Monday, October 25, 2010

My Director Watch

[I will be updating this list often] My director watch is like a neighborhood watch. We don't get paid to do it, but we all benefit in so many unspeakable ways when we have a good one. So, I wanted to put my 5 cents in and tell you all about the directors I watch to see how these currently working, cutting edge filmmakers are impacting the way we all watch movies. I will list them in alphabetical order, including the films they are known by here in the US of A and I will do this in three sections... for the 'generation' of filmmaking they belong to.

First, the old Hollywood bunch.  Many of these used to be called the "New Hollywood" bunch in the 80's. These are directors who have proven themselves to be masters of cinema and have still remained relevant and a vital part of the film industry regardless of some ups and downs. I have left out the master directors who have passed on... leaving their legacy of greatness behind them.  Second, will be the currently "en vogue" directors with a strong track record (at least three good movies) or directors who at least have made a strong performance as a director when they are not practicing their other chosen disciplines apart from directing features (such as J. J. Abrams, who does a lot of Producing and TV directing). So, when they direct films it may be somewhat sporadic but it is usually quite successful. But keep in mind, they are no newbie to the film industry. And third, I will list the fresh new directorial arrivals to the film industry. They may be game changers or directors who appear to have potential even though they only have one or two good films under their belt. So, without further adieu...

The Hollywood Master Directors

James Cameron
Piranha II, Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, Titanic, Avatar, Avatar 2

John Carpenter
Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A., Vampires, Ghosts of Mars, The Ward

Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather, The Conversation, Godfather II, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, Godfather III, Dracula, Jack, The Rainmaker, Youth Without Youth, Tetro, Twixt

Clint Eastwood

Unforgiven, A Perfect World, Bridges of Madison County, Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, Absolute Power, True Crime, Space Cowboys, Blood Work, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling, Gran Torino, Invictus, Hereafter, J. Edgar

Terry Gilliam
Monty Python & the Holy Grail, Brazil, Jabberwocky, Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm, Tideland, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Werner Herzog
Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo, Invincible, Rescue Dawn, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, My Son My Son What Have Ye Done, Cave of Forgotten Dreams

George Lucas
THX 1138, American Graffiti, Star Wars Franchise

Martin Scorcese
Taxi Driver, New York New York, Raging Bull, After Hours, Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Age of Innocence, Casino, Kundun, Bringing Out The Dead, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, The Departed, Shutter Island, Hugo, Silence (pre), Wolf at Wall Street (pre), Sinatra (pre)

Ridley Scott
Duelists, Alien, Blade Runner, Legend, Someone to Watch Over Me, Black Rain, Thelma & Louise, 1492, White Squall, GI Jane, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven, A Good Year, American Gangster, Body of Lies, Robin Hood, Prometheus, The Councellor (pre), Untitled Blade Runner Project (pre)

Stephen Spielberg
Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indiana Jones Movies, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun, Jurassic Park, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Munich, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln (pre), Robopocalypse (pre), Indiana Jones 5 (pre)


The Currently En Vogue Directors

J. J. Abrams
Alias (TV), Lost (TV), Mission Impossible III, Star Trek (2009), Super 8, Untitled Star Trek Sequel (pre)

P. T. Anderson
Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master

Wes Anderson
Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom

Judd Apatow
40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Funny People, This is Forty (pre)

Darren Aronofsky
Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan, Noah (pre)

Michael Bay
Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys II, The Island, Transformers, Transformers II, Transformers III, Pain and Gain (post), Bad Boys 3 (pre), Untitled Transformers Sequel (pre)

Kathryn Bigelow
Near Dark, Blue Steel, Point Break, Strange Days, The Weight of Water, K-19: The Widowmaker, The Hurt Locker

Timur Bekmambetov
Night Watch, Day Watch, Wanted, 9, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Danny Boyle
Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach, 28 Days Later, Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Trance

Edward Burns

The Brothers McMullen, She's the One, No Looking Back, Sidewalks of New York, Ash Wednesday, Looking for Kitty, The Groomsman, Purple Violets, Nice Guy Johnny, Newlyweds

