Stanley Kubrick (Barry Lyndon, Eyes Wide Shut) Krystof Kieslowski (The Decalogue, Three Colors Trilogy) Federico Fellini (8 1/2, I Vitelloni) Michaelangelo Antonioni (Blow Up, L'Avventura) Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows, Wild Child) Jean-Luc Goddard (Vivre Sa Vie, Contempt) Billy Wilder (The Apartment, Sunset Blvd.) Ken Russell (Lair of the White Worm, Whore) Julie Taymor (Titus, Frida) David Lynch (The Straight Story, Mulholland Dr.)
Seeing the post by art that mentions Bill Forstyth really makes me realize how hard a list like this can be. Forsyth's big two IMHO ("Gregory's Girl" & "Local Hero") are excellent compelling cinema, maybe lacking in the groundbreaking camera work but going into overdrive with the storytelling (I said before it's hard to make a great movie that's gentle at the same time), but he's not been prolific and has released some stinkers so I left him off the list, though those two films mean a lot to me. There's also Kineto Shindo whose "Onibaba" is probably one of the best films I've ever seen in my life, top 10 no doubt, but that is the only work I've ever seen by him, as far as I've been able to acertain it's the only one that's been available (in the US at least). I leave him off the list because it's just the one film, but that one film is worth 100 by some others, so what do you do?
A couple more current/trendy picks you might well agree or disagree with... Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) The Wachowski Brothers (Matrix trilogy)
Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America) Francis ford Coppola(Godfather, Appocalypse now) John Woo(bullet in the head, the killer) Mamuro oshii(ghost in the shell, avalon) Hayao Miyazaki(princess Mononoke, Spirited Away->mononoke-hime) Joel & Ethan Coen(Fargo, Blood Simple,...all thei movies) Caro & Jeunet(la cité des enfants perdus, delicatessen) Ridley Scott(Blade Runner, not all good but this one...) Terry Gilliam(Brazil, Twelve Monkeys) Tim Burton(Edxard scissorhands, Nightmare before christmas)
Welles - Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil Kurosawa - Seven Samurai, The Bad Sleep Well Huston - The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre Sayles - Matewan, Eight Men Out Lean - Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago Frankenheimer - The Manchurian Candidate, Seconds Ford - Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath Coppola - The Godfathers, The Conversation Wilder - Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole Kubrick - The Killing, Paths of Glory Two comments. 1. If I had the time I would like to go to IMDB and compute the "batting average" of about 50 directors. In other words, how many of the guy's films do I regard as really worth having. Many of the above directors certainly had more strikeouts than hits (I don't mean "hits" in the box office sense of the term). Much of this of course is the nature of the business. If you're in it long enough, you're bound to turn out a few stinkers no matter how talented you are, in some cases more than few. 2. Consider that under the often-maligned studio system, it was possible to have a great film without a great director. Here's an example. The same man directed all of the following (very different genres too): The Adventures of Robin Hood Yankee Doodle Dandy Casablanca Mildred Pierce One of these is on almost every top 10 list (critics' or general public) and the others on many top 100s. I think the people posting here could name this director, but no one would mention him in the same breath as John Ford. Anyway, here he is: http://members.tripod.com/~candide/
My favorites in no real order-can't really get into "greatest." 1. Sidney Lumet: He has a lot of misses, which have to go on the scorecard, but the hits-12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, The Vedict, well...and he directed Nick Nolte in Q&A-my favorite Nolte performance. 2. Stanley Kubrick 3 Federico Fellini: So many moments and films, but Roma for me is a special film. 4.Vittorio De Sica: Lot's to pick from bit,. Umberto D. another special film for me. 5. Martin Scorsese 6. Elia Kazan 7. John Sayles 8. Charlie Chaplin 9. Robert Altman 10. John Ford
I agree that the old studio system has received a raw deal. A brilliant non-auteurist look at this is Schatz's "Genius of the System." Truth is, more good movie were produced per year pre-1960s than post-1960s. But the difference between Curtiz and Ford is that Curtiz was only as good as his story and actors. And he should be hailed for never *#*#*#*#ing up a good project. Ford, however, could make masterpieces out of lousy scripts and actors.
BigSoccer's Greatest Directors List I tabulated the votes and the Top 10 are: 1. (tie) Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick 3. Ikira Kurosawa 4. (tie) Alfred Hitchcock and Francis Ford Coppola 6 (tie) John Ford, Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, David Lean, and the Cohen Brothers.