Badmovies.org Forum

Good Movies won the coin toss. I just wanted to start an open thread to share your thoughts on your favorite directors, be it mainstream, b-grade, z-grade, indy, or whatever. This is not intended to be a request for your all-time favorite directors list, just a place to share certain filmmakers when you think of them. I find that I am constantly discovering and rediscovering certain directors at different times in my life, depending on what my movie brain is fixated on that month.

For example, I am currently rediscovering my appreciation for Jonathan Demme, especially his 80's and 90's material. Not only has he directed some very recognizeable and iconic films like The Silence of the Lambs, but he has also flown well below the radar.

Some of my favorites from his filmography:

Caged Heat (1974) his directorial debut
Melvin and Howard (1980) put him on the map
Swing Shift (1983) a solid and often overlooked little gem
Stop Making Sense (1984) Top 5 in the history of concert movies, IMHO
Something Wild (1986)
Swimming to Cambodia (1987) who knew you could film a single guy sitting at a table for 90 minutes and talking and it would be so entertaining?
Married to the Mob (1988)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) No comment needed

Jonathan Demme is well-known for his liberal politics, and while they may play into the themes of his filmmaking to some extent, they are neither overt nor intrusive, which Philadelphia perhaps being a notable exception. He is one of America's finer artistic filmmakers in my humble opinion, who relies on the use of the camera and well-composed shots to tell the story and doesn't rely on special effects, some minimal makeup effects, perhaps, but that's about it. The rest is just solid shooting and editing. The man deserves from credit for that alone.

Anyway, like I said, this thread is open for anything that you appreciate in a director. In my opinion we don't respect the director enough in this country. One of the refreshing aspects of this forum is that many members here DO give directors their due respect. Have at it.

He is also known for his anti-South African stance ~ he directed the video [Ain't Gonna Play] Sun City ~ and in the closing credits of most of his movies prior to 1994, has a small cartoon drawing of a guitarist with the words A Luta Continua (The Struggle Continues) which always angers me.

Talented director but not my cup of tea, unfortunately.

I respect that. I rarely hold an artist's personal or political lives against their artistic work, unless it's something that is particularly important to me. We all pick our battles. I do appreciate his directorial work immensely, but if something he did struck a chord with me that was particularly disagreeable, I may feel differently.

For my first entry, I'll pick David Cronenberg.

Sample filmography:  VIDEODROME (1983), THE FLY (1986), CRASH (1996), A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005)

As for his directorial style, I like his 'organic' approach.  He doesn't "over produce" his shots and goes with his gut as he's making a film.  He approaches film making from the opposite end of the spectrum as those who storyboard EVERYTHING and plan every detail of the entire production (which is okay when it works in the end product).  On the commentary for A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, I think it was Maria Bello that mentioned Cronenberg often would not "know" how he wanted to compose a scene until the day of shooting that scene, and often then not even before actual shooting.  He's more of a "okay, here's where we are and here's what I think I want" kind of director.

I find his films very effective.  He's not afraid to be 'gritty' or to push his actors to the edge of their comfort zones.  Maybe open to criticism as appealing more the the art house or festival market than the box office, Cronenberg is a solid director that I can fully anticipate really enjoying his films whenever I watch one I have not seen.

And just for the record, I don't agree with his politics.  I just like his movies.   :teddyr:

Oh, I'm definately a Cronenberg fan. He's an unusual director. Don't forget his earlier b-movies like Shivers, Rabid, and The Brood. Those titles fit right into this site. Oh, and The Naked Lunch is great if you want something just completely wierd. He is an anomaly in the filmmaking world. His approach is outside the box and often he delivers. A History of Violence is my favorite of his more recent films. He's one of those directors like David Lynch where I would love to be a fly on the wall during shooting to see what they do.

Tim Burton. My idol. He's bringing back German Expressionism. I love German Expressionist films. He made some of my favorite films.

Ed Wood
Nightmare Before Christmas
Alice in Wonderland (2010)

I am also a fan of James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and Christopher Nolan.

I don't have an absolute favorite director (when it comes to live-action films anyway), but I gotta give a shout out to Joe Dante. He's not out to create art, he's just a humble guy who loves movies and cartoons, who just happens to be making movies. Gremlins 2: The New Batch is his masterpiece, and in my top ten favorite films.

Wow . . . so many, and for so many different reasons.  But here is a cross-section:

* MARTIN SCORSESE
* ALFRED HITCHCOCK
* JOHN STURGES
* HENRY HATHAWAY
* JOHN FORD
* GEORGE A. ROMERO
* DAVID LYNCH
* SAM PECKINPAH
* JOHN WOO (primarily, the Hong Kong years)
* JACK ARNOLD
* DARIO ARGENTO
* MARIO BAVA
* DON SIEGEL
* FRAKLIN J. SCHAFFNER
* MICHAEL CURTIZ
* ABEL FERRARA
* WILLIAM FRIEDKIN
* JOHN FRANKENHEIMER
* SERGIO LEONE
* FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
* STANLEY KUBRICK
* JOHN CARPENTER (the early days)
* JOHN WATERS
* HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS
* ALAN J. PAKULA
* ROMAN POLANSKI
* MEL BROOKS
* DAVID CRONENBERG (especially his early, gritty stuff)
* WOODY ALLEN
* JOHN HUSTON

And I could list plenty more . . .

Oh right!

Mel Brooks! How'd I forget! *PUNCHES SELF IN FACE*

Lotta A-listers here....I'm gonna list one of my favorite Z listers!

