Wow, the "movie" thread I started was a huge success! Let's keep this going until we're all "fav'ed" out.

Favortite directors (in no order):

PT Anderson:
- I think Boogie Nights and Magnolia are the best films that have come out in a long time. The storytelling is great - unique enough to allow repeated viewings. His shots, colors, symbolism and overall style is just so damn cool. He was under 30 when he did those two films too. (great start, in my opinion)

Milos Forman:
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, People Vs Larry Flint....excellent films that build character. (I'm an activist for the First Amendment (we all should be, its our bread and butter) - so, People Vs Larry Flint is important because it speaks for all other films.)

David Fincher:
- Dark! This guy made me want to live in darkness. Is that good? If you haven't seen Se7en - rent the special edition! It's my favorite lighting in a movie - darkly lit. Watch the flashlight scenes - something about a flashlight beam excites me. Oh, Fightclub is youngblood filmmaking at its best...doesn't try to be new or old. It was a moment in time for that years films...great.

Martin Scorsese:
- Taxi Driver rocks because of pacing. It's slow - thank God these movies are on DVD for all future filmmakers. It's beautiful because the characters hangout a lot...talking at diners. What could be any better than watching DeNiro sitting...talking. Really? Oh, GoodFellas...opening stedicam! Martin directs in a way that feels like a clenched fist. You know what I mean? He's gripping something all the time...you have to focus more with him than most directors. He demands you to pay attention because he wrote those damn lines and he's convinced you should hear them.

Steven Spielberg (and Lucas for Star Wars: A New Hope):
- Yeah, I'm a Steven Spielberg baby. I was 9 when Raiders came out, so that makes me his child. His directoral style even when serious has a childlike humor about it. Schindler's list is the exception, but otherwise usually has childlike situations. I'm not sure if that brings down his films. But, it's unique to have someone inject personal feelings into the threads of a film. Usually, it's a major topic that a director is focused on and let's emotions get into that. But, Steven does this thing where you feel like he wrote down all his childhood dreams in a notebook and takes it out during production. He flips through it and trys to re-create a moment in time where you feel like your in his childlike dreamstate.

Alfred Hitchcock:
- I really love his work because you can pick out so many things to rip off! Ok, not rip off. But, you can get the suspense thing down by watching his movies. One thing I learned from him? Always...always make the audience an active participate in the film. Let a character enter a scary room..and the audience knows where the bad guy is...they sit there talking to themselves and instantly are in the movie. "No, don't go over there!" It's a cheap and easy way for your movie to remain in someone's memories!

Orson Welles:
- I'm young (31 yrs old), but I see lots of value in studying the masters of cinema. I think its like building a house. Even if you are living in 2004 - study architecture from the past. It's probably got some unique aspects not around anymore...like subtle details. Citizen Kane is awesome and I am planning to watch it tonight with my girlfriend...I'm teaching her good cinema. :)

Oliver Stone:
- "Hi, my name is Chris Murphy and I love Oliver Stone movies." I know...JFK had made up characters. So what! It's movie and he never said it wasn't, so there you go. This guy is probably my favorite Hollywood director...just because he's probably the #1 guy I'd want to have lunch with. If you're reading this and work for living in the business...you know what I mean. It's the lunch more than anything...right? Stone makes movies for him and he gets away with it...isn't that worth major respect? I love him for taking the big man's money and making his films.

Quentin Tarantino:
- He did some great 90's films, we'll see about this Kill Bill crap. If the 2nd one stinks I'm going to take him off my list. Quentin should write a killer film like True Romance again - get back to characters. Then..when he's ready direct this massive film centered around his creation. I think Kill Bill is his answer to everyone wanting character driven work. He's not an on-demand player, so he's just going to make a movie and have fun until there isn't anymore Dogs or Pulp pressure...might be never though.

Roman Polanski:
- The Pianist was amazing...underrated because of the 70's wrap he got. Regardless, it's a great film - directed by one of the greats. Chinatown is amazing too. I actually need to see more of his stuff...there are only 24 hours in a day, that sucks when you want to watch 1,000 films! Polanski made the Pianist into a great work of art...schools should run it.

Charlie Chaplin:
- When I was 7 or 8 yrs old, back when parents could drop you off at the library and not worry about the worst...I'd watch old Chaplin films alone in a dusty upstairs room. There was a projector and the librarian would sit me down...and start the projector and leave. There I would sit...watching silent films. Isn't that cool? Also, there was a Ground Round restaurant by my house and they used to play old silent films on the wall while you ate....and you could throw your peanut shells on the ground! People loved walking on them and making them crunch!