Tim Burton
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetle Juice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie

D. J. Caruso
The Salton Sea, Taking Lives, Disturbia, Eagle Eye, I Am Number Four, Goat Island

Park Chan-Wook
Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, Thirst, Stoker

Joel & Ethan Coen
Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Millers Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, True Grit, Inside Llewyn Davis

Sofia Coppola
The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, Somewhere, The Bling Ring

Alfonso Cuaron
Great Expectations, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, Gravity

Guillermo Del Toro
Blade II, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim (post)

Roland Emmerich
Making Contact, Moon 44, Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, The Patriot, Day After Tomorrow, 10,000BC, 2012, Anonymous

David Fincher
Alien 3, Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Marc Forster
Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, Stay, Stranger Than Fiction, Quantum of Solace, Machine Gun Preacher, World War Z (filming)

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

 Intact, 28 Weeks Later, Intruders, The Crow (pre)

Mel Gibson
Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto

Michel Gondry
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind, The Green Hornet, The We and the I, Mood Indigo, Tales From the Hanging Head (pre)

Paul Greengrass

Resurrected, The Theory of Flight, Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy, United 93, The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone, Captain Phillips, Barca (pre)

Davis Guggenheim
An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud, Waiting for Superman

Mikael Hafstrom
Evil, Derailed, 1408, The Rite, The Tomb

Michael Haneke
Code Unknown, The Piano Teacher, Cache (Hidden), Funny Games, The White Ribbon, Love

Jered Hess
Napolean Dynamite, Nacho Libre, Gentlemen Broncos

John Hillcoat
The Proposition, The Road, Lawless, Triple Nine (pre)

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful

Peter Jackson
Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, Dead Alive, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong, The Lovely Bones, The Hobbit Parts 1 & 2 (filming)

Jim Jarmusch

Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, Dead Man, Night on Earth, Ghost Dog: The Way of The Samurai, Coffee and Cigarettes, Broken Flowers, Limits of Control


Rian JohnsonBrick, The Brothers Bloom, Looper
Duncan Jones
Moon, Source Code, Untitled Ian Fleming Project (pre)
Spike Jonze
Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Where the Wild Things Are

Wong Kar-Wai
Chunking Express, In the Mood for Love, 2046, My Blueberry Nights

Richard Kelly
Donnie Darko, Southland Tales, The Box, Corpus Christi (pre)

Francis Lawrence

Constantine, I Am Legend, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Ang Lee
Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hulk, Brokeback Mountain, Lust Caution, Taking Woodstock, Life of Pi (filming)

Richard Linklater
Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, School of Rock, Before Sunset, A Scanner Darkly, Fast Food Nation, Me and Orson Welles, Bernie

David Lynch
Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks (TV), Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Rabbits, Inland Empire

Terrence Malick
Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, Voyage of Time, Lawless, Knight of Cups

Michael Mann
Thief, The Keep, Manhunter, Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Ali, Collateral, Miami Vice, Public Enemies

Adam McKay
Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, The Other Guys, Anchorman 2


 Sam Mendes
American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, Skyfall

John Cameron Mitchell
 
Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Shortbus, Rabbit Hole

Michael Moore

Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, Capitalism: A Love Story

Vincenzo Natali

 Cube, Cypher, Nothing, Splice, High Rise, Haunter (pre)

Christopher Nolan
Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises

Wolfgang Petersen
Das Boot, The Neverending Story, In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, The Perfect Storm, Troy, Poseidon

Alex Proyas

Spirits of the Air Gremlins of the Clouds, The Crow, Dark City, Garage Days, I Robot, Knowing, Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (pre), Sydney Unplugged (pre)

Sam Raimi
Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, Darkman, Army of Darkness, The Quick and the Dead, Spiderman Franchise, Drag Me To Hell, Oz: The Great & Powerful (pre)

Matt Reeves
 Cloverfield, Let Me In, Untitled Cloverfield Sequel (pre)

Ivan Reitman
Foxy Lady, Cannibal Girls, Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Legal Eagles, Twins, Ghostbusters II, Kindergarten Cop, Dave, Junior, Fathers' Day, Six Days Seven Nights, Evolution, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, No Strings Attached, Ghostbusters III (pre)

