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Author Topic: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists  (Read 71133 times)

jbissell

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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #170 on: November 26, 2008, 04:46:46 PM »
Nice list Thor, I think I'm probably going to have the most in common with you.

worm@work

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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #171 on: November 27, 2008, 01:47:00 PM »
Very nice list Thor. I need to do a Chris Marker marathon!

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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #172 on: November 27, 2008, 02:05:58 PM »
Nice going mighty Thor. I knew there had to be someone else who felt compelled to put Robert Bresson on their list. While this doesn't make up for your allegiance to Spurs, I somewhat respect you more now. Somewhat.
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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #173 on: November 28, 2008, 03:25:54 AM »
Putting together this list turned out to be way more fun than I expected.  I was actually a little wary of this project at first because I've really never been all that invested in film authorship; the "Who's your favorite director?" question has always stumped me.  But that's exactly what made this so enjoyable: I had zero idea going in what my final list would look like.  In fact, I'm not sure if any of my eventual top five directors are names I would have mentioned off the top of my head.  Still, the list below isn't at all definitive — the "Who's your favorite director?" question will continue to stump me — but, whatever, yay for self-discovery!

Before I get to my list, I should maybe explain why some names are absent.  Well, names and genders.

The main contributing factor in who made my list and who didn't was just random exposure.  When I see a great film, I not all that apt to rush out and rent everything else in that directory's filmography.  I've never put that kind of effort into trying to evaluate directors.  So, as much as I liked Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding, I think I've only seen one other Mira Nira feature and one short, neither seemed impressive enough in my memory to get her on my list.  And, sadly, that's the closest a female director came to making my top twenty.  Barbara Kopple and Lynne Ramsay were also on my shortlist, but, again, I've only seen two features each by them, and I couldn't confidently put them in my top twenty based on those films, as great as Harlan County, USA and Ratcatcher are individually.

Besides those three women, there aren't very many female directors that I've seen multiple films from.  Euzhan Palcy's Sugar Cane Alley is a favorite of mine, but A Dry White Season disappointed.  I've seen a couple films each by Catherine Hardwicke (yes, including Twilight), Rebecca Miller, Nicole Holofcener, and Jill Sprecher, but none that I consider great.  As pleasantly surprised as I was by Whale Rider, I couldn't tell you without checking IMDb whether Niki Caro has made another film since (update: ah, North Country, right).  And somehow I've still only seen one film each from Varda, Denis, and Lupino (The Hitch-Hiker w00t!), so they were never in contention.

My list's lack of diversity doesn't end there.  The directors below are also overwhelming white and overbearingly dead.  I'd like to believe that our cable system is to blame there.  If they had ever carried IFC or something like that in addition to Turner Classic Movies, the demographics below might be a little different.  But it is what it is.  I'm pretty shocked, though, how I ended up with zero directors from the Far East.  Yeah, you read that right.  Going in, I totally expected Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu all to make the final cut, but that didn't happen.  When it came down to making the last few decisions, I had to admit that I never seem to look that forward to watching their films; once I hit play, everything's fine, but beforehand I always seem to approach their films more as a chore.  I'm not sure what that's all about, but I couldn't in good conscience include directors whose films I approach with that kind of reluctance.  (Kubrick, Dreyer, and Eisenstein are in this category, too.)  Kinji Fukasaku and Hayao Miyazaki were two other names from the Far East that I kept going back to, but they just missed the cut as well.

Given my emphasis on films over directors, I can't quite explain why so few of the movies on my Top 20 Films list have their directors represented on the list below — only five out of twenty.  I think maybe I have a tendency to let one great film by a director skew my expectations too much when checking out that director's other films.  Maybe that's why, despite Kurosawa and Ozu each having a film in my top six, it was actually Mizoguchi who was closest to making my directors list.  But, yeah, even though François Truffaut made what I've called my favorite film ever, you won't find his name below.  I've always felt the success of his first two films hurt him artistically; made him complacent or something.  Or maybe I just made that up right as I was typing that sentence.  Fellini is another director I can't believe I left off my list, but again I had to admit that I'm not quite as interested in checking out the rest of his films as I am the films of the twenty directors below.  René Clair, Orson Welles, and Andrei Tarkovsky also fell victim to sort of a "what have you done for me lately" thing; my most recent experience with each was I Married a Witch, Mr. Arkadin, and Solaris respecively — all pretty disappointing.  Clair was by far the hardest of those three to leave off.  It's just not fair that the director of Entr'acte, The Crazy Ray, À nous la liberté, Under the Roofs of Paris, and Le Million isn't represented here on account of a late career Hollywood film, but, damn, the direction of I Married a Witch was just that unimpressive (even though I graded the film a C+).

