CELLULOID BURNING

This may be the most personal list I’ve written on this site. With film having been around for well over 100 years and the huge number of great directors from all over the world that have come and gone, the choices where daunting. I don’t claim to be an all knowing expert on film. There are many amazing filmmakers to whom I have seen little or none of their work. The director’s I do love, however, I’ve seen everything they have made and often tracked down rare and hard to find film’s from their oeuvre. I used no objective criteria in my selection, just my gut instinct and personal preferences. I know there are going to be a lot of people out there who scream “bloody murder” because I left out their favorite director to which I say… start your own damn website!

10. Christopher Nolan – Christopher Nolan is quite possibly the most interesting director of the 21st century. He’s best know for his work in reinventing the Batman franchise but his entire filmography shows the spirit of a great director. He has presently only directed seven feature length movies (one of them still in post production) yet each of them are completely different yet all innovative and well crafted stories.

Recommended Viewing: Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Prestige

9. Zhang Yimou – Zhang Yimou is the most famous of the Fifth Generation of Chinese Filmmakers. In the history of Chinese Cinema, directors have been classified according to when they emerged from their film academy. Each generational group often has unique characteristics. The Fifth Generation was the first class to graduate after the Cultural Revolution and were the first to have access to a range of World Cinema from all periods of time which had previously been banned. The resulting directors are characterized by their artistic sensabilities and their subtle (and at times not so subtle) critique of the Communist regime. Zhang is best known for his recent martial arts movies: Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower but it is his early movies which really show his true artistic skill and subtlety as director.

Recommended Viewing: Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Ju, To Live, The Road Home

8. Terry Gilliam – Terry Gilliam is most visually innovative and daring directors of his generation. He started out as the animator on Monty Python and eventually went on to co-direct many of their feature films. After striking off on his own, Gilliam showed his signature style in the creation of some of the best remembered fantasy movies of the 80’s and 90’s. The 00’s were a bit of a dry spell with a lot of movies that never lived up to their potiential (The Brother’s Grimm and Tideland) and others that never got made (The Man Who Killed Don Quixote) but he came back strong and hopefully the new millennium will be a fresh start.

Recommended Viewing: Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, The Imaginarium of Docotor Parnassus, Lost in La Mancha (the making-of documentary of how The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was “unmade”)

7. Joss Whedon – Joss Whedon is probably the biggest left turn of the entire list, I mean he has only really directed one feature film, Serenity. He is best known for his TV work, but I like to take it a step further and a shine light on him as a cross platform storyteller. He has done amazing and memorable work on his various TV shows: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and (to a slightly lesser extent) Dollhouse. He has taken risks and pushed genre storytelling and the medium of TV further than virtually any showrunner, writer or director. Whedon has also as of late shattered peoples’ conception of the internet with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog, god only knows what he has planned for the sequel. No one knows exactly what Whedon has in store next, but I am sure he’ll surprise everyone.

Recommended Viewing: Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Hush, Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Once More with Feeling, Angel – Smile Time, Firefly – Jaynestown, Firefly – Out of Gas, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog.

6. Martin Scorsese – Martin Scorsese is the greatest director of crime and gangster movies in the history of the movies. When it comes to grit socially disturbed characters, there’s really no one better. Yes he has directed other genres, but even he knows that those aren’t the movies he is going to be remembered for. Scorsese’s cinematic style is characterized by his interesting use of popular and diegetic music, his carefully crafted camera moves and his high level of technical mastery.

Recommended Viewing: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Aviator, The Departed

5. Johnnie To – While Martin Scorsese is the greatest director of crime and gangster movies, I consider Johnnie To the most unique director crime and gangster movies. In our Post-Modern, cinema, directors spend far too much time shooting an “homage to” or at times “straight ripp off” off their favorite scenes than spending the time and forethought to create something all their own. Yes all directors “borrow” from other directors, but the great ones have a knack for making it their own… the others make Bad Boys 2 (check out our Shanty Town comparison between Police Story and Bad Boys 2 HERE). Starting in the late 90’s To starting making some of the most innovate and visually dazzling gangster movies in Hong Kong and in the world. Along the way he has made other daring (and just plain weird) movies that some how manage to work. There is Running on Karma where the protagonist is muscle bound former monk who can see the karma of the people around him. Throwdown, a martial arts movie set in Hong Kong about Judo (a japanese discipline). Lastly, Mad Detective a movie about a detective who solves crimes because he can see and hear the manifestation of a person’s different “inner voices.”

Recommended Viewing: The Mission, Running out of Time, PTU, Running on Karma, Throwdown, Mad Detective, Exiled, Election 1, Election 2

4. Alfred Hitchcock – What is there the say about Alfred Hitchcock that hasn’t been written in at least a dozen books. He was and is the master of suspense. No one did it better before him and those who have done it after are simply imitators. Hitchcock took a single genre from lowly b-movie status and elevated it to art. The very definition of his cinema is the whole is equal to more than sum of its parts. Hitchcock only had a few great scripts among his movies but through the use of his camera, editing techniques and ability to manipulate audiences at his whim he has created some of the greatest examples of movies ever.

Recommended Viewing: Blackmail, The 39 Steps, Rebecca, Notorious, Lifeboat, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds

3. Billy Wilder – Unlike Alfred Hitchcock who was known for the style of his movies over their substance, Billy Wilder was known for his meticulously crafted scripts and subtle, yet appropriate direction. Though he is best remembered for his comedies, in particular his work with Marilyn Monroe, he actually has one of the most diverse collection of classic movies of any director. Wilder has made classic suspense movies (Five Graves to Cairo & Stalag 17), film-noir (Double Indemnity & Ace in the Hole), dramas (Sunset Boulevard & The Lost Weekend), romance movies (Love in the Afternoon & Sabrina) and of course great comedies (Some Like it Hot & The Seven Year Itch).

Recommended Viewing: Five Graves to Cairo, Stalag 17, Double Indemnity, Ace in the Hole, Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, Love in the Afternoon, Sabrina, Some Like it Hot, The Seven Year Itch, The Apartment.

2. Orson Welles – Ok Orson Welles directed, what is almost universally recognized as, the greated movie of all time, Citizen Kane, but I argue that this movie was just the tip of the ice berg. Though Welles never had the type of control, budget or crew to make another Citizen Kane, he did succeed in showing flashes genius in all his subsequent features. There is the amazing long takes in The Magnificent Ambersons & Touch of Evil, the creative use of location shooting in The Lady from Shanghai & Mr. Arkadin, and unique reinterpretations of classics in Othello & Chimes at Midnight.

Recommended Viewing: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Jane Eyre, Lady from Shanghai, Othello, Mr. Arakdin, Touch of Evil, The Fountain of Youth, F for Fake.

1. Akira Kurosawa – In my opinion, Akira Kurosawa is the greatest filmmaker ever. He is the true definition of an “auteur.” He not only directed more masterpieces than any other director, he also edited and co-wrote them as well. In interviews with some of Kurosawa’s script collaborators, most of them have noted that he was more than a good enough writer to pen scripts alone, but chose to work with other collaborators so as to ensure he was fair to all his characters and didn’t cut any corners in his construction. This sheer abundance of talent led to a remarkable 15 year period from 1950 to 1965 where he made 13 movies where virtually all of them could be considered classics.

Recommended Viewing: Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Throne of Blood, The Bad Sleep Well, Red Beard, Ran.