Name your 3 TOP film directors

I agree about PTA, Magnolia is a masterpiece, frogs and all, yes, I loved the frogs!

Hard Eight is worth checking out. I like Punch Drunk Love but it is my least favorite PTA flick.

Yes, Americans have short attention spans, this is old news, no need to debate it!

Just watch MTV for 2 minutes, and realize that it is still the cultural barometer for our youth, and it's evident.

But this has nothing to do with anything. The films like Hudson mentioned, Godfather, 21 Grams, etc etc, saying that these are made to entertain American audiences, and trying to take away their legitimate attempts at artistry and making statements about the human condition, is absolutely ludicrous.

I think it is perfectly legimate for you to say that you find Tarkovsky's films on another level as far as the way they affect you. But to say that so many films made in America are bereft of artistic value because of the reason that they 'were made to entertain American audiences' is absurd.

I've had somewhat of an 'international film awakening' over the last couple years, I've seen countless foreign films, I've found what I like and dislike.

I enjoy seeing other cultures films and perspectives, but in no way, do I find that ALL of these films, simply because of the fact they were made outside of the US, have more artistic merit because of the fact they were not made here 'to entertain US audiences'. There are crappy foreign films that pander to audiences just like there are here...

In closing, I'd like to say that I hate Michael Bay.

He's made a career out of aping Tony Scott.
 
I think that to entertain is definitely a form of art. People like Spielberg and the pop film posse are just so good that they can reach a wide audience and do it time and time again. That is DAMN hard and IMHO far harder than what is demonstrated in any art film I have ever seen.

This may be down to my tastes (I like narrative) but if you look at what the real pop film masters do, it shows how they know EXACTLY what they are doing.

A bit like comparing Michael Jackson so Beethoven. Just because MJ isn't the intellectual choice, doesn't make him any less of a genius.

I think that old generation filmmakers can't touch the best of today because today we can learn from their mistakes and truimphs. i.e. I know more about film language than D W Griffith because I have had the benefit of 100 years of evolution over him. I don't mean that arrogantly :evil:

It is different if you compare directors with respect to their time period though. Then D W Griffith just inches me to the post :angry: lol
 
mmm said:
I think that to entertain is definitely a form of art. People like Spielberg and the pop film posse are just so good that they can reach a wide audience and do it time and time again. That is DAMN hard and IMHO far harder than what is demonstrated in any art film I have ever seen.

This may be down to my tastes (I like narrative) but if you look at what the real pop film masters do, it shows how they know EXACTLY what they are doing.

A bit like comparing Michael Jackson so Beethoven. Just because MJ isn't the intellectual choice, doesn't make him any less of a genius.

I think that old generation filmmakers can't touch the best of today because today we can learn from their mistakes and truimphs. i.e. I know more about film language than D W Griffith because I have had the benefit of 100 years of evolution over him. I don't mean that arrogantly :evil:

It is different if you compare directors with respect to their time period though. Then D W Griffith just inches me to the post :angry: lol
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I love movies, but have mixed emotions about talking movies as art. Can they be, yes, but I think that they rarely are. Your assertion that to entertain is a form of art..., I don't really know how to feel about that. I think that most movies are made to entertain and that there is nothing wrong with that. Roller coasters entertain also, are they art? I think that most movies have more to do with roller coasters then they do with art.
Now I am reluctant to post this. I do not think that I am articulate enough to carry the arguement. I have found that I agree with alot, not all, but alot of the ideas of Professor Ray Carney when it comes to this subject. Check out this website. I think there is alot to learn here. I also think that this site may piss off quit a few people here.

http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/indievision/open.shtml
 
Rosestar said:
Check out this website. I think there is alot to learn here. I also think that this site may piss off quit a few people here.

http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/indievision/open.shtml
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The problem with guys like the dude who wrote this article is, if they know everything about making films, why aren't they f@*cking doing it?

You get a lot of that **** at film school.

My golden rule is: Make films that people want to watch.
 
Coltrain- I appreciate your views and look forward to learning more about the filmmakers you like.
------

Could someone change the title of this thread.....
"forum for fighting about five foreign filmmakers to the fullest"
 
Rosestar said:
I love movies, but have mixed emotions about talking movies as art. Can they be, yes, but I think that they rarely are. Your assertion that to entertain is a form of art..., I don't really know how to feel about that. I think that most movies are made to entertain and that there is nothing wrong with that.
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You want art? If I want to watch art, I'll pop in Qattapossawatsipatoot (or whatever it's called).

