Your favorite three-movie run by a director?

I was going to say Philip Kaufman with Invasion of the Body Snatchers/The Right Stuff/The Unbearable Lightness of Being, but I was overlooking his 1979 The Wanderers, which I’ve never seen.

So instead I’ll go with a very obvious one: Francis Coppola with the two Godfathers and The Conversation.

Yours?

 

David Lynch:
Lost Highway
The Straight Story
Mulholland Drive

Russ Meyer:
Mudhoney
Faster Pussycat
Motorpsycho

 

Hitchcock - Vertigo - North by Northwest - Psycho
Godard - A Married Woman - Pierrot Le Fou - Alphaville
Hawks - To Have and Have Not - The Big Sleep - Red River

 

The Wanderers is my favourite by him, so I would go Body Snatchers/Wanderers/The Right Stuff

 

I’m going to have to catch it then. Thanks!

 

Tarantino's first three self-directed movies are his best by far:

Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Jackie Brown

 

Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove/2001/Clockwork Orange is pretty tough to beat, though Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard/Ace in the Hole/Stalag 17 is a contender.

 

Wong Kar Wai's first three films: As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express

 

Coen Brothers:
Fargo
The Big Lebowski
O Brother, Where Art Thou?

 

Verhoeven: Robocop -> Total Recall -> Basic Instinct
Spielberg: AI -> Minority Report -> Catch Me If You Can
Hitch: Vertigo -> North by Northwest -> Psycho -> Birds
Scott: Alien -> Blade Runner -> Legend
Cameron: Terminator -> Aliens -> Abyss -> T2
Cronenberg: Scanners -> Videodrome -> Dead Zone -> The Fly -> Dead Ringers

 

John Hughes

The Great Outdoors
Uncle Buck
Christmas Vacation

 

NOLAN - The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception

Fincher - Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac

Fincher - Social Network, Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl

Scorsese - Taxi Driver, New York New York, Raging Bull

Argento - Deep Red, Suspiria, Inferno

De Palma - Dressed To Kill, Blow Out, Scarface

Guillermo del Toro - Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II

The winner for me might be Denis Villeneuve though - Scicario, Arrival and Blad Runner 2049. If Dune is great it would knock off Scicario.

Hard to beat David Lean though in the history of cinema:

The Bridge On The River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago

or his early trio

Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist

or the great Powell and Pressburger:

A Matter Of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes

 

The Last Waltz was between NY NY and Raging Bull

 

Brian De Palma had two:

Phantom of the Paradise
Obsession
Carrie
(and you can add The Fury for four)

and

Dressed to Kill
Blow Out
Scarface

Walter Hill’s even better with

The Warriors
The Long Riders
Southern Comfort

Clint Eastwood is a little tougher since he sprinkled some average movies among his classics but it’s hard to top

Mystic River
Million Dollar Baby
Flags of our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima (cheating a tiny bit)

 

Another of mine: Ingmar Bergman (Smiles of a Summer Night/The Seventh Seal/Wild Strawberries)

 

I wouldn't count documentaries amongst the films proper but you are probably correct

 

I forgot that one

 

Roger Corman:
Pit and the Pendulum
Premature Burial
The Intruder

Nathan Juran:
20 Million Miles to Earth
Brain from Planet Arous
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Sam Fuller:
Steel Helmet
Fixed Bayonets
Park Row
Pick up on South Street
Hell and High Water
House of Bamboo
China Gate
Run of the Arrow
(Now that is a run!)

 

The Sure Thing is a decent film but seems out of place next to these others...

Rob Reiner:
1984 This Is Spinal Tap
1985 The Sure Thing
1986 Stand by Me
1987 The Princess Bride
1989 When Harry Met Sally...
1990 Misery
1992 A Few Good Men

 

Ben Affleck (as director):
Gone Baby Gone
The Town
Argo

 

I was gonna vote Steven Spielberg Jaws, Close Encounters... But then he blew the run with 1941

 

This get my vote as well.

Haha if it was Jaws, Close Encounters then Raiders instead of 1941 that would be my choice for sure!

 

Oh I totally forgot:

Leone: Good, Bad, Ugly/ Once Upon A Time In the West/Duck You sucker

Tarintino:
Jackie Brown/Kill Bill/Inglourious Basterds
(I’m counting Kill Bill as one film and totally ignoring Death Proof )

 

I'd go:
Weird Science
Pretty in Pink
Ferris Bueller's Day Off


Wes Anderson
Bottle Rocket
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums

Richard Linklater
Slacker
Dazed and Confused
Before Sunrise

 

Coppola doing "Godfather" "Godfather II" and "The Conversation" is pretty strong stuff.