William Wellman lost out on account of that same thing.  If I hadn't just recently seen the very unspectacularly directed The High and the Mighty, he probably would have made the list on the strength of the combined awesomeness of Beau Geste, The Ox-Bow Incident, and The Story of G.I. Joe.  Of course, a bad film here or there didn't kill a director's chances with me, but some films seem so poorly directly that they almost have to call into question that director's contribution to his or her more successful films.  So, for example, as much as I love a couple of Robert Altman's movies, there was no way I could allow the director of Pret-a-Porter onto my list.  (Okay, even with that, Altman was still a really close call; I just like hating on that film.)  Spielberg was a tricky case, too, but he's one of those guys who, despite making quite a few very good films, has an underlying sensibility that just isn't my thing ("You need a mommy!").  John Ford, Billy Wilder, John Huston, and Martin Scorsese are other examples, and they didn't make my list either.

Okay, that's probably a long enough prologue.  Onto the list...

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pixote

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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #174 on: November 28, 2008, 03:49:10 AM »


#20 — William Wyler (1902 - 1981)

I had a lot of names penciled into this final spot at various points.  Originally it was Frank Borzage — largely because I watched The Mortal Storm recently and he made things work in that film that had no right working and I totally respect him for that — but I decided I should really check out History Is Made at Night before canonizing Borzage like that.  And Henry King was here, on the strength of Twelve O'Clock High and The Gunfighter; and King Vidor, just because I love his overall sensibility, not to mention The Big Parade, The Crowd, and the amazing finale of Our Daily Bread, among others; George Cukor ("C. K. Dexter Haven!"); Richard Brooks, also for his overall sensibility; Rouben Mamoulian; Sidney Lumet; Robert Siodmak; Jean-Pierre Melville, whom I might regret not putting here after I finally see Le Doulos; and, lastly, Andrzej Wajda.  But every time I matched someone up against Wyler, it was Wyler who came out on top.  It certainly helps that I just recently got to see The Best Years of Our Lives in 35mm, and I spent as much time at that screening drooling over Wyler's direction as I did drooling over Gregg Toland's photography.  It really is just a masterfully directed film, from the performances he gets out of the cast (I don't think Fredric March was ever better) to the perfect blocking of every action and the precise (but never forced or theatrical) manipulation of composition and spatial relationships within every frame to add so much nuance to the surprisingly understated script.  It's one of those films that's ill-suited for a DVD commentary because there are too many subtly brilliant moments to point out without pausing and rewinding.  And it's those moments, the same kind evident in films like Roman Holiday, Detective Story, Jezebel, and Dead End, that earn Wyler a spot on this list.  Plus he gets bonus points for having a strong documentary to his credit — The Memphis Belle.




#19 — Werner Herzog (b. 1942)

Herzog was an unexpected last-minute addition to my list.  Fitzcarraldo made my Top 20 Films list, and I like most of his other collaborations with Klaus Kinski (though I have no real use for Nosferatu), but even with the bonus points he gets for having many good documentaries in his filmography (this will be a theme), I still didn't expect him to make the cut here.  Not sure why that is — maybe just a carry-over effect from my being lukewarm on Rescue Dawn.  What changed my mind though was thinking about which directors have multiple films that I'm totally excited to see even though I know nothing about them.  So Herzog makes my list as much for the films I haven't seen — The Mystery of Kasper Hauser (aka Every Man for Himself and God Against All) and Where the Green Ants Dream, for starters — as for the ones I have.  I guess it pays to title your films well (or to get them titled well in translation).




