Film Your favourite director

For me it's Coppola and Kubrick, can't rank one above the other. The Godfather movies are flawless, perfection of cinema and Apocalypse Now is a masterpiece. For Kubrick you have The Shining which perfectly demonstrates a descent into madness (I would know being a united fan pre & post-Fergie). 2001 is also incredible and a very important culturally significant movie, as is Dr Strangelove. Can't really put one above the over.

Sidney Lumet not far behind. I watched the original 12 Angry Men a few months ago and was captivated from the first minute. Another masterclass of cinema.
 
Bilbo said:
Is it fashionable to dislike Tarantino nowadays? Not one mention in this thread yet, and there are some listed that have made some real stinkers.

For me its a dead heat between Tarantino and Hitchcock. Spielberg and Scorcese not far behind.
Click to expand...
Tarantino is a good director, not a great one. And he’s definitely more style than actual substance.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
I really enjoyed Hateful Eight. Might watch it again soon.
Click to expand...

I wonder how the likes of Basterds, Django and Hateful Eight would have been received were they made by different directors. Are they elevated because Tarantino has such a loyal following and unique style, or are they under rated because they don't match his first two films?
 
The Corinthian said:
Tarantino is a good director, not a great one. And he’s definitely more style than actual substance.
Click to expand...
I agree. Tarantino is an extremely gifted and accomplished director who has absolutely nothing to say about anything.
 
Sweet Square said:
Paul Verhoeven
  • RoboCop - American Jesus brings not peace but a neoliberal machine gun.
  • Starship Troopers - Fascism and war propaganda in the 21st century.
  • Showgirls - The story of Barbie featuring Gina Gershon beautiful teeth.
  • Benedetta - Christian universalism is hot lesbians going to the toilet.
  • Total Recall = Climate change and 3 boobs

Click to expand...

Love Verhoeven. Turkish Delight is decent too.
David Cronenberg is another favourite.
 
Probably David Lynch for me, although I accept a massive part of that is Twin Peaks, which doesn't really count as cinema (The Return should, imo).

Otherwise it's probably between Scorcese, Wes Anderson, Coen Brothers. Ari Aster and Jordan Peele are promising despite their relative small bodies of work so far.

Edit- reading this thread how the feck did I forget Kubrick. Also, I've loved almost everything Villeneuve has done so far.
 
Other than Kubrick my favorites are basically:
Tarkovsky
Kurosawa
Bergmann
Scorsese
Fritz Lang
Paul Thomas Anderson
Lars von Trier
Coppola
Alain Resnais
Peter Greenaway
David Fincher
David Lynch
Werner Herzog
Orson Welles
F. W. Murnau
Robert Bresson

and probably some I have forgotten.
Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Bergmann and Kurosawa are kind of a big four for me.
 
Jippy said:
Love Verhoeven. Turkish Delight is decent too.
Click to expand...
Oh nice will add it to the list. I’ve only started to get into his older non American works. Recently watched Flash + Blood and it has great 80’s practical effects.
Jippy said:
David Cronenberg is another favourite.
Click to expand...
Yep another great. Similarly like Veroheven he is unfairly very misunderstood by a lot people.
 
Ridley Scott.
Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Hannibal, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, Robin Hood are some of my favourite movies. I'm also looking really forward to Napoleon.
 
Right now I have to say Christopher Nolan. Ever since Batman Begins came to theaters in 2005, I rarely miss out on any of his movies.

Denis Villeneuve is a really close second to me when I think of how very immersive his movies are. Only he could have pulled it out with the massive challenge that Dune is.
 
Last edited:
I don't have any particular favourites, but the followings are the ones which happened I like on multiple films (in no particular order):

- Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstella)

- Spielberg (Indian Jones, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me if You Can, The Terminal)

- Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dog, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

- David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

- Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood of Love, ChungKing Express, Happy Together)

- Cameron (Titanic, Avatar, Terminator)

- Liman (Mr. & Mrs Smith, Edge of Tomorrow, American Made)

- Ang Li (The Life of Pie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon)

- Bong Joon Ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer)
 
Spielberg, Nolan, Del Toro, Ridley and Tony Scott.
 
quentin tarantino. Everyone of his movies just feels like an event and a cinema experience. Sad to hear he’s only making one more. Christopher Nolan for the similar reason.
 
