Sep 15, 2015

martin scorsese - taxi driver
james benning - landscape suicide
harmony korine - spring breakers
jonas mekas - as i moving ahead occasionally I saw glimpses of beauty
stan brakhage - anticipation of the night
abel ferrara - new rose hotel
peter b. hutton - at sea
terrence malick - tree of life
michael snow - la region centrale
john cassavetes - faces
andy warhol - chelsea girls
maya deren - at land
david lynch - mulholland dr
paul w.s anderson - pompeii
john carpenter - ghosts of mars
michael mann - miami vice

 

Sep 16, 2015

@Rowjay Stan just won this thread with James Benning, Brakhage, Deren etc. even though I don't know any of them quite well enough to call a favourite. But Pompeii? I guess I can't say anything till I see it.

I think filmmakers who are known for an American period make the cut. (Hitchcock, Sirk etc.), but not if they never really assimilated into 'american moviemaking' (Chaplin, Welles, etc.)

This order is pretty d--- tentative and sporadic after the first like 5.

1. Terrence Malick - Tree of Life
2. James Gray - The Immigrant
3. Nathaniel Dorsky - August and After
4. Richard Linklater - Boyhood
5. Frank Capra - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
6. Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver
7. Alfred Hitchcock - Rope
8. David Lynch - Mulholland Drive
9. Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood
10. Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey
11. Jim Jarmusch - Stranger Than Paradise
12. Douglas Sirk - All That Heaven Allows
13. Derek Cianfrance - Place Beyond the Pines
14. Robert Altman - Nashville
15. John Huston - Treasure of the Sierra Madre
16. Winsor McCay - How a Mosquito Operates
17. The Coen Brothers - Fargo
18. Gus Van Sant - Elephant
19. Michael Snow - Wavelength
20. Howard Hawks - The Big Sleep
BONUS: Christopher Nolan - Memento

HM: Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, Steven Spielberg, Darren Aronofsky

I will also mention Nicholas Ray who I think will one day be a favourite... just haven't seen enough (Only Rebel... haven't seen Johnny Guitar even)... others I haven't seen enough of include Ferrara, Mann, Haynes, Casavettes, etc.

 

Sep 15, 2015

@FilmAndWhisky and I are going to be doing a series that celebrates the filmmakers of various countries. I figured it would be best to start with America since everyone will be able to participate and if the thread gets a lot of traffic then perhaps future threads will garner some more attention and it may allow for people to be introduced to films from other countries.

Basically just list or discuss your personal favorite American filmmakers and include your favorite film from each one.

I'll start with mine:

1. Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life
2. John Cassavetes - A Woman Under the Influence
3. Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver
4. Paul Thomas Anderson - The Master
5. James Gray - The Immigrant
6. David Lynch - Mulholland Drive
7. Coen Brothers - A Serious Man
8. Robert Altman - Nashville
9. Harmony Korine - Spring Breakers
10. Richard Linklater - Before Midnight
11. Todd Haynes - Far from Heaven
12. Michael Mann - Blackhat
13. Woody Allen - Annie Hall
14. Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey
15. Jonathan Demme - Something Wild

come at me brehs

 

Sep 16, 2015

I don't really have an interesting list to add, as most of my favorites were mentioned (Lynch, Scorsese, PTA, Malick and the Coens are probably tops for me).

Since he hasn't been listed, I would add John Ford though (The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, The Searchers, etc.) as he is justifiably one of the big names in American cinema.

My favorite part of @Rowjay Stan 's very cool list was the Ghosts of Mars pick for John Carpenter over the more conventional choices.