Who is the best director of all time?

[Jeff Hendricks]

I may have missed it but I don't see David Lynch on the lists anywhere.

[Jon McGuffin]

It's Cameron Crowe for me all the way.....

[Marlon Torres]

Don't forget the Asians. Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar Wai.

[Sean Skube]

Robert Rodriguez hasn't been named yet??
Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, SotD)
Timur Bekmambetov (Nightwatch, Daywatch)
Dario Argento
David Fincher
Gore Verbinski

[Emre Safak]

Francis Ford Coppola is not listed so I nominate him.

[Alan James]

Robert Rodriguez sure thing. Although he is SO much more then just a director. Writer/producer/director/ camera and steadicam operator/director of photography/editor/visual effects supervisor/sound mixer/composer and probably 20 other jobs I'm not thinking of.

He would probably be best film maker of all time, maybe not best director.

[Victor Kellar]

Ford and Hawks for sure ... Hitchcock and Kurasawa (sp) .. Hidden Fortress is one of my faves of all time ... those are my top three

John Sturges, John Boorman, David Mammet

For sure the Coen brothers ... Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo ...

Pechinpah and his unoffical love child Walter Hill .. sure he mad some crap but I love his visual style in those crappy movies .. Warriors, Streets of Fire, et al

Billy Wilder, Carrol Reed, Orson Welles

[Victor Kellar]

geez .. Scorcese Scorcese Scorcese ... how could I forgot .. mentioned all ready of course, but there is a body of work with such resonance and style and emotion ... there's a guy who can express a view with a frenetic dialogue scene or an over saturated color. And nobody used slo mo like him ... maybe pechinpah ... but sam used the slo mo to rub your face in the mess .. scorcese uses it to show you that important thing you catch out of the corner of your eye

[Victor Kellar]

Sorry to be a thread hog but one more ... Michael Mann ... Thief absoultely grabbed me and The Keep aside, he has rarely disappointed. From historical romance/adventure like Last of the Mohichans to biographies like Ali and The Insider to his gritty adventures into digital like Collatteral I just find him totally watchable

OK. Done now. Really

[Brian Standing]

Seems to be a pretty Anglo-American/big Hollywood movie focus. You guys need to broaden your movie-watching horizons.

Here's some greats from the international and documentary cinema
who are missing in all the lists above:

Krystof Kieslowski
Werner Herzog
Francois Truffault
Hayao Miyasaki
The Maysles Brothers
Federico Fellini
Dziga Vertov
Sergei Eisenstein

[Victor Kellar]

Eisenstien I will give you, no arguments there. Toss in Fritz Lang as well, he definitely should have been mentioned.

As for "widening horizons" well a lot of Japanese directors were mentioned.

As for Fellini and Truffault .. well, Truffault had some good moments but Fellini is the most over rated director of all time. Stream of conscioussness works in novels (big fan of As I Lay Dying and Mrs Dalloway) but it kind of falls apart in a movie .. .especially when accompanied by crappy hand held camera work and acting that pretty much is comprised of shoulder shrugs and grunts

You can say that I don't get it ... probably true. And I certainly don't mind thinking about a film and looking for the subtext (you mentioned Herzog and I liked some of his stuff for this reason) but really, tossing in midget at some unexpected moment does not subtext make

[Brian Standing]

I don't know, "The Orchestra Rehearsal" is pretty brilliant. And no random midgets, either.

If you don't like Truffault and Fellini, how about Godard and Antonioni?

[Victor Kellar]

I really haven't seen enough Goddard to have an opinion. Antonini .. er ..um .. well Blow Up had its moments ... but mostly it just made me want to go for coffee.

As for other "non American" directors I love the work of Guillermo del Toro ... maybe not ready to call him one of the world's greatest but Pan's Layrinth was incredibly compelling

[Sean Skube]

Originally Posted by Victor Kellar

I really haven't seen enough Goddard to have an opinion. Antonini .. er ..um .. well Blow Up had its moments ... but mostly it just made me want to go for coffee.

As for other "non American" directors I love the work of Guillermo del Toro ... maybe not ready to call him one of the world's greatest but Pan's Layrinth was incredibly compelling

Oh no no no no, I would DEFINITELY call him one of the greatest. Look at Cronos and Devil's Backbone. Even Blade 2! Not that Blade 2 is great, but compared to 1 and 3, it's cinematic gold. Hellboy I loved, but compared to his other stuff it's one of the weakest. I think that might be in part because it was an introductory story. I'm excited to see what he does with the next one, and even more excited when he does another original story of his own.

[James Hooey]

Tobe Hopper - the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (every remake after it is pretty much trash IMHO)

Kubrick - The Shining is one of the best scary character profiles and has some of Jack's best work.

Oliver Stone - Natural Born Killers is a great blend of contempory 90's pop-culture and idealism blending with a great mix of cinematic styles.

Harmony Korine - directed Gummo and Julien Donkey Boy among others. A very simplistic style but a very real eye for how to portray life and make you entirely believe in the characters. Not for the faint of heart subject matter though.