I'll just make sure my wife knows to wake me when Desperate Housewives comes on.

Dan
 
I tend to agree that there is a fine, confusing line between art and entertainment and it would be very hard to distinguish between the two in many cases.

So, I don't think any of us could really say which films are entertainment or art, or both.

Who knows?

I've somewhat tried to do it and maybe have failed.
 
I agree, it is hard and always a matter of opinion. Your opinions are obviously well founded and educated (probably better than mine) but still not facts, that is all I was saying.

In answer to the original question, I tried to pick directors who I really feel grasp cinematic language to tell a story, emote to an audience and entertain - if that is their aim. I feel that the niche nature of "arty" directors rules them out because they only have a small, be it intelligent, audience that relates to them. They might seem great to those few (well fewer!) people, however overall, they have kind of failed with the majority of people.

That is just how I see it.

I hope that makes sense.
 
GenJerDan said:
You want art? If I want to watch art, I'll pop in Qattapossawatsipatoot (or whatever it's called).

I'll just make sure my wife knows to wake me when Desperate Housewives comes on.

Dan
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You mean Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. I've seen them, in the theater and loved them. I think Reggio did an excellent job and the score by Phillip Glass is outstanding.

Don't get me wrong, I do not think that anyone should appologize for liking popular entertainment, either watching it or making it. Check my original post in this thread, my 3 fav directors are Kubrick, Welles and Roger Corman... .

I love Cassevettes, DeSica, Reggio, Jon Jost and a host of others....

I like Vienna sausages and filet mignon... just not at the same time....
 
Rosestar said:
You mean Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. I've seen them, in the theater and loved them. I think Reggio did an excellent job and the score by Phillip Glass is outstanding.
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Yep. Them's the ones. I've got all three sitting at home.

A bit heavy-handed for my tastes, but I really liked how (in the first one) he showed Man's ability to take barren, useless, wasted areas and turn them into fully-utilized, productive pieces of property.









What? Oh.

Dan
 
Rosestar said:
You mean Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi.
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If you're looking for "art films" those aren't them.

I've seen those and they get old after about 15 minutes.

I wouldn't call them "art".
 
Coltrain said:
If you're looking for "art films" those aren't them.

I've seen those and they get old after about 15 minutes.

I wouldn't call them "art".
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OK... I got no problem with that.
 
The irony is - true Art is created by people who rebel against Coltrains orthodoxy.

As my Irish professor used to say "The simple subtends the complex".
Maybe you will realise this one day.



Cheers:)
 
Well; whereas I do acknowledge and agree that quite a few of the films and/or filmmakers in Coltrains Box of Goodies are indeed passionate artists in the history of cinema, it's the part where the other artists I mentioned would not be considered artists by Coltrain nor Coltrains minions (I kid you Coltrain; I'm referring to the art house crowd who are fans of the World Cinema scene; Bresson, Bunuel, Felleni, etc etc etc

I mentioned above that having a more eclectic taste on filmmakers and their films instead of a narrowminded discriminating approach to who is in and who is out is more beneficial and rewarding and I totally support this take.

Saying these other filmmakers are not artists is insulting and deprecating to them. If anyone here feels that filmmakers such as Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alexander Payne, Coppolas early works (Conversation, Godfather's, Apocalypse Now), Sofia and Lost in Translation, Tarantino, Spielbergs Schindlers List, Sam Mendes. I mean ****. I can go on and on.

If anyone finds these filmmakers as not artists then you have no business even wanting to become a filmmaker in my book. If you can't look at a film like American Beauty or Road to Perdition or 21 Grams or Pulp Fiction; love it or hate it; that is art made by filmmkaers who are artists.

If your goal is to become Stan Brackhage and make experimental short films that's ****ing great but don't sit back and chastise other fimmakers. Is Michael Bay and artist? No. Subjective or not; I say no freakin way. Is Iñárritu? Hell yes.

Pigeonholing your self into this 'elitist snob film club' is only going to hurt you on the long run. It will be that narrow minded tunnel vision that suppresses your own vision.

**** I want a smoke right now and we just had another earthquake. That's 3 in a week. Damn.
 
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