List who you think are the 10 best directors and I'll compile a composite list. Two make it more interesting, include your two favorite films of each director. John Ford (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers) Alfred Hitchcock (Notorious, Vertigo) Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby, The Big Sleep) Sam Fuller (Steel Helmet, Forty Guns) Michael Powell (The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus) Andrei Tarkovsky (Andrei Rublev, The Mirror) Jean-Luc Godard (Vivre sa Vie, Pierrot le Fou) Francois Truffaut (Two English Girls, The Story of Adele H.) Martin Scorsese (Age of Innocence, Casino) Abbas Kiarostami (Close-Up, Life and Nothing More)
Terrence Malick (Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven) Wong Kar -Wai (Fallen Angels, In The Mood For Love) Ingmar Bergman (Persona, The Seventh Seal) Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange) Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Masculin Feminin) Ikira Kurosawa (Ran, Yojimbo) Andrej Wajda (Ashes and Diamonds, Man of Marble) Robert Altman (Nashville, Short Cuts) Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil) Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Raging Bull) I"m sure I'll hate this list by the end of the day. It strikes me as too conventional and canonized. Oh Well.
As already mentioned, Kurosawa, Kubrick, Welles, Scorcese, and Hitchcock. Add to that: Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner) Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now, the Godfather) I have a feeling Gringo will rip me if I say Spielberg, but he is the current 900 pound gorilla of the directing world and even if you don't like many of his sappy, terrible films (never mind Seaquest DSV), there's always Saving Private Ryan, Jaws and Close Encounters.
Speilberg may have gone 25 years between masterpieces (Jaws and A.I.), but that's two more masterpieces than 99% of the other directors have.
Historically (those who have moved the medium forward most through history): D.W. Griffith (The Musketeers of Pig Alley) Georges Melies (Voyage dans la Lune) Sergei Eisenstein (The Battleship Potemkin) Charlie Chaplin (the great dictator) Orson Welles (Citizen Kane) Alfred Hitchcock (39 steps) Elia Kazan (On the waterfront) Stanley Kubrick (Paths of Glory) Terrence Mallick (Badlands) Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse now) Solely based on the quality of their work: Terrence Mallick (Badlands, Days of Heaven) Stanley Kubrick (Paths of Glory, A Clockwork Orange) Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2) Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Raging Bull) Elia Kazan (On the waterfront, East of Eden) Pedro Almodovar (Todo sobre mi madre, Hable Con Ella) Ikira Kurosawa (Shichinin no samurai, Yojimbo) Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in America, For a Few Dollars More) Roman Polanski (The Pianist, Chinatown) David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mullholland Drive)
Since nobody has bothered to mention Federico Fellini... I Vitelloni (1953) La Dolce Vita (1960) 8 1/2 (1963)
It was hard to do, so I just listed five guys everyone has, and five no one has. Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Ikaru) Francis Ford Coppolla Martin Scorsese Stanley Kubrik (2001, Dr. Strangeglove) Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America) David Lean (Law-rence) Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve) Fritz Lang (M, still haven't watched Metropolis) Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever) Werner Herzog (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu the Vampyre)
This is a lot harder than I thought. There are directors whose works are groundbreaking and improtant to cinema but whose films I don't care for as much as some others. There are directors whose films I hold as the greatest thing ever who probaby won't float the boat of the more learned film scholars. *#*#*#*# it "no one is a hypocrite in their pleasure". Orson Welles (Citizen Cane, Touch of Evil) Wim Wenders (Kings of the Road, Wings of Desire) Mike Leigh (Life is Sweet, Naked) Akira Kurwosawa (Rashomon, Seven Samurai) Jules Dassin (Rafifi, Brute Force) Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, After Hours) Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window, Lifeboat) Coen Joel & Ethan (Millers Crossing, Raising Arizona) John Boorman (Deliverance, Excalibur) Stanley Kubrik (the Killing, Dr. Strangelove) A special shout out to short film specialists Stephen and Philip Quay (Street of Crocodiles, the Cabinet of Jan Svankmajaer) Ya know I'm just not happy with that list, but I can't be arsed to go back and fix it (Kramer, Felini, Herzog, Itami, Truffaut, Lee, Bergman etc.)
