Best Directors...
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Stanrick_Kubley
Active member
Re: Best Directors...
Naming the BEST directors is a tall order. I mean, there are good directors that do dark stuff (Scorcese), ones that do mainstream stuff (Spielberg), and people who are just off the wall (Tarantino). IMO, the great directors are able to make great movies regardless.
Spielberg may be the best director-as-craftsman alive. He is cinema incarnate.
Kubrick was a great intellectual director. His stuff was all about naturalism and big ideas. His work is hit or miss, but when it works, it's magic.
Tarantino is a great enigma. He's simultaneously the most original and most derivative filmmaker around. It may be too early to call his career, though, and too easy to judge him solely on Pulp Fiction.
Lucas, at one point, was the best conceptualist in the business. Graffiti, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones are great ideas and totally new for the time. If he had kept directing, I think he would've been another Kurosawa.
Kurosawa. Does the man need an explanation? His movies look like they were made yesterday. What a director. Like Welles, Akira really brought literary influences into movies, which payed off big time.
I'll always have a special place for John Hughes. He made teen movies, but he did it was well as it could be done. He was a great writer and director.
And so on and so on...
Naming the BEST directors is a tall order. I mean, there are good directors that do dark stuff (Scorcese), ones that do mainstream stuff (Spielberg), and people who are just off the wall (Tarantino). IMO, the great directors are able to make great movies regardless.
Spielberg may be the best director-as-craftsman alive. He is cinema incarnate.
Kubrick was a great intellectual director. His stuff was all about naturalism and big ideas. His work is hit or miss, but when it works, it's magic.
Tarantino is a great enigma. He's simultaneously the most original and most derivative filmmaker around. It may be too early to call his career, though, and too easy to judge him solely on Pulp Fiction.
Lucas, at one point, was the best conceptualist in the business. Graffiti, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones are great ideas and totally new for the time. If he had kept directing, I think he would've been another Kurosawa.
Kurosawa. Does the man need an explanation? His movies look like they were made yesterday. What a director. Like Welles, Akira really brought literary influences into movies, which payed off big time.
I'll always have a special place for John Hughes. He made teen movies, but he did it was well as it could be done. He was a great writer and director.
And so on and so on...
Stanrick_Kubley
Active member
Re: Best Directors...
[quote author=Woodson link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=0#6 date=11/11/04 at 15:28:25]Takashi Miike
[/quote]
Woodson, I've seen some of Miike's work but just didn't get the appeal. I'm curious what you see in his movies, if you don't mind indulging. Thanks.
[quote author=Woodson link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=0#6 date=11/11/04 at 15:28:25]Takashi Miike
[/quote]
Woodson, I've seen some of Miike's work but just didn't get the appeal. I'm curious what you see in his movies, if you don't mind indulging. Thanks.
Woodson
Well-known member
Re: Best Directors...
[quote author=Stanrick_Kubley link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=15#22 date=11/15/04 at 00:32:55]
Woodson, I've seen some of Miike's work but just didn't get the appeal. I'm curious what you see in his movies, if you don't mind indulging. Thanks.[/quote]
Miike, I think is a fierce, nonsensical, vulgar, powerful, self-assured and clever director. I love the rich with deeply saturated and highly stylized colors in his films. The cinema of Miike, transgression is always tightly connected with thematic content. The surface portrayals of sex, crime, and violence are natural outgrowths of the themes in the director's films and of the way he explores them. His work is first and foremost thematic. His motivations to make film are to break as many rules he can. Miike is a the god of counterculture cinema, the most violent, sadistic, horrific, terrifying shock cinema there is, and deep down full of content, and passion for the artform.
I like Takashi Miike's movie because of their originality and their concept and I think he is one of contemporary cinema's most important artists.
I can go on and on...
[quote author=Stanrick_Kubley link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=15#22 date=11/15/04 at 00:32:55]
Woodson, I've seen some of Miike's work but just didn't get the appeal. I'm curious what you see in his movies, if you don't mind indulging. Thanks.[/quote]
Miike, I think is a fierce, nonsensical, vulgar, powerful, self-assured and clever director. I love the rich with deeply saturated and highly stylized colors in his films. The cinema of Miike, transgression is always tightly connected with thematic content. The surface portrayals of sex, crime, and violence are natural outgrowths of the themes in the director's films and of the way he explores them. His work is first and foremost thematic. His motivations to make film are to break as many rules he can. Miike is a the god of counterculture cinema, the most violent, sadistic, horrific, terrifying shock cinema there is, and deep down full of content, and passion for the artform.