Francis Ford Coppola:
- Godfather, Apocalypse Now and Outsiders...all incredible. Apocalypse Now is one of my favorite films...it oozes darkness and death. I love it. The opening of the movie is brilliant and the choice for "The End" is probably the best choice for any song - EVER - in the history of cinema. (anyone have a better song and movie?)

If anyone was left out - I'm sorry, my hands are hurting!

Come on people...tell me what directors you love. I need to know what my next rentals will be from Netflix!

Murph

Christopher you pretty much named all the ones I like, but I´ll add a few ones I like: (some might not be easy to find in the US.. but I do recomend to try and watch some of it).

- Takashi Miike:
He might be no master... but more than 60 movies in less than 15 years, about 5 a year (and that´s Japan not India)... And the four I´ve seen are plain great... This guy is a monster, and If I can see a few more and like them he will become my role model.

-Kátia Lund
-Fernando Meirelles
This ones directed "City of God", the Brasilian movie I forgot to add to my favorite movies.. I´ve only seen this one movie.. but I have really high hopes for them. They impressed me... and I recommend to read a bit about the production of this movie, to see how they worked....

- Luc Besson: Don´t shoot me... But I´ve liked all of his movies... And I liked them because of the direction more than anything.

- John Carpenter: He has not given me a minute of his movies to get bored.... and besides I can´t stop the Halloween theme to get out of my head... Please someone make it stop....

- The Cohen Brother that directs (Joel??): This is another guy that has never let me down...

There might be a few more, but they´ll pop up when I´m far from my PC... and then I´ll forget when I come here...

P.S.
Someone make the Halloween theme go away...

Kevin Smith is my current fav, because he was just like me- A nobody that wanted to make movies. There is more to him than dick and fart jokes, even if he won't admit it.

In addition to Christopher's list,

I'd have to also include Stanley Kubrick.

And also, I like John McTiernan--yes, he's done some awful movies over the last few years, but Predator is still one of my all time favorite films.

Mine is Juzo Itami, the Japanese director. His movie Tampopo, is my favorite movie.

Having lived in Japan for so long I understand his movies better and I see the characters from his film everyday when I go out.

I also like Robert Rodriguez, his go at it himself attitude is a big inspiration.

Wow. A lot to think about here:

Francis Ford Coppola - Yeah, Godfather 1 and 2, Black Stallion, Apocalypse Now, Dracula, The Conversation. The Outsiders
Quentin Tarantino - The best writer of dialog. P E R I O D.
Steven Spielberg - When he is not selling out.
David Fincher - We have yet too see his greatness. He is still a baby rattlesnake.
Martin Scorsese - Makes one want to actually be in the Mob.
Brian De Palma - Body Double, Scarface, Blow Out.
John Carpenter - Before he had a thing called budgets.
Ridley Scott - The fact that he can reconstruct the Mogadishu incident is amazing. Gladiator could have been Hollywood popcorn and was not even close.
M. Night Shyamalan - If the Village is as great as his first 3 films...
David Lean - If I can watch Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago and love them while only being 33 years old?
Alfred Hitchcock - I have never seen anything he has done that sucked.

Hard to pick my favorite. If I could only pick one, I'd have to say...

Ohhh, but I can't just pick one, can I? You can't make me!

Just about everything by Zemeckis, even without Gale riding shotgun. Lucas's pre-1980 work. Almost all of Capra, especially the Bob Riskins. Some of Altman. Most of Ridley Scott. A small fraction of Woody Allen. Ooh, David Lean's a good one, good thinking.

I can't think of many instances where a director has been a real innovator without having been the writer as well. Joe Mankiewicz's dialog eats Tarantino for an appetizer.

M. Night--come on, it's bulldozers.

John Ford. I'm not big into westerns or looking at the "artistic" side of films, but Stagecoach and Grapes of Wrath were great great films. His shots portray 100% emotion, without any words. I took... well, flunked... a film class in college and hated every minute of it, except those two films.

<<<--
M. Night--come on, it's bulldozers. -->>>

? ? ?

I actually never had a favorite director. I like a lot of works from
some directors (like Tarantino) but only some works of others
(like Spielberg and M. Night). I do have favorite movies though!

Re: "who's your favourite director(s) - and why?"

Answer: all the Canadian ones. Why? Because they're Canadian. But Iran also has some great directors, in my opinion. Sorry, I don't know how to spell their names. :-))

You guys have covered quite a few, but here are a few more:

Robert Redford
One of the greatest storytellers ever

Sydney Pollack
Even his small films have an epic feel to them

Terry Gilliam
For taking stories that seem impossible to depict visually...and doing it...AND better than you'd imagined possible.

Coen Bros.
I know they've already been mentioned, but they deserve to be mentioned again.

Carl Reiner
The king of clever comedies

Nora Ephron
For filling her films with romance and hope and comedy... and not one explosion or gunshot.

