Favorite Directors

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Back when we were waiting for the 2012 Sight & Sound poll to come out, some of us made a go at listing our favorite films. I meant to follow that up the next day with a "Favorite Directors" thread, but I woke up a little Ipsy on the day in question, so it never happened.

I'm finally getting around to doing it. I'm trying to narrow it to eleven, and I'm still not sure whether or not I want them in a particular order, but I do expect I'll post my list soon. Feel free to go ahead and post yours.

[Mal Shot First]

I think I'd have trouble expanding the list past three directors. I tend to like movies rather than the directors behind them.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

I started out with a list of thirty-three and narrowed it down to my favorite eleven:

1. Howard Hawks
2. John Huston
3. Erich von Stroheim
4. Billy Wilder
5. Stanley Kubrick
6. Fritz Lang
7. Wolfgang Reitherman
8. Orson Welles
9. Arthur Penn
10. Akira Kurosawa
11. Raoul Walsh

Pretty predictable list, probably. Here's the other twenty-two, if anybody cares:

• Buster Keaton
• Tod Browning
• Louis Feuillade
• Robert Wise
• Charlie Chaplin
• Jean Renoir
• George Stevens
• Preston Sturges
• F. W. Murnau
• David Lean
• Michael Powell
• Alfred Hitchcock
• John Ford
• Mike Nichols
• Carol Reed
• Blake Edwards
• Bob Rafelson
• Miloš Forman
• G. W. Pabst
• Richard Lester
• Ernst Lubitsch
• Robert Altman

If I'd gone to thirty-five, I probably would have added Hal Ashby and Steven Spielberg. Or maybe von Sternberg and Don Bluth. Or maybe Sam Peckinpah and Stanley Donen. Or maybe Frank Capra and Mel Brooks. I dunno. I'm sure I'd have come up with an entirely different list if I had done this any other day of the week. That said, I think it's a safe bet that at least five of my favorite eleven would be in my favorite eleven no matter what.

I'm not counting animated shorts or documentaries. If I were, Chuck Jones and Errol Morris would probably be in the top eleven.

[neglet]

Hitchcock is always on my list; just last weekend we went to a showing of the original "Man Who Knew Too Much" at the local arthouse. There are probably a lot of writer-directors there, too, like the Coens and Wes Anderson. But I'm too lazy to actually write down a list.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

I think I'd have trouble expanding the list past three directors. I tend to like movies rather than the directors behind them.

It's not everybody's thing to keep up with directors. Some people keep up with actors. Some keep up with screenwriters. I'm a director guy first, maybe, though I also like to keep up with actors and screenwriters.

I started taking note of directors in my late preteens. I'd find a movie I liked and seek out other movies its director had made.

You come to notice trademarks and tones. Sometimes they can be pretty welcoming. Sometimes they can be obnoxious as fuck. I guess I felt a sense of simpatico with certain directors. It was one-sided. It's not like I ever met any of these guys. Maybe I felt this sense of simpatico because there was a genuine connection, and maybe I felt it because goodwill had built up from movie to movie. There's no real way for me to tell.

I'd like to think that some part of the strongest directors comes through, the same way that certain actors' performances come through. With some directors, it's pretty obvious. With others, it's not. It depends on the director. Some guys just tend to make either solid stuff or crap.

It also depends, somewhat, on the era. For example, some would say that the producer's essence came through more than the director's in the earlier studio days. In the seventies, on the other hand, you were almost required to direct with a strong hand if you were directing anything other than a paint-by-numbers star vehicle. Audiences wanted auteurs. They wanted a movie to feel like it had been guided by someone with a vision. That's the impression I get when I read books about movies, at least. (I grant that these books don't necessarily reflect the attitudes of Joe Moviegoer.) I wasn't there.

There are some directors whose work I like in part. There are some directors who have made movies I generally like but don't feel all that strongly about. I definitely feel strongly about my top eleven. In most cases, I've felt that way since I was younger. I think the only ones among the top eleven that I've added since becoming an adult are Arthur Penn and Erich von Stroheim. I was already in deep with the rest of the guys before I hit puberty. (Note: I didn't hit puberty full-on until I was sixteenish.)

[Mal Shot First]

I'm a little surprised that Paul Thomas Anderson didn't even make it into your expanded list. For some reason, I thought you had a soft spot for his movies.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

He might have on another day. Scorsese and Coppola (Francis Ford, I mean, and not Sophia), too. For some reason, none of their names popped in my head when I was adding names to my list. I think maybe Scorsese's did, but I said to myself I'd get around to him after I'd added this-or-that guy.

I still really like Boogie Nights and Punch-Drunk Love. They're the ones I've watched the most. I've cooled a bit on Magnolia and Hard Eight. I've only watched There Will Be Blood once all the way through. (I've revisited some scenes on YouTube.) Daniel Day-Lewis's performance is the thing that really sticks out for me at this point. The George Stevens/John Huston hybrid feel to it also lingers, but not the way Day-Lewis's performance does.

I've had The Master on my laptop for months, but I've yet to watch it. I keep almost watching it, but then I'll think to myself that it'll probably be a shouty drag, and I'll do something else instead.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Maybe part of it is that some of the directors I feel to be direct influences on Anderson were already mentioned. Maybe that's why I also didn't include Tarantino.

I also didn't mention Leone. That's just now occurring to me. I certainly like Leone, P.T. Anderson, Tarantino, Scorsese, and Coppola. Just didn't think to add them.

I've seen so many movies in my lifetime. It's hard for me to narrow things like this down.

[Quasar]

You also need to add a Wayans or 2 to your list. I'm sure they've directed some of their crap.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

I'm gonna git you, sucka.

[Space Tycoon]

Scorsese and Coppola (Francis Ford, I mean, and not Sophia), too. For some reason, none of their names popped in my head when I was adding names to my list.

No love for Coppola or Scorsese? Whattaya, got a problem with Italians or somethin'?

In this day and age, what the fuck is this world coming to? I can't believe this, prejudiced against Italians.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

They're not *really* Italians. Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Sergio Leone, and Michelangelo Antonioni are Italian. Scorsese and and Coppola are Italian the way Conan O'Brien is Irish. American pretenders!

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

You'll notice I didn't include any of those other guys, either. Filthy wops.

[Space Tycoon]

[Dalty]

Michael Mann still rocks it.

[Mango]

I would be very tempted to put Mann on my list of fav directors; "Heat" is awesome and "Collateral" strikes a chord within me so strongly I am captivated every time.
That said, I'm not a fan of "Manhunter" (The Iron Butterfly bit not withstanding) and "Public Enemies" was just awful.

I don't really follow directors that much, and the ones I do tend to not be very high art: John Carpenter, Robert Rodriguez, Joss Whedon.

Scorsese might be the exception, but I don't really like his older stuff, "Taxi Driver" alone turned me off him for quite some time.

[Dalty]

I even liked Miami Vice.