Directors Checklist series recommendations (1 Viewer)

[Marc Fedderman]

I think you should leave it Jim, after all beauty (greatness) is in the eye of the beholder, one man's treasure is another man's trash, insert silly epigram here, etc. Besides, if one of us (you or anyone else) thinks a director is great, what difference does it make if someone else doesn't. The subjectivity of the title and the exercise seems implicit to me. While a director like John Badham may not be "great" to me in the inimitable, auteur sense of the word, he has made one truly great film and may merit inclusion on that basis. IOW, who knows what the criteria are and who cares? Keep up the good work Jim. (Steps off soap box.)

Some suggestions, sorry if I'm repeating anyone:

Stanley Donen, Christopher Guest, Rob Reiner, Milos Forman, Michael Mann, Sidney Pollack, Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson, Ron Howard, Errol Morris and Michael Moore (if you're including documentarians). Vincente Minnelli and Blake Edwards are two others that have been mentioned and I'd like to see them as well. I'm sure you'll get to Woody--the director I'm most eager to see praised and/or disemboweled .

 

[Brook K]

Meaningless to you perhaps, but a story is still being told. My Dinner With Andre tells a story, so does The Aviator's Wife. I have no idea what movies you are talking about.

I'm really not interested in another endless pissing contest about this. We disagree and let's leave it at that.

 

[Jim_K]

thanks for the feedback.

Wouldn't ya know that I thought about this today, deliberated for a whole 5 minutes & came to an earth shattering decision.

I'm going to go ahead and change the title. This should eliminate at least some of the disagreements. Besides, if I ever get to a director I really don’t care for cough, Godard, cough
, I just couldn’t bring myself to describe said director as “great”, at least not with a straight face.

I'm leaning toward "famous" as suggested by our "madman across the water".

 

[Steve Christou]

At least now Jim you can add Tony Scott and Michael Bay without it looking a bit too silly under the Great Directors heading.

More suggestions, John Woo, John Landis, Joe Dante, Wes Craven, Peter Hyams, John Milius.

 

[Bill McA]

Since we are now listing under the more friendlier label of "famous directors", here are a few suggestions.

Some great, some not-so-great, some famous, some not-so-famous, some mainstream, some cult, some animation, some documentary, etc.

