Movies: Greatest director of all-time

[Hippasus]

A director has a vision about what a movie is supposed to be, inevitably involving physical perception. What is the story, is there a message? Who cares? Who is it?

Sorry, had Ang Lee twice. Add 'em up, I guess.

Click to read more...

 

[britdevil]

For me, it's between Spielberg, Scorsese and Hitchcock.

Gun to head... Spielberg.

 

[Jumptheshark]

For me you have too many modern directors. I would break it up into 20 year segments.

And I will start with three controversial names not in your pick

1) D.W Griffiths. Due to the context of his movies his name has been stricken from the list of great directors. HE invented the epic movies and shooting big.
2) Charlie Chaplin. Like Griffiths some people do not like talking about his work. While it was the subject matter that gets DW into trouble it is Chaplins personal life that gets him into trouble
3) Buster Keaton. To this day some of the ways he shot movies is used. The problem was he was a hard task master and reportedly for actors into dangerous roles

Others for consideration not on the list over the more modern guys


De Mille
Hawkes
Billy Walder
Frank Capra
John Ford
Fellini--that fact you have inferior directors on the list over him is sad
Bertolucci
De Palma
Fritz Lang
Woody Allen? Like with Griffiths, Chaplin and Keaton people are trying to get people to forget his movies

But the big one is Victor Fleming!!! His 1939 production is legendary. But there are two movies you may never heard of as they never got played that often after their release (sarcasm just incase you miss it) Gone with the Wind and Wizard of OZ!!

 

[TCTC]

I think Friedkin also deserves to be on that list. The Exorcist is probably still the best horror movie ever made.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Other: Raoul Ruiz

 

[frisco]

Voted Kubrick.

David Fincher deserves to be on the list on nominees since the list is modern-heavy but there are a lot of great directors.

My Best-Carey

 

[HolyGhost]

Voted Kubrick.

David Fincher deserves to be on the list on nominees since the list is modern-heavy but there are a lot of great directors.

My Best-Carey

I agree. Too many new guys that more or less make each other redundant. Like Oliver Stone? There are a lot better directors from the golden era that I would put over his movies

 

[HolyGhost]

Thomas Ince is another director I would add. He is considered to be the father of the Western

 

[BMann]

It's a silly question for a cinephile. There are numerous great directors masters of their art who have all contributed the fabric of cinema. Placing one above the other is a pointless exercise.

You have omitted so many directors too. The Russian school ? Tarkovsky, Konchalovksky, Zvyagintsev, Vertov, to name just three. Or even directors like Klushantsev inspired by Cosmism that in turn inspired Star Wars. The Czech school especially the New Wave. Forman, Juraj Herz, Vera Chytilova to name three. The Polish school Kryztof Kieslowski, Andrezj Wajda, Polanski to name but three. The Hungarian Bela Tarr. The numerous French directors like Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer. Germany from Lang onwards to Fassbinder & Wenders. In Britain from Pressburger to Loach & India with Satajit Ray.

There is a huge world of cinema out there with so many superb films most people who utter Spielberg (who is a very decent director with the likes of the masterpiece that is Schindler's List) don't even know about. Not even forgetting Italian cinema & Italian horror & realism too.

 

[Jumptheshark]

It's a silly question for a cinephile. There are numerous great directors masters of their art who have all contributed the fabric of cinema. Placing one above the other is a pointless exercise.

You have omitted so many directors too. The Russian school ? Tarkovsky, Konchalovksky, Zvyagintsev, Vertov, to name just three. Or even directors like Klushantsev inspired by Cosmism that in turn inspired Star Wars. The Czech school especially the New Wave. Forman, Juraj Herz, Vera Chytilova to name three. The Polish school Kryztof Kieslowski, Andrezj Wajda, Polanski to name but three. The Hungarian Bela Tarr. The numerous French directors like Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer. Germany from Lang onwards to Fassbinder & Wenders. In Britain from Pressburger to Loach & India with Satajit Ray.

There is a huge world of cinema out there with so many superb films most people who utter Spielberg (who is a very decent director with the likes of the masterpiece that is Schindler's List) don't even know about. Not even forgetting Italian cinema & Italian horror & realism too.

That is why I suggested that breaking it up into either decades or 10 year spans. Not saying that all directors named are not good there but there are a lot better not named

For Russians Sergei Eisenstein is one who should be named for if only for the movie Battleship Potemkin.

 

[Hippasus]

The list I gave above is mostly comprised of directors that stood out to me from a couple decades ago when I used to watch a lot of movies. The 70s have been called the golden age of cinema. I guess I forgot Orson Welles and should have had Robert Altman too. Old-timey suggestions are appreciated. One can just frame it as a discussion and ignore the poll aspect if that is more legitimate. I can't edit polls.

 

[Bounces R Way]

This is a very good question with many good answers but one of my personal favorites is Paul Thomas Anderson. Boasts a diverse catalogue of really engaging movies. The Master is something I find myself revisiting often.