#18 — Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922 - 1975)

Like with Herzog and a few other names on this list, Pasolini's appeal, for me, is as much in what he tries to do, what he's interested in doing, as in what he's actually successful in doing.  The Gospel According to St. Matthew and Salò are great enough to earn him mention here, but it's more just that I feel, almost instinctively, I guess, that he's interested in the same characters and the same attributes of those characters that interest me.  I can't really pinpoint where that comes from, but for whatever reason I trust him and want to go wherever he takes me.  Hmm, wait, I wonder if that's the same sort of attitude that got him killed.




#17 — Michael Powell (1905 - 1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902 - 1988)

Um, yeah, these guys are good.  Adam and Matty should do a marathon of their films or something.  And they should get their own separate Random Screenshot thread because just the look of their films is enough to get them mentioned here.  Using color well is important, you know?  I also like Powell's Pressburger-less work on The Thief of Bagdad and Peeping Tom, but I haven't been able to work up the courage to watch Age of Consent.  I just get the feeling I'm gonna miss Emeric's presence too much on that one.




#16 — Jean Renoir (1894 - 1979)

It starts for me with The Little Match Girl.  Renoir just hypnotized me with that film.  Then you got your La Chienne, your Boudu Saved from Drowning, and your Crime of Monsieur Lange, and that's probably already enough to get on this list, without even mentioning Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game, the second of which probably should have been on my Top 20 Films list.  In fact, Renoir should probably be higher here, only I haven't seen much by him recently and I have a lot of his film left to see.  Let's do this again next year and see where we stand, okay?




#15 — Preston Sturges (1898 - 1959)

There was a moment when I wasn't positive Sturges would make my list.  I was remembering my general disappointment with Hail the Conquering Hero and Miracle of Morgan's Creek and the fact that I don't quite love The Lady Eve as much as I want to.  Also working against Sturges was the fact that I value his writing more than his directing, which was really the deciding factor in Joseph L. Mankiewicz and John Sayles not making my Top 20.  But then I remembered the absolutely sublime filmmaking at the end of Sullivan's Travels along with how much I love and enjoy The Great McGinty, The Palm Beach Story, and Unfaithfully Yours, and I thought, yeah, I'd be really dumb to leave him off.  Really, really dumb.




#14 — Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)

What I said about respecting Pasolini as much for what he attempts as for what he accomplishes, that applies ten-fold to Godard.  He didn't direct The 400 Blows, nor could he have, but overall he's just such a more interesting filmmaker than Truffaut.  I certainly won't be accusing him of complacency any time soon.  And, what can I say, I love jump cuts and pinball machines and self-reflexivity and general coolness and pretentiousness made strangely palatable and blue-painted faces and clouds of meaning in a cup of coffee.




#13 — Wim Wenders (b. 1945)

Oh my god, back-to-back living directors!  There must have been a mistake.  I actually really like that Wenders ended up next to Godard because I think their sensibilities complement each other nicely.  Godard puts Sam Fuller and Fritz Lang in his movies; Wenders made a film with Nicholas Ray (which I still need to see, dammit).  Except whereas Godard is sort of a contemptuous hipster dick about everything (in a fun way!), Wenders is more of an enthusiastic nerd.  Instead of scoffing at the Americanization of the world, he's more like, "Wow, that's fascinating.  And, you're right, I could totally use a Coke right now.  Thanks!"  Wenders also gets the customary bonus points for having made some strong documentaries (Tokyo-Ga, Notebook on Cities on Clothes) and for having awesomely titled films that I'm super anxious to see (The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, Until the End of the World).




#12 — Buster Keaton (1895 - 1966)

I really didn't know what to do with Chaplin and Keaton.  They're both very awesome, and I can't easily justify my inclusion of Keaton and exclusion of Chaplin here. Mostly just instinct — plus Keaton gets my self-reflexivity bonus points.  And I'll always take a stone-faced guy over a kick to the seat of the pants.  But, yeah, even though I've seen plenty of their films, I still don't feel I've given these two all the attention they warrant.  I certainly can't speak about them with any great authority.  But enough about me.  Have you seen The General and Sherlock Jr and all those great Keaton shorts?  Well, if not, you should.  And so should I.  Again.




