The Fan's 10 Top Directors

[cujas]

My 10 Top Directors may not be the greatest filmmakers, but they are my choices for greatness.

 

1) George Cukor--"Holiday"

 

2) Alfred Hitchcock--"Rebecca"

 

3) Vicente Minnelli--"An American In Paris"

 

4) Frank Capra--"It's A Wonderful Life"

 

5) Billy Wilder--"Sunset Boulevard"

 

6) Howard Hawks--"Bringing Up Baby"

 

7) Akira Kurosawa--"Nora Inu"(Stray Dog)

 

8) Ozu--"Tokyo Story"

 

9) Leo McCarey--"The Bells of St. Mary's"

 

10)Truffaut--"La Femme d'a Cote" (The Woman Next Door)

 

Does anybody else have 10 Top Directors and Films? I think you can tell a lot about someone's personality by knowing the Directors they love.

 

Edited by: cujas on Aug 21, 2010 6:14 PM

 

Edited by: cujas on Aug 21, 2010 6:26 PM

[ValentineXavier]

Not in any particular order...

 

Kurosawa

Kenji Mizoguchi

Fellini

Jean Cocteau

Luis Bunuel

Orson Welles

John Huston

Lindsay Anderson

Fritz Lang

Kenneth Anger

[FrankGrimes]

1. Alfred Hitchcock -- (favorite three films with overall favorite ranking: #9 Psycho, #11 Vertigo, #13 Rear Window)

 

2. Fritz Lang -- (#1 Scarlet Street, #4 M, #31 The Testament of Dr. Mabuse)

 

3. F.W. Murnau -- (#27 Faust, #32 Sunrise, #33 Nosferatu)

 

4. Anthony Mann -- (#35 Raw Deal, #84 Reign of Terror, #86 Devil's Doorway)

 

5. Nicholas Ray -- (#16 In a Lonely Place, #44 They Live by Night, #49 On Dangerous Ground)

 

6. Robert Wise -- (#12 The Body Snatcher, #18 The Curse of the Cat People, #46 The Set-Up)

 

7. Otto Preminger -- (#37 Fallen Angel, #97 Anatomy of a Murder, #129 Where the Sidewalk Ends)

 

8. John Huston -- (#55 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, #57 The Night of the Iguana, #63 The Asphalt Jungle)

 

9. Howard Hawks -- (#15 Only Angels Have Wings, #26 His Girl Friday, #131 The Big Sleep)

 

10. Jacques Tourneur -- (#8 Out of the Past, #17 Cat People, #48 The Leopard Man)

[fredbaetz]

1- John Ford

2-Billy Wilder

3-Howard Hawks

4-John Houston

5-David Lean

6-Alfred Hitchcock

7-Akira Kurosawa

8-Orson Wells

9-William "Wild Bill" Wellman

10-William Wyler

Not in any special order,{ except for the top 4 } depends on what I'm watchimg...

[SansFin]

Hayao Miyazaki

Luc Besson

Preston Sturges

Akira Kurosawa

Alfred Hitchcock

Billy Wilder

Ernst Lubitsch

Jean Negulesco

Robert Wise

Yasujiro Ozu

[lzcutter]

At this particular moment:

 

1. John Ford

2. Howard Hawks

3. Billy Wilder

4. "Wild" Bill Wellman

5. Anthony Mann

6. Raoul Walsh

7. Akira Kurosawa

8. Michael Curtiz

9. Alan Dwan (especially his silents with Doug, Sr)

10. Jacques Tourneur

 

Honorable mention: Budd Boetticher

[JefCostello]

1. Billy Wilder

2. Michelangelo Antonioni

3. Jean Pierre Melville

4. Sergio Leone

5. Alfred Hitchcock

6. Howard Hawks

7. Akira Kurosawa

8. Ingmar Bergman

9. Francois Truffaut

10. Woody Allen

[fxreyman]

Here is a list of my baker's dozen with three of my favorite movies that they have directed:

 

Richard Brooks

The Professionals 1966

In Cold Blood 1967

Bite the Bullet 1975

 

Frank Capra

It Happened One Night 1934

Lost Horizon 1937

It's a Wonderful Life 1946

 

Michael Curtiz

The Adventures of Robin Hood 1938

Casablanca 1942

Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942

 

John Ford

The Grapes of Wrath 1940

They Were Expendable 1945

The Searchers 1956

 

John Frankenheimer

The Manchurian Candidate 1962

Seven Days in May 1964

The Train 1965

 

Howard Hawks

Ball of Fire 1941

The Big Sleep 1946

Red River 1948

 

Alfred Hitchcock

Foreign Correspondent 1940

Notorious 1946

North By Northwest 1959

 

John Huston

The Maltese Falcon 1941

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948

The Man Who Would Be King 1975

 

Sidney Lumet

12 Angry Men 1957

Fail-Safe 1964

The Verdict 1982

 

