MovieMusic.com Message Boards: favorite films (by director)

Message Boards

Just Movies!

favorite films (by director)

Archive of old forum. No more postings.

Please visit our new forum, The MovieMusic Lobby, to post new topics.

Author	Topic: favorite films (by director)

Chase&August unregistered	Mine are, in order of favorite director . . . Spielberg: 1. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK 2. JAWS 3. THE LOST WORLD 4. JURASSIC PARK 5. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Carpenter 1. HALLOWEEN 2. VAMPIRES 3. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED 4. THE FOG 5. THE THING Zemeckis: 1. BACK TO THE FUTURE, PART III 2. BACK TO THE FUTURE 3. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? 4. BACK TO THE FUTURE, Part II 5. CONTACT Lucas: 1. STAR WARS 2. AMERICAN GRAFFITI 3. THX 1138 [This message has been edited by Chase&August (edited 05 May 2000).]
posted 05-05-2000 10:37 AM PT (US)

JoeInSanDiego Standard Userer	Steven Spielberg: Jaws Raiders of the Lost Ark Empire of the Sun The Color Purple Close Encounters of the Third Kind David Fincher: Seven The Game Alien 3 Ridley Scott: Alien Blade Runner Someone to Watch Over Me Thelma and Louise White Squall Wolfgang Peterson: Air Force One Outbreak Das Boot Shattered Roger Spottiswoode: And the Band Played On Under Fire Franklin Schaffner: Patton Planet of the Apes Papillon Islands in the Stream Lionheart Paul Verhoeven: Basic Instinct Total Recall Robocop Starship Troopers Flesh and Blood Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather The Godfather 2 The Godfather 3 Apocalypse Now The Outsiders Peggy Sue Got Marries I could go on...but I don't think I will... NP - Star Trek VI (Eidelman)
posted 05-05-2000 12:18 PM PT (US)

H Rocco Standard Userer	(growl growl growl growl) Mr. InSanDiego beat me to Mr. Schaffner ... so I must do Mr. John Frankenheimer: THE TRAIN THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ BLACK SUNDAY AGAINST THE WALL THE CHALLENGE (yes! I'M NOT KIDDING!!!) RONIN PROPHECY (again, I am NOT kidding) actually, he hasn't done anything I don't admire, at one level or another. Let me speak for another great journeyman director who does not get his due: the late Mr. Ishiro Honda. His masterpieces include: GOJIRA MATANGO GASU NINGEN DAIICHIGO FURANKENSHUTAIN TAI CHITE KAIJU BARAON SORA NO DAIKAIJU RADON BIJO TO EKITAI NINGEN KINGUKONGU NO GYAKUSUHU KINGUKONGU TAI GOJIRA ORU KAIJU DAISHINGEKI MOSURA Sort 'em out! NP: THE BIRTH OF JAPAN (Akira Ifukube) (NOT directed by Mr. H.)
posted 05-05-2000 08:56 PM PT (US)

joan hue Standard Userer	I say thumbs up to all the above directors and their movies. I’ve like just about all of Spielburg’s films. A few other oldies but goodies are: William Wyler WUTHERING HEIGHTS BEN HUR THE BIG COUNTRY THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES and most of his other films. Billy Wilder SOME LIKE IT HOT SUNSET BLVD. DOUBLE INDEMNITY STALAG 17 Frank Capra IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE LOST HORIZON and other heartfelt flicks Alfred Hitchcock PSYCHO NORTH BY NORTHWEST VERTIGO SPELLBOUND and others Brian De Palma DRESSED TO KILL BLOW OUT BODY DOUBLE Sydney Pollack, an OFF and ON director On times: TOOTSIE THE WAY WE WERE NP A Whale for the Killing
posted 05-06-2000 06:40 PM PT (US)

Marian Schedenig Standard Userer	Hm, I'm not really good at doing these lists, but I'll mention some favourites: Branagh: Much Ado About Nothing Crichton: The Great Train Robbery De Palma: Carlito's Way Fincher: Fight Club Hitchcock: North by Norhtwest There are others, but these come to my mind. Some director's are left out simply because I can't choose a favourite movie. NP: The Wasps - Aristophanic Suite (Ralph Vaughan Williams; that March of the Kitchen Utensils movement has a fascinating lightness).
posted 05-06-2000 06:59 PM PT (US)

