Who is your favorite movie director and why?
Asked by
davidk (
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December 2nd, 2009
Directors can make or break a movie script. In my opinion, a great director can turn an average script into an above average film. Those directors have to be a stickler for detail and have an amazing grasp of the entire process. I think that the best directors are also good writers/re-writers and love the ART for the sake of the art, especially considering camera work. Is it just my imagination, or are the best directors control freaks instead of wonderful facilitator/managers (getting the most out of the actors and crew)?
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Tarantino. He’s so damn twisted. I love it.
Charlie Kaufman or Darren Aronofsky
Couldn’t pick between the two. Both of them change the way I view movies with each film they release.
romeo+juliet directed by Baz Luhrmann, the movie is just great and had a fine young cast (Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau)
There’s no way I can narrow it down to one favorite. I suppose I can get it to three. Peter Jackson, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro. As for why…? Just look at the films they’ve made. When I watch a movie, I want pretty things to look at, and they definitely deliver stunning visuals.
Hitchcock still blows my mind and yeah, he was a beast to work with. I really love Scorsese as well. Both predictably favorites, yet perhaps for a good reason.
Oh, I forgot about Wes Anderson. He’s incredible as well.
Michael Bay, because I like ‘splosions.
Julie Taymor, but not just for her film directing, but her theatre direction as well. She has a beautiful vision, and is immensely talented when it comes to actually producing what she envisions.
I really admire Charlie Kaufman, Gus Van Sant, and Takashi Miike.
@erichw1504 That reminds me of the Robot Chicken Michael Bay Esplosishon! Esploshi Bay Micho! Made me giggle, thanks
John Woo because of his bitching choreographed action, although Kubrick has a hook in me currently since he probably had some “illuminati” ties.
DAVID LYNCH. He’s one of those that you either love or hate, but I think he’s absolutely brilliant. He’s self-referential, but not in an obnoxious way, and he makes gorgeous, remarkable visuals. He can tell a story linearly or abstractly, and even when his work is absurdist, it’s done so well that it doesn’t cross that border into ridiculous.
Some other favorites are Danny Boyle, Richard Linklater, John Hughes, Gus Van Sant, and Wes Anderson.
Wong Kar-Wai. His vision is so unique, and his films are beautiful and ethereal. The slow pace of films like 2046 really draws you in. He is amazing.
Hollywood, the Coen brothers. Their movies usually make me laugh, and they always surprise me.
I don’t watch all that many foreign films, but i love the Zhang Yimou movies I’ve seen, particularly Hero – so visually stunning.
Old Hollywood – Howard Hawks.
David Lynch is an excellent director. He tells a story through a persons eyes, not how it really happened. Every shot is a work of art.
That said, I would have to say my favorite director of all time is Akira Kurosawa. Especially his earlier works such as Rashoman, Throne of Blood, and Seven Samurai. He is so good at setting a mood, you just get sucked in to his movies.
Other good directors that come to mind are Stanley Kubrick, John Ford and Jim Henson.
Tim Burton. Kubrick a close second. Then the Coen Brothers and Darren Aronofsky.
I love Wes Anderson films. There’s something about them that impresses me, perhaps his meticulous attention to detail.
Quentin Tarantino. I also really like Scorsese and Steven Soderbergh. Comedy wise I love Judd Apatow. As for a one hit wonder director, no one can beat Michale Cimino
I love Sam Raimi and Brian DePalma.
Hitchcock-he’s a great story teller.
Tim Burton—the art direction is always stunning.
kevin smith, he just makes me laugh….and amanda july….
The Coen Brothers. Followed closely by one of their faves, Preston Sturges, he who wrote and directed The Palm Beach Story, among other crazy comedies that were years ahead of their time.
Sturges made a film, Sullivan’s Travels, that provided the title to a Coen Brothers’ film. In Sullivan’s Travels, a comedy director, played by (the damn sexy) Joel McCrea, wants to make a “message” picture because he feels so guilty making movies that he thinks are mere fluff. First, though, he’s gonna tramp the countryside and look at the real condition of The People. Hilarity ensues with Veronica Lake. What’s he gonna call this serious film? O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Genius, the lot of them.
Kubrick, Franju, DePalma, Bava and Argento
oooh, fun question. this is tough though… probably woody allen. simply because i love every movie he’s ever been involved in. but i also feel the same way about danny boyle, he is definitely one of the better recent directors, reminiscent of david fincher of se7en/memento fame.
fuck, i forgot stanley kubrick. now really, everything he touched in his lifetime turned to gold. i’ll argue for that.
Dario Argento, Mario Bava, or QT.
Italian horror ftw!!!
@Sampson dario argento is another very talented man.
I’m going to have to hundredth* Tim Burton, and add Luc Besson. (Guillermo del Toro also does beautiful work, when giving the budget.) What can I say? I like pretty movies. :D
Also, Paul W.S. Anderson for the awesome series that is Resident: Evil. It’s fun zombie gore!
And even though Joss Whedon is mostly TV work, Serenity gives him the “movie” cache that the OP is asking for. So…Joss Whedon!