Wong kar Wai (Days of Being Wild, Mongkok carman) Zhang Yimou(Raise the Red Lantern, to Live) Chen kaige (Yellow Earth, farewell to my Concubine) Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, last Temptation of Christ) Akira Kurwosawa (Shadow Warrior, Ran) Alan Parker (Birdy, Midnight Express) Francis Ford Coppola (Godfather series, Apocalypse now) Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, and too many others)
Tough to do ths with any credibility. How man films by a director do you need to have seen to call him great? 2? 5? There are lots of foreign directors that I've only see 1 or 2 movies by, so they still are mostly "reputations" to me. Anyway, here goes: Robert Altman (MASH, Gosford Park) Scorcese (Raging Bull, Age of Innocence) Cohen Brothers (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing) Victor Fleming (Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz) Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Love and Death) Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo, To Catch a Thief) John Sayles (Lonestar, Sunshine State) Rob Reiner (Spinal Tap, Princess Bride) Milos Forman (Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X)
This was difficult, but here goes... Akira Kurosawa, the best - The Seven Samurai; Ikiru (actually, practically anything prior to Dodes'Ka-den, after which he went downhill) Federico Fellini - I Vitelloni; La Dolce Vita Ingmar Bergman - The Seventh Seal; Wild Strawberries Vittorio De Sica - The Bicycle Thief; Shoeshine Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey; Dr. Strangelove David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia; Great Expectations Werner Herzog - Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Fitzcarraldo Pier Paolo Pasolini - Arabian Nights; The Gospel According to St. Matthew Carol Reed - The Third Man; Odd Man Out For number 10, I've gotta get a plug in for musicals, a genre none of you cares about, but... Vincente Minnelli - Gigi; An American In Paris Honorable Mention: Alfred Hitchcock - Rear Window; Shadow Of A Doubt
It seems "Mongkok Carmen" is the Chinese title of a film called "As Tears Go By," which came out in 1988. It was Wong's directorial debut.
Tried not to pick the same names as everyone else but failed in several cases. This is largely a personal fave list, I doubt many would consider this the "10 greatest" of all time. -Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon) -Milos Forman (Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) -James Mangold (Cop Land, Heavy) -Peter Yates (Breaking Away, Bullitt) -Bill Forsythe (Local Hero, Housekeeping) -Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy) -Alan J Pakula (All The President's Men, Sophie's Choice) -David Lean (Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia) -John Frankenheimer (Manchurian Candidate, Birdman of Alcatraz) -Hal Ashby (Being There, Harold & Maude)
I didn't expect to see to much of him since his fourth movie is only coming out now, but I have to admit that I am surprised to have not seen (maybe somebody put him in, but then I missed it) Quentin Tarantino even once here
Re: Re: 10 Greatest Movie Directors of All Time Sorry, I meant Mongkok Carmen!!! riverplate is right!!! Mongkok is an area in HK known for its gangsters and Carmen is related to Bizet's "Carmen". I never understood the relatiobship between "Carmen" and the movie. I always thought "As tears went by" was based on Martin Scorsese's "Mean Street".
John Huston - The Maltese Falcon, African Queen Billy Wilder - Some Like it Hot, The Apartment Howard Hawks - The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby Alfred Hitchcock - The 39 Steps, Psycho Jean Jaques Beineix - Betty Blue, Diva Woody Allen - Sleeper, Broadway Danny Rose Francis Coppola - Apocalypse Now, Godfather1 2 Martin Scorcese - Casino, Goodfellas Steven Spielberg - Raiders OTLA, Schindlers List John Ford - The Searchers, My Darling Clementine