Best living director

In My Humble Opinion
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[quote]
RealityChuck, are you crazy? “Thelma and Louise” is Scott’s best movie? Is THAT why I had to study “Blade Runner” in film class?
[/quote}

A second-rate film class, obviously. :slight_smile: “Blade Runner” is OK, but certainly not great. The plot’s murky, even in the director’s cut.

No more groundbreaking than the Bowery Boys in “Ghost Breakers”: a bunch of stupid people confronted by a monster. Everyone in the film acted like a first-class moron; if they had an IQ in the double digits, there were dozens of ways to get rid of the alien and go back to sleep. The plot had more holes in it than a ton of Swiss cheese.

I mean, if you’re in a dark corridor, with a known killer coming at you, wouldn’t you want to know from which direction? Yet Tom Skerrit doesn’t think it’s important to ask, and the stupid bimbo watching his back doesn’t think it’s important to tell him (BTW, her utter stupidity through the entire film negates the “strong woman” theme the film supposedly has). Why the hell didn’t Yaphet Kotto blast away when the had the chance (and he’s nowhere near to hitting the bimbo. Besides, you shoot first and hope your partner will know enough to get out of the way – though with the intelligence level shown here, she probably wouldn’t)? Why the hell don’t they just abandon ship when they know what’s going on? Even Ripley becomes a complete moron at the end (saving the cat when her friends are dying?).

It’s an idiot plot, which only works because everyone involved is a complete idiot. And scaring people is the easiest trick in a director’s repetoire.
</rant>

As another name for consideration, how about Rob Reiner? At least three out-and-out classics (Spinal Tap, Princess Bride, and When Harry Met Sally), though his more recent stuff has been a bit weak.

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Lynch: excellent, very offbeat, very talented. Really needs to attempt something mainstream, though, to test himself if for no other reason.

David Fincher: love his stuff (heck, Fight Club is in my DVD player right now), but MAN does he have a tendency to under-light.

Tim Burton: a lot like Lynch in some ways. An excellent eye, and no one creates film-worlds quite like his. However, he recycles actors so often, I feel like his movies don’t differ from one another as much as they perhaps should.

Ridley Scott: trail-blazer. So often imitated, one loses sight of the fact that the original idea was HIS. Unfortunately, I hear that, with Gladiator, he succumbed to the “shake the camera around so that no one can see the action” disease that’s currently gripping Hollywood. How the mighty have fallen. Blade Runner, incidentally, may be the most-copied film in history for “future look-and-feel”.

Steven Spielberg: was great. Was. Now, he’s a pansy. Remember Jaws, when one of the first to get chomped was a kid on an inflatable raft? Now, kids are untouchable in Spielberg productions. I hear he plans to digitally remove the guns that the government agents wave around in E.T. when it’s re-released in 2002 for its 20th anniversary. I have zero respect for that.

Quentin Tarantino: okay, I liked Reservoir Dogs, but didn’t care for Pulp Fiction. Reason: every scene was one character playing off against one other character, with no interaction more complex than that. Even when other characters were present, they just stood in the background. Come on, you have lots of good characters, put 'em in the mix!

Kevin Smith: great potential. He’s a superb writer, but even he admits that he over-uses the two-shot. He’ll improve, no doubt.

Terry Gilliam: great, but strange. Also can be quite temperamental and hard to work with, from what I hear. Watch the 12 Monkeys DVD documentary, and see what you think.

Woody Allen: again, a better writer than a director, I think, although his direction and writing complement one another so very very well.

My favorite: I dunno, depends what mood I’m in. I just plain like movies.
Should we start a separate thread, or can I nominate Joel Schumacher for “worst director” right here?

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Yeah, Schumacher’s pretty bad. Although I enjoyed Falling Down, but in contrast to his 20 or so lackluster films, that definitely doesn’t make him great.

Another bad director? Michael Bay, hands down. I’m looking forward to seeing Pearl Harbor, as far as the premise goes, but the notion that Michael Bay is gonna be directing kind of ruins the anticipation.

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Not yet mentioned but I think they should be :

Seriously interesting : Paul Verhoeven

Seriously good start : Sam Mendes

I also think Tarantino’s worthy of more credit if you include his screenplay, script and other contributions. More than a Director.

Ridley Scott pretty much originated a whole movie genre with Bladerunner and then Alien - genuine originality has to be worth something.

Seems to me the test of a great Director is not what they can do with $100 million and a great script.

Least favourite, the dreadful Oliver Stone.

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RealityChuck- Okay, okay, I can SORT OF see your point. Especially about Blade Runner. I actually thought that myself at the time. We were studying it more for it’s noir aspects than as a classic, but I think in overall quality it was a great film.
As for Alien, well, opinions vary. But “stupid people being threatened by a monster” has been the plot of so very many movies (in one form or another: “Scream”, “Dracula”, “The Mummy”, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St. etc.) that I don’t think its fair to hold it against Alien.

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Well thanks for all the comments. Some of the directors in the thread I’m not too familiar with, and I’ll have to check them out (most notably Fincher, I’ve seen Seven, it started well but then went downhill, and haven’t seen Fight Club yet). And I suppose I should give Woody Allen another chance. His recent stuff has struck me as tedious.

Max Torque: Lynch has tried mainstream stuff. He had Dune, which totally blew, and last year he made The Straight Story, which was quite good (and G rated!)

As for the directors with potential, I’ll totally agree with Jonze and Mendes, and throw in David O. Russell and Curtis Hanson (who’s not exactly a new director, but his last two films have been great, and the others mediocre)

And I don’t think Schumacher is the worst. I mean, OK, he totally ruined the Batman series, but his other stuff has just been middle of the road. My votes for worst are concidentially both named Paul: Paul Anderson (not Paul Thomas Anderson), who made Soldier and Mortal Kombat, and Paul Michael Glaser, who made The Cutting Edge and Kazzam.

