Favorite 5 directors (2022 list)

[zen]

There are tons of great directors but let's focus on the 5 whose films you enjoy a lot ... Criteria - one should like at least 3 films helmed by the director  ... Below is my list in alphabetical order: 

 

• Alfred Hitchcock - I have enjoyed  all his films (over 30) from the Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) to Torn Curtain (1966) 
• Akira Kurosawa - A lot of his films are timeless (and even difficult to remake with the same essence) including Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Ran, etc. 
• Charlie Chaplin - Pick any of his work whether silent or talkie and it is likely to leave an impression - The Kid, Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, ... 
• David Lean - His films such as the Bridge on River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Dr. Zhivago have left me mesmerized.  Even his lesser rated films like Ryan's Daughter have brilliant cinematography and score
• Raj Kapoor - For quality masala entertainment. I tend to associate Bollywood's Golden Age from Awara (1951) to Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985). Favorites include Awara, Shree 420, Sangam, and Satyam Shivam Sundaram 

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by zen

[bharathh]

Mani Ratnam - His movies from the 80s and 90s still stand out - esp anything to do with relationships. Still love Mouna Ragam, Alai Payuthey and Kannathil Muthamittal (his best IMO)

Steven Spielberg - Again another whose movies in the 80s and 90s stand out. His Indiana Jones series (except for #4), War movies like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List etc. are evergreen hits for me

Martin Scorsese - Love all his gangster movies. Departed is prob my fav

K Balachander - Almost all his movies examined some social issue or the other and were way ahead of their times. Even today, his movies are very relevant

Anurag Kashyap - I hate the guy personally - but as a filmmaker he is amazing. A great director, writer and even actor at times. 

[Vijy]

On 3/1/2022 at 6:10 PM, zen said:

There are tons of great directors but let's focus on the 5 whose films you enjoy a lot ... Criteria - one should like at least 3 films helmed by the director  ... Below is my list in alphabetical order: 

 

• Alfred Hitchcock - I have enjoy all his films (over 30) from the Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) to Torn Curtain (1966) 
• Akira Kurosawa - A lot of his films are timeless (and even difficult to remake with the same essence) including Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Ran, etc. 
• Charlie Chaplin - Pick any of his work whether silent or talkie and it is likely to leave an impression - The Kid, Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, ... 
• David Lean - Many of his films such as the Bridge on River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Dr. Zhivago have left me mesmerized.  Even is lesser rated films like Ryan's Daughter have brilliant cinematography and score
• Raj Kapoor - For quality masala entertainment. I tend to associate Bollywood's Golden Age from Awara (1951) to Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985). Favorites include Awara, Shree 420, Sangam, and Satyam Shivam Sundaram 

 

I obviously like all these 5. so I will list 5 others instead:

Ingmar Bergman (Persona, Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, etc)

Guru Dutt (Mr. & Mrs. 55, Pyaasa, Kagaz ke Phool)

Howard Hawks (Rio Bravo, The Big Sleep, I Was a Male War Bride, etc)

Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story, Late Spring, Late Autumn)

Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Age of Innocence, etc)

Edited March 4, 2022 by Vijy

[zen]

1 hour ago, Vijy said:

I obviously all these 5. so I will list 5 others instead:

Ingmar Bergman (Persona, Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, etc)

Guru Dutt (Mr. & Mrs. 55, Pyaasa, Kagaz ke Phool)

Howard Hawks (Rio Bravo, The Big Sleep, I Was a Male War Bride, etc)

Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story, Late Spring, Late Autumn)

Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Age of Innocence, etc)

Don’t recall Mr. & Mrs 55. May give it a watch! 

 

[velu]

1) Sergio leoni

2) Sergio corbucci

3) martin sorceress

4) de palma

5) tarantino

[coffee_rules]

Scorcese 

Coppola

Ridley Scott - most underrated

Kubrick

Tarantino

[Serpico]

No particular order.

