GREAT DIRECTORS - who do you consider the very best? (1 Viewer)

For me, the greatest directors of all time are the ones who have shown the most versatility and overall success in tackling the various genres.


Now, I'm not dissing Hitchcock, but he basically made the same movie over and over again. Top marks for always keeping the 'man with the face/chase' thriller fresh, appealing, absorbing and yes, exhilarating as only Hitch could. And truth be told, Hitch is one of my favorites.


Still, if I had to pick my top 5 - Hitch wouldn't be in it, although he decidedly makes my top 10.


Top five?


1. William Wyler: Frankly, it boggles the mind to reconsider how many of Wyler’s masterpieces have gone on to attain the status of certifiable classics: Jezebel (1938 – and winning Bette Davis her second Oscar), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), Mrs. Miniver (the Best Picture of 1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (Best Picture, 1946), The Heiress (1949 – winning Olivia DeHavilland her Best Actress Oscar), Roman Holiday (1953 – Audrey Hepburn’s Oscar win), The Big Country (1958), Ben-Hur (Best Picture, 1959 and Charlton Heston’s Oscar for Best Actor), How to Steal a Million (1966) and Funny Girl (1968 – Barbra Streisand’s Best Actress Oscar) to name but a handful.


2. Michael Curtiz - the output, the diversity and the hits are, once again - staggering. Captain Blood (1935), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Four Daughters, Angels with Dirty Faces (both in 1938), Dodge City, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (both in 1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), Yankee Doodle Dandy, Casablanca (both in 1942), Mildred Pierce (1945), Romance on the High Seas (1948), Flamingo Road (1949), White Christmas (1954), King Creole (1958) and The Commancheros (1961).


3. George Cukor - if only for 1954's A Star is Born and 1964's My Fair Lady, Cukor would already get my vote. But lest we never forget A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), David Copperfield (1935), Romeo & Juliet, Camille (both in 1936), Holiday (1938), The Women (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), A Woman's Face (1941), Gaslight (1944), Adam's Rib (1949) and Born Yesterday (1950).


4. David Lean - the peerless perfectionist, who took almost a year to shoot daffodils for Doctor Zhivago, remains the gold standard bearer in the realm of screen epics, what with Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ryan's Daughter and A Passage to India on his resume. I also admire Lean's early period; particularly Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Blithe Spirit, In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, and, of course, Summertime. Lean was a rare artist indeed; his visual panache very hard to come by these days.


5. Victor Fleming - true, Vic gave more assists and took over more projects than he actually directed at the start, but here is the guy who managed to add momentum and his inimitable disregard for the niceties to two of 1939's greatest achievements: Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz, as well as dazzling us with such classics as Red Dust, Treasure Island, Captain's Courageous, and, A Guy Named Joe.


The rest of my top 10


6. Alfred Hitchcock

7. Billy Wilder

8. Stanley Donen

9. Carroll Reed

10. Robert Wise


Okay folks - so now, who are your favorite directors of all time?

Hitch

David Lean

William Wyler

John Sturgess

Michael Curtiz

Richard Fleischer


My list (not in order after Hitch) is basically comprised of those directors who have made my favourite films. Hitch is top because North by Northwest is my No.1

Frank Capra
Michael Curtiz
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
Preston Sturges

In no particular order of merit.


Steven Spielberg

Howard Hawks

Alfred Hitchcock

Martin Scorsese

Roman Polanski

William Wyler

Clint Eastwood

Sidney Lumet

Robert Wise

Akira Kurosawa

So many great choices but here goes (personal favorites):


Sergio Leone, Orson Welles, Martin Ritt, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kuorsawa, Sir David Lean, Ridley Scott, Carol Reed, Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Mann, John Huston, Charlie Chaplin and John Carpenter.


Regards

No love for Kubrick?

Patrick Sun said:

No love for Kubrick?

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He is going to feature on my second list along with Fritz Lang, Robert Zemeckis and Francis Ford Coppola.

Billy Wilder

Fritz Lang

Stanley Kubrick

Alfred Hitchcock

David Lynch

Hitchcock
Bergman
Scorsese
Antonioni
Lumet

In no particular order, John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Aldrich, Stanley Kramer, Martin Scorsese, Victor Fleming, Michael Mann, Steven Spielberg, Fritz Lang.