Peter Wier
A great storyteller...but often in a visual sense rather than through dialogue

Clint Eastwood
A great storyteller.

Barry Levinson
For having the perserverance to get "Diner" made, and from there making some notable movies

Richard Linklater
"Before Sunrise" is still one of my favorites...and he lives in Austin, so he has to be okay.

Wes Anderson
He and Owen Wilson are two of my favorites now. "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore" are full of classic lines.

All the Lady X Producers
For having the chutzpah to get off their duffs and make a short film and expose themselves to public scrutiny

John you are missing a great one from your list,

Jerry Lewis, one of the most inovative and underated directors ever!!

seriously.

Zac

Zac,

Are you French?

John,

I have been thought to be so, but i lack the attitude... my father is though (technically).

John, are you a yiddish texan who looks like Dr Phil?

I agree with John... Usually it's only the French that seem to appreciate Jerry Lewis. Myself, I never enjoyed anything he was in without Deano.

Kieth,

Yeah his sentiment was very reminisant of french cinema, but i did enjoy his work. He did some things with space, setup and payoff and relations to worlds within worlds which were ingenious, and i really respect him for that.

Zac

LOL... well, I'm a Texan...at least technically...and I adopted some Yiddish slang while living in NYC...and, well now that you mention it, I DO look like Dr. Phil...but on a bad hair day.

I was just taking a jab at you because you seem to be a rather Francocentric lad. To be honest, I haven't seen anything with/by Jerry Lewis since the 70s. Maybe I should give him another shot...based on your suggestion.

As long as we're generating a list, I don't think anybody's mentioned Bogdanovich yet, whose The Last Picture Show is a director's film if ever there was one.

Good one! I've been wanting to read the story about him during the filming of "Last Picture Show." Supposedly an interesting story. The town and countryside in the film look amazingly similar to where I grew up.

Is there a book? Only thing I remember about it is Bogdanovich started an affair with his lead Cybill Shepherd. And that its sequel, The Lastest Picture Show, was directed some 20 years later.

Sorry...not a book...turns out it's a documentary on DVD. I've had it saved on my wish list at Amazon for so long, forgot what format it was in.

Here's the link to it. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000065B0M)

John, I see "Picture This" is on Netflix..save yourself some cash and join! I'm going to rent Last Pic Show and also Pic This - haven't seen either yet.

Murph

Methinks the postage would be a tad pricey, Christopher. ;)

Good suggestion, though. Wish I knew of something like that over here.

I'll add a few from my neck of the woods.

1. Zhang Yimou
- Raise The Red Lantern, Red Sorgum, Ju Dou and my least favourite Hero - shot by Chris Doyle. If you aren't familiar, give one of his title a go. Truly poetic.

2. Wong Ka Wai
- Happy Together, In The Mood For Love & the great "ChungKing Express"

3. Ang Lee - Pre-Hulkywood. Fans of Chinese/Asian food will love his opening sequence in "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman."

4. Akira Kurosawa - "Ran" the epic.

And other favourites:...

5. David Lynch - Who killed Laura Palmer?
Weird & Wonderful

6. Tarrintino - Dogs & Pulp Fiction. Defining.

7. Stanley Kubrick - Truly an Odyssey

8. Coen Brothers - Fargo'ing Brilliant.

9.Spike Jonze - Being John Malkovich

I'm not overly familiar with Ang Lee's prior works, but I can understand your dissappointment with the Hulk. In my opinion, it would have been a much better film, except for Ang Lee bringing too much family melodrama into it. Nuke him, and let the Hulk rage on, and leave out his Father issues. A simple perspective, from a simple mind.

I guess I have been sheltered, by not being able to enjoy a vast number of foreign films. I hate subtitles, and don't have the desire to learn different languages. I do however, enjoy anime. The storylines and animation are often times far superior to some of the actual cinema released over here.

Oops, sorry John...forgot where you live!

Why are you there if you don't mind me asking? Judging by your name - you're not from Japan!

Murph

Here are a few of my fav directors (in no order):

Stanley Kubrick: This man can create a mood that no one else can come close to... truly an auteur. Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut... they breathe with his vision

Robert Altman: Actors fall over themselves to work with this guy for a reason - he creates some of the most real characters of anyone out there. Short Cuts, Cookies Fortune, Kansas City, Gosford Park.. these movies have characters that just come out of the screen... Even when he is working with over the top characters such as in The Player or Prêt-à-Porter, he still infuses them with a real-life core. He is a true master... I was very surprised to not see him elsewhere in this thread.

Terry Gilliam: Boy I like his vision and energy, but occaisionally I think he should let the studios win some of the legendary fights about making his films more palatable. I have more of his DVDs than any director though... The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is my personal fav.

