlondorff. And well, I could think of lots. A couple classic directors that really deserves nods are Fritz Lang and Robert Weine.  Especially Lang for Metropolis I think.

Lang's best movie is "M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder" ("M - A City Looking for a Murderer") with a fantastic Peter Lorre.


Edited by BaldFriede - July 15 2006 at 23:32

Rocktopus: nothing at all wrong with the way you set it up.  It's a very good starting point.  Perhaps later this will lead to 'best director' polls organised by region, period, and by style/genre.  Could be the thin end of the edge though, this might end up becoming a progressive cinema site.  I must admit that I rarely watch films anymore.  I was so immersed in it at one time that I guess I burnt-out.


BaldFriede: I agree, excellent film, but being a bit of a sci-fi buff I've always had a thing for Metropolis.  Rather than reiterating why I consider it to be such a significant film (though not necessarily the best of his), here's a too-sleight post I once wrote about the film at a sci-fi site I used to post at quite a bit (click.) 

Rocktopus wrote: I sure thought Fassbinder would have atleast one certain vote, Fassbinder. Tarkovsky's Andrej Rubljov is in my own top ten. He is just as fantastic and important as Bergman.

Rocktopus:

of Fassbinder I especially like "Welt am Draht" ("World on Wire"), a tv-movie he made for WDR, a German tv-station. there is a problem with the rights about that movie, and at the moment it can't be shown at all, not even on tv, but we have a video of it. sometimes it pays to have a relative that is working for a tv-station .

OK, I understand. I find Jarmusch to be always interesting, but very uneven. Dead Man is great. Maybe you would enjoy Ghost Dog.   

I liked Jarmusch's Mystery Train, Night on Earth, and Down by Law very much.  Whilst I have problems with auteur theory (since I see film as a collaborative medium), the great directors are, generally, seen to have distinctive styles that are reflected in their ouvres.  Jarmusch has that.  I think its his films' humour that appeals to me most.

As for Ridley Scott, i wouldn't say that he has forgettable films, but I don't think him great.  He lacks subtlety, and there seems to me to be is a distinct lack of intellectual rigour that goes into his filmmaking (look at them ideologically).   Gladiator?  Didn't like it.  Titus that came out about the same time was far more interesting, I thought, although it was flawed.  Black Hawk Down was, ultimately, a pretty disappointing action-movie for me.  I'd hoped he'd offer a more blanced portrait of the situation (and delve into more of the history).  But he had his goals.  He's good at spectacle, but I don't think he's good at anlaysis.  I expect a little more from film.

I'd rather see his brother Tony Scott here, to be honest.

Since Lucas' Star Wars was mentioned: I'm no fan.  It's too simplistic philosophically, the characters are not well drawn out... While I would classify it more as fantasy than SF, I associate it with the prog movement. When it came out prog was dying -- too many people wanted wanted fast-food/ jumk-food rather than a hearty meal full of intriguing ideas -- this blockbuster helped kill, or just maim really, what I see as the best SF era.  Meaning films that had profound ideas, questioned our world and where we were going.  Vapid.

Rocktopus:

Quentin Tarantino anyone? What about Martin Scorsese.

Edited by cowbell1 - July 17 2006 at 09:22