Who's your favourite film director?

[DownOnRodeo]

I'm with Lindsey re: Ridley Scott.

[David]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

So who's your favourite director and what films of theirs do you particularly admire?

So many . . . but not nearly enough.

I love those expansive minds, those visionaries whose work is filled with obsession & syncretism (did I spell that right?), like Griffith ("Intolerance," "Broken Blossoms"), Welles ("Citizen Kane," "The Magnificent Ambersons," "The Lady From Shanghai," "Othello"), the early Russian poet Dovzhenko ("Earth"), Fritz Lang (whose loony "Faust" is high on my list of all-time favorites) & Ophuls ("The Earrings of Madame De ..." "Le Plaisir").

I love the great iconoclasts of the Hollywood studio era, like Hawks ("His Girl Friday," "Twentieth Century," "The Big Sleep") McCarey ("The Awful Truth," "Duck Soup"), Anthony Mann ("T-Men," "Raw Deal," "The Naked Spur") & their modernized usurpers, like Altman ("McCabe & Mrs. Miller," "The Long Goodbye"), Coppola ("The Godfather" & "The Godfather Part 2"), Scorsese ("Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver") & Hal Ashby ("Shampoo").

Mike Leigh's "Secrets & Lies" & "Topsy-Turvy" are two of my favorite movies of the past fifteen years or so.

[DownOnRodeo]

How long can a conclusion be?? Have you seen Clockwork Orange?

[dissention]

Originally Posted by DownOnRodeo

Robert Zemeckis

Everyone is entitled to a slip-up every now and then, so you're still okay in my book, Joe.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

Interested to hear what your thoughts on Todd Solondz are....

Well, the fact that he had the audacity to make Happiness makes him fantastic to me.

[darklinensuit]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

But if I had to pick a Hal Ashby movie I would chose Harold And Maude, another favourite. I could watch that movie over and over again.

I have.

- Jake

[dissention]

Originally Posted by David

Mike Leigh's "Secrets & Lies" & "Topsy-Turvy" are two of my favorite movies of the past fifteen years or so.

Secrets and Lies is a beautiful movie. That whole cast was phenomenal. I liked Topsy Turvy a lot, but not as much. But, alas, they are very different movies.

[estranged4life]

Sergio Leone...'Nuff said

Now I am going to go watch the new 2 DVD disc version of his classic "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" (Or as they say in Italian "Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo") which is my favorite movie EVER, And according to the sticker on the box it is also the favorite Quentin Tarantino's too!!!

[cliffdweller]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

That film is probably why I love her!
Breaking The Waves is so heartbreaking. What a great film.
She's fantastic in Metroland and Gosford Park too.

You made me think of another one of my favorite directors-- Lars Von Trier! Mad props to the Scandinavian contingent of directors: Von Trier + all the Dogme 94 directors, Ingmar Bergman, Lasse Hallstrom, T. Dreyer...I'm sure i'll think of others after I post this.

[cliffdweller]

Originally Posted by dissention

I used to love Halloween, but I got burned out on it. I love The Fog.

I know what you mean, but it still stands up as brilliance in the horror genre. Carpenter took some experimental risks in that movie, and the end result is utter genius.

I wanted to tell you Dissention, I'm pretty sure you said something a while back about that Margot Kidder movie, Sisters, well I rented it and it is one of the most hilarious movies I've ever seen! Of course it's not intended to be funny but it totally is: Margot Kidder sporting a silly French accent and that mysterious ex-husband of hers oh god, and let's not forget the last scene of the movie in that psycho ward/house institution thing at the end. I was laughing out loud at the screen, and I rarely do that when watching a movie alone.

All that to say that DePalma is also one of my favorite directors but that movie BLOWS! And of course I mean blows in a cheesey, B-movie, good kind of way.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by cliffdweller

I know what you mean, but it still stands up as brilliance in the horror genre. Carpenter took some experimental risks in that movie, and the end result is utter genius.

I wanted to tell you Dissention, I'm pretty sure you said something a while back about that Margot Kidder movie, Sisters, well I rented it and it is one of the most hilarious movies I've ever seen! Of course it's not intended to be funny but it totally is: Margot Kidder sporting a silly French accent and that mysterious ex-husband of hers oh god, and let's not forget the last scene of the movie in that psycho ward/house institution thing at the end. I was laughing out loud at the screen, and I rarely do that when watching a movie alone.

All that to say that DePalma is also one of my favorite directors but that movie BLOWS! And of course I mean blows in a cheesey, B-movie, good kind of way.

