Great Directors

[matrixman]

Ridley Scott is certainly a great director from my point of view.

[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

Ridley Scott is certainly a great director from my point of view.

I think he's an amazing visual director.

[Krazy Kat]

Ridley Scott is certainly a great director from my point of view.

I think he's an amazing visual director.

I like the way he treats women in his films. Giving them strong character roles makes them more realistic.

[matrixman]

Ridley Scott is certainly a great director from my point of view.

I think he's an amazing visual director.

I like the way he treats women in his films. Giving them strong character roles makes them more realistic.

Agreed - strong, competent women, and stunning visuals make Scott my kind of filmmaker.
Ripley in Alien, Pris and Zhora in Blade Runner (both films rank highly among my all-time favorites). Hannibal with Julianne Moore, which I felt was a superior sequel to Silence of the Lambs. And G.I. Jane, one of the few movies starring Demi Moore that I care about. Scott was also responsible for a couple of sumptuous and intelligent period dramas: Gladiator and the little-seen 1492: Conquest of Paradise. Scott may be viewed as too "commercial" by some to be properly praised alongside the "greats," but I know what kind of films I like.

[Krazy Kat]

Gladiator and Kindom of Heaven might have went down the commercial road, but they still had that classical touch Ridley Scott is so good at.
I think I prefer his slower films, 1492, Someone to Watch, The Duelists. More thoughful and seem to make the movie last longer.

Looking forward to seeing his Robin Hood flick later this year.

[Montresor]

I think Scott has the potential for real genius - Alien, The Duellists, and Bladerunner, being my picks for his very best.

However, I feel he's made a lot of films which tread creative water and seek mainstream appeal too readily.

Kingdom of Heaven is one of the few films I turned off from sheer boredom. I think it was about the fifty minute mark, but I have rarely been so disinterested in a film as that one. I know some people who love, and that's fine, but I was in an apoplexy of yawning.

[Rigel]

Anybody with the balls to make a movie like Legend is great in my book, not to mention his more widely known hits.

[dANdeLION]

What's up with the link to Netflix, Rigel? You work there or something?

[Rigel]

Well, I could either link to the movie at IMDB, Netflix, or Wikipedia.

Since 99% of the time when I look up a movie it's on Netflix (if I decide I want to see it, I want to add it to my queue without looking for it on another site), that's the place I'm most likely to link

[Krazy Kat]

Sigourney Weaver said in an interview that Scott was hell to begin with on Alien. He had a short fuse with an explosive temper. Can't imagine why he allowed Orlando Bloom only give us one facial expression for the entire Kingdom of Heaven film. I hope his acting career doesn't follow Sean Young's...I kinda like him.

I think he's an amazing visual director.

Legend is beautifully filmed.
A bit clunky here and there, but I guess he lacks the movieness of others like Zack Snyder, Tarintino etc...

[Usivius]

Legend had great potential and was suppose to be much MUCH darker .. but this was the time of the great studio fued with Brazil ... I think Ridley saw what the studio did with that one and decided to try and go a more commercial route -- not 'necessarily' to suit the producers, but more to try and mare it more commercial ... which is what he does --- he acknowledges that he tries to make his films as commercial as possible and still stay 'true' to his vision....

I like the extended cut of Legend, but, despite most praise to the contrary, I like the tangerine dream soundtrack better...

[Krazy Kat]

In Legend there's certainly more going on beneath the surface. I like the scene when the troop fall down the well into the dungeon and Jack's golden shield rolls with them like a coin in a slot machine. Makes me think!

Kevin Costner is a great director.
Dances With Wolves may have been his most successful film, and while Waterworld is my favourite, I think The Bodygaurd proves how good the man is.

To take Whitney Houston, who hasn't a great deal of acting talent, and knock out a damn good movie is a testimony to Costner's directing skill.

Kevin Costner reminds me of the John Ford, John Wayne films, where the story will sometimes take second place to what's actually going on in the background. Who cares what the actors are talking about when behind them is the wide open spaces, the big sky, the sparkling blue rivers, and the awesomne mountains in the distance.

[The Dreaming]

I just saw Ponyo yesterday, and I need another opportunity to express my bottomless love for Hayao Miyazaki. He has made a half dozen of the most stunningly beautiful films ever made. The movies are a delight to the eye, the ear, the mind, the soul, and the heart.

Greatest Director? Greatest Writer? I might call him one of the greatest artists in ANY medium of all time. Almost no one has left such an indelible impact on who I am as a person.

[Cagliostro]

Not to mention his imagination is huge. I think Pixar is doing an amazing job, and John Lassiter is helping bring Miyazaki films to America. But while the writers at Pixar are amazing, they don't nearly have the imagination of creating such fantastic characters as Miyazaki.

Damn...now I really need to rush out and see Ponyo.

[Lord Mhoram]

I think the unequivocally greatest director of all time is Hitchcock. Comparisons were made upthread between Shakespeare and Kurosawa (who is also a consummate artist and who I'll talk about in a second). One analogue I see between Hitchcock and Shakespeare is their ability to synthesize "high" art with "low" art. They are both able to create sophisticated, intellectually stimulating dramatic works which are simultaneously wonderful, enjoyable, consumable, and able to be appreciated by anybody. Watching Hitchcock's films today, I'm pleasantly surprised that they were so popular -- given how weird some of the things that happen in them are.

