therealfuster Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 director of all time? Is there a director, whose body of work is so strong or meaningful to you personally, that you would watch the least of his works? Even if it was the most damned and blasted by critics or the populace? For me, some people that I'd watch any of their films would be Lang, Wilder, Bunuel, Hawks, Resnais, Sirk, Bava, Hitchcock, Tourneur, Lubitsch, Fellini, Sturges, and some others. Oh yeah, and Ed Wood. The guy loved film, and it shows through no matter how inept his stuff is... Whose directorial efforts would you watch, come Hades or high water? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allycat1920 Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 My favorite director is Howard Hawks, but coming in at a close second and third is Hitchcock and Cukor in that order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealfuster Posted April 6, 2005 Author Share Posted April 6, 2005 Cukor! Yes, he would definitely be on my list too. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 It's a tie between Wiliam Wyler and Ernst Lubistch. Hitchcock comes close second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brackenhe Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 I'm with feaito--I think I've seen just about everything William Wyler did and I'm very taken with this movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenwal34 Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 John Ford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviejoe79 Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 For me it would be anything by Capra, Sturges, Hitchcock and Tarantino. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomagain77 Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 Michael Curtiz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhryun Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 Wyler definitely - crosses all genres with style. Never been disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
path40a Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 Well, I always forget someone when I attempt to do this, but since several of y'all have attempted it, I guess I will too (in no particular order): Hitchcock, Wyler, Lubitsch, Wilder, Capra, Preston Sturges, Ford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venerados Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 I'll watch anything by Hitch, Godard, Chabrol, Imamura, Kubrick, Chaplin, Lang, Bunuel, Welles, Mizoguchi, Fassbinder, Wenders, Bresson, Minnelli, Truffaut, Rivette, Kurosawa, Renoir, Altman, Wilder, Rohmer, Oshima, Dreyer, Morris, Eisenstein, Dieterle, Sternberg, Whale, Vigo, Carne, Sturges, Malle, Miyazaki, Powell, Olivier, Fuller, Stroheim, Huston, Tourneur, Aldrich, Losey, Cocteau, Ford, De Sica, Scorsese, Woody, Mann, Hawks, Clouzot, Tati, Ray, Sirk, Bergman, Fellini, Kazan, Kieslowski, Antonioni, Ophuls, Peckinpah, Lean, Maysles, Resnais, Herzog, Cassavetes, Malick, Lynch, DePalma, Sayles, Tarkovsky, Yimou, Waters, Jordan, Cronenberg, Kiarostami, Solondz, Jarmusch, Wyler, or Lars von Trier without question. Obvious choices, but I also love everything Albert Brooks or Hal Hartley ever did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithFromKC Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 Favorite Directors? Always a good topic. It seems that Venerados included many 'auteurs' that I was thinking of. I was reading the list and thinking that I like at least something by 90% of these directors. It was great to see Hal Hartley (!) on your list, as he is also one of my favorite directors of the modern era. His films will probably never break any box-office records, but they really stick with you, long after you've left the theater. Well, at least for me they do. I would like to add Otto Preminger to the list. I like so much of his work. As for modern directors, I really love Guy Maddin's films. They are a bit left-of-center, but his visual style is just incredible. You can tell that he is totally obsessed with films from the silent era (as am I). I know there are some people on this board that prefer films from the classic era, let's say, up to 1960. I also love them completely. But I still think that there are interesting films being made today. Sometimes you have to search a bit harder to find them, but they are out there........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shainablue1 Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 I love all Frank Capra movies pretty much- what a body of work. I enjoy romance and comedy so he's natch for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhryun Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 Hitchcock. Haven't seen a bad film yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealfuster Posted April 7, 2005 Author Share Posted April 7, 2005 you've opened up the floodgates! I have enjoyed reading everyone's comments here, and thank you all, and I too agree with Keith that Preminger is often forgotten, but I have always put him in a category of being extremely topical, pushing the button mores-wise and having a most engaging and characteristic style...as in films like "Angel Face" and "Bunny Lake is Missing" which I just bought on dvd. Venerados, that is quite a list, and I can't disagree with any of the people you mention as about 98% are favorites of mine too. Believe it or not though, I have not as yet seen a film by Kieslowski, which is a gap in my film knowledge that must be attended to, asap. In reading your list, some of which had more outre directors than known in the main stream listed, I came up with a few more I like, that I hesitated to put before...but since you went all out, so shall I. Some other people whose films I will always watch, are Masahiro Shinoda who did "Double Suicide" which is simply mind boggling, Melville of "Bob Le Flambeur" fame, Becker, Jodorowsky, Koji Wakamatsu, Schlesinger, Flaherty, and Agnes Varda with her insightful and artfully filmed "Cleo from 5 to 7". Recently I have been looking for films by Sergei Parajanov who did "The Color of Pomegranates" and anything by Alexander Mackendrick, who did "Sweet Smell of Success" or Peter Brook who did "Marat/Sade" and "Lord of the Flies". In the oddball film part of my brain, I like to see anything done by puppet animator, Jiri Tnka, who did the spooky "The Hand" or experimental things directed by Brakhage or Anger. Other directors in your list, which I had forgotten but that I love are Powell, Vigo, Malick [of whom I am still looking for the soundtrack of "Days of Heaven"] , Cronenberg [how about a petition to Criterion to bring back "Dead Ringers" to dvd?] and Altman, who I adore...with things like "The Player" and "3Women". Speaking of Max Ophuls [i assume you mean him and not his son?] I wish there were more available on dvd of his life work. As for Albert Brooks, well..."Lost in America" is an underrated classic to be sure! One more director I forgot to mention, among the outstanding list of famous French ones you had, is Rene Clement. I have great respect for his "Forbidden Games" and "Purple Noon" which is a wonderful take on the Patricia Highsmith tale. marvelous list, Venerados and all who contributed and thanks everyone for reminding me how many great directors there have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithFromKC Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 As far as Kieslowski's work is concerned, therealfuster, many will recommend the THREE COLORS trilogy (BLEU, BLANC, & ROUGE) which is what he is possibly most famous for. The trilogy is fantastic, but I would personally recommend DEKALOG, which is a series of 10 short films (all are mostly about an hour long). The films, based on the Ten Commandments, were made in the late 80's and broadcast on Polish Television. I have the series on VHS and it is one of the most intelligent pieces of cinema I've ever seen. DEKALOG is at times depressing and paced much slower than most American films, but it's rewards are plentiful. The 3-disc dvd series is available for rent on NETFLIX, or any other rental website or store that has a good foreign section. Krzysztof Kieslowski was certainly a world-class director. I was saddened by his death at 54, back in 1996. I still think he probably had a trick or two left up his sleeve. Oh, and another modern-day director that I'd add to my list is Britian's Mike Leigh. The films he made in the 1990's were amongst my favorites of the decade. His films show that ordinary people, leading ordinary lives, with all of their flaws and insecurities (and triumphs), can be as interesting as any of the protagonists that Hollywood throws at us on a weekly basis. Also, I don't recall F.W. Murnau's name popping up. Germany produced some great film directors in the silent era and Murnau is arguably the best, Fritz Lang notwithstanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venerados Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 Agreed about the decalogue, keith. His best, imo, is the "Short Film About Killing" feature expanded from the decalogue episode. You get a fuller sense of the brutality of both murders instead of just the first one. trf, I did mean Max. For the other ambiguous surnames, I meant: Fritz Lang, Anthony Mann, Preston Sturges, Jacques Tourneur, Nicholas Ray, and both Maysles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tobywing Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 WS Van Dyke.."One Take Woody"..I love his movies from the 30's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealfuster Posted April 8, 2005 Author Share Posted April 8, 2005 I've seen the dvd of the Kieslowski film you mention, and shall buy it based on your recommendation. I did think the breaking every commandment theme sounded interesting. I just realized I lied...I have seen the three colors triptych. How could I have forgotten that! I too am shocked if we forgot Murnau. He is definitely one of my favorites, one who died too soon and after just having watched my new dvd of "Tabu" I have even more respect for him as a filmmaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealfuster Posted April 8, 2005 Author Share Posted April 8, 2005 "Grey Gardens"? Though I've seen "Monterey Pop" and "Gimme Shelter", I bought the recent dvd's by the Maysles, since they are such memorable documentaries. Even that kind of silly, first visit of the Beatles to the U.S. documentary is a bit of fun to watch. But "Grey Gardens" is just so psychologically spooky! Big Edie and Little Edie are hard to forget, living in their self imposed hibernation, not unlike Miss Favisham in the tale by Dickens. I like Anthony Mann too, and there is always something rewarding in his films. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealfuster Posted April 8, 2005 Author Share Posted April 8, 2005 but I like Toby Wing! What a great chorine type she was.... One of my favorite blonde bombshells from the character ranks of film. Great user name! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creolefemme2 Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 George Cukor, Arthur Hiller, Vincente Minnelli, Garson Kanin, Preston Sturges, Frank Capra and Blake Edwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillspan Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 I'll watch *any* Douglas Sirk film, anywhere, anytime. There's so much to see in each and every frame! OT: therealfuster, Grey Gardens is a personal favorite of mine. I once had the opportunity to interview at Maysles Films here in New York for an entry level position (unfortunately, I couldn't afford to take it! How does anyone work for no money in New York?!) and met Al Maysles. I have seen him speak at several functions also and I am a huge admirer of his for his contributions, but to me he is a bit of a dinosaur now. He won't acknowledge that there is any sort of "manipulation" going on in his films, insisting that what he and his brother captured was "the objective truth." The reason I love Grey Gardens so much is *because* of the obvious presence of the Maysles in the film, both physically (we see Edie and her mother address them throughout)and directorially, shaping this poigniant portrait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venerados Posted April 9, 2005 Share Posted April 9, 2005 Really, hills? In the dvd commentaries Albert Maysles seems very open in admitting that you can't observe without interfering. I haven't met him, of course, so you'd probably know better what his opinions are. Grey Gardens is also a personal favorite of mine, even above other classics like Gimme Shelter and Salesman, because I feel a sort of affinity for them because I'd live that kind of reclusive life if I could. Glad you mentioned Monterey Pop, trf. I had forgotten to list D.A. Pennebaker and his rockdocs One P.M., Ziggy Stardust, & especially Don't Look Back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillspan Posted April 9, 2005 Share Posted April 9, 2005 Venerados, He may have come around a bit now, the last I heard him speak was about 5 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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