Mine is Sam Raimi. He got his start doing the Evil Dead movies, and his wicked talent with directing camerawork and angles can be seen even back then. He’s been getting more and more popular as time goes on–and is even helming the Spiderman Movie that’s in development.
Hideo Kojima, the man who designs the Metal Gear games (including Metal Gear Solid on PSX) also admires Raimi, and aspires to be a film director himself one day. I bet he’d do a pretty good job.
My favorite director would have to be Oliver Stone. My all time favorite movie is the Doors, followed closely by Platoon, JFK, and Natural Born Killers.
I have great admiration for most of Kubrick’s work, but my favorite director is Emir Kustarica. His movies are like thousands of beautiful photographs strung together forming tapestries as visually rich as any piece of art I’ve been privileged to behold. His stories are arresting as well. Rich in symbolism, yet viscerally accessible, they convey the beauty, pain, and absurdity of life with an articulation which is even more impressive considering that his movies are subtitled. One of his movies, Time Of The Gypsies, actually had to be subtitled in every country it was released in, as the language used in the movie is a relatively rare Romanian Gypsy dialect. To round it out, his movies make extensive use of eastern European Gypsy music, which is incredibly sensual and wild. If you’re interested, I suggest starting by renting his masterpiece, Underground. A feast for the senses.
Mike Leigh:
Life Is Sweet
Naked
Career Girls
Secrets and Lies
Lucio Fulci is one of my favorites (if you like Raimi, check him out). He directed Zombie (aka, Zombi 2), House by the Cemetary, Gates of Hell, etc.
Also, George Romero is right up there with Fulci. He directed the original Night of the Living Dead, and Dawn of the Dead (aka, Zombi).
Francis Ford Copella, need i say more…
I loved Stone’s work on Natural Born Killers and Platoon, but other than that, not a big fan of his.
So hard to narrow it down to just one…
-Dani
Billy Wilder
Sunset Boulevard
Some Like It Hot
Seven Year Itch
Double Indemnity
Witness For The Prosecution
Sabrina
Stalag 17
et al.
Rob Reiner
This is Spinal Tap
A Few Good Men
When Harry Met Sally
Princess Bride
et al.
and some guy named Spielberg…can’t remember the names of any of his flicks though…
All-time:
Alfred Hitchcock
Charlie Chaplin
Orson Welles
Howard Hawks
John Ford
Woody Allen
Billy Wilder
Ingmar Bergman
Luis Bunuel
Akira Kurosawa
Current:
Woody Allen
Kenneth Branagh
Tim Burton
Rob Reiner
Terry Gilliam
Robert Altman
Preston Sturges
D.W. Griffith (some, not all!)
John Waters (especially his early work)
Busby Berkeley (OK, he’s really a dance director)
Max Linder (all-around great talent)
I might add that about three of the people others have named I would rather put out my eyes with a letter opener than watch their over-rated and arsty-fartsy crap. But it’s too early to get into a fight, so I shall forgo naming names . . …
Quentin Tarantino…my fav hands down.
The 6th Sense director tells a good story. What the hell is his name? Nassapassapeenalon?
Betty Thomas is good too.
Ron Howard.
Cronenberg
David Lynch is as nutty as a fruit bat…and very entertaining.
Kevin Smith.
It’s possible I like him better as a writer, but I admire the balls that puts forward in his work. He has given a lot of hope to many aspiring young directors (for better or worse).
I also like Quentin Tarantino, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubric, Spike Lee, Rob Reiner and many others on whose names I’m drawing blanks.
Definitely Kurosawa. And the Coen brothers.
And most of those already mentioned are great.
John Sayles, for such films as:[ul][li]Eight Men Out[]Lone Star[]City of Hope[]The Secret of Roan Inish[]MatewanBrother from Another Planet[/ul][/li]
The Coen Brothers are a close second, followed by Ridley Scott (though his work is pretty uneven).
Terry Gilliam. A man of amazing vision.
Honorable Mention:
Martin Scorsese, Peter Weir, Steven Soderbergh, Stanley Kubrick, Joel Coen, Milos Forman, Krzysztof Kieslowski
Promising, but need to make more movies to be considered truly great:
Quentin Taratino, Todd Solondz, P.T. Anderson, Tim Robbins,
David O. Russell, David Fincher
Kurosawa. I watched 10 of his flicks before I saw a bad one (his first one about boxing, something like Sajuro? Sangata) but it’s even valuable if you look at it canted-wise (“It’s an anime parody!”).
Ran. Seven Samurai. Rashomon. Throne of Blood. Red Beard. Yojimbo. Sanjuro. The list goes on.
Tim Burton—
I am under the belief that he can do no wrong.
Only one new name here, but nevertheless . . . .
[ul]
[li]Bill Forsyth[/li][li]Preston Sturges[/li][li]Rob Reiner[/li][li]Billy Wilder[/li][li]John Sayles[/li][li]The Coen brothers[/li][/ul]
I’d say my favorites are the already-mentioned Kurosawa & Kubrick, plus Wim Wenders (directed the ‘angel’ movies Der Himmel ueber Berlin and In Weiter Ferne, So Nah!, as well as the recent Buena Vista Social Club).
Second place for Orson Welles & Terry Gilliam (Welles getting a bit higher rating). Alfred Hitchcock gets points for being the best at what he did.
Kurosawa. Barton, you left out two of my favorites: “Ikiru” and “High and Low”.
Overall, my favotite is Stanley Kubrick. Haven’t seen “Eyes Wide Shut” yet, and I didn’t really care for “Hard Metal Jacket”, but everything else he’s done rivets me. I’m also a big Kurasawa fan – Seven Samurai is one of my all-time favorites.
Fred Zinneman, for “A Man for All Seasons” and “Day of the Jackal” hasn’t been mentioned yet.
David Lean, for all those historical epics I love so much.
Quentin Tarantino is defenitly my favorite, but I like Scorsese and Tim Burton too. I think Oliver Stone is overrated, but I liked Natural Born Killers. I named my dog Quentina…