After seeing The Dark Knight Rises, I came out of the cinema claiming that Chris Nolan is quite possibly my favourite current working director. And then I got to discussing my top ten directors with my other half. I previously blogged about this a couple of years ago (three years ago Chris Nolan didn’t even make my top ten of all time!), but I think my film viewing habits have evolved somewhat since then and I would like to ‘officially’ update it. The problem comes, however, in ranking them. I was able to fairly easily cite my ten favourite directors, but how on earth can I pick one over the other? An hour or two after starting this post, I have managed to complete it!
Note: I have kept this to ‘current’ directors to keep things (arguably) simpler
1. Chris Nolan
This is the man who can move effortlessly from indie (Following, Memento) to studio (Batman Begins, Inception) effortlessly, while still retaining creative control.
2. Michel Gondry
Not only did he direct my favourite film of all time (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) but he also made two other charmingly quirky films (Be Kind Rewind and The Science of Sleep) before making a Hollywood blockbuster (The Green Hornet) and turning the camera on himself and his family for a personal documentary (The Thorn in the Heart).
3. Martin Scorsese
It took 33 years of feature filmmaking before he won his first Oscar for Best Director! In that time, he gave us such classics as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Color of Money (1986), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), and The Aviator (2004). Since then, he has dedicated a significant part of his career to film preservation and spreading the word about saving our film heritage. Good on ya, Marty!
4. Pedro Almodovar
He makes non-stereotypical, challenging, female-centric films, such as the Penelope Cruz starrers All About My Mother, Volver and Broken Embraces.
5. The Coen Brothers
This pair of writer-director-producers didn’t take quite as long as Marty to pick up their first little bald men (23 years) but they were over-looked for their quirky indies for a long time. Films such as Blood Simple (1984), Fargo (1996) and The Big Lebowski (1998) earned them critical acclaim before No Country For Old Men picked up Best Picture and Best Director(s) in 2007.
6. Thomas McCarthy
He stole my heart with The Station Agent which was also the first non-Dawson’s Creek role I saw Michelle Williams in. She is now quite possibly my favourite working actress (another list for another time!).
7. Sofia Coppola
This may seem like the obligatory female entry but she deserves to appear in a list of ten great directors! Another filmmaker who focuses on female leads, but this time the ‘little girl lost’ character. Always beautiful and always compelling.
8. Woody Allen
Still a legend, Allen may have faltered in recent years (at least, according to the critics) but he still manages to keep the fans happy.
9. Quentin Tarantino
As Inglourious Basterds has proved, Tarantino gets better with age. Now that he has created his ‘masterpiece’, what does that mean for the upcoming Django Unchained?
10. Danny Boyle
Boyle may be the filmmaker’s name on everyone’s lips in the wake of the Olympics, but he has a pretty cracking filmography to his name. My favourite is the whacky A Life Less Ordinary.
Honourable mentions: Wes Anderson, Andrea Arnold, Ben Affleck, Tim Burton, Cameron Crowe, Clint Eastwood, David Fincher, Amy Heckerling, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Rian Johnson, Takeshi Kitano, Richard Linklater, Baz Luhrmann, Shane Meadows, Fernando Meirelles, Sam Mendes, Sarah Polley, Jason Reitman, Kevin Smith, Steven Spielberg, Joss Whedon, Edgar Wright, Zhang Yimou
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