I like Takashi Miike's movie because of their originality and their concept and I think he is one of contemporary cinema's most important artists.
I can go on and on...
Mike_Donis
Veteran
Re: Best Directors...
I liked Zebraman - but for none of these reasons, except his passion for the artform
I think that would show his versatility as a director, too
I liked Zebraman - but for none of these reasons, except his passion for the artform
I think that would show his versatility as a director, too
chi_red
Well-known member
Re: Best Directors...
Orson Welles is great,
but after reading James Naremore's Citizen Kane: A Case Book, I feel like much of Citizen Kane's greatness was contributed by the cinematographer Gregg Toland.
Welles' second film The Magnificent Ambersons could have been great if the studio didn't screw up the editing(but still nowhere near Citizen Kane).
the ending of The Lady from Shanghai was good,
and of course Touch of Evil was his second best film...
but I still feel like Welles is over rated.
sorry, just my opinion.
I usually go against the grain, and subconsciously avoid what people say are the best, but I have to agree with you guys on this one.
Stanley Kubrick gets my vote....
Orson Welles is great,
but after reading James Naremore's Citizen Kane: A Case Book, I feel like much of Citizen Kane's greatness was contributed by the cinematographer Gregg Toland.
Welles' second film The Magnificent Ambersons could have been great if the studio didn't screw up the editing(but still nowhere near Citizen Kane).
the ending of The Lady from Shanghai was good,
and of course Touch of Evil was his second best film...
but I still feel like Welles is over rated.
sorry, just my opinion.
I usually go against the grain, and subconsciously avoid what people say are the best, but I have to agree with you guys on this one.
Stanley Kubrick gets my vote....
Stanrick_Kubley
Active member
Re: Best Directors...
Thanks, Woodson! Maybe I'll give him another shot.
Thanks, Woodson! Maybe I'll give him another shot.
J_Barnes
Veteran
Re: Best Directors...
[quote author=chi_red link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=15#25 date=11/15/04 at 16:05:03]Orson Welles is great,
but after reading James Naremore's Citizen Kane: A Case Book, I feel like much of Citizen Kane's greatness was contributed by the cinematographer Gregg Toland.
[/quote]
You'll notice that Orson Wells shares his title card in Citizen Kane with Gregg Toland.
As Wells was the most revered enfant terrible in the totality of media at the time of Citizen Kane...a time when cinematographers were viewed as simple studio employees... the fact that Wells shared a title card with anyone is perhaps the most humble tribute that he could ever have made to Toland's monumental contribution.
However, Orson Wells also had a distinguished career in the theater before his troubles with the studios. I think he really was one of the greats, even if his best efforts never made it to film.
[quote author=chi_red link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=15#25 date=11/15/04 at 16:05:03]Orson Welles is great,
but after reading James Naremore's Citizen Kane: A Case Book, I feel like much of Citizen Kane's greatness was contributed by the cinematographer Gregg Toland.
[/quote]
You'll notice that Orson Wells shares his title card in Citizen Kane with Gregg Toland.
As Wells was the most revered enfant terrible in the totality of media at the time of Citizen Kane...a time when cinematographers were viewed as simple studio employees... the fact that Wells shared a title card with anyone is perhaps the most humble tribute that he could ever have made to Toland's monumental contribution.
However, Orson Wells also had a distinguished career in the theater before his troubles with the studios. I think he really was one of the greats, even if his best efforts never made it to film.
Woodson
Well-known member
Re: Best Directors...
[quote author=Hooligan link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=30#30 date=11/17/04 at 10:23:46]Hey Woodson.
Did you see GOZU? I missed it when it played here but it sounded cool. It was described as Miike doing Lynch! Also did you see his cameo in last life in the universe? One of my favorite movies this year. [/quote]
Yes I have seen Gozu, haven't seen last life in the universe though.
Whats that about?
[quote author=Hooligan link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=30#30 date=11/17/04 at 10:23:46]Hey Woodson.
Did you see GOZU? I missed it when it played here but it sounded cool. It was described as Miike doing Lynch! Also did you see his cameo in last life in the universe? One of my favorite movies this year. [/quote]
Yes I have seen Gozu, haven't seen last life in the universe though.
Whats that about?
Hooligan
Active member
Re: Best Directors...
Without giving to much away, LLITU is about the unlikly friendship between a suicidal japanese librarian living in Bankok and a Thai woman he meets through some chaotic events. It was a big hit in Asia.
I would like to add James whale, Todd Browning and Peter Greenaway to the list of great directors
Without giving to much away, LLITU is about the unlikly friendship between a suicidal japanese librarian living in Bankok and a Thai woman he meets through some chaotic events. It was a big hit in Asia.