Anthony Mann

Winchester '73

The Man From Laramie 1955

The Tin Star 1957

 

George Stevens

Gunga Din 1939

Woman of the Year 1942

The Talk of the Town 1942

 

John Sturges

Bad Day at Black Rock 1955

The Magnificent Seven 1960

Ice Station Zebra 1968

 

William Wyler

The Letter 1940

The Best Years of Our Lives 1946

Ben-Hur 1959

[DownGoesFrazier]

1--Billy Wilder----THE APARTMENT (My favorite film by the director)

2--Hitchcock-----REAR WINDOW

3---Capra-----IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

4---Wyler----THE HEIRESS

5---Lubitsch----THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER

6---MInnelli----GIGI (musical); THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (non-musical)

7--Huston---TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE

8--Preminger----ANATOMY OF A MURDER

9---Lang---THE BIG HEAT

10---Curtiz----CASABLANCA

 

Edited by: finance on Aug 22, 2010 4:03 PM

[Kinokima]

Oh this is even harder for me than my top actors and actresses because there are so many I enjoy. I have narrowed down my top 5 Hollywood directors but I am going to have to think more about my top 5 Non-Hollywood directors (including directors that hail from the UK).

 

 

_In Alphabetical Order (Favorite Film)_

 

Frank Capra (It Happened One Night)

 

Howard Hawks (Bringing up Baby)

 

Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window)

 

Ernst Lubitsh (Trouble in Paradise)

 

Billy Wilder (The Apartment)

[JakeHolman]

In no particular order...

 

Howard Hawks...Red River....

 

Cecil B. DeMille...The Ten Commandments...nothing will ever come close to it again...Samson and Delilah...

 

George Stevens...Shane...nothing else needed...

 

Delmer Daves...The Hanging Tree...3:10 to Yuma ...

 

John Ford...The Searchers...The Immortal John Wayne and his boss at their best...

 

David Lean...Lawrence of Arabia...Doctor Zhivago....

 

Anthony Mann...El Cid... Man of the West...

 

Francis Ford Coppola...Godfather I and II...

 

William Wyler...Ben Hur...

 

Robert Wise...The Sand Pebbles...

 

For me, honorable mention...Franklin J. Schaffner, Frank Capra and Stanley Kubrick...

[ChiO]

1. Orson Welles: Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil. F for Fake

2. Carl Th. Dreyer: The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet, Day of Wrath

3. Jacques Tourneur: Stars in My Crown, Cat People, Out of the Past

4. Samuel Fuller: Pickup on South Street, The Steel Helmet, The Naked Kiss

5. John Cassavetes: Husbands, Love Streams, A Woman Under the Influence

6. Max Ophuls: The Earrings of Madame de..., Caught, Lola Montes

7. Nicholas Ray: On Dangerous Ground, Rebel Without a Cause, Johnny Guitar

8. Robert Bresson: A Man Escaped, Mouchette, Au hasard Balthazar

9. F.W. Murnau: Der Letzte Mann, Sunrise, Nosferatu

10. Jean Renoir: Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game, The Woman on the Beach

[JonasEB]

Hmm, I guess I'll try but it's a tentative list, Nicholas Ray is the definite number one.

 

Nicholas Ray (In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, Rebel Without a Cause, Bigger Than Life)

King Vidor (The Crowd, Street Scene, Duel in the Sun)

Orson Welles (The Magnificent Ambersons, F For Fake)

Yasujiro Ozu (Early Summer, Late Spring)

Jean-Luc Godard (Vivre sa Vie, Two or Three Things I Know About Her)

David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Inland Empire)

Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff, Street of Shame)

Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet)

Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries)

Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Age of Innocence)

[phroso]

Billy Wilder (THE APARTMENT)

Woody Allen (CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS)

Stanley Kubrick (PATHS OF GLORY)

Alfred Hitchcock (PSYCHO)

Howard Hawks (BRINGING UP BABY)

Sam Wood (A NIGHT AT THE OPERA)

Martin Scorsese (THE KING OF COMEDY)

Frank Capra (MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN)

Leo McCarey (DUCK SOUP)

Luis Bunuel (SIMON OF THE DESERT)

[DownGoesFrazier]

Correction-----On my list, scratch Michael Curtiz and replace him with Howard Hawks-HIS GIRL FRIDAY

[jamesjazzguitar]

I would need to think a lot longer to come up with a Top 10 directors list I wouldn't regret later, but when I say Finance's list at first I said 'OK, that matches my view,,,, THEN, I noticed no Howard Hawks'. I read the list again, just to make sure and I wondered if that was a mistake. I was about to ask and then I see this 'correction'.

 

With Hawks I would list The Big Sleep but His Girl Friday and Only Angels Have Wings would be right up there also. Anyhow, thanks for saving me the trouble of creating my own list!

