Best Director

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Kurosawa. Seven Samurai has been described as "a film school in itself."

Love Alex Cox introducing 'Yojimbo' on TV one time : 'It's one of Kurosawa's minor works. It's also a masterpiece.'

 

[Beechy McFly]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

A few of mine have already been mentioned, but one of my favs has to be Luc Besson.. The Professional, Fifth Element, Transporters etc..

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

I was perhaps being too academic in my original post. None of those guys directed women's prison movies or had retards in nappies being abused by girls in hotpants. So for greatest director of all time it's a tie between:

Jonathan Demme - for Caged Heat (certainly not Silence of the Lambs. Screw that.)

and

Ted Post - for The Baby

 

[cayman shen]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

I haven't seen every Kurosawa film, but I've seen most of them, and even Kurosawa had varying levels of quality. Even Kurosawa had some mediocrity in him.

Yojimbo is great, and Seven Samurai, and the most perfect film ever made (in my opinion) Ran. But beyond that, he did have some films that weren't all that ...
such as Roshomon, Throne of Blood, Kugemushu, and Dersu Uzula.
Don't get me wrong, Tishiro Mifune is always amazing to watch, and I enjoy all of Kurasawa's films, but Shakespeare doesn't always translate well to fuedal Japan believably.

Roshomon?! We must have been watching a different movie. Maybe look at it as the first of its "type?" Throne of Blood only works if you know noh theater: I had to watch it with the commentary on before I really understood how awesome it is. Dersu Uzula broke my heart. But of course, being Soviet, it's very different in tone than much of his other stuff.

The only two I haven't been nuts about are Dreams and Sanjuro.

But what makes a good director? I'm gonna say of all the factors, acting, art direction, shot composition, and pace are the biggest things a great director needs to really keep his thumb on. Now, Japanese acting in the old Toho days isn't what we're used to, but if you can get past the differences, the performances Kurosawa gets are generally solid. Art direction? Hell yeah. Shot composition? Other than Norman in the back room with Marion in Psycho, I've never seen better shot composition than Seven Samurai (and places in Hidden Fortress, Red Beard, and Ikiru as well). Pause that movie anywhere and you've got a painting. Flawless. Pace is another of those issues that a modern audience might be irritable with (we're an impatient world these days) but in the context of the times and its expectations, the pace of his films usually works. There are times when he has the guts to linger, and times when that lingering becomes tedious, but most of the time I think he's right on the money.

Motion through the frame should be noted as well. The end battle in Seven Samurai with the horse hooves in the mud, the AMAZING opening shot of Hidden Fortress with the bleeding soldier entering the image...

 

[cayman shen]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Love Alex Cox introducing 'Yojimbo' on TV one time : 'It's one of Kurosawa's minor works. It's also a masterpiece.'

Oh man, nice quote.

Minor though? I think it was his highest grossing movie. Not one of his "meaningful" films, to be sure, but hardly obscure!

 

[jarvis]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Another Scorsese fan here. If the Coens keep making good movies they'll be up there on my list in the future as well. I'm basing this off of number of movies they've done that I thought were well directed, not necessarily whether or not they made my favorite movie. In that case it would go to Coppola for the Godfather (which I feel was a perfect execution of writing, acting, cinematography and score), but we all know the rest of his directing career doesn't warrant a best director title.

 

[Capn_Jack_Savvy]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Steven Spielberg:love

 

[CessnaDriver]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Some of the biggies already mentioned I suppose.

But I will add Jim Jarmusch for the great quirky indie flicks he has
produced.

 

[CessnaDriver]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Orson Welles. Citizen Kane anyone?

I don't think that was it. It was that other one.

YouTube - The Kids in the Hall - Citizen Kane

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Oh man, nice quote.

Minor though? I think it was his highest grossing movie. Not one of his "meaningful" films, to be sure, but hardly obscure!

Well, yeah. 'Minor' here means a small artistic achievement, as opposed to obscure or a box office failure. And actually I've got the quotation backwards. He says it's a masterpiece and then adds, 'it's also one of Kurosawa's minor works.' Meaning of course that K defecates masterpieces.

