Greatest Living Director?
Submitted by jim on Mon, 03/18/2002 - 05:08
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Here's a discussion I'd like to get rolling: anybody care to share their opinions on who the greatest living-and-active director is? We have several folks that have contributed "Favorite Directors" lists, so I thought this might strike a chord.
(L. Bangs pulls on his flame-retardant suit)
Hal Hartley (duck)
As far as the more established parthenon goes, Scorsese would probably have to be my choice. If Polanski still made them like he used to, however...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
As a companion piece to this discussion I have created a Greatest Living Directors overview which sort of maps out the current directorial landscape. I realize the I'm adding a hint subjectivism to it by deciding what the quality of their current work is. I'm still in the process of filling it out and would welcome recommendations for directors to be included.
Nice overview! My director (and I think my candidate) is on there. I'm slightly reluctant to put him forward, since he's only made 11 movies (plus one not yet released in the US and another coming later this year). But I've seen 7 of them, and they range from good to brilliant. He's versatile, no misses (as far as I know), and at least two masterpieces to his name: Zhang Yimou. There. Said it. Now I just have to decide if I'm going to stick by it. Biggest knock against him I can think of is quantity - some other directors might have more great movies to their name.
Jim, what do you think of the lineup on his new film?
I couldn't be more excited. :-)
My initial thought without really giving it a lot of thought, I would say Scorcese. I am now going to give it some more thought and see if my initial idea holds water.
IMDB has a list of the top 20 directors based on the average rating of all of their films.
The only directors on the list who are still alive are Eric Rohmer and Billy Wilder and Rohmer is the only one who is still making films.
I didn't know Kieslowski died! How sad.
I would have made this a "greatest director ever" conversation, but I'm barely qualified to participate in a "living-and-active" discussion, forget about all-time.
Is this director still making good movies? Or maybe still making movies but not all of them are good anymore? Or is this someone who was once making good movies and either doesn't make movies anymore or his movies aren't so great anymore but he is still alive and should be considered?
I changed the wording slightly to "living-and-active." What this means is, they are alive and still currently making movies. You should consider their whole body of work in making your selection, but this evaluation will clearly be highly subjective, as some folks might say bad movies are an immediately disqualifier, while others might say dogs can be counterbalanced by masterpieces.