# If You Could Invite 5 DIRECTORS To Your Party, Who Would They Be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884 "2020-04-15T23:24:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/1 "2020-04-15T23:24:08Z")
Living or dead. I posted this a few days ago, but with Actors (instead of directors). So this would be a SECOND party. These aren’t necessarily a reflection of my favorite directors, but people I’d like to have a conversation with, but also five people who mesh together well - chemistry. I will pick those who speak English enough to have an intellectual (and other) conversations. I will provide snacks, and soft drinks, juice - I don’t want a drunken mess. I want sincere, great conversations. Hopefully a lot of laughter. Maybe I’ll allow pot, since Altman token all day. Since 10 might be too much for one intimate gathering, feel free to name 2 sets. 1. John Cassavetes 2. Ingmar Bergman 3. Orson Welles 4. Federico Fellini 5. Robert Altman 6. Stanley Kubrick 7. Billy Wilder 8. John Huston 9. Sam Peckinpah 10. Marlon Brando ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/2 "2020-04-15T23:55:35Z")
Jodie Foster Greta Gerwig Debra Granik Ida Lupino Leni Riefenstahl ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/3 "2020-04-16T00:14:36Z")
Woody Allen One of the Coen Brothers Wim Wenders Yasujiro Ozu Martin Scorsese ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/4 "2020-04-16T00:20:35Z")
Peter Bogdanovich Charlie Chaplin Stanley Kubrick Spike Lee Leni Riefenstahl Bogdanovich seems like a genuine film fan. Maybe he can take my stupid, awe-struck comments and turn them into legitimate conversation points. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/5 "2020-04-16T00:38:28Z")
John Huston Billy Wilder Luis Bunuel James Whale Fritz Lang. Although if you’re not providing booze, I expect the five of them will quickly head out to the nearest bar arm in arm. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/6 "2020-04-16T00:50:13Z")
Definitely Speilberg–we both collect meteorites, so we could talk about that. Kurosawa so that we could talk about swords and Edo Japan. Kevin Smith so that we can nerd out. And Natalie Portman and Sofia Coppola because they are Natalie Portman and Sofia Coppola. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/7 "2020-04-16T01:57:42Z")
How about Peter Jackson? Brian ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/8 "2020-04-16T02:53:04Z")
Wes Anderson Steven Speilberg Martin Scorsese Denis Villeneuve Taika Waititi Apologies for it being a bit of a sausage fest. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/9 "2020-04-16T07:25:55Z")
My first thought is to start off with Jon Favreau, if only because I enjoyed his TV show that was similar to the OP’s premise: [Dinner for Five](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291604/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). For exactly the same reason I’d invite Kevin Smith; one of my favorite Dinner for Five episodes was the one with Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, and I think the fifth was Jason Lee. I particularly enjoyed Smith busting Favreau’s balls for [Made](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0227005/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_25), which was exactly the kind of “let’s have fun with my friends” type movie project that Favreau had previously criticized Smith for making. (I liked Made.) Starting with Favreau and Smith, the full list would probably look like: Jon Favreau Kevin Smith Edgar Wright Judd Apatow Todd Philips Yeah, I think this would be a fun dinner. If I were going for more dramatic directors, as opposed to comedy, the first name I’d put on the list would be Sarah Polley. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/10 "2020-04-16T12:47:14Z")
Clint Eastwood John Huston Robert Altman Leni Riefenstahl Howard Hughesl ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/11 "2020-04-16T13:03:28Z")
The Party: 1. Quentin Tarantino 2. Ethan Coen 3. Steven Spielberg 4. Robert Zemeckis 5. George Lucas The After Party: 1. Joel Coen 2. David Lynch 3. Tim Burton 4. Christopher Nolan 5. James Cameron ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/12 "2020-04-16T13:51:43Z")
Howard declined so: Clint Eastwood John Huston Robert Altman Leni Riefenstahl Elia Kazan ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/13 "2020-04-16T19:14:24Z")
I’d love to have Leni Riefenstahl myself, but I have a strict house rule about not inviting Nazis over. I have tremendous respect for her as a filmmaker (and actress…I love all those Weimar Period “mountain movies,” the German equivalent of the American Western), but you can’t get around the Nazi thing. Not that she personally machine-gunned concentration camp prisoners, but the did make the Third Reich look godlike in **Triumph of the Will** and **Olympiad.** ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-invite-5-directors-to-your-party-who-would-they-be/851884/14 "2020-04-17T03:35:13Z")
Alfred Hitchcock Michael Curtiz Bruce Beresford George Lucas Neil Burger