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5. James Cameron - As another internet user once put: "He's an arrogant d*ck, but he makes great movies." Cameron is a master at excellent pacing (which I feel few directors are) and creating an aura or strong emotional sense in his films. While many disagree with me, I think his best was Titanic, which managed to be a long, epic story that remained rooted in two characters without becoming overly-long or slow.

4. Sergio Leone - I have great respect for directors who dare to do something artsy in a genre or medium that others may consider to be shallow or mindless. As all know, Leone did this with the spagetti westerns, to fantastic impact. I think his strongest skill is camera work, as I completely marvel at it every time I watch his films, my favorite being The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

3. Steven Spielberg - A great storyteller, and the creator of some of my all-time favorite movies, with E.T. being very close to the #1 spot on my "Best Movie" list. I admire his ability to create an emotional link to characters and the situation they are in and therefore creating suspence. I've been a little dissapointed with some of his recent fare, but he is extremely talented and I simpy owe a lot to him.

2. John Hughes - Unlikely cantidate for #2? Similar to Leone, John Hughes made true art out of a genre that some would consider to be shallow or mindless (especially as it is for the most part today): teen movies. Wether his movies are laugh-out loud hilarious or more serious, they are always thought provoking, carry a meaningful message, and are a joy to watch. He directed so many great flicks, but I'd have to say his masterpiece is Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which is pretty much flawless.

1. Alfred Hitchcock - He will never be beat, that's all I can say. Hitchcock encapsulated everything I love in a director: his tremendous skill for storytelling, editing, camerawork, pacing, suspence, emotion,. When he directed a movie, he was in effect directing the audience that would eventually see it - he knew what he wanted to get out of the viewer, and he used his fantastic knack for evoking that. I can't say he's ever done a bad movie. In fact, I believe he created a perfect movie: Psycho.

In no order:

Orsen Wells

Based only upon CITIZEN KANE. Citizen Kane utilised many new techniques and innovations (as well as being a damn near perfect film). And to think Wells was only in his mid 20's at the time!

Sam Rami

With no budget, no training and only inteligence and enthusiasm Rami made THE EVIL DEAD, a film that reinvented the horror film.

Tim Burton

Ignore his PLANET OF THE APES film. All the others are perfectly visualised fantasy worlds. Tim Burton does with real-life what some animation can't.

James Whale

Well, this is just based on the Universal Horror films I've seen, especially THE INVISIBLE MAN (which I think was close to a perfect film for the time). Whale made stageplays, but added something special for the film medium - just look at the effects work in The Invisible Man - unlike most other directors of the time who were happy to film a virtual copy of the actual play. Whale had a talent for getting the best performance out of his actors.

David Lynch

Love him or hate him, Lynch is a rare breed of director who virtually paints pictures with his compositions. Each frame of film is a work of art.


Oh, and don't forget Gus Van Sant for his masterful colour remake of PSYCHO!

5. Clint Eastwood

Made great films like Mystic River, True Crime, Absolute Power and Unforgiven. He's also a great actor in the Dirty Harry movies.
"Make my day"

4. Francis Ford Coppola

Made great films like Apocalypse Now, The Godfather II and The Godfather Part III, Sleepy Hollow, Jeepers Creepers II, Lost in Translation and Two Black Stallion movies.

3. Walt Disney

Walt Disney made great animated films and live action films.
Made animated films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Sword in the Stone. Live action films like Mary Poppins, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Old Yeller, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, So Dear to My Heart and The Absent Minded Professor. We would not have this cool website if Walt Disney was never born.

2. George Lucas

Star Wars Trilogy and Indiana Jones Trilogy.
"Use the force Luke" Also did Captain EO, Willow and Star Tours.
Upcoming movies are Indiana Jones 4 and Star Wars Episode III.