With you on Rashomon. And Throne of Blood. I know sweet FA about Noh theatre but that film held me, man.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

You know what Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, and the Coen Brothers all have in common?

They're all in awe of Stanley Kubrick.

When it comes to American film directors, there's Kubrick, and then there's everybody else. The man was, and still is, in a class by himself.

 

[Wes R]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

I agree with alot of these directors except most of their newer movies are crap. half of the new movies they make are interchangeable with the newer directors with cameras bouncing around using steadycam setups and such instead of what made them famous directors in the first place.

 

[CTF]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Can you slow down a bit?

"lolz"

 

[Apollo]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Preach it Brother!

You know what Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, and the Coen Brothers all have in common?

They're all in awe of Stanley Kubrick.

When it comes to American film directors, there's Kubrick, and then there's everybody else. The man was, and still is, in a class by himself.

 

[CTF]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

I'm still laughing 'bout all that Ridley Scott nonsense.

 

[tgreco]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

I'm still laughing 'bout all that Ridley Scott nonsense.

You know, the one thing that keeps me from getting involved and sharing more of my projects here on the RPF, even after all these years, is people, like yourself, who try to tell me what I should think.

If all you wanted in this thread was a Kubrick & Kurasowa love fest, then why bother?

You know why not Kurasowa?
Because he did the same thing over and over again: Fuedal Japan. It's easy to get it right, when you don't stray from your comfort zone. Does he make great films. Absolutely. But you have to want to watch a film about Fuedal Japan.

And know why not Kubrick?
Because he gets self indulgent and boring. The end of 2001 is all the proof I'll ever need of that. Does he make great films. Sure. Are there some tedious and boring parts. Absolutely.

 

[blip]

......

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

You know, the one thing that keeps me from getting involved and sharing more of my projects here on the RPF, even after all these years, is people, like yourself, who try to tell me what I should think.

If all you wanted in this thread was a Kubrick & Kurasowa love fest, then why bother?

You know why not Kurasowa?
Because he did the same thing over and over again: Fuedal Japan. It's easy to get it right, when you don't stray from your comfort zone. Does he make great films. Absolutely. But you have to want to watch a film about Fuedal Japan.

And know why not Kubrick?
Because he gets self indulgent and boring. The end of 2001 is all the proof I'll ever need of that. Does he make great films. Sure. Are there some tedious and boring parts. Absolutely.

Good comebacks. Kubrick's record is pretty controversial amongst highbrow critics, too. Opinion is still divided in intellectual circles as to whether 2001 and Orange are tedious, steaming, pretentious piles, or masterpieces. He is assailable in ways that Hitchcock isn't, for example.

As for Kurosawa, he has done a healthy amount of films about contemporary life, too, not just Samurai movies. Ikiru (To Live), about an old guy in 'fifties Japan, for example, is considered by some critics to be his greatest film. I haven't seen it myself, yet, 'cos I DO only want to see Kuro films about feudal Japan, because they're so damn good, lol... I must see it, one day, though; and the old guy is played by Takashi Shimura, the Samurai leader from Samurai.

 

[CTF]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

tgreco, be warned that Stanley's watching you from beyond.

 

[cayman shen]

Re: Who is the best Director. Well, in your mind.

Good comebacks. Kubrick's record is pretty controversial amongst highbrow critics, too. Opinion is still divided in intellectual circles as to whether 2001 and Orange are tedious, steaming, pretentious piles, or masterpieces. He is assailable in ways that Hitchcock isn't, for example.

As for Kurosawa, he has done a healthy amount of films about contemporary life, too, not just Samurai movies. Ikiru (To Live), about an old guy in 'fifties Japan, for example, is considered by some critics to be his greatest film. I haven't seen it myself, yet, 'cos I DO only want to see Kuro films about feudal Japan, because they're so damn good, lol... I must see it, one day, though; and the old guy is played by Takashi Shimura, the Samurai leader from Samurai.

Ikiru is wonderful. Just amazing.