BlindPanzer has this to say:
Who are the best directors ALIVE today..?
Explain why, too.
Top Comments
I guess I’ll give it a go...
Christopher Nolan
Following: Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins
The best contemporary film noir director alive.
Every single one of his movies has challenged the definition of a film noir, where the main character can’t be trusted (Memento), a film noir with no night scenes (Insomnia) or a film noir comic book adaptation (Batman Begins).
Darren Aranofsky
Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain
A true visual artist.
His films are a canvas for dark, overbearing tones and characters, without much help from the dialogue, a true sign of a visual master.
David Mamet
House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner, Spartan
PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN!
F* Quentin Tarantino. You want to hear good dialogue? See a David Mamet film.
His dialogue flows through its staccato rhythms and is gloriously smart.
His films are directed like Hitchcock films, where everything in the scene is in plain sight, just so you can be even more surprised when the con happens and you didn’t catch it.
COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS!
Clint Eastwood
Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby
A great director who always transcends the genre he is working with.
His movies truly are deserving of the Oscars it’s awarded, unlike some other movies (I’m looking at you, A Beautiful Mind).
How about you?
The Funk Mistress comments:
I know nothing about directors. In fact, the only films I know anything about are Weimer-era German ones and that’s only because I took a class. Otherwise, I would take part in this thread.
What I CAN say is that my favorite movie ever is Der Blaue Engel because it aptly portrayed the “fall” of decent society.
The ending is beautiful too, almost saying, “the ’lower’ classes can and will destroy the ’upper’ classes” (with Lola Lola representing the lower class and the Professor representing the upper classes).
The movie is crawling with foreshadowing that you often only truly grasp the second time around. And if you listen, the musical score often connects certain points (as with the Professor’s first encounter with Lola and his final scene).
I haven’t seen this film in a while, but it’s an amazing piece of art.
I know that post was completely off-topic. It was about a film, not a director, and you specified alive. But TornadoChaser said you wanted someone to post, so I thought I would say SOMETHING.
BlindPanzer responds:
Yes. Josef von Sternberg was truly ahead of his time and still stands today as one of the most visually striking directors ever in film.
I would recommend another German film director: Fritz Lang. I would consider his opus to be M, if you want to see that movie. It’s a thriller with a German expressionist influence.
The Funk Mistress responds back:
Yeah we watched a LOT of Fritz Lang in my class. I never saw M though, so that’s totally going on my list of movies to see.
Leni Riefenstahl was another amazing director.
She did a lot of things that directors hadn’t tried before and got a lot of stunning aerial shots.
Triumph of the Will was a pretty monotonous film after an hour or two because it was mostly Nazi marches and speeches, but again, her shots were amazing.
The coolest part was that she, a woman, was hired to make a propaganda film for the male-dominated and often sexist Nazi regime.
OK. Someone else post, cause I am SO not doing this on-topic.
I have already posted about two LONG dead directors. SOMEONE SAVE THIS THREAD FROM ME.
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I don’t know anything about directors.
I know movies I like, but even if I knew their directors I know I wouldn’t have seen enough of their movies to say they are the best alive.
RockRanger comments:
You can’t say “best directors” without Stanley Kubrick not being in that same sentence.
The man was a visionary genius. Every frame of any of his movies shows the perfectionist that he was.
He conquered every different genre ranging from comedy (Dr. Strangelove), sci-fi (2001), to war (Full Metal Jacket, or Paths of Glory).
None of his movies were “just another movie”. They are all considered masterpieces and all comment on humanity and society.
Oh yeah, and let’s not forget his very apparent passion for “lamester” symbolism.
BlindPanzer responds:
OK. Then let’s make it about favorite directors, PERIOD.
Even if you’ve seen only one movie and like his / her style enough to want to see another movie of his / her...
RockRanger responds back:
I hadn’t seen that it said directors that were ALIVE.
I would then say, Francis Ford Coppola.
I mean, Apocalypse Now by itself would be a worthy legacy, but no... he has to go and make the Godfather trilogy.
I guess another good director these days is Ridley Scott.
Unlike his “style” addicted brother, Ridley Scott knows how to handle color, mood and pace very well.
Just look at Gladiator, it has 3 or 4 fight scenes and the rest is hours of dialogue, but you come out feeling as if you’ve watched an action movie.
Then you also have Blade Runner, which is a classic, and Alien, which I consider one of the best sci-fi’s out there.
Then you got Black Hawk Down, which is an amazing action movie that was so good Hollywood is still cloning it.
Plus, he is the one that introduced Brad Pitt to the world in Thelma & Louise. That in itself should be a great accomplishment.
TornadoChaser comments:
I would like to see more work by Christophe Gans (Le Pacte des loups), Irwin Winkler (Life as a House), Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream. I LOVED), David Fincher (Fight Club
), and Vincent Ward (What Dreams May Come).I agree about Ridley Scott. Very much with Gladiator, especially.
I actually like Kenneth Brannagh’s Shakespearean works a lot.
Oh and yes, I like Robert Rodriguez.
BlindPanzer responds:
TornadoChaser wrote:
I would like to see more work by Christophe Gans (Le Pacte des Loups), Irwin Winkler (Life As A House), Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream. I LOVED), David Fincher (Fight Club
), and Vincent Ward (What Dreams May Come).
I agree about Ridley Scott. Very much with Gladiator, especially.
I actually like Kenneth Brannagh’s Shakespearean works a lot.
Oh and yes, I like Robert Rodriguez.
I would like to see more work by Christophe Gans (Le Pacte des Loups), Irwin Winkler (Life As A House), Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream. I LOVED), David Fincher (Fight Club
), and Vincent Ward (What Dreams May Come).I agree about Ridley Scott. Very much with Gladiator, especially.
I actually like Kenneth Brannagh’s Shakespearean works a lot.
Oh and yes, I like Robert Rodriguez.
Christophe Gans is directing the Silent Hill movie (remember that game that was better than Resident Evil?).
Regarding Irwin Winkler, he is producing more movies than directing lately. Life as a House was good because of the script IMO. He is making another movie by next year, but I dunno what it is..
Aranofsky is taking out The Fountain this year. It will prove how much of a dumbass Brad “look how liberal I am” Pitt was when he left this movie for craptacular TROY.
David Fincher doesn’t have any projects ongoing or planned yet, so don’t expect anything from him anytime soon.
Vincent Ward is doing a period piece that seems very ill-fated since they are running out of money and they still haven’t finished filming it.
Robert Rodriguez is a good director, but you can tell who are the true fans and who are the “Hey, Sin City is da bomb” fans... true fans know his best movie is El Mariachi.
Ridley Scott’s best movie IMO is and always will be BLADE RUNNER.
DJ Hadoken Exlamparaaghis comments:
Yeah, El Mariachi was a pretty good movie.
Sin City was alright.
Oh, and no video game movie, with the exception of Street Fighter, can top House of the Dead (Uwe Boll).
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