NationStates Jolt Archive

Here's my list. Oh, and by the way, the whole point of this thread is that you have to agree.

David Lynch (up until that piece o' shit he called "INLAND EMPIRE")

Takashi Miike (the Dead or Alive series, Gozu, Audition)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen)

Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, some Monty Python)

Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man)

Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth)

Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness)

(early) Peter Jackson

Steven Soderbergh (Schizopolis, sex, lies, and videotape, errrm, Ocean's 11, 12, and 13. I didn't see those. Maybe he just did Ocean's 11.)

the Cohen Bros. (The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Blood Simple)

Uwe Boll (every abysmally abysmal video game adaptation ever; he's so awful he's almost good)

Ummm. That's all I can think of for the moment.

Rob Zombie, duh.

david o selznick

alfred hitchcock

john houston

frank capra

charlie chaplin

Rob Zombie, duh.

It wasn't until "The Devil's Rejects" that his movies started to look even remotely good.

I do think he's one to watch out for, though.

alfred hitchcock

charlie chaplin

YES.

It wasn't until "The Devil's Rejects" that his movies started to look even remotely good.

I do think he's one to watch out for, though.

Since he's just up 'n comin'..

Andy Warhol.

David Lean
John Ford
DH Lawrence
Orson Wells
Martin Scorcese
Billy Wilder
Akira Kurosawa
Steven Spielberg
Stanley Kubrick


In the future tense:
Quentin Tarantino
David Lynch
Daron Aronofsky
Michel Gondry
Wes Anderson

Ok, these aren't the greatest filmmakers ever, but they're some of the best around at the moment:

Hayao Miyazaki (most of the best Studio Ghibli films, though Howl's Moving Castle was, frankly, a bit pants).
Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, Sunshine, 28 Days Later).
Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige).

Luc Besson
Kubrick
Coppola

Paul Verhoeven
Sergio Leone

I would add Ridley Scott and Howard Hawks.

Steven Speilberg
George Lucas
Akira Kurosawa
Hayao Miyazaki
Alfred Hitchcock
Peter Jackson
I'll be lynched for these but frankly I don't care what BS you can throw:
James Cameron
Michale Bay

This guy ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcp9WsH5TBg

Speilberg
Lucas
Scorcese
Scott
Craven
Hitchcock
Warhol
Zombie
Coppola
Bay
Donnor
Jackson
Singer
Nolan

I disagree with Mr. OP, on both philosophical grounds (I have the right to disagree) and factual grounds (No way near my favourite directors).

Here's my list. Oh, and by the way, the whole point of this thread is that you have to agree.

David Lynch (up until that piece o' shit he called "INLAND EMPIRE")

Takashi Miike (the Dead or Alive series, Gozu, Audition)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen)

Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, some Monty Python)

Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man)

Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth)

Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness)

(early) Peter Jackson

Steven Soderbergh (Schizopolis, sex, lies, and videotape, errrm, Ocean's 11, 12, and 13. I didn't see those. Maybe he just did Ocean's 11.)

the Cohen Bros. (The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Blood Simple)

Uwe Boll (every abysmally abysmal video game adaptation ever; he's so awful he's almost good)

Ummm. That's all I can think of for the moment.

Akira Kurosawa is the greatest filmmaker of all-time in my opinion.

YES.

QFT*



*(First time I've used that, I feel dirty :()

No Sergei Eisenstein?

don't forget Wes Anderson, I cant wait for The Darjeeling Limited

Welles
Eisenstein
Griffith (I've never seen an entire movie of his, but as far as I know he invented many cinematograppic devices which now everyone uses)
Fellini
Ed Wood (just kidding)

How about Pedro Almodóvar.

This seems just to be turning into a list of film makers...

Woody Allen, Bergman, Welles

I'm obsessed with film and cinema, I was compelled to reply as I watch a steady diet of foreign, classic, and independent cinema. Many of you were neglecting the foreign filmmakers.


Woody Allen
Pedro Almodovar
Robert Altman
Theo Angelopoulos
Michaelangelo Antoini
INGMAR BERGMAN
Bernardo Bertolucci
Robert Bresson
Luis Bunuel
Frank Capra
Charlie Chaplin
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Jean Cocteau
Coen Brothers
Coppola
Edwards
Fellini
Fleming
Ford
Jean-Luc Godard
Griffith
Hawks
Herzog
Hitchcock
Huston
Kazan
Kielslowski
Kubrick
Lang
Lean
Leone
Lynch
Lumet
Melville
Peckinpah
Powell
Ray
Renoir
Ray
Resnais
Rosselini
Rohmer
Scorsese
Scott
Spielberg
Tarkovsky
Tati
Truffaut
Wajda
Welles
Wilder
Wyler

The Wachowski Bros!!!

