Your Top 5 Film Directors?

My Favorite Top 5:

Orson Welles
Stanley Kubrick
Francis Ford Coppolla
Ridley Scott
Jim Jarmusch
David Fincher
The Coen Brothers
Wes Anderson
Christopher Nolan
Marty DiBergi

Oops! More than 5. There are sooooo many more I could list.

 

What about Great Expectations?

 

Lean would probably make my top twenty but for none of the films you list.

Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Brief Encounter and This Happy Breed on the other hand!

 

Fresh directors only (each of whome is and will be frequenters of Cannes or Venice.)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, LOFT)
Atsuhiro Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda, A Gentle Breeze in the Village)
Keiichi Hara (Summer Days With Coo, The Adult Empire Strikes Back)
Shinji Aoyama (Eureka)
Masayuki Suo (Shall we dance?)

 

Second vote for the great but not well-known Nicolas Roeg.

 

Five current favorites (still making sure I see everything they do):

David O. Russell
Steven Soderbergh
PT Anderson
Alexander Payne
Pedro Almodovar

 

My list is a little more contemporary than most and while these guys may never be considered to be "the greatest" film makers they are the ones that have made films that have had the most impact on me in the last 10 - 15 years (about when I started watching movies more seriously).

Wes Anderson
PT Anderson
Joel & Ethan Cohen
Steven Soderbergh
Edward Burns


Shane

 

Another great film indeed, still prefer Brief Encounter.

 

Totally forgot to put Herzog and Fassbinder on my now top 7 list .

 

I can't claim they are the best filmakers ever, but these are guys who've I seen every one of their films (and enjoyed) on DVD:

Larry Cohen* "It's Alive" "God Told Me To"
Fritz Lang* "M" "Metropolis"
Jack Hill* "Spider Baby" "Switchblade Sisters"
David Cronenberg* "Scanners" "A History of Violence"
William Lustig* "Maniac Cop" "Uncle Sam"
Josef Von Sternberg*"The Devil is a Woman" "Shanghai Express"
Paul Verhouven* "Robocop" "Black Book"
Stuart Gordon* "Re-Animator" "Edmond"
Tobe Hooper* "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" "Mortuary"
Don Siegel* "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" "Dirty Harry"
Robert Rodriquez* "From Dusk To Dawn" "Grindhouselanet Terror"
Quentin Tarintino* "Pulp Fiction" "Grindhouseeath-Proof"
Paul Bartel* "Deathrace 2000" "Eating Raoul"
Jim Jarmusch* "Dead Man" "Ghost Dog:The Way of the Samurai"
Gus Van Sant* "Drugstore Cowboy" "Good Will Hunting"
Guillermo Del Toro* "Cronos" "Pan's Labyrinth"
Michael Mann* "Thief" "Heat"

 

Given your avatar, I figured Lynch would be on your list!

 

Haven't seen Inland Empire yet, heh heh.

 

1) Ingmar Bergman
2) Woody Allen
3) Akira Kurosawa
4) David Lynch
5) Luis Buñuel

Honorable Mention:

- Robert Bresson
- Stanley Kubrick

Mark

 

You're in for a treat if you do! It's what you might call a "mindf***", to say the very least.

 

I think we should have a top five list of hack directors that we love in spite of ourselves (or they could also be craftsman-like directors).

 

My ultimate list, which is way past five directors:
Dario Argento
Mario Bava
Katheryn Bigelow
Peter Bogdonavich
David O. Bradley
Luis Bunuel
Tim Burton
Frank Capra
John Carpenter
Bob Clark
Coen Bros.
Roger Corman
John Dahl
Joe Dante
Jules Dassin
Brian DePalma
Fellini
Abel Ferrara
Lucio Fulci
Samuel Fuller
Jean-Luc Godard
Howard Hawks
Werner Hertzog
Peter Jackson
Alexander Jodorowsky
Herschell Gordon Lewis
George Lucas
David Lynch
John MacNaughton
Anthony Mann
Leo McCarey
Takashi Miike
Sam Peckinpah
Roman Polanski
Otto Preminger
Nicolas Ray
George Romero
Nicholas Roeg
Martin Scorsese
Ridley Scott
Steven Soderbergh
Penelope Spheeris
George Stevens
Preston Sturges
Edger G. Ulmer
Raoul Walsh
Billy Wilder
Robert Wise
William Wyler

 

How about my top five of the WORST film directors:
1. Uwe Bolle
2. Ed Wood
3. Bert I. Gordon
4. Ray Kellogg
5. Ed Hunt ("Alien Warrior"-a film I actually worked on...among many other "gems")

 

Ed Wood was bad, but at least his films are so bad they're good. Uwe Boll, on the other hand...

That's it, I'm starting a Top 5 Worst Directors thread. That's how angry I am that Uwe Boll has a job.

 

I'll have to keep an eye out for this "Ing" you speak of.

 

Billy Wilder
Alfred Hitchcock
Martin Scorsese
Woody Allen
Fred Zinnemann

 

I feel glad that many mention Woody Allen, who doesn't seem to be able to make a film with (only) the US fund any more, meanwhile I am surprised that only a few do Howard Hawks.

 

Hawks was on my short list. Certain years he'd make a top five of mine.

And 20 years ago, Woody Allen would have been second, right behind Hitchcock. Now, however, I'm not sure if he'd make a top 30. Definitely not with his films from the last 15 years or so. But there are about 10-12 of his films that I really like. I'm just not sure his films have aged very well. Some of his early comedies in particular. I'm about the only person I know, however, that really loves Mighty Aphrodite. Best role of Mira's career, as far as I'm concerned!

 

Bergman's a director I'm supposed to love, based on my other likes (not to mention Woody Allen), and I do really like Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal and Monika, to name a few, and I like his players (my God are those women beautiful) but there just seems to be something that doesn't quite allow me to totally connect with him. I couldn't even make it through the Dick Cavett interview.

 

That's the point. To me, these could not make a list that would include, say, the great Preston Sturges' flicks.

Agreed. Allen has given some actresses their best roles in their career.