Paul Verhoven just may make the evil trinity of Pauls, but I can’t tell how ironic his films are supposed to be.

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After sitting through What Lies Beneath yesterday, I can safely add Robert Zemeckis to the list of bad directors. I’ll never ever ever forgive him for Forrest Gump, despite liking Contact a lot and enjoying the Back to the Future trilogy and Roger Rabbit. But, gack, he’s very untalented.

And, I second the nominations of Joel Schumacher and Michael Bay. Plus, even though he’s only done one film, Kinka Usher took a completely brilliant concept and ruined the film (Mystery Men, I’m talking about). He’s also responsible for the annoying Taco Bell commercials.

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David Lynch
Martin Scorsese
Francis Ford Coppola
Jim Jarmish
Quentin Tarantino
You can’t top those guys.

Honorable mention:
Tim Burton (but Sleepy Hollow sucked!)
Woody Allen

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Based on these criteria, which seem pretty sensible to me, I’d vote for the following:

Peter Greenaway
Kenneth Branagh
David Lynch
Joel & Ethan Coen

Many of the more popular directors that have been mentioned do not seem to really influence the films that they make as much as these. More often than not, the more popular bring in strong actors who require little or no direction. Thus, their films become a mess of interpretations rather than follow a particular direction.

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How american fucking centric. the best living director’s?

How about
KEN LOACH
MIKE LEIGH
SATIJAT RAY

Have any of you even seen any of their films?

At least one person mentioned

JOHN WOO

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oldscratch: That’s just what I was going to say. Although Scorcese, the Coens, Jarmusch, Burton, Allen, Lee, Gilliam, and others are worthy nominees, it has to be said that everybody mentioned so far works in English. (Except your own Ray, who’s dead.)

So with that, I want to nominate:

Wong Kar-Wai. Happy Together, Fallen Angels, and his best-known film in the West, Chungking Express, among others. Staggeringly talented filmmaker, just the best from a phenomenal group of modern Chinese directors. Others are Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou. (I’m not distinguishing between HK and mainland for the purposes of this.)

Abbas Kiarostami. Many film aficionados content that the most interesting movies being made in the world today are coming out of Iran, and Kiarostami is one of the best Iranian filmmakers. A Taste of Cherry is probably his best-known work so far.

And excuse me while I just end this discussion right here:

Ingmar Bergman is still alive. He isn’t making movies any more; he’s working in the theatre. But he is most certainly still with us.

Thank you very much. I’ll be here all week.

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Crap. I thought Ingmar was dead. If not, he gets added to my list.

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**

Damn. I didn’t know he was dead. How the fuck did I miss that?

**

I meant to mention that. Forgot about him.

Also there is a Dutch director who I can’t remember, no not Paul Verhoven. Although I now add him to my list. He does, oh fuck, I’ll find his name and work and post it.

GREATEST LIVING DIRECTOR
PAUL VERHOVen

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Peter Weir: Gallipoli, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Witness, also The Truman Show, The Year of Living Dangerously

Other favorites: Alan Rudolph, Hal Hartley, Robert Altman, Eric Rohmer, Jim Jarmusch

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OH wait another nod.
PETER JACKSON.
Anyone who can jump from Dead Alive, to heavenly Creatures, to forgotten Silver, and is now working on Lord of the rings, has to get a nod.

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I will not miss a movie by:

Kevin Smith (though more for the writing than the directing)
Atom Egoyan (one of the best directors today)
PT Anderson (yes, Magnolia was an ego trip, but his movies always have balls.)
The Coen Brothers

Nick Park (Wallace & Gromit, now Chicken Run. Great!)
Errol Morris (who? only the best documentarian around…)
Jim Jarmusch (recently “discovered” his works, now I’m hooked)
John Sayles (Loved Limbo, even the ending)
Robert Altman

The Two-movie Club
Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth and Election)
The Waichowski Brothers (I’ll get flamed for saying this, but I think Matrix 2 & 3 are a stupid idea, I wish they’d do something new)
Frank Darabont (only made two, but they were great, especially Shawshank)
Douglas Liman (Swingers and Go)

Rookies I loved:
Julie Taymor
Spike Jonze
Sam Mendes

37

Nobody has mentioned Jonathan Demme. He has made some brilliant movies. Swimming to Cambodia, Stop Making Sense, Married to the Mob and of course Silence of the Lambs. He, along with Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton are at the top of my current list.
John Woo hasn’t made a good movie since coming to North America.

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everybody I could think of has been mentioned… but here’s a nod to my fave’s

Spielberg-- I’ve enjoyed 90% of his movies… he’s a great story teller.

Scorcese
R. Scott
Weir
The Coens
Cameron Crowe

I have to say I love K. Smith movies, but not for his directing… so Ic an’t nominate him. I can’t say I’m a big Tarantino fan, a few good movies, but no consistency.

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Clint Eastwood
David Fincher
Ridley Scott
Wody Allen
Tim Burton

Akira Kurosawa, but I think he’s dead.

Also, on the action hero front- watched yet another Bruce Lee documentary with the hubby the other night. Mostly tedious, but while discussing either “Fists of Fury” or “Enter the Dragon”, they talked about how, even in slow motion, Bruce was blindingly fast. Sure enough, even in slomo, you could just about see the air trying to get out of the way…

PS- Jackie Chan being characterized as a circus performer isn’t that far off, is it? He was sold to the Beijing Opera as a child, wasn’t he?

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Wait, I forgot Jody Foster- potential there, I think.