Sergio Leone
Park Chan-Wook
Stanley Kubrick
Jean Luc Besson
John Carpenter
Hideaki Anno

All these guys have given me a lot of joy and entertainment
 
Volumiza said:
Favourite director ever is Kubrick but my favourite current director is Denis Villeneuve by several fecking furlongs. The dude is incredible.
Click to expand...

Denis Villeneuve all day long. I came in here to say that and was pleasantly surprised it only took 4-5 posts for someone else to recognise it.

Also love Alex Garland’s work, both as a script writer and director.

Villeneuve even managed to make a brilliant and compelling film, in Arrival, despite having the two blandest leads (Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner) imaginable.
 
In absolutely no order whatsoever...

- Malick
- Coppola
- Mann
- Fincher
- Villeneuve
- Scorsese
- Cameron
- Verhoeven
- Cronenberg
- Ari Aster
- Friedkin
- Kurosawa
- Wong Kar Wai
- Lumet
- Villeneuve
- Bergman
- Lynch
- Tarkowsky
- Kubrick
- PT Anderson
- von Trier
- Herzog
- Welles
- Murnau
- Nolan
- R. Scott
- Del Toro
- Boyle
- Spike Lee
- Peele
- Greta Gerwig
- Safdie brothers
- Robert Eggers
- David Robert Mitchell
- Jonathan Glazer
- Benson & Moorhead
- James Wan

Obviously some of them have sadly passed, some of them have a massive body of work and their best days are behind them, others are still at the beginning of their careers, but that's a list of directors whose work I appreciate/respect and who would bring me to the cinema to see their new stuff.
 
From the classics, it's difficult to me not to mention Lang, Buñuel, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Scorsese and Coppola.

From the present, Nolan is probably my favourite (loved Oppenheimer) with a mention to Fincher.
I'm very interested in what Sorkin and Peele are doing next after their excellent starts (The Trial of the Chicago Seven, Get Out and Nope are amongst the best I've seen lately).

I know anime is probably not a favourite in the Caf but I personally find everything that Satoshi Kon made unbelievably good, with Perfect Blue and Paprika as instant classics.
 
Jonathan Glazer is one of those filmmakers I'd like to see more work from.
 
Volumiza said:
Favourite director ever is Kubrick but my favourite current director is Denis Villeneuve by several fecking furlongs. The dude is incredible.
Click to expand...
This is the right answer. Although Afronosky is pretty close.

In TV series, Mike Flanagan is amazing.
 
Peter Weir is one I wish had directed more movies in the 90s and 00s. Shame we never got a Master and Commander sequel.
 
Favorite five at this point would something like

David Lynch
Coen Brothers
Wong Kar-wai
Andrei Tarkovski
Ingmar Bergman

Scorsese, Mann, Leone, Hitchcock and Cameron have always been big favorites as well. Spielberg has crept up after having made a couple of great movies lately (and he obviously made a lot of great films earlier in his career). I've been enjoying a lot of Melville movies lately, and I really like his directing. Billy Wilder is another favorite, really diverse as well and he's made some of my all time favorites. Nolan would probably be #1 if I just went by average grade of a director, but I don't think it's as much his directing as the fact that I love myself a good blockbuster (and he's made some of the absolute best ones). Shoutout to guys like Xavier Dolan, Matt Reeves and Ryusuke Hamaguchi who are directors that I either haven't seen enough from or don't quite have the filmography in comparision to the other but I immensly enjoy what they bring to the table as directors. Fincher can still get a mention, mostly for the brilliance of The Social Network, but he's gone down in my estimation in the past years.
 
Last edited:
Im currently binging a bunch of Brian di Palma movies. He really is a master. Blowout is a masterpiece, besides the obvious big ones of course.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.