Coen Brothers: Nice to see these delightfully sick minds getting traction in the mainstream. Their combination of silly humour and darkness is very compelling... The funnier ones are my favorites...Raising Arizona, Hudsucker Proxy, etc., but I also love the darkness of Fargo, Barton Fink, etc, and I don't know where to put Oh Brother Where Art Thou, but I loved it too. From what I understand, though one is listed as producer, one as director, they seem to be side by side for every step... it is amazing to me that they have kept that relationship throughout...

Steven Spielberg: He brings such a youthful energy to his pieces... he is the hands-down master of the genre he basically fathered... has also showed his amazing breadth with Shindler's List and Saving Private Ryan.... the only time I didn't like him is in AI when he tried to direct like Kubrick... got lost in a world between two visions....

Krzysztof Kieslowski: When I'm in the heady mood... Blue, White, and Red were masterpieces... the Double Life of Veronique was great too... All great mood pieces... but with strong characters and interesting plots...

Baz Luhrmann: Another Auteur... Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet, and the incomparable Moulin Rouge.... this is a man whose vision stretches well beyong the ordinary...

There a others too.... Tim Burton, Sam Mendes, Gus Van Sant (minus Cowgirls) etc.... lot's of good work going on out there....

Another one I thought of: Richard Attenborough, who only occasionally directs...

I haven't seen all of his films but I loved A Bridge Too Far, Shadowlands, and of course, Ghandi.

For those that have done it, thank you! But, could others of you who have not posted any of the director's films do so? Thanks...just making a list of what to check out!

<<<-- Originally posted by Keith Forman : I'm not overly familiar with Ang Lee's prior works, but I can understand your dissappointment with the Hulk. In my opinion, it would have been a much better film, except for Ang Lee bringing too much family melodrama into it. Nuke him, and let the Hulk rage on, and leave out his Father issues. A simple perspective, from a simple mind.

I guess I have been sheltered, by not being able to enjoy a vast number of foreign films. I hate subtitles, and don't have the desire to learn different languages. I do however, enjoy anime. The storylines and animation are often times far superior to some of the actual cinema released over here. -->>>

I just wish they had attempted to make the HULK look real and not like some CGI cartoon. :(

John- You didn't like the CG in Hulk? I thought it was the best part... really. It was far better than the 70's attempt with Lou Ferrigno.

Well, yeah.

My sons Halloween costume was better than the 1970's version! LOL

No, I didn't like the CG character at all (better than Lou's). I thought it was a well thought out action/comic movie. Top rate acting and an engaging enough plot. The character just looked, bad.

I wish they would have went the route of THE LEAGUE of EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN with the Jecyl/Hyde character. Not exactly like that, but with that CG character you could still see the MAN in the MONSTER.

The HULK was just fake.

I like Jim Jarmusch for Mystery Train, Down by Law and Stranger Than Paradise.

I actually thought the acting in Hulk was horrible. Eric Bana just didn't do it for me. It was also funny to see him in that movie knowing that he came from a comedy background (Fast Forward in Australia similiar to Sat Night Live in US).

Keith Forman:
Ang's very early notable international successes were made in taiwan years ago. These were "The Wedding Banquet" - sorta like "My Best Friend's Wedding with a Gay twist" and Eat Drink Man Woman with aguably the best chinese cooking sequence ever captured. I'm sure you are familiar with his more recent "Sense & Sensibilities" and "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"

If you were ever to give a "foreign" flick a go, in particular a chinese one, i'd highly recommend Zhang Yimou followed by Wong Ka Wai.

Most "Foreign" movies speak with a different film/visual language. I think it's invaluable to get exposure to them. On the contrary, I find that watching a foreign film with subtitles forces you to take a closer look at story, character and dialogue, provided the translation was doen well. i tend to examine more closely what is being said and what is being played out.

Cheers.

Didn't see Darren Aronofsky yet: Pi, Requiem for a Dream.

Or George Roy Hill: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Slap Shot, World According to Garp.

Don't ask.

Kubrick, Gilliam, and Lynch were very much a part of my adolescence.
Then Greenaway, Cronenberg, Altman, and Yimou.
Somewhere in there I was really hot for Godard. I simply hadn't seen anything like it. And Cassavetes. And Fellini. And Bergman.
The guy who did Tetsuo: The Iron Man will always have place to crash if ever he finds himself down and out in Nor Cal.
I can't thank Alejandro Jodorowsky for his mark in the world, he should have done Dune after all back in '74 or whenever that was.

Now it's Tarkovsky, Marker, some Herzog, Korine, early Ruiz, maybe Godard still; irrating though he can be, I just watched Le Petit Soldat, and afterwards thought, "My God, that's how films should be made."
Dogme '04, here I come.