Topic: Favorite Directors & their best movies

[Kathy]

Who is your favorite director? Why? Which of their movies are your favorite?

[Najemikon]

I think my favourite director is Spielberg, but he's been getting enough attention on this forum! 

Really I'm a sheep, following the pack (need a smiley there!). My next favourite director is Alfred Hitchcock. Everyone knows the best movies like Vertigo and Psycho. I love Rear Window. Of slightly lesser known films, I'd pick Strangers On a Train or Shadow of a Doubt (his personal favourite). Of his films that no-one ever seems to know, The Trouble with Harry. That last one is a gem. I think it was his first colour film and you can really tell. Sumptious isn't the word. Very very funny (Harry is a dead body that various people seem untroubled by it are desperate to hide it nonetheless!) and the first role for Shirley Maclaine. If you haven't seen it, you really must, regardless of your current opinion of Hitchcock.

My third favourite director would be John Ford. The Searchers is one of the best westerns, not least for proving that not only could John Wayne act, he could so better than many of his peers. Not just the movie star. Ford generally stuck with westerns, but varied the tempo. Although The Searchers and Stagecoach are his most well known, check out The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Marvellous.

Sticking with westerns, Sergio Leone would be higher up the list, but he seemed stuck on one style. Oh, but what style! Once Upon a Time in The West or The Good The Bad and the Ugly and you'll see cinema at a level most directors don't come close to today. Close-ups and twangy music give so much power!

My last pick would be another obvious one: Akira Kurosawa. Leone and many others would be lost without his input (A Fistful of Dollars is based on Yojimbo). I knew I loved film when I first saw Seven Samurai (remade as The Magnificent Seven, of course). Four hours, black and white, and in Japanese, but I loved it. Every frame is a work of art. The final battle in the mud and the rain is astonishing. Get the new Criterion edition, it's one of the best DVD packages around. His other works may take some attention, as they use a lot of aspects of Japanese culture, but they are worth the effort. Ikuru is an unusual film about terminal illness. Very moving. One of his later works, Ran, will likely be one of the most beautiful films you will ever see. It's basically King Lear.

And now I have to go to bed. I knew it was a mistake logging in at this time because one of you was bound to be posting something I couldn't resist! 

[Achim]

I should check out more from Kurosawa... I own Seven Samurai (the re-release), but it seems Yojimbo is another one to take a look at.

I'll keep this a little shorter (not less people, just less description); in no particular order:
David Cronenberg - The Fly, Videodrome
John Woo - Hard-Boiled, The Killer
Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill
Steven Spielberg - Jaws
Sergio Leone - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America, Once Upon a Time in the West
James Cameron - Aliens, Terminator 2, True Lies
Ridley Scott - Alien, Thelma & Louise

Here's the list of "most collected" Director's (based on phpdvdprofiler):
John Carpenter, Alfred, Hitchcock, John Woo, David Cronenberg, Peter Jackson, George A. Romero, Martin Scorsese, Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante, Robert Rodriguez, Tim Burton, Dario Argento, Sam Raimi, Ridley Scott, John Landis, Luc Besson, Quentin Tarantino, Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah

[Kathy]

I couldn't resist! 

I'm irresistable! 

[Kathy]

I'll keep this a little shorter

Thank you for sharing - you've helped to feed my "wish list" and it's very happy! 

[Achim]

I am glad my list could be an inspiration for you.

[SailorRipley]

Wow, the list would be so terribly long and I'm sure I will miss someone.

[DJ Doena]

I can't really remember directors and their movies, except for certain persons such as Tarrantino or Kevin Smith.

[Touti]

I don't have any favorite director because a big name is never a guarantee of success.  The Spielberg survival game shows that failry well.