 

Edgar wright made two boring movies in a row and moved away from comedy unfortunately. But the cornetto trilogy and scott pilgrim will always be my favourite comedies 

 

Scorsese - no one can do entertaining movies about scumbags better than him. His music choices are always top notch too. He just knows how to capture an era and its energy without getting bogged down with too many details

 

Tarantino - his movies work on many levels. You can just enjoy them as pulpy revenge movies, as satires, homages. Offers excellent repeat value. Also top notch music choices 

 

Cameron - quality >>> quantity. Wrote and directed some of the greatest action movies ever made. He knows how to keep upping the ante until the climax without exhausting the audience. I hope Avatar 2 releases in this decade though

 

Fincher - knows how to create an atmosphere and suck in the audience. Even most mundane scenes in his films look extremely cinematic, honestly ruins most other movies for me

 

 

[zen]

A list of 5 directors whose first name begins with "F", in alphabetical order: 

 

Frank Capra -  It Happened One Night, Lost Horizon, Arsenic & Old Lace, &  It's a Wonderful Life

Francis Ford Coppola - Godfather 1&2, Apocalypse Now, & Bram Stoker's Dracula 

Federico Fellini - Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, & 8 1/2

Fritz Lang - Metropolis, M, & The Big Heat

François Truffaut - The 400 Blows, Mississippi Mermaid, & Day for Night

 

and as a bonus, apna Feroz Khan - Apradh, Dharmatma, & Qurbani

 

 

[Mariyam]

Karan Johar

Imtiaz Ali

Ram Gopal Varma of the yore.

Guru Dutt

And a toss up between Raju Hirani and Vikram Aditya Motwane

[rangeelaraja]

 

 

The genius who directed the below films - some personal favorites like Anand, Bawarchi, Namak Haraam, Golmaal, Chupke Chupke, Khubsoorat, Naram Garam.

 

HRISHIKESH MUKHERJEE

 

 

1971	Anand	Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan
	Guddi	Dharmendra, Jaya Bhaduri, Utpal Dutt
	Buddha Mil Gaya	Om Prakash, Navin Nischol, Deven Verma
1972	Bawarchi	Rajesh Khanna, Jaya Bhaduri
	Sabse Bada Sukh	Vijay Arora, Asrani
1973	Abhimaan	Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Asrani
	Namak Haraam	Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha
1974	Phir Kab Milogi	Biswajit, Mala Sinha, Deven Verma
1975	Chupke Chupke	Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Jaya Bhaduri
	Mili	Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri
	Chaitali	Dharmendra, Saira Banu
1976	Arjun Pandit	Sanjeev Kumar, Ashok Kumar
1977	Alaap	Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha
	Kotwal Saab	Shatrughan Sinha, Aparna Sen
1978	Naukri	Rajesh Khanna, Zaheera, Raj Kapoor
1979	Gol Maal	Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt, Bindiya Goswami
	Jurmana	Amitabh Bachchan, Rakhee, Vinod Mehra
1980	Khubsoorat	Rekha, Rakesh Roshan, Ashok Kumar
1981	Naram Garam	Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt, Swaroop Sampat, Shatrughan Sinha
1982	Bemisal	Amitabh Bachchan, Rakhee, Vinod Mehra
1983	Rang Birangi	Amol Palekar, Parveen Babi, Deepti Naval, Farooq Sheikh
1983	Kissise Na Kehna	Utpal Dutt, Deepti Naval, Farooq Sheikh
	Achha Bura	Raj Babbar, Anita Raj
1985	Jhoothi	Rekha, Raj Babbar, Amol Palekar, Supriya Pathak, Deven Verma
1988	Namumkin	Sanjeev Kumar, Raj Babbar, Zeenat Aman, Vinod Mehra
1998	Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate	Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Amrish Puri, Reema Lagoo

Edited March 8, 2022 by rangeelaraja

[Vijy]

On 3/4/2022 at 11:35 AM, coffee_rules said:

Scorcese 

Coppola

Ridley Scott - most underrated

Kubrick

Tarantino

I don't think Ridley can be called underrated when he directed two of the greatest films in their own genres: Alien (horror/sci-fi) and Blade Runner (sci-fi). He is a great director in my book for sure. Perhaps people underrate him based on later output but that would not be fair.