*exaggeration
To be honest, I have a lot of difficulty answering this question. I have a lot of directors whose work I enjoy- Robert Wise, Tim Burton, Darren Aronosky, George Cukor are some of them- but I don’t have a director who I overwhelmingly love above all others. When I look at a movie, I don’t just see the work of the director- I think movie making is a largely collaborative effort between all of the major players and crew members involved.
Thank you to all those actually took the time to give reasons. GA’s for all of you.
Mark Borchardt.
You’ll have to watch the documentary American Movie to know why.
@colloquial_kace David Fincher didn’t do Memento. He did Fight Club, and a damn good job of it. Christopher Nolan did Memento, as well as the recent Batman movies. He’s great, too.
I love the Coens, Speilberg, Woody Allen, Peter Jackson, Hitchcock, John Huston, and Coppolla.
But I gotta say my favorite is Tarantino.
His remarkable writing helps, but he can twist a story just beautifully.
Okay. I’ll give some reasons
Kubrick- Basically, everything he has done is flawless. Yes, even Eyes Wide Shut.
Argento and Bava are just the masters of Giallo. Black Sunday and Suspiria are some of the best horror films ever made in the 20th century, and no modern horror movie tripe can ever top them. You must be sick to even think such a horrid idea.
I haven’t seen much of Franju apart from Les Yeux sans Visage. It is not your ordinary horror film. It is beautiful yet brutal at the same time.
And apart from “Reservoir Dogs”, I can’t really stomach most of Tarantino’s films.
Kubrick was fitfully good. 2001 and Strangelove are masterworks. Barry Lyndon is boring, and Clockwork Orange was just terrible.
Clockwork Orange wasn’t terrible.. The book was easier to follow though.
Thats hard but it would have to be David Fincher and Tarantino.
@rangerr: Really? I couldn’t get through the book until I’d seen the movie. (That could’ve had something to do with the fact that I was twelve years old, though…)
@MacBean I hate reading, but in this case, I had read the book first. The movie kinda sucked because of it. But I’m still in love with Alex, even if he is a crazy.
I see, I forgot about DePalma
Scarface, Phantom of Paradise, Carrie, Untouchables, and dressed to kill
‘Nuff said.
Rob Zombie. He puts the best music in his movies and his movies are just killer
@icehky06 I love Rob Zombie, and I love the idea of his movies, but they are horrible, IMO.
Gus Van Sant, the early years. He’s become much more commercial. His movies have an ethereal quality, almost like being on drugs.
David Lynch for creating a mood. His movies resonate in the subconscious. Lynch can
actually give me chills and freak me out, which is very hard to do.
I love the look of Tim Burton movies, but I find they sometimes drag.
I have a weird relationship to Tarantino. I always think I won’t like the movie, but then I do. I can’t accept that I like him, I guess.
HAHAHAHA, I knew someone would put Tim Burton…LOLZ <———This is appropriate considering the situation.
Although I do deeply love Tim Burton, I knew some youngsters would mention him. (Post Sweeney Todd, etc.) I think it’s funny how no one knew him before and now everyone just loves his work.
No offense to those that actually know what they’re talking about. I, too, enjoy his films.
Oh, and the ‘LOLZ’ was immature, as was the excuse to write ‘Tim Burton’ if you didn’t actually know anything about him. But once again, if you really know him and his work, do not take offense.
@Clair, that’s an interesting point you bring up. However, I think lots of Flutherites (?) aren’t the type to follow the herd. For instance, I have loved Tim Burton since I first saw Nightmare, but my favorite movie of his is definitely Sleepy Hollow. (Alice may edge that out, however.)
Oh, so only older people can really get how boring he can be…
I think Tim Burton is okay, but his biggest blunder would be the planet of the apes remake. That’s all I have to complain about this man…
@evegrimm This is very true. Very true indeed.
Now I’m curious about the people who said Tim Burton. Are there really that many people jumping on the Burton bandwagon? I know tons of Burton fans, and I think all of them started in the early 90s. Or with Big Fish at the very latest.
I saw Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas when my age was still in the single digits. I think I was about thirteen or fourteen when I started paying enough attention to movies to realize they were all directed by the same guy, and I became a fan. Ed Wood is the only one of his movies that I still haven’t seen, and Planet of the Apes is the only one I don’t like, and those two are the only ones I don’t own. I also have the books The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Burton on Burton. Something tells me that qualifies me as someone who knows his work. XD
@MacBean Cha-Ching! Burton has pretty much gathered a cult following at this point with Sweeney Todd, Nightmare and Alice. I want to stab my ears out when I try to have a conversation with such a ‘follower’ and they haven’t heard of Ed Wood or even seen Beetlejuice!
With Burton, I loved Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, and the first two Batman movies.
Edward Scissorhands, Beetleguise, and Nightmare Before Christmas were not my taste, but solid efforts.
Planet of the Apes was just awful.
I was also a fan before Sweeney Todd. Has anyone seen his short films? The one about the Frankenstein dog? Made them before he got big:)
@sliceswiththings Yes, I love them. Not so much for the work itself but I love to see what got him there. Some are very intriguing.
When did this turn into a Tim Burton thread? I’m reading though this thread as a song from the Nightmare Revisited album comes on, and I really feel like screaming in frustration.
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