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Five Favorite Directors?

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Five Favorite Directors?

Old 07-29-12, 02:13 AM
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Five Favorite Directors?

Keep it lean and mean. List your five FAVORITE film directors of all-time. No more no less. For the serious cinephile, I apologize in advance, this is going to be difficult.

BTW you're not obligated to list them in order of preference...just your top five favorites. Obviously there are no wrong answers. If you're offended by this question or can't narrow it down, it's understood and you don't need to participate.

I'll start.

Damn...this was harder than I thought.

William Friedkin
Stanley Kubrick
Werner Herzog
Alfred Hitchcock
Michael Haneke
Old 07-29-12, 03:22 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Cool thread idea JumpCutz!

I'll have a go at it, probably too commercial but they are favs:

Hitchcock
DePalma
Mann
Ridley Scott
John Carpenter
Old 07-29-12, 04:18 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

in order, along with my three most favored films

1) Joseph L Mankiewicz (A Letter To Three Wives, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, There Was A Crooked Man...)
2) Billy Wilder (The Apartment, Stalag 17, Sunset Boulevard)
3) Michael Powell (& Emeric Pressburger) (49th Parallel, Black Narcissus, A Canterbury Tale)
4) Richard Brooks (The Professionals, Bite The Bullet, Elmer Gantry)
5) Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind)

Last edited by Paul_SD; 07-30-12 at 09:59 PM.
Old 07-29-12, 04:39 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

#1
Kubrick

#2
Spoiler:


#3
Spoiler:


#4
Spoiler:


I don't have a 5th, but I dedicate this one to KillerCannibal:
Spoiler:
Old 07-29-12, 04:45 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Akira Kurosawa
Joel Coen (Coen Brothers)
Christopher Nolan
David Fincher
Steven Spielberg

Last edited by marginal; 07-29-12 at 04:49 AM. Reason: No ties allowed. : (
Old 07-29-12, 06:54 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

To Quote Orson Welles when asked this very question:

"Orson Welles was once asked which directors he most admired. He replied: "The old masters. By which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford"

And I'll just throw in John Ford two more times to bring the total up to 5.

Old 07-29-12, 07:14 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Peter Jackson
James Cameron
Steven Spielberg
David Twohy
Roland Emmerich

There are others (like John Carpenter, George Romero, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, and Stanley Kubrick) but those were quickest to my mind. -kd5-
Old 07-29-12, 07:16 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

John Ford
Akira Kurosawa
Sam Peckinpah
Chang Cheh
Hayao Miyazaki

That's what I say today. If you ask me tomorrow, I might have a different list.

(I might add that I've seen something like 75 films directed by Chang Cheh, more than I've seen by any other director, and enjoyed the overwhelming majority of them.)
Old 07-29-12, 08:43 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Woody Allen
George Roy Hill
George A. Romero
Quentin Tarantino
Alfred Hitchcock
Old 07-29-12, 08:45 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Bergman
Kubrick
Kurosawa
Miyazaki
Nolan

... with Wong Kar-Wai as a very close sixth addition.
Old 07-29-12, 09:16 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Scorcese
Tarantino
Boyle
Besson
Nolan
Old 07-29-12, 09:27 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

John Ford
Akira Kurosawa
Chang Cheh
Alfred Hitchcock
Steven Spielberg


Ash Ketchum---I'm not sure how many Chang Cheh movies I own---certainly over 50. I think he was often a bit of a lazy, sloppy director, but I rank him highly because to me, he was a true artist. He was obssessed with communicating certain themes, values and images that were deeply important and meaningful to him.
Old 07-29-12, 10:56 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

1.Tarantino- Tarantino has been my favorite since I was in high school. Like I said elsewhere, he has yet to disappoint me. And this includes Death Proof and his Four Rooms segment.

2. Scorcese- Goodfellas is the best gangster movie. Taxi Driver is a masterpiece and one of the scariest movies about a man losing his fucking mind. Those two movies alone would make him one of my favorites. But I love The King of Conedy, After Hours, Cape Fear, and more. If it's Scorcese, I'm interested.

3. Spielberg- There's so many directors I could pick that I could pick for my five favorites that are a little more hip but if I'm being honest with myself, I'm picking Spielberg. His movies are one of the only things that haven't lost their luster for me as I've grown up. He's not infallible(Indiana jones 4, Hook) but he knows how to make a fucking movie. Hell, I even liked War Horse.

4-5. I'm having a hard time with 4 and 5. The top three is easy for me but leaving any of the following directors out of my top five would make me sad: Kubrick, Leone, Hitchcock, Wilder, Leone, De Palma, Carpenter, Lumet, Kurosawa, Allen, Peckinpah, Chan Wook, etc.
Old 07-29-12, 10:57 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Top five is pretty easy for me. Top 10......I'd struggle a bit.

Kurosawa
Kubrick
Ford
Bergman
Hitchcock
Old 07-29-12, 11:07 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Spielberg
Carpenter
Cameron
Verhoeven
Donner
Old 07-29-12, 11:31 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

I narrowed it down to eleven, and then just had to randomly pick five to include. The first two are probably my absolute favorites, but after that it's unranked.

Jean Renoir
Alfred Hitchcock
Andrei Tarkovsky
Werner Herzog
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Old 07-29-12, 11:43 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Quentin Tarantino
Christopher Nolan
David Fincher
PT Anderson
Martin Scorcese
Old 07-29-12, 11:53 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Spielberg is #1, the other 4 are in no particular order.

Steven Spielberg - Screw the haters, this man made my childhood!

Quentin Tarantino - His "Homages" get a little heavy sometimes but his love of films shines through in each of his movies and it becomes contagious.

Akira Kurosawa - I'm mesmerized by every second of his films.

James Cameron - I love every one of his movies. When the highest grossing movie of all time is your weakest film, you're doing something right!

David Lean - His huge spectaculars get the most attention (and deservedly so) but his smaller films are also fantastic.
Old 07-29-12, 11:55 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Hal Hartley
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Michael Haneke
David Cronenberg
Lars von Trier
Old 07-29-12, 11:56 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

David Lean
Alfred Hitchcock
Ingmar Bergman
John Ford
Steven Spielberg

Runners up:

Akira Kurosawa
Frederico Fellini
Stanley Kubrick
Howard Hawks
Francis Coppola
Old 07-29-12, 11:58 AM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

No particular order..

Quentin Tarantino
Martin Scorsese
Stanley Kubrick
Christopher Nolan
The Coen Brothers

If it were to be extended to top ten I'd add

Alfred Hitchcock
Steven Spielberg
David Fincher
William Friedkin
Ridley Scott

Last edited by Mike86; 07-29-12 at 12:07 PM.
Old 07-29-12, 12:07 PM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

David Lynch
Ridley Scott
David Cronenberg
Stanley Kubrick
Martin Scorsese
Old 07-29-12, 12:31 PM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Hard to only name 5.

Andrei Tarkovsky
Jean-Pierre Melville
John Huston
Jeff Nichols
Sidney Lumet
Old 07-29-12, 12:41 PM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Malick
Kubrick
Kurosawa
Romero
Argento
Old 07-29-12, 12:47 PM
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Re: Five Favorite Directors?

Malick!


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