I dunno...whoever ET tells me...

This guy ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcp9WsH5TBg

Ahahahaha!

The fact that it's the shitty version not done by cake really adds to it!

Kubrick
Kurosawa
Lars von Trier
Werner Herzog
Coen brothers
Bergman

there's more, but I can't think of any at present

Griffith (I've never seen an entire movie of his, but as far as I know he invented many cinematograppic devices which now everyone uses)


True, but consider yourself lucky. His film "Birth of a Nation" was a boring, repetitious meditation on the benefits of racism.

Jules White

uuhhh... let's see:

Stanley Kubrick (except for EWS, that's shit)
Sergio Leone
John Ford
Federico Fellini
François Truffaut (mostly for Fahrenheit 451)
Kon Itikawa (Biruma no tategoto, the Burmese Harp)
Steven Spielberg (when he isn't making some blockbuster like Jurassic Pork)
Quentin Tarantino
Vittorio De Sica
Gillo Pontecorvo (the Battle of Algiers)
Sergej Ejzenstejn
Mario Monicelli
Elio Petri
Ingmar Bergman
Orson Welles
Carl Theodor Dreyer

Here's my list. Oh, and by the way, the whole point of this thread is that you have to agree.


Ummm. That's all I can think of for the moment.

You set some pretty low standards. How about Hitchcock, Bergman, Ford...

Personally, I consider the Golden Years of film to be in the 40's and 50's. Certainly before flashy special effects became a substitute for good acting.

I can't even begin to understand how people can list the likes of Spielberg, Lucas, Scorcese ahead of, say, Woody Allen. Just beyond me.

This seems just to be turning into a list of film makers...
How prescient of you...

I'm obsessed with film and cinema, I was compelled to reply as I watch a steady diet of foreign, classic, and independent cinema. Many of you were neglecting the foreign filmmakers.

Woody Allen, Pedro Almodovar, Robert Altman, Theo Angelopoulos, Michaelangelo Antoini, INGMAR BERGMAN, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Bresson, Luis Bunuel, Frank Capra, Charlie Chaplin, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean Cocteau, Coen Brothers, Coppola, Edwards, Fellini, Fleming, Ford, Jean-Luc Godard, Griffith, Hawks, Herzog, Hitchcock, Huston, Kazan, Kielslowski, Kubrick, Lang, Lean, Leone, Lynch, Lumet, Melville, Peckinpah, Powell, Ray, Renoir, Ray, Resnais, Rosselini, Rohmer, Scorsese, Scott, Spielberg, Tarkovsky, Tati, Truffaut, Wajda, Welles, Wilder, Wyler

Hayao Miyazaki

Uwe Boll clearly. kidding

Tarentino. And I know many will disagree with me on this, but I don't care.

Del Toro gets a very close second place.

Personally, I consider the Golden Years of film to be in the 40's and 50's. Certainly before flashy special effects became a substitute for good acting.

Fuck the 40's and 50's, the greatest year for film was 1992. Great acting and some snazzy special effects were combined to produce one of, if not the, greatest films of all time (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106308/).

Fuck the 40's and 50's, the greatest year for film was 1992. Great acting and some snazzy special effects were combined to produce one of, if not the, greatest films of all time (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106308/).
Hmmm. I'm not sure I've ever seen a cast with Bridget Fonda in it and the words "great acting" mentioned in the same place...

You do have kind of a point, though. Great eras for film are probably genre-specific. The Western probably peaked in 1960 with "The Magnificent Seven". You could argue that "How the West was Won", in 1962, was better, but it would be a tough one.

Hmmm. I'm not sure I've ever seen a cast with Bridget Fonda in it and the words "great acting" mentioned in the same place...

You do have kind of a point, though. Great eras for film are probably genre-specific. The Western probably peaked in 1960 with "The Magnificent Seven". You could argue that "How the West was Won", in 1962, was better, but it would be a tough one.
Nah, the Western peaked in 1966 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060315/). :D

Hmmm. I'm not sure I've ever seen a cast with Bridget Fonda in it and the words "great acting" mentioned in the same place...