Adlon, Percy
Allen, Irwin
Almodovar, Pedro
Amenabar, Alejandro
Anders, Allison
Anderson, Lindsay
Anderson, Michael
Anderson, Paul Thomas
Anderson, Wes
Andersson, Roy
Angelopoulous, Theo
Annakin, Ken
Annaud, Jean-Jacques
Antonioni, Michelangelo
Apted, Michael
Araki, Gregg
Aranda, Vicente
Arcand, Denys
Argento, Dario
Arnold, Jack
Aronofsky, Darren
Ashby, Hal
Asquith, Anthony
Assayas, Olivier
Attenborough, Richard
August, Bille
Babenco, Hector
Bacon, Lloyd
Badham, John
Baker, Roy Ward
Bakshi, Ralph
Barker, Clive
Barton, Charles
Bava, Lamberto
Bava, Mario
Bay, Michael
Beatty, Warren
Becker, Jacques
Beineix, Jean-Jacques
Benigni, Roberto
Benton, Robert
Beresford, Bruce
Berlinger, Joe & Sinofsky, Bruce
Bertolucci, Bernardo
Besson, Luc
Blier, Bertrand
Bogdanovich, Peter
Borowczyk, Walerian
Boyle, Danny
Brass, Tinto
Breillat, Catherine
Bresson, Robert
Brest, Martin
Brook, Peter
Brooks, Richard
Broomfield, Nick
Browning, Tod
Burton, Tim
Camus, Marcel
Carax, Leos
Cardiff, Jack
Cassavetes, John
Castle, William
Caton-Jones, Michael
Cavani, Liliana
Chabrol, Claude
Chaffey, Don
Chan, Fruit
Chan, Jackie
Christensen, Benjamin
Clair, Rene
Clark, Bob
Clark, Larry
Clayton, Jack
Clement, Rene
Cocteau, Jean
Cohen, Larry
Columbus, Chris
Condon, Bill
Coolidge, Martha
Corbucci, Sergio
Corman, Roger
Coscarelli, Don
Costner, Kevin
Cox, Alex
Cox, Paul
Craven, Wes
Crichton, Charles
Crowe, Cameron
Cuaron, Alfonso
Curtis, Richard
Darabont, Frank
Dardenne, Jean-Pierre & Luc
Dassin, Jules
Davies, Terence
de Oliveira, Manoel
De Toth, Andre
Dearden, Basil
DeMille, Cecil B.
del Toro, Guillermo
Demme, Jonathan
Demy, Jacques
Denis, Claire
DiCillo, Tom
Dieterle, William
Dmytryk, Edward
Donaldson, Roger
Donen, Stanley
Donner, Richard
Duigan, John
Dumont, Bruno
Duvall, Robert
Duvivier, Julien
Egoyan, Atom
Emmerich, Roland
Endfield, Cy
Epstein, Jean
Farrelly, Peter & Bobby
Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
Ferrara, Abel
Figgis, Mike
Fincher, David
Fisher, Terence
Fleischer, Richard
Fleming, Victor
Forsyth, Bill
Fosse, Bob
Francis, Freddie
Franco, Jess
Franju, Georges
Franklin, Richard
Frears, Stephen
Freund, Karl
Fuest, Robert
Fukasaku, Kinji
Fulci, Lucio
Fuller, Sam
Ghobadi, Bahman
Gibson, Mel
Gilbert, Lewis
Gilliat, Sidney
Gilling, John
Gitai, Amos
Godard, Jean-Luc
Gordon, Bert I.
Gordon, Keith
Gordon, Stuart
Green, David Gordon
Greenaway, Peter
Guest, Christopher
Guest, Val
Guillermin, John
Hackford, Taylor
Haggards, Piers
Hallstrom, Lasse
Hamilton, Guy
Haneke, Michael
Hanson, Curtis
Harlin, Renny
Harrington, Curtis
Hartley, Hal
Haskin, Byron
Haynes, Todd
Henenlotter, Frank
Henson, Jim
Hessler, Gordon
Hill, Jack
Hiller, Arthur
Hodges, Mike
Hogan, P.J.
Holland, Agnieszka
Honda, Ishiro
Hopper, Dennis
Hooper, Tobe
Hou, Hsiao-Hsien
Hudson, Hugh
Hughes, John
Hughes Brothers
Hung, Tran Ahn
Hyams, Peter
Ichikawa, Kon
Imamura, Shohei
Inagaki, Hiroshi
Irvin, John
Ivory, James
Iwai, Shunji
Jackson, Peter
Jacopetti, Gualtiero & Prosperi, Franco
Jacquot, Benoit
Jarman, Derek
Jarmusch, Jim
Jeunet, Jean-Pierre
Jewison, Norman
Jodorowsky, Alejandro
Joffe, Roland
Jordan, Neil
Julian, Rupert
Juran, Nathan
Kadar, Jan
Kaige, Chen
Karlson, Phil
Kaufman, Philip
Kaurismaki, Aki
Keaton, Buster
Kelly, Gene
Kershner, Irvin
Kiarostami, Abbas
Kieslowski, Krzystof
Kim, Ki-duk
Kitano, Takeshi
Kleiser, Randal