[cujas]

I'm thrilled to see that so many people love Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi. Maybe we should devote some thread to their work? I'm also very interested in their actors:

 

Toshiro Mifune

Mori

Setsuko Hara

Tatsuya Nakadai

Haruko Sugimura

Takashi Shimura

 

The only Japanese Director I follow today is Takeshi"Beat" Kitano. He was one of Kurosawa's last favorites.

[ValentineXavier]

> {quote:title=cujas wrote:}{quote}

> The only Japanese Director I follow today is Takeshi"Beat" Kitano. He was one of Kurosawa's last favorites.

 

I'm a fan of Takeshi Kitano as well. I think *Hana-Bi* (Fireworks,) is his best. I have *Zatoichi* on DVD. I enjoy it very much, and use the ending festival dance number to demo my system to people.

 

When I made my list of ten, I wasn't really considering modern directors. So, I'm gonna cheat, and make a list of ten modern ones:

 

David Lynch

 

Guy Maddin

 

Jim Jarmusch

 

Atom Egoyan

 

David Cronenburg

 

Errol Morris

 

The Coen Bros.

 

Takeshi Kitano

 

Shohei Imamura

 

Hiroshi Teshigahara

 

Sam Fuller

[Kinokima]

For Japanese directors today I go more for the animators: Miyazaki is a given. But I am also quite fond of Takahata, Kon, and one that doesn't get much international coverage Mamoru Hosoda.

 

But yes count me also in for loving Kurosawa, Ozu, and Mizoguchi (the first two especially). It would be great to see a thread dedicated to them.

[cujas]

I've seen Kitano on Japanese TV--he's the same as in his movies. I don't usually go for gangster films, but I loved *Brother*. Very Japanese and American.

[Kinokima]

Here I mention *Satoshi Kon* yesterday and today he passes away from Cancer. He was only 47.

 

I don't know if people know him on here since he doesn't seem to be as well known as Miyazaki among non-anime fans but he was a great director. His animated films were geared towards adults compared to the ones that come out from Studio Ghibli. My favorite of his was Millennium Actress.

[ValentineXavier]

> {quote:title=cujas wrote:}{quote}

> I've seen Kitano on Japanese TV--he's the same as in his movies. I don't usually go for gangster films, but I loved *Brother*. Very Japanese and American.

 

Well, I liked *Brother*, but to me it paled beside his other films. If you haven't seen *Fireworks* or *Sonatine*, you should check them out, I think they are his best gangster flicks.

 

I know he's a comedian on Japanese TV, but that is hard to imagine, only having seen his films. But, he did make *Kikujiro*, which is comedic, and a good film.

[johnm001]

My favorite directors with my top 3 favorite films from each -

 

 

1. *Robert Wise* - The Sound of Music, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Odds Against Tomorrow

2. *Brian De Palma* - Blow Out, Femme Fatale, Carrie

3. *Alfred Hitchcock* - The Birds, Dial M for Murder, Spellbound

4. *M. Night Shyamalan* - The Village, The Sixth Sense, Lady in the Water

5. *John Ford* - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Grapes of Wrath, How the West Was Won

6. *John Carpenter* - Halloween, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China

7. *Howard Hawks* - Ball of Fire, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Rio Bravo

8. *Don Siegel* - The Line Up, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Escape from Alcatraz

9. *Robert Stevenson* - Mary Poppins, The Las Vegas Story, Old Yeller

10. *Anatole Litvak* - The Snake Pit, Goodbye Again, Sorry, Wrong Number

[cujas]

You're absolutely right--he was trying to break into the American film market and had to make a number of concessions.

 

What I loved about the film was his courage for making it in the US for an American audience.

 

He used 2 major languages, many nationalities and races for the film. With such an excellent understanding of American race culture and gangs, while giving the Americans some authentic Japanese gang culture as well--it was an exceptional achievement for a Japanese director.

[CFKane1982]

Interesting list.

 

Mine would be in no particular order with my 3 fav films.

 

Orson Welles- Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Touch of Evil (1958)

Hayao Miyazaki- Spirited Away (2002), Ponyo (2009), My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Werner Herzog- Fitzcarraldo (1982), Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979), Rescue Dawn (2007)

Quentin Tarantino- Pulp Fiction (1994), Kill Bill (2003)*, Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Ang Lee- The Wedding Banquet (1993), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Lust, Caution (2007)

John Ford- My Darling Clementine (1946), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956)

Charles Chaplin- Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1946)

Robert Altman- M*A*S*H (1970), McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Nashville (1975)

Akira Kurosawa- Seven Samurai (1954), Red Beard (1965), Dersu Uzala (1975)

Terry Gilliam- Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2010)

 

*I consider both Vols. of Kill Bill as one film, as does Mr. Tarantino.

 

Edited by: CFKane1982 on Aug 27, 2010 4:04 PM