Jason Reitman
Thank You For Smoking, Juno, Up In The Air, Young Adult, Labor Day (pre)

Nicholas Winding Refn
Pusher, Bleeder, Fear X, With Blood On My Hands: Pusher II, I'm the Angel of Death: Pusher III, Bronson, Valhalla Rising, Drive, Only God Forgives (pre), Logan's Run (pre)

Guy Ritchie
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch., Swept Away, Revolver, RocknRolla, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (pre)

Robert Rodriguez
El Mariachi, Desperado, From Dusk Til Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Spy Kids 2, Spy Kids 3, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Sin City, Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Planet Terror, Shorts, Machete, Spy Kids 4, Machete Kills, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (pre)


Mark Romanek
Static, One Hour Photo, Never Let Me Go, Locke & Key (pre)

David O. Russell
Spanking the Monkey, Flirting with Disaster, Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees, The Fighter, Nailed (post), The Silver Linings Playbook (post), American Bullsh*t (pre)

Joel Schumacher
The Lost Boys, Flatliners, Falling Down, Batman Forever, The Phantom of the Opera, The Number 23, Blood Creek, Twelve, Man in the Mirror, Trespass (post)

Tony Scott
The Hunger, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, Revenge, Days of Thunder, The Last Boyscout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, The Fan, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Domino, Deja Vu, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Unstoppable, Top Gun 2 (pre), Emma's War (pre)

M. Night Shyamalan
The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, Lady In The Water, The Last Airbender, After Earth (post)

Bryan Singer
The Usual Suspects, X-Men, X2, Superman Returns, Valkyrie, Jack the Giant Killer (post)

Kevin Smith

Clerks., Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl, Clerks II, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Cop Out, Red State

Zack Snyder
Dawn of the Dead, 300, Watchmen, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Sucker Punch, The Man of Steel (pre)

Steven Soderburgh
Sex Lies and Videotape, Kafka, The Underneath, Out of Sight, The Limey, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean's 11, Solaris, Ocean's 12, Bubble, The Good German, Ocean's 13, Che, The Girlfriend Experience, The Informant!, Haywire, Contagion, Magic Mike (pre), Bitter Pill (pre), Behind the Candelabra (pre)

Quentin Tarantino
Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol I-II, Death Proof, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, Kill Bill: Vol III (pre)

Gus Van Sant
My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, Psycho (1998), Finding Forrester, Elephant, Paranoid Park, Milk, Restless, My Own Private River, Promised land (pre)

Gore Verbinski
The Mexican, The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean I-III, The Weather Man, Rango, The Lone Ranger (post)

The Wachowskis
Bound, The Matrix Trilogy, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas (post), Jupiter Ascending (pre)

Joss Whedon
 Firefly (TV), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (TV), Angel (TV), Serenity, Thor, The Avengers, Much Ado About Nothing (pre)

Edgar Wright

Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The World's End (pre), Ant-Man (pre)

Joe Wright
 Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, The Soloist, Hanna, Anna Karenina (post)



The New Directors with Fresh Eyes
They have made 1-3 films with at least one film that speaks with a new and skillful voice.

Jeffrey Blitz- Rocket Science
Neill Blomkamp- District 9, Elysium (pre)
Joe Cornish- Attack the Block
Lena Dunham-
Tiny Furniture
Gareth Edwards- Monsters
Chris Fuller- Loren Cass, Surpassing All Other Kings
Debra Granik- Down to the Bone, Winters Bone
Ian Hubert- SBFP, Ideality, Project London
Paul Johanssen- Atlas Shrugged: Part I 
Jennifer Chambers Lynch- Surveillance, Hisss 
Greg Marcks- 11:14, Echelon Conspiracy 
John Maybury- The Jacket 
Kelly Reichardt- Wendy & Lucy, Meek's Cutoff 
Daniel Stamm- A Necessary Death, The Last Exorcism 
M Dot Strange- We Are The Strange, Heart String Marionette

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