Ted Standard Userer	Cool post! Here are my top three from each director... Kubrick: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE 2001 DR. STRANGELOVE Ridley Scott: GLADIATOR BLADE RUNNER ALIEN Steven Spielberg: SHINDLER'S LIST CLOSE ENCOUNTERS JURRASICK PARK David Lean: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA DR. ZHIVAGO BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI Joel Coen: FARGO BARTON FINK THE BIG LEBOWSKI Terry Gilliam: BRAZIL 12 MONKEYS THE CRIMSON PERMANENT ASSURANCE" (short)
posted 05-06-2000 07:20 PM PT (US)

H Rocco Standard Userer	Awright, THE CRIMSON PERMANENT ASSURANCE! Y'know, that was originally the whole MIDSECTION of MONTY PYTHON'S MEANING OF LIFE, but they were worried that the audience would be distracted, so they made it the "prelude" to the movie instead. My favorite Terry Gilliam movies will always be TIME BANDITS and MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL (technically codirected with Terry Jones, who also made the rest of MEANING OF LIFE, but you see Gilliam's fingerprints all over it). Here are my favorite Akira Kurosawas: SEVEN SAMURAI THE BAD SLEEP WELL THE BODYGUARD (literal translation of the word "Yojimbo," which is what it's called here) RED BEARD RASHOMON (literally "Rasho Gate") ONE WONDERFUL SUNDAY (underrated and awe-inspiring) RHAPSODY IN AUGUST (codirected with Ishiro Honda) DREAMS (codirected with Ishiro Honda) TSUBAKI SANJURO (that's the guy's name) CASTLE OF THE SPIDER'S WEB (known here as THRONE OF BLOOD -- Spielberg, for one, says this is his favorite Kurosawa) I've seen almost all of Kurosawa's pictures -- just a couple left to catch up to -- and even the lesser ones are completely amazing. The only time I really felt disappointed was with THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, and that was one he made as a wartime propaganda picture. He was utterly out of his element, and it shows. I think he wrote well of it later because it was on that set that he met his wife, Yoko Yaguchi. Funnily enough, just a year later he was corralled into codirecting (with two others) ANOTHER propaganda picture, THOSE WHO MAKE TOMORROW, which was commissioned by the American Occupation! That one, he disowned entirely. In fact, I believe it may be lost -- at least, no one I know has ever actually seen it, and there's no video. Don't know what's up with that ...
posted 05-06-2000 07:59 PM PT (US)

Andrew Standard Userer	Speilberg: Schindler's List Amistad Saving Private Ryan ET Stone: JFK Platoon Coppola: Apocalyse Now The Godfather The Godfather 2 The Rainmaker The Godfather 3 Demme: The Silence of the Lambs Philadelphia Polankski: Rosemary's Baby
posted 05-27-2000 07:01 AM PT (US)

John Maher Standard Userer	Hitchcock The Birds North By Northwest Strangers on a Train DePalma Carrie Blow Out Dressed To Kill Wise The Sound of Music The Day the Earth Stood Still I Want To Live Fleming The Wizard of Oz Gone With the Wind Joan of Arc
posted 05-30-2000 10:38 AM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	I got beat to lots of directors I like, but there's still some obvious room for me. Howard Hawks: The Big Sleep To Have and Have Not Only Angels Have Wings The Thing from Another World His Girl Friday Bringing Up Baby Red River Ernst Lubitsch: One Hour With You The Marriage Circle Shop Around the Corner To Be or Not to Be Trouble in Paradise Yasujiro Ozu: The End of Summer Tokyo Story Late Spring I Was Born But Ohayo Jean-Luc Godard: Pierrot Le Fou Breathless Vivre Sa Vie Band of Outsiders A Woman is A Woman Masculin-Feminine Michael Powell: The Red Shoes Stairway to Heaven Peeping Tom A Canterbury Tale Nicholas Ray: Rebel Without A Cause Johnny Guitar Bigger Than Life The Lusty Men Douglas Sirk: A Time to Love and A Time to Die Kon Ichikawa: Tokyo Olympiad Sam Fuller: Fixed Bayonets Forty Guns Merrill's Marauders Pickup on South Street Fritz Lang: Moonfleet M Fury Spies You Only Live Once Raoul Walsh: Sadie Thompson What Price Glory The Roaring Twenties Captain Horatio Hornblower Joseph Von Sternberg: The Docks of New York The Blue Angel The Last Command Dishonored The Shanghai Gesture Robert Aldrich: Kiss Me Deadly Vera Cruz Attack The Dirty Dozen Jean Renoir: A Day in the Country Elena and Her Men Rules of the Game Grand Illusion The River The Southerner The Crime of M. Lange Max Ophuls: Lola Montes La Signora Di Tutti Jean-Pierre Melville: Les Enfants Terribles La Silence de la Mer Le Doulos Le Circle Rouge Bob the Gambler Le Samourai Orson Welles: all of them F. W. Murnau: Sunrise Tabu Wim Wenders: Alice in the Cities Paris Texas Until the End of the World Frank Capra: It Happened One Night The Bitter Tea of General Yen Lost Horizon Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia John Huston: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre The Man Who Would Be King Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain Luis Bunuel: L'Age D'Or The Exterminating Angel Francois Truffaut: Two English Girls The 400 Blows Shoot the Piano Player Jules and Jim Stolen Kisses The Woman Next Door G. W. Pabst: Pandora's Box The Diary of a Lost Girl The Loves of Jeanne Ney The White Hell of Pitz Palu Andrei Tarkovsky: all of them Preston Sturges: Unfaithfully Yours Hail The Conquering Hero The Palm Beach Story The Miracle of Morgan's Creek The Lady Eve Sam Peckinpah: The Wild Bunch Ride the High Country Cross of Iron And that should cover most of my favorite films by director.....and then some!
posted 06-04-2000 03:15 AM PT (US)