BUT - it is very entertaining! That whole flashback scene in black and white was some demented ****, though. And I did like the opening a lot where the guy got killed and Kidder rushed to clean up the place; that was good, IMO. The rest, though? Blah. But it's a fascinating oddity, in my book.

I just got Dogville on DVD from Korea and von Triers is a f*cking lunatic. It came as a two-discer with lots of press conferences and docs on the second disc. I guess he set up a confession box on the set for everyone to vent and he drove everyone bonkers. Lauren Bacall cracked me up; "Mr. Huston was never like this crazy bastard." And Stellan Skarsgard is a weird one, lemmetellya.

Ever see "The Boys Next Door" with Charlie Sheen and Maxwell Caulfield? I watched that late last night and that's another cheesy but freaky-as-hell movie. Check it out.

Lawd, when the two of us get talking about movies!

[dissention]

Originally Posted by cliffdweller

You made me think of another one of my favorite directors-- Lars Von Trier! Mad props to the Scandinavian contingent of directors: Von Trier + all the Dogme 94 directors, Ingmar Bergman, Lasse Hallstrom, T. Dreyer...I'm sure i'll think of others after I post this.

Except "The Idiots" was torturous. I despised that movie.

"Dancer In the Dark" was superb. Everyone in that movie was fantastic.

AND, before I forget, there are some all-region DVDs for sale on eBay of The Kingdom, BOTH parts. I want to get them, but they're so expensive. I'm chomping at the bit to see part two.

And, like I told Sharon, check out Haute Tension if you can find it. That is one surreal movie.

[cliffdweller]

Originally Posted by dissention

Except "The Idiots" was torturous. I despised that movie.

"Dancer In the Dark" was superb. Everyone in that movie was fantastic.

AND, before I forget, there are some all-region DVDs for sale on eBay of The Kingdom, BOTH parts. I want to get them, but they're so expensive. I'm chomping at the bit to see part two.

And, like I told Sharon, check out Haute Tension if you can find it. That is one surreal movie.

I am definitely going to check that one out. I can't wait! Horror is my favorite film genre.

Yeah, you're right about Von Trier, he's a genius but he is as looney as a tune. I thought it was REALLY poor form when he MADE Nicole Kidman promise to do the last two films of his new "trilogy on America" in front of an entire press conference at Cannes. She should have told him to "cram it with walnuts, ugly" a la Homer Simpson.

I also think it's quite ridiculous that he's making a trilogy on America and has never stepped foot on American soil. However, be that as it may, I'm sure it will be quite an interesting take on American culture.

[cliffdweller]

Originally Posted by dissention

BUT - it is very entertaining! That whole flashback scene in black and white was some demented ****, though.

Or how about that scene where the reporter woman stumbled upon the madhouse at the end and tried to use the phone. That woman that freaked out on her had me in stitches!

Yeah that black and white scene was creepy.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by cliffdweller

I am definitely going to check that one out. I can't wait! Horror is my favorite film genre.

Yeah, you're right about Von Trier, he's a genius but he is as looney as a tune. I thought it was REALLY poor form when he MADE Nicole Kidman promise to do the last two films of his new "trilogy on America" in front of an entire press conference at Cannes. She should have told him to "cram it with walnuts, ugly" a la Homer Simpson.

I also think it's quite ridiculous that he's making a trilogy on America and has never stepped foot on American soil. However, be that as it may, I'm sure it will be quite an interesting take on American culture.

On the second disc of the Korean DVD for Dogville, they have hours of the press conferences at Cannes and it shows him try to bully her into agreeing to the other two. She says yes, but form what I read, she said hell no the next day. Now he's got Ron Howard's daughter to take her place. Trier is obviously a loon, he even owns his own porn company. I read that he invited Kidman and Paul Bettany to his hotel room to meet each other, and he forced porno mags on bettany. When Kidman walked in, Trier asked Bettany if he could read some of "his" porn. Then I read that Bacall chewed him up and spit him out. While the cast was eating dinner one night, he bitched at her for leaving her TV on all night while she slept. She said it was no big deal, but he kept pressing and she eventually slapped him and told him "I'll turn the f*cker up even louder tonight!"

And while it may be ridiculous that he's making those movies without ever being here, Dogville proves that he knows what he's talking about. Listen to Ebert & Roeper's audio online from when they reviewed it, it's hysterical. "I found it offensive! It was anti-American tripe!"

And be warned about Haute Tension: it will churn your stomach. It is so vile and gruesome...but incredibly entertaining. Great movie and the ending will ahve you sitting there in shock for an hour, then you'll rewatch the ending ten times to understand it!