Scorsese would have to be up there as well. He sticks to specific subject matter sure but he consistently delivers excellent storytelling. Tarantino and Nolan I find are a little overrated but typically enjoy more often than not. Lucas, Spielberg, Cameron, and Ridley Scott all blazed a specific trail in film making that they'll forever be carved in stone for. Hitchcock and Kubrick really belong in their own category. Guy Ritchie should be an option if only for his dry wit and soundtracks.

Wouldn't self identify as a big hipster but I do think Wes Anderson makes some visually incredible movies. We get it with the symmetry after a while but he regularly gets a 400 million dollar cast get to work together for actor league minimum. They look like fun projects to be a part of. This is really one of those rare questions that I think doesn't have an objectively correct answer OP tough call

 

[Hippasus]

Wolfgang Petersen, director of Das Boot?

 

[The Marquis]

This is a list of all of the greatest directors of all time except Fellini, who wouldn’t win anyway.

For me, it is and has always been Lynch, Followed by Kubrick, Bunuel, Fellini and Hitchcock (in no order).

Nearly all of Lynch’s works inspired me, while the rest provided me inspiration on occasion. I revisit Lynch’s works on a regular basis. The only other directors whose works I ever revisit are other 4 I listed above.

I need to binge some movies this cold ass weekend.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Guy Ritchie should be an option

I'm really open to subjectivity and other people's taste, but no, Guy Ritchie should not be an option. ;-)

1) Ruiz
2) Resnais
3) Tarkovsky

None of them are listed (and nobody would have listed Ruiz anyway). Yeah, the list is off, but the only thing wrong with the question is "greatest". That's only subjective, and nobody has seen everything.

So just shut up and discuss your favorite directors, not everything needs to be a problem.

That being said, Radley Metzger should have been an option.

 

[reckoning]

Both Roman Polanski and Woody Allen deserve consideration and should have been on the poll. I know a lot of people cant get past their scandals, but I don't believe doing something terrible as a person means there is no worth in anything else they did.

I voted for Alfred Hitchcock because of his movies. But according to Tippi Hedrin, he was an absolutely horrible human being.

 

[Chili]

Michelangelo Antonioni
George Cukor
Michael Curtiz (Casablanca...)
Vittorio De Sica (Bicycle Thieves...)
Stanley Donen (Singin' In The Rain...)
Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany's...)
Samuel Fuller (The Big Red One...)
Abel Gance (Napoléon...)
John Huston (Treasure of the Sierra Madre...)
Elia Kazan (On The Waterfront...)
Stanley Kramer (Inherit The Wind...)
David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia...)
Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad, The Ugly...)
Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men...)
Louis Malle (Elevator to the Gallows...)
Lewis Milestone (the original All Quiet on the Western Front...)
Otto Preminger (Anatomy of a Murder...)
Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause...)
Carol Reed (The Third Man...)
Jean Renoir (Grand Illusion...)
Martin Ritt (Hud...)
King Vidor (The Big Parade...)
William Wellman (The Ox Bow Incident...)
Robert Wise (the original West Side Story...)
William Wyler (the original sound Ben Hur...)
Fred Zinnemann (High Noon...)

A few of my favorites from back in the day, a lot of trail blazers there.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Both Roman Polanski and Woody Allen deserve consideration and should have been on the poll. I know a lot of people cant get past their scandals, but I don't believe doing something terrible as a person means there is no worth in anything else they did.

I voted for Alfred Hitchcock because of his movies. But according to Tippi Hedrin, he was an absolutely horrible human being.

I like both of them as directors, but I think Woody made too many turds to be considered among the greats.

Polanski is uneven, but never got as low as Scoop.

 

[the valiant effort]

I wake at night in cold sweats lamenting how we never got Tarko’s take on the 1990s and beyond

Ozu is another guy left off the list who obviously would not win but deserves a nomination

 

[archangel2]

As others have said. Too many newer directors leaving of far better ones off the choices

 

[kihei]

Satyajit Ray (1921 to 1992)


HM (alphabetical order)

Michelangelo Antonioni
Sergei Eisenstein
Jean Luc Godard
Jia Zhang-ke
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Akira Kurosawa
Alain Resnais
Andrei Tarkovsky
Francois Truffaut
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Wong Kar-wai

I think Satyajit Ray is one of the great humanist artists of the 20th century. His movies (focused on India but resonating far beyond its borders) possess depth, insight, empathy, beauty, and universality. He tackles a lot of different subject matter, has made several great movies (Pather Panchali; Charulata; The World of Apu; The Hero; and Devi, for starters), and in my book never made a bad one in 36 attempts.

All of the honourable mention directors, like Ray, contributed to my understanding of other human beings while creating works of great beauty and imagination. They entertained me and changed me in the best ways imaginable.

 

[Primary Assist]

Zucker, Zucker, and Abrahams.

And before you ask, yes. I am being serious. And don't call me Shirley.