Kobayashi, Masaki
Kon, Satoshi
Kopple, Barbara
Korda, Alexander
Kore-eda, Hirokazu
Kotcheff, Ted
Kramer, Stanley
Kurosawa, Kiyoshi
LaBute, Neil
Landis, John
Lang, Walter
Lanzmann, Claude
Lasseter, John
Lauzon, Jean-Claude
Leconte, Patrice
Lee, Ang
Lee, Spike
Lehmann, Michael
Leigh, Mike
Lepage, Robert
LeRoy, Mervyn
Lester, Richard
Levinson, Barry
Lewis, Herschell Gordon
Linklater, Richard
Loach, Ken
Logan, Joshua
Lommel, Ulli
Loncraine, Richard
Losey, Joseph
Lucas, George
Luhrmann, Baz
Luna, Bigas
Lynch, David
Maddin, Guy
Makmalbaf, Mohsen
Malick, Terrence
Malle, Louis
Mamet, David
Mamoulian, Rouben
Mankiewicz, Joseph L.
Masumura, Yasuzo
Maysles, Albert & David
McCarey, Leo
McNaughton, John
McTiernan, John
Medak, Peter
Medem, Julio
Melies, Georges
Melville, Jean-Pierre
Menzel, Jiri
Menzies, William Cameron
Metzger, Radley
Meyer, Nicholas
Miike, Takashi
Milestone, Lewis
Milius, John
Miller, George
Minghella, Anthony
Minnelli, Vincent
Miyazaki, Hayao
Moodyson, Lukas
Moore, Michael
Morrissey, Paul
Nair, Mira
Nakata, Hideo
Narizanno, Silvio
Neame, Ronald
Negulesco, Jean
Neill, Roy William
Newell, Mike
Noe, Gasper
Olivier, Laurence
Olmi, Ermanno
Ophuls, Max
Oshii, Mamoru
Oshima, Nagisa
Otomo, Katsuhiro
Oz, Frank
Ozon, Francois
Ozu, Yasujiro
Pakula, Alan J.
Pal, George
Park, Chan-wook
Parker, Alan
Parker, Trey
Pasolini, Pier Paolo
Payne, Alexander
Penn, Sean
Pennebaker, D.A. Pennebaker & Hegedus, Chris
Pollack, Sydney
Pontecorvo, Gillo
Preminger, Otto
Radford, Michael
Rafelson, Bob
Raimi, Sam
Rapper, Irving
Ray, Nicholas
Redford, Robert
Reeves, Michael
Reggio, Godfrey
Reiner, Rob
Reisz, Karel
Resnais, Alain
Richardson, Tony
Richert, William
Riefenstahl, Leni
Ritchie, Michael
Rivette, Jacques
Roddam, Franc
Rodriguez, Robert
Roeg, Nicolas
Rohmer, Eric
Rollin, Jean
Rosi, Francesco
Rossellini, Roberto
Rudolph, Alan
Rush, Richard
Russell, Ken
Rydell, Mark
Sabu (aka Hiroyuki Tanaka)
Saks, Gene
Salva, Victor
Sasdy, Peter
Saura, Carlos
Sayles, John
Schaffner, Franklin J.
Schepisi, Fred
Schlesinger, John
Schlondorff, Volker
Schrader, Paul
Schroeder, Barbet
Schultz, Carl
Schultz, Michael
Schumacher, Joel
Scott, Tony
Sharp, Don
Sheridan, Jim
Sherman, Gary
Shyamalan, M. Night
Sidney, George
Singer, Bryan
Siodmak, Robert
Sirk, Douglas
Sjostrom, Victor
Skolimowski, Jerzy
Smith, Kevin
Soavi, Michele
Soderbergh, Steven
Solondz, Todd
Sonnenfeld, Barry
Spheeris, Penelope
Spottiswoode, Roger
Stevenson, Robert
Suzuki, Seijun
Szabo, Istvan
Szwarc, Jeannot
Tamahori, Lee
Tarkovsky, Andrei
Tati, Jacques
Taurog, Norman
Tavernier, Bertrand
Taviani, Paolo & Vittorio
Taylor, Don
Techine, Andre
Temple, Julien
Teshighara, Hiroshi
Thomas, Gerald
Thompson, J. Lee
To, Johnnie
Toback, James
Tokar, Norman
Tornatore, Giuseppe
Truffaut, Francois
Trumbull, Douglas
Tsai, Ming-liang
Tsukamoto, Shinya
Tykwer, Tom
Ulmer, Edgar G.
Vadim, Roger
Van Sant, Gus
Varda, Agnes
Verbinski, Gore
Verhoeven, Paul
Vidor, King
Vigo, Jean
Visconti, Luchino
von Stroheim, Erich
von Trier, Lars
Walker, Pete
Walters, Charles
Ward, Vincent
Waters, John
Watkins, Peter
Wellman, William A.
Wenders, Wim
Wertmuller, Lina
Winner, Michael
Winterbottom, Michael
Wiseman, Frederick
Wong, Kar-wai
Wood Jr, Edward D.
Wood, Sam
Worsley, Wallace
Yates, Peter
Young, Terence
Yuzna, Brian
Zeffirelli, Franco
Zemeckis, Robert
Zwick, Edward

