Amph Your top 10 favorite film directors

Should be pretty self explanatory. My list:

1. Jean Pierre-Melville

2. Hayao Miyazaki

3. Sam Peckinpah

4. Wong Kar-wai

5. Johnnie To

6. Barry Jenkins

7. Michael Mann

8. Akira Kurosawa

9. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

10. Greta Gerwig

 

1. Danny Boyle
2. Steven Spielberg
3. Bong Joon Ho
4. Christopher Nolan
5. Alfred Hitchcock
6. Akira Kurosawa
7. Christopher McQuarrie
8. James Mangold
9. Nora Ephron
10. Rian Johnson

 

1. john carpenter
2. david lynch
3. martin scorsese
4. park chan-wook
5. akira kurosawa
6. quentin tarantino
7. martin mcdonagh
8. stanley kubrick
9. joel and ethan coen
10. alfred hitchcock

 

The Coens and Tarantino are top 10 directors but just not my personal top 10. Or more like they're all tied for tenth with Johnson.

 

1. John McTiernan
2. Steven Spielberg
3. Christopher Nolan
4. Ridley Scott
5. Akira Kurosawa
6. Paul Greengrass
7. Robert Zemeckis
8. Brian De Palma
9. Alfred Hitchcock
10. Frank Capra

 

1. Steven Spielberg
2. Hayao Miyazaki
3. Frances Ford Copolla
4. Martin Scorsese
5. Quentin Tarintino
6. John Hughes
7. James Cameron
8. Guillermo Del Toro
9. George Lucas
10. Robert Zemeckis

These are my preferred directors; not necessarily "best", which is why you won't see Kubrick or Hitchcock on the list. I can't claim to have seen many of their movies.

 

1. Stanley Kubrick
2. David Lynch
3. Danny Boyle
4. Alfred Hitchcock
5. Francis Ford Coppola
6. Quentin Tarantino
7. Martin Scorsese
8. Akira Kurosawa
9. Luis García Berlanga
10. Billy Wilder

 

1. Fritz Lang
2. Orson Welles
3. F. W. Murnau
4. Akira Kurosawa
5. Satoshi Kon
6. David Lynch
7. Alejandro Jodorowsky
8. Sergio Leone
9. Miloš Forman
10. Kinji Fukasaku

 

had a tough time not including forman and leone on mine.

 

1. Terry Gilliam
2. Steven Spielberg
3. David Lynch
4. Danny Boyle
5. Lord & Miller
6. Coen Brothers
7. Jeunet & Caro
8. Pedro Almodovar
9. Robert Zemeckis
10. Stanley Kubrick

 

The big loser on my list was Coppola by virtue of me being one of those grouchy “Everything after 1990, even the stuff I like, is kind of bad” types.

Ah crap, that’s right, Terry Gilliam! Oh well.

 

I would list Wes Anderson if his movies had anything going for them except very pretty pictures.

 

None of these people have bought me lunch.

 

It pained me to leave Godfrey Ho off my list. Alas.

 

1. Alfred Hitchcock
2. Billy Wilder
3. Fritz Lang
4. Frank Capra
5. Paul Bartel
6. Rob Reiner
7. Penelope Spheeris
8. Wolfgang Reitherman
9. Mel Brooks
10. Isho Honda

There's probably some oversights here that I'd remember later. Eventually dropped Kevin Smith because he's a director and a fav, but that really feels more specifically the writing that does that.

 

Oooh if we're doing that then I vote for Richard Donner.

 

I wouldn't eat if I was part of the Donner party at a restaurant.

 

It’s not like you to do this. But did Donner buy you dinner? Did you dine with Donner? Did Donner dine with you? Did Donner drink da Daiquiri?

 

Yes and Tom Mankiewicz was there (he was my prof and chose me for the dinner, which like 6 other students were at too). We talked Superman the Movie. He was delightful. It remains a very fond memory.

 

Does J.J. Abrams providing pizza for dinner count? Or does this have to be lunch?

Of the Mankiewicz film empire?

 

Yep his uncle was the Mank who wrote Casablanca and whom the movie is about. My Mank wrote the Donner Superman movies and a few bad James Bond films

 

I always like "favorite" lists better than "best" lists because it is a lot easier to figure out what I like than what I think is objectively the best. There is a good chance I missed somebody, and the order doesn't really matter all that much, but here are some people. Also, I'll put as many people as I want, you can't tell me what to do.