I would like to add James whale, Todd Browning and Peter Greenaway to the list of great directors
Thistlebop
Well-known member
Re: Best Directors...
[quote author=Mike_Donis link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=15#24 date=11/15/04 at 08:41:44]I liked Zebraman - but for none of these reasons, except his passion for the artform
I think that would show his versatility as a director, too[/quote]
Zebraman was Miike's most commercial film to date. And because of that, it is also unfortunately one of his weaker movies. Although I admit I still like it, but it could of been directed by almost any director, and lacked many of the stylistic brush strokes that makes his other films so much fun to watch.
Just my two cents.
--Bop
[quote author=Mike_Donis link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=15#24 date=11/15/04 at 08:41:44]I liked Zebraman - but for none of these reasons, except his passion for the artform
I think that would show his versatility as a director, too[/quote]
Zebraman was Miike's most commercial film to date. And because of that, it is also unfortunately one of his weaker movies. Although I admit I still like it, but it could of been directed by almost any director, and lacked many of the stylistic brush strokes that makes his other films so much fun to watch.
Just my two cents.
--Bop
Thistlebop
Well-known member
Re: Best Directors...
[quote author=Hooligan link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=30#30 date=11/17/04 at 10:23:46]Hey Woodson.
Did you see GOZU? I missed it when it played here but it sounded cool. It was described as Miike doing Lynch! Also did you see his cameo in last life in the universe? One of my favorite movies this year. [/quote]
If you wish to view Miike doing his rendition of Lynch then "Gozu" is NOT the movie for you. Gozo is Miike's obvious Bunuel homage. Now "MPD Psycho Episodes 1 through 6" are Miike's attempt to embrace Lynch's style. Both are must see films for people who enjoy style over substance. Or who just enjoy watching a film director pull out all the stops.
--Bop
[quote author=Hooligan link=board=movies;num=1100195331;start=30#30 date=11/17/04 at 10:23:46]Hey Woodson.
Did you see GOZU? I missed it when it played here but it sounded cool. It was described as Miike doing Lynch! Also did you see his cameo in last life in the universe? One of my favorite movies this year. [/quote]
If you wish to view Miike doing his rendition of Lynch then "Gozu" is NOT the movie for you. Gozo is Miike's obvious Bunuel homage. Now "MPD Psycho Episodes 1 through 6" are Miike's attempt to embrace Lynch's style. Both are must see films for people who enjoy style over substance. Or who just enjoy watching a film director pull out all the stops.
--Bop
BLUESPIDER
DVXuser Ninja
Re: Best Directors...
as for martial arts director. I like Yuen Wu Ping. Ang Lee is pretty good too.
as for martial arts director. I like Yuen Wu Ping. Ang Lee is pretty good too.
Mike_Donis
Veteran
Re: Best Directors...
I found that Zebraman was the epitome of a 'wicked' movie. There are "good movies", there are 'artsy movies', etc, this is a 'wicked movie'. I saw him sitting back with his buddies saying "this would be wicked if..." - and that's what was on screen. I can't say it wasn't successful because of that
I found that Zebraman was the epitome of a 'wicked' movie. There are "good movies", there are 'artsy movies', etc, this is a 'wicked movie'. I saw him sitting back with his buddies saying "this would be wicked if..." - and that's what was on screen. I can't say it wasn't successful because of that
J_Barnes
Veteran
Re: Best Directors...
I don't think anyone is original at all, so in my mind, originality is moot.
I’d argue that the greatest directors aren’t the ones with the coolest tricks, themes, shots, gimmicks, edits, stories or style. They’re simply the people who can direct actors well and consistently.
Flash is nice, but it’s something that can be easily accomplished by many other members of the production team…production designers, editors, effects designers, cinematographers, writers, etc.
The director is the only person required to make the acting good…thus I feel that in the end, it’s the only deciding factor in assessing a director’s ability.
I don't think anyone is original at all, so in my mind, originality is moot.
I’d argue that the greatest directors aren’t the ones with the coolest tricks, themes, shots, gimmicks, edits, stories or style. They’re simply the people who can direct actors well and consistently.
Flash is nice, but it’s something that can be easily accomplished by many other members of the production team…production designers, editors, effects designers, cinematographers, writers, etc.
The director is the only person required to make the acting good…thus I feel that in the end, it’s the only deciding factor in assessing a director’s ability.
jessecoane
Active member
Re: Best Directors...
What about David Fincher!?
And his commercial work is always amazing
What about David Fincher!?
And his commercial work is always amazing