1.Steven Spielberg

Catch Me If You Can, "Band of Brothers" mini-series, Jurassic Park Trilogy, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons Adventures, *batteries not included, Back to the Future, The Goonies, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Poltergeist and Schindler's List.
Coming soon War of the Worlds, Jurassic park 4 and Zorro 2.

Off the top of my head, I'd say Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, John Hughes, Alfred Hitchcock, and Martin Scorsese. Robert Zemeckis might be 6th.

The 10 names below are in random order because all these directors are absolutely great in their own way:

- Stanley Kubrick (2001: a space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Paths of Glory)
- Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil)
- Alfred Hitchcock (Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Strangers on a train)
- Charlie Chaplin (The Goldrush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator)
- Francis Coppola (Apocalypse now!, The godfather part 1 & 2)
- Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi driver)
- Stephen Spielberg (E.T., Schindlers List, Close Encounters)
- Isao Takahata (Grave of the fireflies, Only yesterday)
- Hayao Miyazaki (Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away)
- David Lean (Bridge on the river Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago)

A nice mix btw: 5 Americans, 3 Brits and 2 Japanese.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I didn't include Walt because he never really was the director at the time when Disney produced its great masterpieces. Obviously he was greatly involved with the production but I think that his role was a bit different (less directorial you might say) then with the other two animation-directors in this list (Takahata and Miyazaki).

In alphabetical order:

Pedro Almodovar
Ingmar Bergman
Jean Cocteau
Terry Gilliam
Stanley Kubrick
Akira Kurosawa
David Lean
Yasujiro Ozu
Jean Renoir
Martin Scorsese

Those are my top 10. To boil it down to 5 would be like cutting off your ass with a funnel, but here goes:

1. Terry Gilliam
2. Akira Kurosawa
3. Stanley Kubrick
4. David Lean
5. Ingmar Bergman

1) Stanley Kubrick
2) David Lynch
3) Alfred Hitchcock
4) Sergio Leone
5) Ingmar Bergman

In no particular order, here's my 10:

Steven Spielberg
George Lucas
Stanley Kubrick
Tim Burton
Walt Disney
James Cameron
Martin Scorsese
Quentin Tarantino
Charlie Chaplin
Orson Welles

In no order:

Quentin Tarantino
Francis Ford Coppola
Steven Spielberg
Alfred Hitchcock
Tim Burton

I don't have a huge list, but these four will ussually get me into the theatre:

4) James Cameron
3) Steven Speilberg
2) Quentin Tarintino
1) Tim Burton (I actually enjoyed Planet of the Apes)

No order and no reason except that I enjoy a large percentage of their films:

Steven Speilberg (ET, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters, AI, Indiana Jones)
George Lucas (Star Wars Saga, THX-1138, Amercian Grafitti)
James Cameron (Terminator, Abyss, T2)
George Romero (Dead Trilogy, Creepshow, Monkey Shines)
David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Straight Story, Lost Highway, Twin Peaks, Dune)
David Cronenberg (Scanners, Naked Lunch, Dead Ringers, Crash, Videodrome)
Tim Burton (except for Planet of the Apes)(Sleepy Hollow, Beetlejuice)
Guillermo Del Toro (Mimic, Hellboy, Cronos)
Paul Verhoeven (except Showgirls!)( Robocop, Starship Troopers, Total Recall)
Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill)
Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke)
Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Roujin Z)
Sam Raimi (Evil Dead 1 & 2, Darkman, Army of Darkness)
Terry Gilliam (Time Bandits, Monty Python, 12 Monkeys, Brazil)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children, Alien Ressurection)
Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Legend, Gladiator)

Okay, a list of my favorite directors and films! Wow!

Frank Capara
John Frankenheimer
Elia Kazan
Steven Spielberg
Walt Disney
Francis Ford Copola

In a slightly lower catagory
Peter Jackson

surprised only one person has mentioned kurosawa... IMO, one of the most influential filmakers... Same thing with Satyajit Ray (watch the Apu trilogy)

Hayao Miyazaki
Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Laputa: Castle in the Sky
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service
Porco Rosso
Princess Mononoke
Spririted Away
Howl's Moving Castle

Terrance Malick
Badlands
Days of Heaven
The Thin Red Line
The New World

I havn't seen the first two, but the other two are pure genius.

