Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever: 1. Alfred Hitchcock

Malick is amazing, a brilliant film maker that never caters to convention.

 

Terence Malick hasn't done a film yet that I've even remotely enjoyed. I'd argue that to be a great director means to be a great storyteller - the inaccessibility of Malick's films precludes him from being described as such.

His films have their moments, and they're certainly pretty, but he needs to reign in the 'watching water drip off leaves' excess.

 

I disagree. Why should all film be about story? That's like saying that poets or history writers are innately not great because they are not great storytellers. I think that many greats in any form were initially inaccessible: they are probably more accessible now because of increased familiarity from exposure and imitation. I don't think being a great storyteller is requisite for being a great director: Malick's strength is in the visual poetry, not the visual storytelling.

If you like Malick, by the way, check out David Gordon Green's films (pre-Pineapple Express, of course).

 

I was absolutely stunned when i found out David Gordon Green is the director of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS.. I would have completely ignored that movie otherwise.. Now i'm actually quite interested in trying to check it out at some point.

His "Undertow" was great, and very Malick (I believe Malick was actually a producer of some sort on it!)

 

Green's friendship with Malick is what brought to light the hilariously unexpected fact that Malick listens to heavy metal and is a huge Zoolander fan.

 

and call it 'pans labyrinth'.

 

30 Luis Buñuel

The firestarter

"The cheekiest, funniest and most imaginative of all cinema?s master directors. Anarchist provocateur Luis Buñuel?s mad, surrealist debut Un Chien Andalou (1929) ignited six decades of sex, violence and satire. And the Spaniard?s attacks on the unholy trinity of bourgeois repression, religious hypocrisy and patriarchal excess never let up. From Los Olvidados to Belle De Jour, his films are unique, comical and quietly appalling. ?In a world as badly made as ours,? notes Bunuel, ?there?s only one road: rebellion.?

Picture perfect That Obscure Object Of Desire. Going out with a bang."

This guy never met a taboo he believed in.

 

It's actual name is El Laberinto Del Fauna, so it should be called that, although I have no problem with people using the English translation, I do from time to time as well.

 

a major influence on Lynch.

 

It's a good film, with very good writing, very good directing, and some excellent acting, especially on the part of Franco.

 

29 Jean-Pierre Melville

The kingpin

"According to Jean-Pierre Melville, one of the giants of post-war French cinema, ?Nothing matters except my profession and therefore my work?. When he died aged 55, he left behind 13 moody films, including a trilogy of Resistance dramas and a series of minimalist policiers (Le Doulos, Le Samouraï, Le Cercle Rouge). The latter drew on star actors (Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo) and the iconography of classic Hollywood gangster movies to present a series of matchless set-pieces and a vision of masculinity.

Picture perfect Army Of The Shadows. Haunting epic."

Wish I had been able to see more of his work.

 

The first scene of Army Of Shadows is stunning.

 

28 Michael Mann

The ice man

?A 65ft screen and 500 people reacting to the movie,? shrugs Michael Mann. ?There?s nothing like that experience.? At the end of the ?80s, Mann?s love of cinema looked to be unrequited. Miami Vice gave him telly success, but The Keep, Thief and Manhunter marked him out as a cult filmmaker. Then came the ?90s... The Last Of The Mohicans, Heat and The Insider were masculine but not macho, icy in execution but simmering in emotion and adrenaline. Ali, Collateral and Miami Vice offered professional, obsessional protagonists.
Picture perfect Heat. You are going down!"


Huh? Rated way too high.

 

The Insider is an incredibly great flick. Heat is good too. And I love Last of the Mohicians.

 

Heat was awesome, as was Collateral. I thought Miami Vice was a bit of a wasted opportunity, but the cinematography was second-to-none, a truly beautiful film. I`d definitely rate Michael Mann as one of my favourite directors.

One of my most anticipated films of 2009 is Public Enemies.

 

He is talented,but his movies never wreally got too me.

 

27 Sam Peckinpah

The outlaw

?Bloody? Sam was a rogue. ?A ****er and a fighter and a wild-horse rider,? said editor Lou Lombardo. His lairy lifestyle made him ill and he riled studios something rotten. Most famously, from The Wild Bunch to Straw Dogs, he shredded the screen-violence envelope. Having seen death as a Marine from ?43-?45, he wanted its film equivalent to look ?bloody ****ing awful?. But his revisionist westerns were also odes to ageing outlaw saints. ?I?m an outsider,? he said. ?And I think being an outsider is a lonely, losing job?.?
Picture perfect Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid. The west goes down."

Brilliantly feral and his own worst enemy. I like "Ride the High Country" and "The Wild Bunch" best.

 

The Wild Bunch is definitely better than Pat Garrett, even though Garrett is a good film as well. At the time, it was the violence that shocked people; in retrospect, it's the humanity and sadness he finds in even his most vicious characters. The Wild Bunch is incredibly violent, but it's also incredibly sad.

 

Peckinpah's best film has to be Salad Days

 

I guess he is one of the first directors how sold a movie in which germans from the third reich are portrayed decent in Iron Cross.

 

A lot of his films were butchered by the studios..."Major Dundee", "Pat Garrett" and the notorious "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia".

That said, Peckinpah was provoking in the extreme; he could not fathom studio politics.

 

I liked Slad Days.

 

I'd like to see "Noon Wine", which he made for TV and isn't readily available.

 

26 Robert Altman

The outsider

"When Robert Altman died aged 81, no one could claim he hadn?t fulfilled his potential. After early TV work, the Kansas City-born iconoclast made it big in 1970 with M*A*S*H. He reigned in the ?70s (McCabe And Mrs Miller, The Long Goodbye), suffered a lean ?80s but enjoyed a comeback with Hollywood satire The Player, LA epic Short Cuts and the prestigious Gosford Park. Known for innovative use of sound and improvisation, there are as many duds as masterpieces on his CV, though he?d have disagreed ? ?I?ve not made a film yet that I do not consider a success.?

Picture perfect Nashville. America in a nutshell."


I went from mildly disliking Robert Altman to actively despising him. Thrown together movies; some things work, but most of the time, they don't.

See "Quintet" for the ugly details.

 

I cannot disagree with you more, Zaz.

Robert Altman was an innovator of portraying movies as real life. Nowhere else would you find conversations with major characters panned back to include conversations of other people around them. Just as we would hear if we were there. No other director presented this kind of realism. Altman included outside noises and speech because you felt that you were there with them.

Altman is my favorite director because of this. He didn't succumb to the Hollywood status quo. He challenged it.

Magnolia was structured based on Short Cuts, from Paul T. Anderson. Rachel Getting Married was dedicated to the memory of Altman.

There is an award in the Independant Film Awards named after Altman.

For me and others in Hollywood, Robert Altman was the greatest artist of Hollywood.