Best / Most Important Directors

MI: Quentin Tarantino, obviously.

Does important mean influential? I fear we may have to include the Wachowskis. Also we live in the shadow of Emmerich/Devlin.

"When Ashley Judd stalked the earth"

If it's in terms of influencial, you run the gambit between hacks and geniuses, because there are many bad filmmakers who influence many a bad film. and it seems obvious to pick the cinematic pioneer granddaddies like lumiere, eisenstein, vertov, griffith, melies, etc. because you could easily find an argument for how every film in history was influenced by their early works.

here's my list for most important (interpret whatever way you wish) broken down by filmmakers I love, am indifferent to, or despise--

LOVE-- Stan Brakhage, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Kurosawa, Bergman, Scorsese, Cocteau, Ozu, Tarkovsky, Jarmusch, John Waters, George Kuchar, Jack Smith, Kenneth Anger, Melies, Vertov, Fellini, Fassbinder, Caveh Zahedi, David Lynch, Leighton Pierce, Gus Van Sant, Wong Kar-Wai, Jem Cohen, Bunuel, the Marx Brothers, Michael Snow, Charlie Chaplain, Buster Keaton, Jerry Lewis, Spike Lee, Lars von Trier, Harmony Korine, Peter Kubelka, Terry Gilliam, Maysles Brothers, D.A. Pennebaker, Robert Flaherty, F.W. Murnau, Maya Deren, Wes Anderson, Carol Reed.

INDIFFERENT-- Altman, Riefenstahl, Tarrantino, Soderberg, Cronenberg, Eisenstein, Sirk (only because I've never seen any of his work!), Kevin Smith, Merhige, Truffaut, Antonioni, Hitchcock, David Lean, Wyler, John Ford, Andy Warhol, David Gordon Green, John Woo, Derek Jarman, Polanski, Carl Dreyer, Busby-Berkeley musicals, Merchant/Ivory, Verhoeven, Aronofsky, Preston Sturges, Rob Reiner, De Sica, Rossellini.

HATE-- Spielberg, Lucas, Peter Jackson (although "meet the feebles" is absolute genius), Ridley Scott, Michael Bay, De Palma.

I could think of hundreds but i don't want to spend all night doing this....

yes that's a very good way of putting it! (i know it's a bit pointless, but, hey, this is the internet)

Kubrick, Welles, Lumet, Tarantino, Lynch, Kurosawa, Dreyer, Ford, Leone, Hitchcock, Murnau, Polanski, Fellini

I considered adding Jacques Tourneur to the list, but I am not familiar enough with his work.

As for the "most important" directors, I assume you're talking about contemporary filmmakers who will have an indelible influence on future generations of filmmakers. I have this little theory that Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson, and Quentin Tarantino are the "American New Wave," although I could devote completely seperate posts explaining my reasoning behind that assessment.

Same with Jackson. I'm neither praising nor condemning the LOTR films -- they were what they were. But I don't think he changed or revolutionized cinema in any way. He may, thanks to a seemingly limitless budget, have improved on an old formula, but I don't think it's going to change the face of cinema, nor of films of that genre.

Like him or not, Tarrantino is (or at least was) important. He did change indie cinema by bridging the gap between the genre film and the 'art' film. Much like the boys of the nouvelle vague did in France in the 60's. There's an interesting chapter in the Peter Biskind book Down and Dirty Picture about the uproar that Reservoir Dogs caused at Sundance. Whereas indie cinema up to that point was primarily small dramas, here comes geek-boy with guns, violence, homophobia, etc. After RD and certainly after Pulp Fiction indie cinema changed tremendously.

A short personal "best" list: Altman, Immamura, Suzuki, Godard, Welles, Kitano, Bergman, Allen, Coen, Scorsese, Soderbergh, Hong Sang-Soo, Fassbinder. . .

While certainly not 'all' of their films are masterpieces, each of the above directors brings something new to each film they make.

I'm sure that five minutes after I send this I'll remember names I neglected. . .

The only difference being that Tarrantino was fully aware that this was exactly what he was doing, from the name of his production company on down. Of course, on a less post-modern level, the French New Wave were kitsch film hipsters themselves. I certainly appreciate his importance in the history of the cinema, but god that man irritates me more than any other human being alive!

'I think we should be careful with the "most important" tag. First off, just because a film makes buckets of cash does not make the director "important"."

good point. having ten million people go to see a movie doesn't make the film important--it's easy to draw large crowds to a film that will hold no meaning to 90% of it's audience two days after they've watched it.

i dont think gibson's success can be repeated, but his film is a major event, and it's going to be one of the top grossing films EVER. let that sink in. what does it mean? (maybe nothing)

i guess it's kind of depressing tho that i can think of no one who is doing really revolutionary stuff in mainstream (by that i mean non-avant garde) cinema.

it really doesn't, unless you interpret the value of cinema to be nothing more than sociological and economical.

"i guess it's kind of depressing tho that i can think of no one who is doing really revolutionary stuff in mainstream (by that i mean non-avant garde) cinema. "

i don't think it's quite that bad--you may have to look outside of the U.S. film industry, but there are plenty of important evolutions going on in mainstream cinema. Even in the U.S., I think Harmony Korine & D.G. Green are two good examples. But if you're looking for revolutionary, it really is only going to be found in the realm of avant-garde/experimental/underground film--and usually anything that seems "cutting-edge" in a mainstream/Hollywood production has been appropriated from an AG film anyhow.

Miike will be long remembered as well (although his prolificness / hit 'n' miss ratio might work against him)

..... ewww. It really is as pretentious as it looks.

Best "cult" director of all time: George Romero

Best Director of today: Martin Scorsese

Most Influential Ever: Sheesh - David Lean? Hitchcock? Griffiths? Lang? Welles? I'll go with Hitchcock.

Most Influential Now: Quentin Tarantino. Obviously.

Best director of all time: Samuel Fuller
Best "cult" director of all time: Ted V. Mikels
Best Director of today: Brian De Palma
Most Influential Ever: Andy Warhol
Most Influential Now: that guy who remade The Ring... Gore Verbinski