[coffee_rules]

1 hour ago, Vijy said:

I don't think Ridley can be called underrated when he directed two of the greatest films in their own genres: Alien (horror/sci-fi) and Blade Runner (sci-fi). He is a great director in my book for sure. Perhaps people underrate him based on later output but that would not be fair.

Personal fav, I have never seen him listed by elite critics among best directors like Nolan (overrated) or Spielberg. But he got the Oscar for the wrong movies.

Edited March 8, 2022 by coffee_rules

[Serpico]

2 hours ago, Vijy said:

I don't think Ridley can be called underrated when he directed two of the greatest films in their own genres: Alien (horror/sci-fi) and Blade Runner (sci-fi). He is a great director in my book for sure. Perhaps people underrate him based on later output but that would not be fair.

He just makes too many movies and lot of them have boring, bland scripts. Feels like a studio director when you compare with 'great' ones Kubrick. His next movie could be really good though, as its about Napoleon

[Vijy]

49 minutes ago, Serpico said:

He just makes too many movies and lot of them have boring, bland scripts. Feels like a studio director when you compare with 'great' ones Kubrick. His next movie could be really good though, as its about Napoleon

I think his movies have been inconsistent of late, but not much more than spielberg, who is most people's darling. this is not to bash either spielberg or ridley - cinema is richer for having them both.

[coffee_rules]

4 hours ago, Serpico said:

He just makes too many movies and lot of them have boring, bland scripts. Feels like a studio director when you compare with 'great' ones Kubrick. His next movie could be really good though, as its about Napoleon

I like his output better than James Cameron. I say underrated because he a not talked like that of other directors, Blade Runner is a cult hit

[Vijy]

On 3/8/2022 at 8:45 PM, coffee_rules said:

I like his output better than James Cameron. I say underrated because he a not talked like that of other directors, Blade Runner is a cult hit

The same for me as well. I liked Titanic, Avatar, etc. but most of Cameron's movies post-1990s are "merely" likeable/good for me, and not ones that I remember for a long time. whereas, in the case of ridley, even when his movies are obviously flawed (like "prometheus"), they are interesting and/or thought-provoking.

[zen]

Have to mention Vittorio De Sica:

 

• Ladri di biciclette (1948; Bicycle Thieves) 
• Ieri, oggi, domani (1963; Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow)
• Matrimonio all'italiana (1964; Marriage Italian Style) 

 

Bicycle Thieves received an honorary Oscar for foreign film, a precursor of the best foreign film Oscar. Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow won the best foreign film Oscar, while next year Marriage Italian Style was nominated too (could have been the other way round too if Marriage Italian Style were released before Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow as both films are cut from the same cloth) 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by zen

[Vijy]

18 hours ago, zen said:

Have to mention Vittorio De Sica:

 

• Ladri di biciclette (1948; Bicycle Thieves) 
• Ieri, oggi, domani (1963; Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow)
• Matrimonio all'italiana (1964; Marriage Italian Style) 

 

Bicycle Thieves received an honorary Oscar for foreign film, a precursor of the best foreign film Oscar. Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow won the best foreign film Oscar, while next year Marriage Italian Style was nominated too (could have been the other way round too if Marriage Italian Style were released before Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow as both films are cut from the same cloth) 

 

 

yes, he is great. but his finest movie is arguably "shoeshine" closely followed by the magical realist "miracle in milan"

[zen]

On 6/8/2022 at 6:35 AM, Vijy said:

yes, he is great. but his finest movie is arguably "shoeshine" closely followed by the magical realist "miracle in milan"

I watched Miracle in Milan sometime back on Criterion Channel … Excellent film in the magical realism genre … Have to catch Shoeshine (Don’t recall or haven’t watched it) 

[Vijy]

10 hours ago, zen said:

I watched Miracle in Milan sometime back on Criterion Channel … Excellent film in the magical realism genre … Have to catch Shoeshine (Don’t recall or haven’t watched it) 

shoeshine is not as highly rated as bicycle thieves, so it's more of my own preference I must say