You do have kind of a point, though. Great eras for film are probably genre-specific. The Western probably peaked in 1960 with "The Magnificent Seven". You could argue that "How the West was Won", in 1962, was better, but it would be a tough one.

Nah I think westerns peaked a little later, the late 60's to the early 70's, the revisionist westerns. The early ones with John Wayne and the like just turn me off to the whole genre. But many of the spaghetti westerns (the big three, you know ;)) revamped the genre and got rid of the hokey, campy feel of early westerns. High Plains Drifter, the Leone Trilogy, They Call Me Trinity. Hell, there are still some good ones out there today, like The Proposition.

Nah I think westerns peaked a little later, the late 60's to the early 70's, the revisionist westerns. The early ones with John Wayne and the like just turn me off to the whole genre. But many of the spaghetti westerns (the big three, you know ;)) revamped the genre and got rid of the hokey, campy feel of early westerns. High Plains Drifter, the Leone Trilogy, They Call Me Trinity. Hell, there are still some good ones out there today, like The Proposition.

Wouldn't The Proposition be more of an "Eastern", given it's setting?

Anyway, John Wayne closed the book on the "traditional" western in 1976.

Interesting interpretation of the word 'filmmaker' to mean 'director' in this thread btw

Oh I forgot Ridley Scott on my list

Nah, the Western peaked in 1966 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060315/). :D

Oh, so close, it was actually 1967...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061770/

Most have been mentioned already, but:

Akira Kurosawa
Sergio Leone
Terry Gilliam
Bernardo Bertolucci
Alfred Hitchcock
David Lynch
Kinji Fukasaku
Joel & Ethan Coen
Stanley Kubrick

are my personal favourites.

Conventional but exceptional.

Victor Fleming-"The Wizard of Oz"
Francis Ford Coppola- "The Godfather" Part 1 and Part 2

I can't even begin to understand how people can list the likes of Spielberg, Lucas, Scorcese ahead of, say, Woody Allen. Just beyond me.
Or indeed how anyone can put Spielberg and Lucas on their list at all.

I forgot to add Sergio Leone to mine.
And Scorcese.
And Fritz Lang.
I'll think of a few others as time goes by.

Robert Rodiguez for El Mariachi
Lucas for the The Empire Strikes Back.
Spielberg for Schnidler's List, and Jurassic Park 1
Martin Scorsese for Gangs of New
Tarantino for Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.
Spike Lee for Boyz n the hood.

:)

The greatest filmmaker ever was George Eastman.

Interesting interpretation of the word 'filmmaker' to mean 'director' in this thread btw

True. I was going to nominate George Eastman, but when I saw what everyone else wrote, I changed my mind.

Akira Kirosawa rocked!

The greatest filmmaker ever was George Eastman.

:D

Kubrick.

Robert Rodiguez for El Mariachi
Lucas for the The Empire Strikes Back.
Spielberg for Schnidler's List, and Jurassic Park 1
Martin Scorsese for Gangs of New York
Tarantino for Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.
Spike Lee for Boyz n the hood.

:)
Now you're getting confused between great films and great filmmakers.
Having one good movie doesn't qualify a person to be considered a great filmmaker.
e.g. Spike Lee's 'Boyz' is a good movie, sure, but the rest of his stuff is pretty dire.
And Lucas might be great in imagining futuristic settings et al, but he's hopeless at dialogue and plotting.
Spielburg just panders to the populist vote - and at any rate, for what he did to AI alone (let alone that absolute turkey 'Hook') should have him struck off the list.
Tarrantino's a magpie of a filmmaker but I'll give you that he has influenced movies considerably since 'Dogs.
However this is who's the greatest, not the most influential.

Alfred Hitchcock

Steven Spielberg

Ang Lee

Martin Scorsese

Francis Ford Coppola

Stanley Kubrick

Steven Soderbergh

Peter Jackson

George Lucas

Steven Summers

James Cameron

Clint Eastwood

more to come...

We all forgot two of the greatest:

Fritz Lang
Sam Peckimpah

plus, Timur Bekmambetov shows good potential.

We all forgot two of the greatest:

Fritz Lang
Sam Peckimpah

plus, Timur Bekmambetov shows good potential.

ahem:
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13097989&postcount=46

Well, the American Film Institute would probably go with Orson Welles, considering Citizen Kane is their best movie of all time, and he really did make that movie. He should be on moar lists, is what I'm sayin'