Favorite directors
by erratic1983 | created - 30 Oct 2013 | updated - 31 Oct 2013 | Publicincluding some personal thoughts on their work and my favorite films of them (not meaning they haven't made other really great ones!)
1. Ingmar Bergman
Writer | Smultronstället
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a priest. The film and T.V. series, The Best Intentions (1992) is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film Sunday's Children (1992) depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the miniseries Private Confessions (...
Undoubtedly the most influential director ever. No one has shown better what happens inside one person or between two persons. (Wild strawberries, Persona, Autumn sonata, Cries and whispers)
2. Stanley Kubrick
Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...
Most Kubrick's films are masterpieces. Those remaining are at least great. And each one is completely different from the other. What an achievement! (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The killing, Barry Lyndon, Eyes wide shut, The shining, 2001: A space odyssey, A Clockwork Orange)
3. Alfred Hitchcock
Director | Psycho
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...
The master of the thriller genre. He taught the next generations the ways to keep the tension and the audience's attention in a film; all those technics to keep a cinematic pace that the viewer cannot resist to follow. (Psycho, North by northwest, Vertigo)
4. Lars von Trier
Writer | Dancer in the Dark
Probably the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer over 60 years earlier, Lars von Trier studied film at the Danish Film School and attracted international attention with his very first feature, The Element of Crime (1984). A highly ...
Reality bites. Learning is painful. But to be honest, going through this procedure is the only thing that really counts. As soon as you accept it, it becomes clear that Lars Von Trier has invented new (really new) wonderful means for you to make this journey. Don't forget to say thanks. (Breaking the waves, Dancer in the dark, Dogville, Manderlay)
5. David Lynch
Writer | Twin Peaks
Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future ...
Dreams, subconscious, illusions, mystery, avant garde, innovative, grotesque. That's the things you suppose that are contained in the package mr. Lynch offers you. But you keep discovering more stuff as you explore it. (Mulholland Dr., Rabbits, The straight story, Lost highway)
6. Quentin Tarantino
Writer | Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.
In January of...
He takes an exaggeration and makes it real. Or he extracts from reality those rare parts of it which overcome the average. Either way the outcome is perfection; no way it could be more enjoyable. (Pulp fiction, Kill Bill vol. 1&2, Django unchained, Inglourious Basterds)
7. Paul Thomas Anderson
Director | Punch-Drunk Love
Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...
Fortunately there is still Paul Thomas Anderson to remind us that cinema is a form of art. (There will be blood, The master, Boogie nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love)
8. Luis Buñuel
Writer | Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the ...
Would it be possible for anyone to accomplish what Bunuel had achieved then, there, in that context, with those means? No. That's what his surrealism could do. That's how great he is, that's how his radical work still works today. (The Exterminating Angel, Viridiana, Un chien andalou, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie)
9. Darren Aronofsky
Writer | Pi
Darren Aronofsky was born February 12, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Darren was always artistic: he loved classic movies and, as a teenager, he even spent time doing graffiti art. After high school, Darren went to Harvard University to study film (both live-action and animation). He won ...
(Requiem for a dream, The wrestler, Black swan, The fountain)
10. Michael Haneke
Writer | Caché
A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world ...
(The white ribbon, Funny games, Amour)
11. Kim Ki-duk
Writer | Bin-jip
He studied fine arts in Paris in 1990-1992. In 1993 he won the award for Best Screenplay from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting with "A Painter and A Criminal Condemned to Death". After two more screenplay awards, he made his directorial debut with Crocodile (1996) ("Crocodile"). Then he ...
His modern fairy tales are full of magic. (Pieta, Hwal, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, 3-Iron)
12. Lilly Wachowski
Writer | The Matrix
Director, writer, and producer Lilly Wachowski was born in 1967 in Chicago, the daughter of Lynne, a nurse and painter, and Ron, a businessman. Lilly was educated at Kellogg Elementary School in Chicago, before moving on to Whitney M. Young High School. After graduating from high school, she ...
(The matrix, Bound, Cloud atlas)
13. Roman Polanski
Director | Chinatown
Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.
His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...
(Rosemary's baby, The pianist, Chinatown)
14. Joel Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...
(The Big Lebowski, A Serious Man, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple.)
15. Takashi Miike
Director | Jûsan-nin no shikaku
Takashi Miike was born in the small town of Yao on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. His main interest growing up was motorbikes, and for a while he harbored ambitions to race professionally. At the age of 18 he went to study at the film school in Yokohama founded by renowned director Shôhei Imamura, ...
Violence is the only way to make things evolve. To be sustainable or better. Cinema is no exception. (Audition, Ichi the killer)
16. Alejandro Amenábar
Writer | The Others
Is the son of a Spanish mother and a Chilean father. His family moved back to Spain when he was 1 year old, and he grew up and studied in Madrid. He wrote, produced and directed his first short film La cabeza at the age of 19, and he was 23 when he directed his feature debut Thesis (1996). His film ...
(The Sea Inside, Agora, The others)
17. Woody Allen
Writer | Annie Hall
Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.
Allen ...
When two people date, there's nothing new to us; anything that could come up, we have watched it already in some Allen's film. (Deconstructing Harry, Match point, Zelig, Manhattan)
18. Park Chan-wook
Director | Oldeuboi
Park Chan-wook was born on August 23, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. He is a producer and director, known for Oldboy (2003), The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (2022). He is married to Eun-hee Kim. They have one child.
(Oldboy, I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK)
19. Sidney Lumet
Director | 12 Angry Men
Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...
(Network, 12 angry men, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Dog Day Afternoon)
20. Costa-Gavras
Director | Z
Costa-Gavras was born on February 12, 1933 in Loutra-Iraias, Greece. He is a director and writer, known for Z (1969), Missing (1982) and Amen. (2002). He has been married to Michèle Ray-Gavras since 1968. They have two children.
When you go political you have to watch Gavras's films to get the whole picture. (Le couperet, Missing, Z, Amen.)
21. Krzysztof Kieslowski
Writer | Trois couleurs: Bleu
Krzysztof Kieslowski graduated from Lódz Film School in 1969, and became a documentary, TV and feature film director and scriptwriter. Before making his first film for TV, Przejscie podziemne (1974) (The Underground Passage), he made a number of short documentaries. His next TV title, Personnel (...
(Trois couleurs: Blanc, Trois couleurs: Rouge, Trois couleurs: Bleu, The Double Life of Veronique)
22. Martin Scorsese
Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...
There are many ways to tell a story. But if you want to really live the experience that comes with it, give it to Martin Scorsese to make a movie about it. (The king of comedy, Goodfellas, Hugo, After hours, Raging Bull)
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