Steven Speilberg
Clint Eastwood
Ridley Scott

5. Quentin Tarantino
4. Clint Eastwood
3. Martin Scorsese
2. Steven Spielberg
1. Robert Altman

In no order:

Robert Zemeckis
Peter Jackson
Sam Raimi
Tim Burton
Steven Spielberg
Walt Disney (I know he did not direct ALL the movies, but still)
Bryan Singer
John Hughes
Brad Bird
Barry Sonnerfeld

-Walt Disney
*Steven Spielberg
-Quinten Tarentino
*Martin Scorsese
-and one of my personaly favorites, David Fincher!

Quentin Tarantino : that fact that his films have always been written for older actors than he ever was as a writer could be considered pretentious, as could his fondness for writing genre-knock off material that probably looks novelty-esque on paper... I don't know. What I do know is... he is one hell of a director. And his films get only more fascinating the more you watch of them. Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, his segment of Four Rooms... I was disappointed by Reservoir Dogs but I'll give it another try someday, and I haven't seen Kill Bill (1 or 2) yet, but I still look forward to it.

Gregg Araki : single-handedly defined the tone of the 1990's youth-oriented Independent Film, consistently walked a razor-sharp edge and remained relevant with all his '90s films - The Living End, Totally F***ed Up (S.F.W. ripped that title off), The Doom Generation, and Splendor

Wes Craven : the man's obviously had some trouble with content during his sort of early-Mid Life Crisis years with films like Shocker, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and A Vampire in Brooklyn, and has also had the rare case of a studio ruin his film - Cursed. But imbued much of his films with a rare intelligence and always managed to be psychologically credible, even when audiences walked away feeling let-down - Deadly Friend. His successes are forever going to be legendary: The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, Swamp Thing, and to a slightly lesser extent- The People Under the Stairs, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and Scream 2.

Tim Burton : as though this listing needs an explanation, with movies like Batman and Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow, and Pee Wee's Big Adventure... he is like a one-man live-action Walt Disney in a way- when it comes to imagination, this guy's movies are visually over-powering and classics upon first viewing. He's also a master of dark films with a real strong heart to them.



And Last and certainly not anywhere close to being least in any sense of the word or possible re-imagining of the concept...

Dario Argento : by far the greatest cinematic Visualist, As A Feature-Film Director, in the history of film (perhaps second only to Mario Bava, perhaps, but I wouldn't say that...), this Master of Horror, Master of the Italian Giallo, and Master of Cinematic Strangeness is one of the most amazing people in film. Each of his films is a classic in one regard or another. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), Cat o'Nine Tails (1970), Four Flies on Gray Velvet (1971), Deep Red (1975) (aka- The Hatchet Murders, or, Profondo Rosso), Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), Tenebr(a)e (1982), Phenomena (1984) (aka-Creepers), Opera (aka- Terror at the Opera (1987), Two Evil Eyes (1990, co-directed), Trauma (1993), The Stendhal Syndrome (1996), The Phantom of the Opera (1998), Sleepless (2001), The Card Player (2004), Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005), Masters of Horror: Jenifer (2005), Masters of Horror: Pelts (2006), and soon he will be giving audiences (hopefully it will debut in theaters internationally) his long-awaited and much anticipated third enstallment in the yet unfinished Three Mothers Trilogy sometime between this year and 2008. It will be a Huge Event, to put it mildly.

I love TIM BURTON
and ALMODOVAR
and BAZ LHURMAN

Tim Burton
George Lucas
Steven Speilberg
Alfonso Cuaron

Those are the only ones that immediatley jump to mind for me.