 

[Steve Christou]

er good list Bill, I've actually heard of some of em.

That lot should keep us going for another few weeks Jimbo, until we get to stage 2 and... you never told them about stage 2 did you?

 

[Jim_K]

er, thanks Bill - I guess. Just by glancing at that list I noticed I have a good portion of those on my spreadsheet already.

I'll incorporate the ones that interest me & of course they would have to merit the "famous" moniker (Ermanno who? ) , but there's no freakin' way I'm touching that list the way it is, sorry.

Change the list to last name first w/comma & I'll be able to put it on my excel sheet & sort w/ no problems. Otherwise - forget it, I have plenty on my plate already.



Shhh! You were supposed to keep that a secret.

 

[Steve Christou]

:b Sorry Jim, I guess I can't wait for stage 2, I've got my Halliwells Film Guide on standby...

Just kidding, looking at McA's list it pretty much covers all the suggestions we made in this thread and quite a few I've never heard of, Agnes Varda, Andre Techine? Sure you're not making these names up Bill?

 

[george kaplan]

You'd think a list that long would be complete, but I'm shocked to see the Mitchell Brothers (Artie & Jim) missing. They were certainly famous directors (at least in some circles)

 

[Bill McA]

I stayed away from the hardcore porn directors, George , but I did include some softcore directors (Tinto Brass, Radley Metzger, Larry Clark)

Both first class directors and famous worldwide...maybe you should just burn that Halliwell book, Steve

 

[Steve Christou]

Well it is getting old and worn, what exactly are they famous for? Making films not in the English language? As you may have gathered Billy boy I'm not a fan of World Cinema, life is too short and there are more than enough English language films to keep me interested and entertained.

 

[Bill McA]

From my perspective Stevie-boy, life is too short and the world is too big for me to only be content with English-language films.

 

[Brook K]

Ermanno Olmi has two films in the Criterion Collection, including Il Posto, a film I instantly fell in love with.

Very comprehensive of you Bill, even includes Fruit Chan

 

[Jim_K]

Alrighty

Took me a while but I finally made it through Bill's list (a little too much time on your hands ay? )

Here's what I'm pulling which was not on my list. Some good directors & some schlock, all of which interest me to some degree. I doubt if I get through half of these.

Allen, Irwin
Amenabar, Alejandro
Anderson, Michael
Annaud, Jean-Jacques
Asquith, Anthony
Babenco, Hector
Barton, Charles
Bava, Lamberto
Benton, Robert
Chaffey, Don
Chan, Jackie
Clair, Rene
Clark, Bob
Clayton, Jack
Cohen, Larry
Coscarelli, Don
Dearden, Basil
del Toro, Guillermo
Donaldson, Roger
Duvivier, Julien
Figgis, Mike
Fosse, Bob
Francis, Freddie
Frears, Stephen
Freund, Karl
Fuest, Robert
Fukasaku, Kinji
Fulci, Lucio
Gilbert, Lewis
Gilling, John
Gordon, Bert I.
Guillermin, John
Hackford, Taylor
Hallstrom, Lasse
Haskin, Byron
Henson, Jim
Hessler, Gordon
Hopper, Dennis
Hughes Brothers
Irvin, John
Jeunet, Jean-Pierre
Joffe, Roland
Juran, Nathan
Kitano, Takeshi
Kleiser, Randal
Kobayashi, Masaki
Kon, Satoshi
Kotcheff, Ted
Lang, Walter
Lehmann, Michael
Luhrmann, Baz
Masumura, Yasuzo
McNaughton, John
Medak, Peter
Miike, Takashi
Neill, Roy William
Newell, Mike
Olivier, Laurence
Penn, Sean
Rapper, Irving
Reisz, Karel
Rydell, Mark
Saks, Gene
Sasdy, Peter
Stevenson, Robert
Tamahori, Lee
Verbinski, Gore
Vidor, King
Winner, Michael
Wood Jr, Edward D.
Yates, Peter
Zwick, Edward

Here are the ones I'm not really interested in doing, sorry. The thought of ranking the filmography of Mohsen Makmalbaf would be about as fun for me as clipping my toenails. Maybe Bill can carry on with these after I retire.


