My favorite directors

I've got Rashomon, City LIghts, and Rules of the Game headed my way because I got a sweet deal online (3 for the price of 2). I can't wait. Rashomon is utterly brilliant (though Seven Samurai is "better" to the extent that one can rank perfection). Kurosawa might be my favorite director, but I need to watch more of his stuff. So far I've seen:

Rashomon
Seven Samurai
The Hidden Fortress
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
Ran

All of which are perfect in their own way (even Sanjuro, which is terribly underrated). And I rented Ikiru last night but watched Singin' in the Rain first (also excellent).

BaldJean wrote: el böthy wrote: BaldJean wrote: I have to add Roman Polanski, Francois Truffaut, Fritz Lang, Akira Kurosawa (who directed my favorite movie "Rashomon"), Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the greatest of all, Charlie Chaplin Why? They are not my favorites...   I MUST watch some Fassbinder, specially Welt amd Draht!!! Kurosawa, I only saw 7 Samurais... failed to see the hype about it, I will probably watch it again though. And haven´t seen Rashomon... yet! Fritz Lang would have made it, from what I´ve seen from him, but I´ve seen way to little (Only M and Metropolis) Truffaut is (in my eyes) a better screenwriter than director, but that´s just me. I prefer Goddard´s iconoclastic style Chaplin... was a genius, but his directing is not what stands out in my eyes Polanski... is in my opinion one of the most overrated directors... he is good and has done good movies, but I wouldn´t put him in the top along with the other greats well, "Rosemary's Baby"! is in my opinion the best horror movie ever.. and "Chinatown" and his first movie, "The Knife in the Water", are great too. and not to forget "The Fearless Vampire Killers". "Rashomon" can be viewed here (in 9 parts) Part 1: http://tinyurl.com/9t69l6 Part 2: http://tinyurl.com/7wona8 Part 3: http://tinyurl.com/7x4p4x Part 4: http://tinyurl.com/7cxrqw Part 5: http://tinyurl.com/6wowse Part 6: http://tinyurl.com/8m5lb5 Part 7: http://tinyurl.com/962mdk Part 8: http://tinyurl.com/8vgrou Part 9: http://tinyurl.com/7gf68k sadly sound and picture are asynchronous in part 8 of this youtube version, but I hope you can overlook that; it is my favorite part of the movie. that clumsy and cowardly sword fight. quite the opposite of what the bandit tells in the beginning!

Well I´ve just finished seeing Rashomon, thanks to Jean, and even though the asynchronous is present in all but the first part and it get´s worst and worst as it goes on... I have to say that it´s a pretty damn good movie! I liked it far more than Seven samurais, which I will try to see again anyways... great performance by Toshiro Mifune and great photography!

el böthy wrote: I liked it far more than Seven samurais, which I will try to see again anyways

*narrows eyes, draws samurai sword cardboard tube*

Oh, and if anyone's interested in Kurosawa, Amazon is having a big deal at the moment on indie and foreign films, and you can get the normally outrageous Criterion DVDs for like 26 apiece (which is a massive steal). Last night I ordered Ran, Ikiru, and High and Low; the first two because I rented them and didn't want to return them and the third because it's acclaimed and, quite simply, because it's Kurosawa.


Edited by 1800iareyay - January 17 2009 at 17:23

The Royal Tenenbaums is the only Wes Anderson film I've truly loved. I like Life Aquatic and Rushmore, but they're not all that. Bottle Rocket barely even feels like a Wes Anderson film and manages to really stretch its short running time into boredom. And I though Darjeeling Limited was an exercise in facile symbolism and painful unfunniness.

Tough... I like Welles and Fincher... both are great... Fincher is quite unique in his detail loving so I vot for him... but to be honest... I have to say my favorite is Robert Zemeckis... quite brilliant in visual effects and long and slow shots with realism on developing image... you have seen "Roger Rabbit", "Back to the Future", "What lies beneath", "Contact" and "Cast Away"... yep... I said so...!!!

David Lynch. I watched Inland Empire this evening for the second time, and it was just as brilliant as the first time. The mood in the movie is so dark and menacing... absolutely fantastic! 

Federico Fellini. I like neorealistic Italian movies. Aronofsky , Ridley Scott and Zean Luc Goddard are coming too close.


Edited by inrainbows - October 09 2009 at 18:04

Martin Scorsese...................just saw Gomorrah recently

From your list, it's a toss-up between Lynch and Kubrick...

Has Krzysztof Kieslowski been mentioned yet? Jim Jarmusch?

Also, Asia has been neglected so far, what about:

Wong Kar-Wai, Kim Ki-Duk, Chan-wook Park, Hayao Miyazaki

(I'm not saying you should've put these on your list, just pointing out some of my favorites that haven't been mentioned yet).