Can't argue much with Alek's list, at least as far as historically influential directors go. Here's my alternate picks of personally influential directors, along with my favorite film from each one. Same rules as Alek.
George Melies, The Black Imp
Buster Keaton, Sherlock Jr.
Walt Disney (I know, not really a director, but...) Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Jean Renoir, Le Grande Illusion
Ernst Lubitsch, To Be or Not To Be
Yasujiro Ozu, Ohayo
Vittorio De Sica, Bicycle Thieves
Francois Truffaut, Small Change
Jean-Pierre Melville, Le Cercle Rouge
Martin Ritt, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker
Woody Allen, Annie Hall
James Ivory, A Room with a View
How did I forget Tarkovsky and Truffaut?!? These lists are a headache sometimes...but I will stand by my original list for the sake of doing so.
ReplyDeleteAnyways:
Carl Theodore Dreyer - Day of Wrath
Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey
Akira Kurosawa - Rashomon
Ingmar Bergman - Winter Light
Federico Fellini - 8 1/2
John Ford - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo
Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times
Billy Wilder - Sunset Boulevard
Frank Capra - It's A Wonderful Life
Orson Welles - Citizen Cane
F.W. Murnau - Sunrise
Howard Hawkes - Rio Bravo
I'm with you on Winter Light. Great great film. But I'm ashamed to admit I don't like Rashomon very much. Haven't seen it in 10 years, so maybe I should give it another shot, but I'd much rather watch 7 samurai again.
ReplyDeleteI put Rashomon because I saw it last. All of Kurosawa's films are honestly great and it's hard to put a crown on film out of such a great resume.
ReplyDeleteI love Rashomon because of it's use of symmetry, and because it is the most surreal of Kurosawa's films (I'm a sucker for surrealism). Maybe that one is worth a review...I will watch it again if I get the chance and see what pours out of my fingers.