H Rocco Standard Userer	Samuel Fuller WHITE DOG THE NAKED KISS SHOCK CORRIDOR Robert Aldrich EMPEROR OF THE NORTH KISS ME DEADLY THE DIRTY DOZEN Yasuzo Masumura THE WIFE OF DR. HANAOKA VIXEN GIANTS & TOYS Jun Fukuda SON OF GODZILLA 100 SHOT, 100 KILLED ESPY
posted 06-05-2000 07:30 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	Rocco--I love Emperor of the North (Pole) and the Fullers you mentioned even if I didn't list them myself.
posted 06-07-2000 12:10 AM PT (US)

H Rocco Standard Userer	- [This message has been edited by H Rocco (edited 07 June 2000).]
posted 06-07-2000 01:33 AM PT (US)

H Rocco Standard Userer	It WAS originally EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE, wasn't it? That's certainly part of the dialogue. No official video release of that one, is there? I've been hoping FSM might put out the Frank DeVol score for it someday ... it's short, it'd have to be coupled with something else, but I'd love to have it. The main title song's lyrics, for example, are kind of dippy, but I love the theme, especially the jaunty arrangement for Lee Marvin and Keith Carradine trying to catch the train. Could've played it for simple action or suspense, but DeVol went for counterpoint in a most intriguing way. EMPEROR is a VASTLY underrated movie, which I was once fortunate to see on the big screen (in a revival, obviously). It's also one of those rare pictures where the ABSENCE of music is as important as its presence -- some of the most breathtaking sequences are (correctly, I think) left unscored. I love "train" movies in general, anyway (natch, since I love trains). Two other great ones: I already mentioned THE TRAIN (John Frankenheimer), but there's also Andrei Konchalovsky's simply amazing RUNAWAY TRAIN (loosely based on a script by Kurosawa -- he was actually scouting locations for it in upstate New York at exactly the time Fox finally sacked him over TORA TORA TORA!) I will NOT say anything nice about MONEY TRAIN, however. Oh yes, Polanski ... Roman Polanski BITTER MOON THE TENANT ROSEMARY'S BABY THE NINTH GATE Tim Burton EDWARD SCISSORHANDS BATMAN RETURNS MARS ATTACKS! SLEEPY HOLLOW PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE NP: ALIENS expanded
posted 06-07-2000 01:38 AM PT (US)

SBD Standard Userer	I can't believe that the following directors have not been mentioned: Joe Dante: SMALL SOLDIERS GREMLINS 2 MATINEE EXPLORERS GREMLINS John Landis: ANIMAL HOUSE TRADING PLACES BLUES BROTHERS THRILLER(sure, it's a music video, but it's very enjoyable) John McTiernan: PREDATOR THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR DIE HARD HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
posted 06-08-2000 12:01 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Standard Userer	Rocco--BITTER MOON is so good. And despite the low budget, so is RUNAWAY TRAIN. I like both these directors in general but as this was favorite films I was concentrating on the real cream. There are tons of great films I could go into.
posted 06-11-2000 12:36 AM PT (US)