First of all the Freudian obsession with mother-son relationships which appears in subtle and not-so subtle ways in many of his films, from Psycho to North by Northwest is incredibly disturbing. Second, he has an uncanny ability to create a seemingly comfortable atmosphere which we come to see slowly but surely is irrevocably wrong -- like the town in The Birds, Manderley in Rebecca, Madeline's lifestyle in Vertigo, the homoeroticism in Rope, the courtyard in Rear Window, countless others. There's a throwaway scene in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 version) where Jimmy Stewart is at a Moroccan restaurant. He and his wife are sitting on low-to-the-ground cushions, and he can't get quite comfortable. He keeps shifting his legs and he has a horribly pained expression on his face. How funny; Jimmy Stewart being awkward is always funny, and his wife gives a "How cute" chuckle. But it's just part of the sense of unease and malaise that Hitchcock is creating, as evidenced by the sudden appearance of the malevolent-seeming, creepy English couple at the table behind them. Genius.

The sheer number of masterpieces he produced -- all the ones I mentioned above, not to mention The 39 Steps, The Lodger, Notorious, Spellbound and many others -- makes his filmography the pinnacle of achievement, I think anyway. Those distinctive close-ups, the score's suspenseful build-up, and other stylistic techniques were brilliant. The deep themes Hitchcock favors -- the malevolence of the law, personal space, violence, sexual insecurity/impotence, voyeurism (who can forget peering through the hole in Psycho?), taboos, and the instability of the mind (the tremendous Vertigo is best at this) -- are always tackled with his trademark suspense and style. His ability to keep you engaged both viscerally and intellectually marks him as, in my opinion, the absolute greatest filmmaker ever.

Kurosawa is also tremendous. He was a genius at creating mood too, often with the weather of course (his trademark). I've always felt myself able to get a great grasp of the emotions and passions conveyed in his movies which is quite an accomplishment given the language barrier. Toshiro Mifune is particularly great at this, as his manic mood begins to infect everyone around him. The sheer amount of themes a movie like Seven Samurai can convey is testament to Kurosawa's genius. And Rashomon may be the greatest movie about truth of all time.

Ingmar Bergman -- can't believe nobody has mentioned him yet! -- is my other favorite besides Hitchcock. He is not the storyteller Hitch and Kurosawa are, but the philosophical depth of his stuff is just unparalleled. It's also the most depressing body of work of anybody in movies, as far as I can tell. The ultimate meaningless of life, the loss of faith of Western culture, the distance between people who consider themselves intimate, the fluidity of identity -- all of these things are demonstrated in films which are more like plays (which he also directed) than movies. The acting is always superb, and every film of his that I've seen (about eight) have been simply beautiful. Not only beautiful in their cinematography (every shot is like a painting) but also in their fluency in talking about the human condition. Must-sees include The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Passion of Anna, Autumn Sonata, Persona, Through a Glass Darkly.

Orson Welles deserves a name on any greatest director list because he directed what is justly called the greatest movie ever made. Citizen Kane was not only technically and substantively innovative, it is also emotionally affecting, socially conscious, brilliantly acted, and generally inspiring. The Magnificent Ambersons (the best examination of the idea of "progress" in American society I've ever seen), The Lady from Shanghai and Touch of Evil are all great movies too, and so are his versions of Macbeth and Othello. The bombasity and melodrama of some of his stuff does seem dated, but his movies are just so vivacious and fun that I can't resist them. He's also one of the best American actors, with one of the best voices, of all time.

Anyway, those are just some of my personal favorite directors. (Others would include Fellini and Lynch.) I hope somebody has found what I have to say about them interesting.

[Tjol]

For Kurasawa I've seen Ran, Seven Samurai and Roshoman, all great for their time, SS being the only one I found great at the time, Ran really good, Roshoman good. Looking forward to all the rest of his stuff too.

^Ditto.^


I'll add some contemporary ones, just to change things up...

I'm a fan of Chris Nolan, most specificaly Memento and The Prestige.

And while it looks like Shamylan(sp?) won't ever be back to his form with Unbreakable and The Village, those two movies are amazing when you consider the double stories going on.

While talking of double meanings, Guillermo del Toro has done some amazing work with Pan's Labrynth and The Devil's Backbone imo.

Hollywood's tone deaf to subtlety and symbolism these days, as I see it, so that's probably why most of my 'contemporary' favorites are such because they can be subtle.

Mamet is kind of hit and miss, but I think he belongs in the mentioning for his scripts if nothing else. Oleanna, Redbelt, and House of Games are all good stuff.


edit: and who is the guy who created Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Grave of Fireflies? They don't stand up next to live action movies in a debate of greatest film ever made, but they get within stone's throw at certian moments. In my opinion he does magic with creating a mood, and controlling your mood as his story goes on.

[Cagliostro]

Miyazaki, discussed above.