#11 — Howard Hawks (1896 - 1977)

There are usually a few moments in a Howard Hawks movie when I get the impression he has no idea what he's doing behind the camera (DeMille is the same way).  These moments usually follow and precede long stretches of brilliance (here ends the parallel to DeMille — BURN!).  I find this all very confusing.  One way or another, though, he's a damn fine storyteller and responsible for more than his fair share of great films, including Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Red River, and I Was a Male War Bride, a film which contains my pick for the funniest moment in film history.  Scarface, Only Angels Have Wings, and Sergeant York have their moments, too, but I'm not that big on Twentieth Century and Ball of Fire and I can't work up any interest for his work after 1950 (including the much revered Rio Bravo).  Ceiling Zero and Air Force are very high on my list of films to see.  Can't wait.




#10 — Fred Zinnemann (1907 - 1997)

My god, I had no idea this post would get so long, and I'm only halfway done.  I'll be so happy if one person reads this whole thing.  Anyway, Fred Zinnemann.  I do believe I started a thread on him at some point, so no surprise that he's here.  Plus, you know, he's awesome.  His resume is every bit as strong as Hawks', but I never ever doubt whether or not he knows what he's doing behind the camera.  He's the ultimate Hollywood craftsman.  Right up there with Wyler.  What sets him apart for me, though, is realist aesthetic he brought to post-war Hollywood cinema.  It's interesting to compare The Best Years of Our Lives with Zinnemann's The Search.  I love both, but Zinnemann's precisely rugged immersion into the rubble of post-war Europe feels so much more alive to me than Wyler's perfectly composed domestic interiors.  (Though the scene in Best Years with Dana Andrews in the airplane scrap yard shows that Wyler was comfortable with a similar aesthetic, something he utilized more a few years later with Roman Holiday.)  Hmm, what else can I say?  I mean, have you seen High Noon?  Pretty awesome.  And Marlon Brando's film debut in The Men?  Pretty awesome.  And From Here to Eternity?  The rare film that's better than the book.  And The Nun's Story?  The last scene of that film is a master class in directing.  Just like the scene in Day of the Jackal when the Jackal tests his gun.  So good.  So very, very good.




#9 — Frank Capra (1897 - 1991)

Frank Capra is one of the two filmmakers I credit with getting me to care about film in the first place (well, four if you count Cary Grant and James Stewart).  So he's got that going for him.  And though It's a Wonderful Life made my Top 20 Films list, it was more Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and You Can't Take It With You that first grabbed my interest.  He's just such an appealing storyteller.  It kills me whenever his films are dismissed with that 'Capracorn' label.  I hate to see his skills as a filmmaker diminished or completely obscured by the general sentiment of his films.  (I guess the same thing happens with Spielberg.)  Anyway, It's a Wonderful Life is another one of those films that's so wonderfully crafted with such attention to detail that I discover something new and amazing in it every year when I watch it.  I should start watching some of Capra's other films on a yearly basis, too.  It's been way too long since I've seen some of them.




#8 — Abbas Kiarostami (b. 1940)

I'm not sure if, in working through all of 1StrongOpinion's Top Directors Working Today polls, I declared Kiarostami my favorite active director, but I probably should have.  Very few working filmmakers even made my shortlist for this new project.  Ken Loach was on there.  Spike LeeMichael Apted (just for the Up series) and Richard Linklater (just for Before Sunrise and Before Sunset) eked on there.  Jacques Rivette, Francis Ford Coppola, and a few other veterans.  And then some younger wildcards like Lukas Moodysson, Steve James, Wes Anderson, Michael Moore, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Cédric Klapisch.  You know, I'm not really sure what sets Kiarostami so far apart from all of them.  Well, for one thing, he hits the bonus points jackpot for having made not just a strong documentary but a strongly self-reflexive documentary.  I was totally impressed, watching ABC Africa, at Kiarostami's confidence in playing with the medium and knowing exactly how far he could push things and just how much he could get away with.  I love everything about his aestethic, and I can't wait to see whatever film of his I track down next.




#7 — Frederick Wiseman (b. 1930)

A ha!  I had one more active director up my sleeve.  This is kind of a faith pick by me because, unless I'm forgetting something, I've only seen Wiseman's first two films, Titicut Follies and High School.  But I'm pretty confident, just from those, that I have a very good idea of who Wiseman is as a filmmaker, what he stands for, and what I can expect from the rest of the films — and, despite what I said in my introduction about not making a point of watching every movie in a director's filmography, I'm pretty much determined to see everything Wiseman has ever made.  Hopefully sooner than later.




