5-10 Directors You'd Love To Talk With

Cafe Society
1
  1. John Cassavetes - not my favorite, but most interesting.
  2. Vittorio De Sica - I’d ask how he became the greatest director ever? I’m sure being a great actor wasn’t all of it, considering he made about 10 masterpieces we all know and love.
  3. Orson Welles - I’m not a fan of his movies (besides Citizen Kane), but he was worldly, knew a lot, would have loved to talk to him.
  4. John Huston
  5. Stanley Kubrick - used to be my favorite, only cracks my Top 30, but I attribute that to finding so many greater directors in the last 20 years.
  6. Federico Fellini - Made my 2nd favorite, “La Strada” and I read an interview and he strikes me as someone I’d love to talk with.
  7. Robert Altman - “Nashville” is my #3, and he’s a true rebel.
  8. Ken Loach - we seem to share similar politics. Greatest living director.
  9. Ingmar Bergman - it’d be nice to have a deep psychological conversation with him.
  10. Paul Mazursky - He made my very favorite, “Harry and Tonto” and I’d be interested talking about that and other social issues, and comedy.
  11. Luchino Visconti - He made so many great movies, and smoked 120 cigarettes a day.

Honorable Mention: Marlon Brando, because he did direct the great “One-Eyed Jacks”

2

  1. Werner Herzog - He’d be great to listen to and to talk about just about anything.

  2. Stanely Kubrick - Such an odd, but interesting guy.

  3. Peter Jackson - I loved the Lord of the Rings and his recent doc. on WW1 was great.

  4. Spielberg - I have a lot to discuss about his movies

3

Many good ones listed already, so here are a few alternatives.

Howard Hawks
Takeshi Kitano
David Lean
David Lynch
Joel and Ethan Coen (although given their notorious opacity, I’d probably need to fact-check anything they told me).

I’m not going to be able to provide lengthy justifications; just assume that these are all directors for whom I’d have the most interest in discussing their lives, careers and methodologies.

4

Off the top of my head:

Quentin Tarantino
George Lucas (WHY, GEORGE, WHY?) [SUB]You know what I’m talking about[/sub]
Steven Spielberg
Stanley Kubrick
Ridley Scott
Fritz Lang
Michael Bay (way underrated director).

5

David Fincher - After having heard he’s anti-Michael Bay in that Bay embraces commercialism while Fincher is critical of it, I’d like to pick his brain about how successful he thinks he is at critiquing commercialism while implementing the very trappings of it so damn effectively

David Cronenberg - A favorite that strikes me as having the most interesting tangents. Nothing would be off the table for him, I bet he’d have something poignant to say about 2 girls and 1 cup.

Adam Curtis - Having watched multiples of his documentaries, I’d want to sit back and let him go on about the trends of society

Aleksei German - I always bounce off his movies, even though I desperately want to love them, so maybe talking with him would grant illumination

Mick Jackson - He worked with James Burke and done a lot of docu-dramas, so I’d want to pick his brain on both

6

Is he?

I liked The Rock and The Island. And maybe Bad Boys, which is really only OK.

What else does he have that is good? I’m not doubting you, but most of his stuff is trash, isn’t it?

7

I think most of Bay’s stuff is brain-dead trash, BUT, it’s entertaining brain-dead trash due to the action, and he is a master of action scenes.

I think Bay’s films are going to be studied by future filmmakers who are either looking to make an action blockbuster, or, and I think this would be more interesting, others who are making a more serious film and look to Bay for inspiration when they want to make parts visually exciting.

8

I don’t have a list of 5-10 directors handy, but I always said that Tarantino would be the greatest seat-mate on a cross-country trip. That’s what, 3-4 hours in air? 3-4 hours BSing with him about film, music, his thoughts, projects, and ideas. . .

I also think that Tarantino would be the worst seat-mate on a trans-Atlantic fight. I’d be afraid he might not stop talking once you got him started.