Forgot about him! Great director too with a complete own visual style!

I will go see anything by Luc Besson.
He's my fav.

People slag Speilberg off all the time cause he's all "Hollywood" but when I first read this thread, I looked back in my mind to all the films I've enjoyed over the years from a single director and he came out on top.

Watched Jaws last night again - great film.
Always loved ET - I still cry when I see that ugly little beggar get all sick.
Indiana Jones - Ultimate adventure movie
Jurassic Park - Dinosaurs!
Minority Report - Good adaptation of a book by my favourite author

Duel - I'll just forget about that one ;)

Aaron

I always liked Alfred Hitchcock.

Rudolf Cartier - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0174444/ - a TV pioneer, who made such fantastic dramas with next to nothing in the way of technology. His 1984 is a true television classic that always amazes me how much feeling can be got across with such crude technology.

Graeme

For Direction, and cinematography: Akira Kurosawa.

For just basic direction: Hitchcock. I think, no matter what you make of him, he always told the story through the pictures. In essence, if you do your film literacy and history, he started the Speilberg style. The best example is "Psycho" when the Private eye goes into the house, he looks left, then we see it, he looks up, we see it, he looks right, we see it... then, a door opens, and we think its one of the two doors on the left or right.... NO! ITS THE ONE ON THE TOP OF THE STAIRS!!!! OMG OMG!!! NOOOOOOOOO...... oh... hes dead.

That kind of direction is what made hitchcock, and gave modern day directors a foundation to work with. If it wanst for Hitchcock, Jaws would have been a very bad movie, the film is littered with Hitchcockness...

Kubrick, Ridley Scott and Akira Kurosawa

You know, I would have normally put Ridly Scott in my list, but ever since Bladerunner, I really didnt have a lot of praise left for him. Dont get me wrong, I like the film, its really good, but I think there is a balance between a literary film and a popular film. It just never did well, and there were so many bad reviews written about it at the time of release.

Maybe someone can change my mind?

Well, as much as you might not like his movies, modern cenima starts with D.W. Griffith. Yes other people at the time were doing some inturesting stuff. But Griffith is realy the first one to but it together, amek it work, and use the basics of what we all know as cinema. He is dated now, but he deserves credit for what he did for all of us in terms of film work (not subject matter)

Hitchcock is good, for a director he's up there at the top.(you have to say that he stoped with the birds tho.)

Orson Wells is brilliant, try watching F for Fake.

Nick Roeg, give walkabout a spin.

Best use of FX I'd have to go with kubrick, take a look at 2001, it's still amazing after all these years...with 0 computers, now thats true film work!

Feel free to criticize "Blade Runner" but the criteria you are using shouldn't matter. Popularity in the box office and other people's reviews shouldn't factor in what is a question of personal opinion.

I like your point. If I was stuck on a desert island and could only watch the films of one director, I'd choose... uh, who was the guy that made Debbie Does Dallas? Anyway, after him I'd choose Speilberg.

Kubrick. You could print any frame from Barry Lyndon and hang it in your home.

tom.

Kubrick, Scorsese, Kurosawa are my top three. I also like Steven Spielberg, George Miller, Alfred Hitchcock, Ridley Scott, Orson Welles, Sam Peckinpah, and Walter Hill. William Friedkin and Paul Schrader did some classic films in the 70's and 80's. Both don't get enough credit. For newer blood I like Chan-wook Park, Zhang Yimou, Paul Thomas Anderson, Seung-wan Ryoo, David Fincher, Alexander Payne, Wes Anderson, and Wayne Kramer to name a few.

Did anybody see "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"? Great film, directed by Tommy Lee Jones.

i've never seen a film by sidney lumet which i have not liked.

i can't say this about any other single director....

plus, he is willing to take on challenging material with a light touch...like that about him, too....he has had amazing success over a long, storied career, not just made a handful of good films among the dreck. for consistency, he's hard to beat....

LOL!!

For a great article about spielberg, try this, it talks about him being so popular, many people don't like him while he still remains one of the most talented directors in the world - to my opinion. Check it out, it's really great and informative:

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/conten...spielberg.html