Adlon, Percy
Almodovar, Pedro
Anders, Allison
Anderson, Lindsay
Andersson, Roy
Angelopoulous, Theo
Annakin, Ken
Araki, Gregg
Aranda, Vicente
Arcand, Denys
Assayas, Olivier
August, Bille
Beineix, Jean-Jacques
Benigni, Roberto
Berlinger, Joe & Sinofsky, Bruce
Blier, Bertrand
Borowczyk, Walerian
Brass, Tinto
Breillat, Catherine
Brook, Peter
Broomfield, Nick
Camus, Marcel
Carax, Leos
Cardiff, Jack
Cavani, Liliana
Chabrol, Claude
Chan, Fruit
Christensen, Benjamin
Clark, Larry
Clement, Rene
Condon, Bill
Coolidge, Martha
Cox, Paul
Cuaron, Alfonso
Curtis, Richard
Dardenne, Jean-Pierre & Luc
Davies, Terence
de Oliveira, Manoel
Demy, Jacques
Denis, Claire
DiCillo, Tom
Duigan, John
Dumont, Bruno
Duvall, Robert
Egoyan, Atom
Epstein, Jean
Forsyth, Bill
Franco, Jess
Franju, Georges
Franklin, Richard
Ghobadi, Bahman
Gilliat, Sidney
Gitai, Amos
Gordon, Keith
Green, David Gordon
Greenaway, Peter
Haggards, Piers
Haneke, Michael
Harrington, Curtis
Hartley, Hal
Haynes, Todd
Henenlotter, Frank
Hogan, P.J.
Holland, Agnieszka
Hou, Hsiao-Hsien
Hudson, Hugh
Hung, Tran Ahn
Ichikawa, Kon
Imamura, Shohei
Ivory, James
Iwai, Shunji
Jacopetti, Gualtiero & Prosperi, Franco
Jacquot, Benoit
Jarman, Derek
Julian, Rupert
Kadar, Jan
Kaige, Chen
Kaurismaki, Aki
Kiarostami, Abbas
Kim, Ki-duk
Kopple, Barbara
Kore-eda, Hirokazu
Kurosawa, Kiyoshi
LaBute, Neil
Lanzmann, Claude
Lauzon, Jean-Claude
Leconte, Patrice
Leigh, Mike
Leni, Paul
Lepage, Robert
Lewis, Herschell Gordon
Loach, Ken
Logan, Joshua
Lommel, Ulli
Loncraine, Richard
Losey, Joseph
Luna, Bigas
Maddin, Guy
Makmalbaf, Mohsen
Malle, Louis
Maysles, Albert & David
Medem, Julio
Melies, Georges
Menzel, Jiri
Menzies, William Cameron
Metzger, Radley
Moodyson, Lukas
Morrissey, Paul
Nair, Mira
Nakata, Hideo
Narizanno, Silvio
Negulesco, Jean
Noe, Gasper
Olmi, Ermanno
Oshima, Nagisa
Ozon, Francois
Park, Chan-wook
Parker, Trey
Pennebaker, D.A. Pennebaker & Hegedus, Chris
Pontecorvo, Gillo
Radford, Michael
Reeves, Michael
Reggio, Godfrey
Resnais, Alain
Richardson, Tony
Richert, William
Riefenstahl, Leni
Rivette, Jacques
Roddam, Franc
Rohmer, Eric
Rollin, Jean
Rosi, Francesco
Rudolph, Alan
Rush, Richard
Sabu (aka Hiroyuki Tanaka)
Salva, Victor
Saura, Carlos
Schepisi, Fred
Schlondorff, Volker
Schroeder, Barbet
Schultz, Carl
Schultz, Michael
Sheridan, Jim
Sherman, Gary
Sidney, George
Sirk, Douglas
Sjostrom, Victor
Skolimowski, Jerzy
Soavi, Michele
Solondz, Todd
Spheeris, Penelope
Szabo, Istvan
Szwarc, Jeannot
Taurog, Norman
Taviani, Paolo & Vittorio
Taylor, Don
Techine, Andre
Temple, Julien
Teshighara, Hiroshi
Thomas, Gerald
To, Johnnie
Toback, James
Tokar, Norman
Tornatore, Giuseppe
Trumbull, Douglas
Tsai, Ming-liang
Tsukamoto, Shinya
Tykwer, Tom
Vadim, Roger
Varda, Agnes
Walker, Pete
Walters, Charles
Ward, Vincent
Waters, John
Watkins, Peter
Wenders, Wim
Wertmuller, Lina
Winterbottom, Michael
Wiseman, Frederick
Wong, Kar-wai
Worsley, Wallace
Yuzna, Brian
Zeffirelli, Franco

Whatever I didn't list off of Bill's list was already on mine.