John Ford, William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Curtiz, George Cukor, Ernst Lubitsch, Robert Wise, Howard Hawks, William Wellman, Raoul Walsh, Mervyn Leroy, Lloyd Bacon.

I missed out two - temporary mind fart is my excuse Stanly Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah


Regards,

Okay, everyone - if you could only take one movie from each director who you've listed as your favorites - just one to embody and/or typified what their work in totem has meant to you, which would it be and why?

Hitchcock, Vertigo
Bergman, Persona
Scorsese, Mean Streets
Antonioni, L'avventurra
Lumet, Prince of the City
All of which explore in detail various aspects of the human condition, obessession, fear, ambition, corruption, ennui. They also make acute comments on the film-making process itself.

John Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

Hitchcock, Vertigo

Aldrich, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Stanley Kramer,Judgement at Nuremberg

Scorsese, Goodfellas

Fleming, Gone with the Wind

Mann, Heat

Spielberg, Savng Private Ryan/The Color Purple (tie)

Lang, M


The darker side of the human condition and the blurring of the lines between good/bad.

Hitchcock

Almost forgot, Honorable mention: Sam Fuller

Hitch - North by Northwest

David Lean - Great Expectations

William Wyler - The Big Country

John Sturgess - Gunfight at the OK Corral

Michael Curtiz - Casablanca

Richard Fleischer - The Narrow Margin

Stanley Kubrick - 2001

Fritz Lang - The Big Heat

Robert Zemeckis - Back to the Future

Roy William Neill - Sherlock Holmes

Nothing too revolutionary about this list, but here goes...


Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey - The film that always seems to come in at, or near, my favorite of all time. The scope and breadth of the film is probably why it resonates so strongly with me.


William Wyler - The Big Country - Wyler's versatility and success across multiple genres is an incredible achievement. As Nick points out, Wyler is pretty special. Honorable mention: Ben-Hur


Howard Hawks - Bringing Up Baby - Another director whose career spans a multitude of genres and decades. His films don't always hit a consistently high note, but there are enough that do so for Hawks to make this list.


Michael Curtiz - Mildred Pierce - Once again, I share Nick's endorsement of a director whose diversity of genres and longevity merit a place in my list. Mildred Pierce works so well and is one of my favorite films of the '40s. Most folks would probably pick Casablanca, but my cynical nature prefers Mildred Pierce.


Joel and Ethan Cohen - Miller's Crossing - Their resume is a bit inconsistent with some films working better than others, but their best works are amongst my favorite films of the past 30 years. Miller's Crossing in particular for its engaging storyline and compelling performances.


Billy Wilder - Some Like It Hot - Still my favorite comedy of all time, which is enough, but not nearly the only reason why, I would include him in this list. Honorable mention: Sunset Blvd.


P.T. Anderson - Boogie Nights - Felt like I need to include another contemporary director and it was between Anderson and David Fincher, but Anderson's films tend to resonate just a bit more strongly with me. I still have vivid memories of watching Boogie Nights theatrically and the electric realization that I was witnessing the early stages of a wonderful filmmaker's career.


Edit: Upon slightly further reflection this list should include:


Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver - I could easily list Raging Bull, or Goodfellas, or even Mean Streets, but Taxi Driver (in a very similar way to Boogie Nights (above)) was the standout film that really made me aware of Scorsese as a filmmaker of note. The film's energy and commitment and urgency has always stayed with me.



Like most folks in this thread, I could probably list everyone, or almost everyone in this thread as someone whose work I've enjoyed at one level or another but these are definitely some favorites. Two of my all time favorite films are not listed, because of the lack of other features that work nearly so well as these two standouts...


Chariots of Fire - Hugh Hudson. While I enjoyed some of Hudson's other work, nothing else approached this miracle of a film for me.


The English Patient - Anthony Minghella - Like Hudson, other works never came near to this film that I can watch just about anytime.


- Walter.

SAhmed said:

So many great choices but here goes (personal favorites):


Sergio Leone, Orson Welles, Martin Ritt, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Sir David Lean, Ridley Scott, Carol Reed, Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Mann, John Huston, Charlie Chaplin and John Carpenter.

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"One of these things (is not like the others)"