.AL ADAMSON

(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l79/RCMerchant/CF_DF3.jpg)
That's Al in the middle (duh!)

the autuer of such classics as FRANKENSTEIN VS DRACULA,SATAN'S SADISTS,HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS,NURSE SHERRY and soooo many more! At one time,on the set HELL'S BLOODY DEVILS (at Spahn Ranch) he had to chase Charlie Manson and his girls off because they were disrupting the work! Al gave jobs to such old timers as John Carradine,Lon Chaney,Lash LaRue,Brodrick Crawford,Angelo Rossitto,and J.Caroll Naish at low points in their carrers. Unfortunatly,Al was murdered in 1995 by his building contractor. He was buried by the evil a***ole in cement in Al's own home. Sad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCtMTG5jb6Y

I love his "Storefront Hitchcock"... pure brilliance.


That's the first I've ever heard.  How is he anti-all of South Africa if "Sun City" was supposed to be anti-apartheid?  Is there something I'm missing there?  Can you elaborate further, please?  I'm genuinely curious.  :)

I am South African and I detest foreign filmmakers who make films, videos, documentaries about my country's supposedly unique past and horrific racial laws while ignoring the trouble in their own countries. Furthermore, apartheid was South Africa and South Africa was apartheid so if you take on the laws, you take on the country.

South Africa is my country: no one must want to burn it in the past, the present or the future.

Seriously, though.  What's better than watching an Al Adamson movie after midnight on a Saturday night? 

John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg.  :thumbup:

Early Cronenberg is AMAZING. Early Argento is AMAZING. Roman Polanski is more often than not brilliant, despite his, um, setbacks. Kubrick gets it for Eyes Wide Shut alone. S.F. Brownrigg gets it for Don't Look In The Basement & Don't Open The Door. Mario Bava is quite awesome. His son Lamberto is pretty talented in his own right (see Macabre and Demons). Fulci gets it for Don't Torture A Duckling - his more popular films kinda left a little to be desired, imho. Kinda racking my brain here, think of some more later, perhaps?

Christopher Nolan can do no wrong in my eyes. He revived Batman as a film series after the awfulness of Batman and Robin. Arguably his two Batman films are the best involving Batman.

And Inception blew my mind. Easily the best picture of 2010 in my book. It's the first non-action movie that has stuck with me for quite a while.

I'm a huge Cronenberg fan; I've seen almost all of his movies. What I admire about Cronenberg most is the clear sense of intelligence in his films. For all his focus on grotesquerie, it never seems that any of his films were made for a goof (well, maybe Fast Company).

Cronenberg presents the extremities of the human condition, and just how dark personal neuroses can truly get. The little loved Crash stands as one of my favorite examples of perversion on film. By the last reel, the sense of lives spinning out of control was truly disturbing, and that's without even mentioning Dead Ringers.

Naked Lunch was mentioned. I don't think anybody would want to see the full unpleasantness of William S. Burroughs put to film, but Cronenberg managed to make a film I find fascinating by turning Burroughs own life into a pastiche of insanity.

He pared down the physical goo he is obsessed with in his last few films by focusing on the hidden psychological stress of his characters. Good films, but I also liked his earlier fascination with "the new flesh."

One of my favorite Cronenberg films is still SHIVERS (aka THEY CAME FROM WITHIN).  He took a very overused concept (a group of isolated people falling victim to a seemingly unstoppable, steadily-spreading nightmare) and made it suspenseful and interesting. 

I'm still yet to see Shivers, but it is high up on my list.

My personal favorite directors are:
John Waters
Russ Meyer
John Carpenter
H.G Lewis
David Lynch

All of which I feel bring something special and weird and wonderful to the screen.

Okay, I'm going to be the hack who talks about David Lynch.

I love David Lynch movies. The weird head-space David Lynch operates in is to me fascinating.

A lot of this is because almost every single Lynch film is set up as a puzzle. The surrealism in his films is usually clue fodder for what the film is really about. I love puzzles, so trying to extract the "true" explanation out of his movies is an exercise I really enjoy.

His last few films have been almost nothing but his own personal Lynch-verse. Not very accessible and seemingly lazy. But I think that's where he started, and he never left. He got very lucky with Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, where his own obsessions managed to captivate large audiences. He's not a guy with a huge bag of tricks, though. A David Lynch film is a David Lynch film.

That being said, I think Fire Walk With Me is a phenomenal film. I truly love that movie.

I had a dream one time where I was watching a David Lynch movie, which took place on a beach for some reason. It seemed like a normal movie, but unless you were very well-versed in religious knowledge you would not know how heretical the movie really was.

Other than my boring dreams, I think David Lynch can still make a good movie that isn't self-obsessed. The Straight Story is one of my favorite films. The least Lynchian of all his films is probably his best.

I love David Lynch. You probably will find a reply from Rev. Powell to that regard, because I know he loves DL as well.

The only film of his I haven't seen is Inland Empire, but that one seems to be a bit too bizarre even for me. I understand he actually wrote no script ahead of time and the cast had no idea what they were going to do every day they showed up, even DL didn't know many days, so I feel like there won't be a puzzle to solve like in Mulhollad Drive, which is one of my favorite FL films.

I saw Eraserhead well before I even knew who Lynch was or even was into film in general. Blue Velvet turned me on to Lynch as a director. I would love to be a fly on the wall during the production to see what he does with actors, because they so often deliver performances with him that are bizarre as well. It's almost as if these actors produce performances for him that they don't do for any other director, not always with success, but often very disturbing, and I would love to see what he does with actors to do this.

Anyway, I love DL, you'll find no argument here. He and Cronenberg are both highly unique directors that I love.

I could not agree more about how he can get certain things out of actors that other directors can't. Kyle MacLachlan is a prime example of that. He is so much better in Twin Peaks etc than say his work in Desperate Housewives or Sex in the City.