#6 — Alfred Hitchcock (1899 - 1980)

Oh, Hitch, you troublesome beast.  I had no idea where to rank him on this list.  For one thing, he's the other director besides Capra to fuel my interest in cinema.  He's made a billion great films (I'm partial to the ones in black-and-white) and there are still plenty of films in his filmography that I can't wait to see (starting with The Lodger).  Okay, that's the good stuff.  But Hitchcock is also one of those directors, like the aforementioned and unlisted Ford and Wilder, with undercurrents to many of his films that really bother me — except even moreso.  So here I am with no women filmmakers on my list but ranking a guy with a pretty strong misogynistic bent in the sixth spot.  Joy.  But, yeah, Shadow of a Doubt and The 39 Steps and Foreign Correspondent and Psycho and most of those other films are really, really good, and as a storyteller and a technician and all that, Hitchcock is often without equal.  So that's that.




#5 — Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941 - 1996)

Not only are there two many men on my list, but too many asshole men.  A bunch of egotistical, self-aggrandizing tyrants.  So, in a way, this entry is the perfect followup to Hitchcock because, more than anyone else on this list, Kieslowski is the director whose films make me want to hang out with him, to sit on the swings in an empty playground, drinking hot apple cider at a winter sunset, reminiscing about what we as children expected from life as adults and how we were more right than we knew except in the ways we were oh so wrong.  As a bonus, he seems to have made only great films or films that were very close to greatness.  Camera Buff, Blind Chance, Dekalog, Double Life of Veronique, the Three Colors trilogy — I have no complaints there.  He probably shouldn't have died, though.  He lost some points there.




#4 — Robert Bresson (1907 - 1999)

If you take what I love about Fred Zinnemann, combine it with what I love about Frederick Wiseman, and then make it a little French, I think you sort of get Robert Bresson.  As kind of an extension of my taste for documentary impulses, I'm a total sucker for the details of process in storytelling, and Bresson is pretty much the king of this, both in his filmmaking method and in the details of the stories he tells.  I love his commitment to what he does and how he does it, and the results are wonderful and compelling and wonderfully compelling.  I should stop writing now and go rent Mouchette.




#3 — Chuck Jones (1912 - 2002)

I feel bad about this one because I'm pretty sure it's going to lead to a flood of private messages to frozenhamster with people asking to edit their lists because they didn't think to include Chuck Jones.  But, with preemptive apologies to my BFF, I couldn't submit a list without Jones on it (unless I was in more of a Friz Freleng or Tex Avery mood, I guess).  I mean, talk about bonus points for self-reflexivity.  You've seen Duck Amuck, right?  It's kind of perfect.  And there are many more like it.  I mean, I saw His Girl Friday on 35mm a couple years ago, and they screened No Barking beforehand, and it by itself was one of the best films I saw in the theater that year.  Just so amazing and so seemingly effortless.  And now I can't wait until Christmas to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas and admire again just how perfect and awesome Jones' work can be.




#2 — F. W. Murnau (1888 - 1931)

I had no idea Murnau was my second favorite director of all time.  He might actually be my number one; I haven't really sorted that all out yet.  This is all based on just three films, too:  Nosferatu, The Last Laugh, and Sunrise.  None of those made my Top 20 Films list, which seems pretty dumb since all three are probably worthy.  I think, going by memory, I'd rank The Last Laugh as my favorite right now.  Few films have blown me away like that one did on first viewing.  It's pretty astonishing.  And those other two are just as good, which is why Murnau finds himself so high on this list.  Three masterpieces.  That's a very rare thing.




#1 — Robert Flaherty (1884 - 1951)