H Rocco Standard Userer	Oh, I understand that. I was just trying to mention ones it seemed no one else did or was going to. I think I admire Polanski more than I like him, but it seemed unlikely that anyone would mention BITTER MOON, so I just felt I had to. (Note that I did NOT mention Polanski's DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, which I consider a failure -- a noble one perhaps, beautifully acted by Ben Kingsley and the underrated Stuart Wilson, but Sigourney Weaver, whom I normally love, was either miscast or misdirected here, and this whole picture must rise or fall on the basis of its leading lady. I'm curious to see it again, though, just to find out if my take on her might have changed. It was, at least, a better movie overall than the similarly themed, abominable CLOSETLAND.) The one thing about RUNAWAY TRAIN that does annoy me is the profusion of post-dubbed dialogue. Otherwise, it wears its low budget reasonably well (it didn't really have to cost any more than it does, and it's still tons more thrilling and involving than your average Bruckheimerama.) Trevor Jones' electronic score is jarring at first listen, but kind of grows on you (well, me), and I'm glad I tracked down the CD at London's 58 Dean Street, long after it had vanished from New York stores. NP: Arthur Rubinstein TV documentary, he's playing Chopin again
posted 06-11-2000 11:17 AM PT (US)

DjC Standard Userer	Maybe I just missed it, but i saw no AKira Kurosawa in there...Shame on all of you...anyhoo, here is a few recent directors PTA Magnolia Hard Eight Boogie Nights David Fincher Se7en Fight CLub The Game Mann The Insider Heat Julie Taymor only film yet but a damn fine one...TITUS Tarintino Pulp Resevoir Dogs ummm I had a brain fart, adios
posted 06-17-2000 08:41 PM PT (US)

DeadPoet Standard Userer	Here's a few I wanted to mention. I don't think they've been up yet on this topic, but if they have then I give each of you permission to bludgeon me with a stick. Here they are: Ang Lee - "The Ice Storm" (I can't even begin to express how much this movie means to me and how I feel everytime I watch it. And the ending! I feel something during that ending that is unexplainable. But maybe it should be that way. Suffice to say, this is one of the most moving, brilliant films I have ever seen. And one I consider to be my second most favorite movie ever.) Mel Gibson - "Braveheart" (okay, so he's only directed two movies, but this was his second and it has become my favorite movie ever. I don't like ranking my favorites, because my top three are all equally brilliant. But this is my favorite. "The Ice Storm" is my second favorite. And my third, I've listed next...) Sam Mendes - "American Beauty" (ah, my third favorite movie ever. I know, this was Mendes' directorial debut, so obviously this is the only film I could choose of his, but I'm sure it will remain one of my favorites of his even after he's directed many more movies. But the movie itself? It's simply amazing. It's similar to "The Ice Storm," but is much more satirical. I think "The Ice Storm" is a superior film, but it's not by much. This movie is also brilliant. But really, with Mendes directing, Kevin Spacey, who is such a fine actor, starring, along with a hell of a performance from all other cast members, especially Wes Bentley, and with a great score by Thomas Newman, how can you go wrong? You can't. And that's why this is one of the greatest films ever.) --Jason S. [This message has been edited by DeadPoet (edited 18 June 2000).]
posted 06-18-2000 01:12 AM PT (US)

H Rocco Standard Userer	'ey DjC, I mentioned TEN Kurosawas up there ...
posted 06-18-2000 02:53 PM PT (US)

DjC Standard Userer	My bad h Rocco ...HEY is there a kurosawa film where workers relax by dancing?????
posted 06-18-2000 07:02 PM PT (US)

SBD Standard Userer	Also: Don Bluth (and Gary Goldman) THE SECRET OF N.I.M.H. TITAN A.E. ANASTASIA AN AMERICAN TAIL ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN
posted 06-19-2000 08:38 AM PT (US)

Todd Reifinger Standard Userer	Mr. Rocco! As a fellow Frankenheimer fan, I must insist that you add the following Frankenheimer films to your list! Failure to comply will result in your having to watch "99 and 44/100 Percent Dead"! Anyway, here they are, in no particular order: FRENCH CONNECTION II SECONDS THE FOURTH WAR 52 PICK-UP AGAINST THE WALL And if you think you have to hang your head in shame for liking "Prophecy," imagine how much of a beating I'm going to get for also adding the following: DEAD-BANG Call me nuts, but I think Don Johnson gave a very good, very intense performance in this film--thanks to Mr. Frankenheimer, of course. (Sometimes I've been known to like "Year of the Gun," too.) [This message has been edited by Todd Reifinger (edited 26 June 2000).]
posted 06-26-2000 08:09 PM PT (US)

Old Infopop Software by UBB