1. Wes Anderson: look, I said the rankings don't matter that much, but this one does. My favorite director by far. The amount of emotion that he can pack into his hilarious, weird, incredible films is staggering. His work just really speaks directly to me.
2. Christopher Nolan: a wildly inventive, committed filmmaker, his work is always intriguing, always challenging, and always top-tier cinema.
3. Akira Kurosawa: no one else makes movies like Kurosawa. Of all the big mid-twentieth-century names in international cinema, Kurosawa is the one who always has me riveted, making brilliant and compelling films.
4. Billy Wilder: Wilder has a resume like no other. I'm hard-pressed to think of someone who's made so many top-tier films across so many genres. A true cinematic master.
5. Orson Welles: the most interesting filmmaker ever. His work often ended up messy, largely thanks to studio interference, but it was never less than fascinating. Wildly creative and innovative, a pioneering auteur in the days of the studio system, Welles is one of the most remarkable talents in cinema.
6. Edgar Wright: an incredible stylist, he first put his deep understanding of cinema and ability to speak virtually any cinematic language to work in some of the best genre-parodying comedies ever, but he's also able to make creative, vibrant films across genres. His talent seems boundless, his sense of humor is brilliant, and I'm always thrilled to see what he can do.
7. Martin Scorsese: quite simply an icon. So many great films, such a towering cinematic figure, he really speaks for himself.
8. Denis Villeneuve: one of those filmmakers working today who just keeps knocking amazing films out of the park, a really impressive director of jaw-dropping movies at a time when real directing seems to be fading away. If he makes it, I want to see it.
9. Yasujiro Ozu: an incredibly sensitive, unique artist. His warm, humane, down-to-earth films are simply wonderful.
10. Steven Spielberg: another director whose work speaks for itself. One of the finest craftsmen of adventure on film, yet also capable of tremendous, serious dramas.
11. Quentin Tarantino: I like the early crime-movie Tarantino better than later grandiose-revenge-movie Tarantino, but they're both pretty damn good. Funny, thrilling, fearlessly idiosyncratic, he's a one-of-a-kind filmmaker.
12. Jules Dassin: all Jules Dassin did is make incredible noirs. Technically he made other movies too, but look, the point is he's got an incredible resume in my favorite genre.
13. Gareth Huw Evans: you make some of the best action movies of all time, some of my favorite films, you get on the list. Simple. His action films are wildly kinetic and thrilling, perfectly shooting the action with style but also clarity. I have no idea why he has not made it bigger.
14. The Coen Brothers: they can do it all, but I especially love them for their weird, offbeat, uproarious comedy.
15. Michael Mann: nobody shows a professional at work like Mann does. Slickly stylish, procedurally focused, he's just a hugely compelling filmmaker.
16. J.C. Chandor: another current director who has made nothing but excellent films and always has my attention.
17. Nicolas Winding Refn: I'm half convinced Refn is insane, and his most unmoored work is his weakest, but even his wildest stuff is hypnotically compelling. A visual and atmospheric stylist of the first order, he's at his best in his crime films.
18. Wong Kar-Wai: mesmerizing, brilliant, occupying a bizarre territory of romantic anti-romance like no one else, he's magnificently compelling.
19. James Mangold: one of the few working directors today who can deliver real movies for adults in big, crowd-pleasing style, I feel like he's been flying under the radar when he should be a huge name.
20. George Lucas: American Graffiti and Star Wars are enough to get a place on the list. An inventive visual stylist who revolutionized filmmaking, I think it's overlooked just how amazing the work is he did in putting his films together.
21. Martin McDonagh: hilarious and brutally dark at the same time, he's got a string of movies I adore and a distinctive voice.
22. Sergio Leone: iconic. The man's work is iconic. I don't have to say anything else.
23. Paul Thomas Anderson: a fascinating filmmaker.
24. Martin Ritt: one of the all-time underappreciated directors; nobody talks about him, but he made a bunch of great movies. Hud, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Edge of the City, Sounder.
    
25. George Roy Hill: you may not recognize the name of George Roy Hill, but you recognize his movies. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Slap Shot, he's one of my go-to references for underappreciated directors of the sixties and seventies.
26. John McTiernan: guy made three of the all-time greatest action movies . . . in a row! Tremendous craftsmanship as an action director.
27. Satyajit Ray: sensitive, smart, outrageously compelling international filmmaking from a rapidly changing India.
28. Nicholas Ray: Ray is one of those directors I just really like even though his output can be uneven, as was common in the studio days. When Ray got to really do his thing with a good script, look out.
29. Sam Fuller: raw, compelling, unique filmmaking.
30. Ridley Scott: Scott is not always great, but his highs are so high that I'm always intrigued by him. Alien and Blade Runner will buy you the occasional Robin Hood.

 

I thought about Fuller for Shcck Corridor and Crimson Kimono, but decided I'd need to see more of his stuff before giving more serious consideration. Think I picked up a collection of his stuff recently.

Ben Mankiewicz is the real treasure though.

 

I'm very happy that Danny Boyle is on more lists than I thought he'd be.

Also, I'm unsurprised we could have a list of 30 great directors with 0 women..that's not anyone's fault, it's the industry's fault. I only had one female director on my list myself. Not for lack of talent but lack of opportunities.