Not to be outdone by Murnau, Flaherty has three masterpieces of his own: Nanook of the North, Man of Aran, and Louisiana Story.  And that's all I've seen from him so far.  What's weird is that my top two directors were supposed to collaborate on Tabu; and even though Flaherty left the project, it's even weirder that I still haven't seen Tabu.  I should probably make that a priority, huh?  Maybe it'll be enough to bump Murnau up to the top spot here.  Really, though, even though I think Flaherty totally deserves to be here on the basis of those three films and his great influence on both fiction and nonfiction cinema, I put him at the top of my list partly for symbolic purposes, too.  Documentary filmmakers seem to have a much harder time putting together the string of films necessary to earn consideration for lists like these.  The same kind of support network isn't there on either the production or distribution side of things (Thor's Best Documentary Oscar polls underscored that distribution issue pretty effectively).  Flaherty was a total pioneer here, but even he struggled to get projects off the ground and find the means to complete them.  So even though it's just his name on the top of my list, I mean for him also to represent some of those that came after him, like John Grierson and Humphrey Jennings, Robert Drew and Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and the Maysles brothers, Michael Roemer and Shirley Clarke, Martin Bell and Rob Epstein, Errol Morris and Michael Moore, and a bunch of others I'm too tired to think of right now.

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« Last Edit: November 28, 2008, 03:52:48 AM by pixote »
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jbissell

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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #175 on: November 28, 2008, 04:11:21 AM »
Crazy awesome post as always pix.  Glad to see Keaton finally get some love.

Verite

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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #176 on: November 28, 2008, 05:36:07 AM »
Going in, I totally expected Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu all to make the final cut, but that didn't happen.  When it came down to making the last few decisions, I had to admit that I never seem to look that forward to watching their films; once I hit play, everything's fine, but beforehand I always seem to approach their films more as a chore.

Mizoguchi, I get - he dwells in bleak melodrama; the women suffer.  I can see that with the non-samurai Kurosawas (though, it maybe exactly his samurai pics that you feel are chores!).  But Ozu...  Have you seen his comedies?  There are lots of humor in his melodramas as well.  I chuckle throughout Late Spring, for instance.  It seems like people (not you) lump Ozu with directors like Bresson and non-early Dreyer (see what you did Paul Schrader), but Chaplin's, Harold Lloyd's (who, for my money, is up there with Keaton and Chaplin) and Lubitsch's influence can be spotted in Ozu's films.  On the other hand, it's probably Ozu's comedies that you feel are chores so nevermind :)
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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #177 on: November 28, 2008, 05:38:50 AM »
Nice post pix. Good to see Bresson so high.

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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #178 on: November 28, 2008, 06:06:45 AM »
Awesome posts pix! I have Man of Aran here from the library and kept putting off watching it for some reason. Seeing your #1 pick has totally made me enthusiastic to watch it now!

Verite

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Re: Filmspotters' Top 100 Film Directors: Your Lists
« Reply #179 on: November 28, 2008, 06:13:12 AM »
#20 — William Wyler (1902 - 1981)

But every time I matched someone up against Wyler, it was Wyler who came out on top.  It certainly helps that I just recently got to see The Best Years of Our Lives in 35mm, and I spent as much time at that screening drooling over Wyler's direction as I did drooling over Gregg Toland's photography.  It really is just a masterfully directed film, from the performances he gets out of the cast (I don't think Fredric March was ever better) to the perfect blocking of every action and the precise (but never forced or theatrical) manipulation of composition and spatial relationships within every frame to add so much nuance to the surprisingly understated script.  It's one of those films that's ill-suited for a DVD commentary because there are too many subtly brilliant moments to point out without pausing and rewinding.  And it's those moments, the same kind evident in films like Roman Holiday, Detective Story, Jezebel, and Dead End, that earn Wyler a spot on this list.  Plus he gets bonus points for having a strong documentary to his credit — The Memphis Belle.

Don't forget the incredible The Little Foxes!  I think it's Wyler's best film.

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#13 — Wim Wenders (b. 1945)

Kings of the Road, baby!

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#11 — Howard Hawks (1896 - 1977)
and I can't work up any interest for his work after 1950 (including the much revered Rio Bravo).

What's the reason for that?  The Big Sky is pretty underrated.  And, yes, I am one of those who thinks Rio Bravo is his best film.

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#8 — Abbas Kiarostami (b. 1940)

Have you seen Victor Erice's Dream of Light?

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#7 — Frederick Wiseman (b. 1930)

#2 on my list.

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#4 — Robert Bresson (1907 - 1999)
As kind of an extension of my taste for documentary impulses,

What do you think of the films of Bill Douglas, Morris Engel, Ermanno Olmi, early Milos Forman, the Dardenne brothers, Cassavetes, and Peter Watkins?


I forgot to say: great posts, Pixote.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2008, 06:14:51 AM by Verite »
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