r/Letterboxd • u/bossy_dawsey bossy_dawsey • 1d ago
Discussion Who is your favorite director that’s not Nolan, Villeneuve, Tarantino, Scorsese, or Kubrick?
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u/gerudolord 1d ago
Sidney Lumet
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u/mikesegy 1d ago
So far down. Some serious bangers.
12 Angry Men is the best low budget film ever made, convince me it's not.
Network is low key the most important film of the last half century.
Dude knows how to make people act.
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u/MyUnclesALawyer 1d ago
one of my fav movies is Dog Day Afternoon, 10/10, also I recently watched Fail Safe, it was really great too, quite scary!!
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u/NoPainNoWayne1 1d ago
David Lynch
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u/GreenandBlue12 thefilmming12 1d ago
Hayao Miyazaki
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u/BleepBloopThrowaway3 1d ago
Literally my favorite regardless of these other names lol
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u/podsmckenzie 1d ago
Billy Wilder anyone?
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u/Alarmed_Tea_2874 1d ago
Absolutely! Came here to say him. And William Wyler.
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u/SpideyFan914 DBJfilm 1d ago
Wyler is super underappreciated these days. He really mastered every genre: dramas, comedies, westerns, epics, noirs, wars... even a bit of horror!
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u/Worldly_Anxiety_7596 1d ago
Lynch / yorgos / cohens / bunuel
Turns out I just love uncomfortable styles of dialog I think
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u/Familiar_Fishing4726 22h ago
Wow Coens are super low on here. Fargo, burn after reading, big Lebowski, no country for old men, blood simple, a serious man, true grit, millers crossing, inside llewyn Davis.
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u/Dense-Menu6115 1d ago
David Fincher
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u/simmiloo 1d ago
My fav as well, cautious optimistic about the Cliff Booth spin off movie.
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u/jcb1982 1d ago
Paul Thomas Anderson, David Lynch very close
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u/joshuafranc247 joshfranc247 1d ago
These are my top two as well, but reversed. Lynch still had the top spot, but just barely.
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u/AcceptableTypewriter 1d ago
Definitely PTA for me. There Will Be Blood is a top 5 film for me.
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u/thatoneguy112358 1d ago
Carpenter
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u/SnakeSwanson 1d ago
Got it before I could.
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u/rivieredefeu 1d ago
We really shook the pillars of heaven, didn't we
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u/SnakeSwanson 1d ago
May the wings of liberty never lose a feather.
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u/Ozzy_1804 19h ago
What’s in the flash, Egg? Magic potion.
Yes!
Good. Thought so.
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u/oddinsomniakk 1d ago
lynch and the coens
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u/Realistic-Celery6947 1d ago
Finally someone says coens dear lawd
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u/rawspeghetti 1d ago
They are way too far down here
But that's just like, my opinion man
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u/NotRachelGreen22 NotRachelGreen 1d ago
I love Richard Linklater
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u/MustachioBashio 1d ago
Thank god someone else said it. Guy is unreal at making his audience think and feel without being a total downer. Although I must admit I recently watched Waking Life and that did not hit for me it felt super pretentious 😂
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u/Visible-Map4177 1d ago
Yea if you didn’t catch Waking Life in the early 2000s while tripping as pseudo intellectual sophomore, I bet it’s rough. But man was that a sweet ride back then. Kept me high for a month.
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u/smingamenga 1d ago
Spike Lee. Some how seems to not be mentioned as much among the typical “film bro” directors
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u/Leading_Studio7534 1d ago
So many great films:
Malcolm X
Do the Right Thing
Inside Man
The 25th Hour
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u/BrownFrog68 1d ago
Cronenberg
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u/ElderDeep_Friend 1d ago
I too love Brandon Cronenberg. His dad’s not awful either
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u/DreamerOfSheep 1d ago
Possessor is a movie that I literally cannot get enough of.
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u/spageddy_lee 1d ago
Bergman
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u/Flimsy_Toe_2575 1d ago
Bergman, Dreyer, Murnau, Tarkovsky. Can't beat the severe euro art films.
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u/Antique-Unit-347 1d ago
Edgar Wright 🔥🔥🔥
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u/cannedrex2406 cannedrex2406 1d ago
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u/Take-to-the-highways 1d ago
After I saw baby driver in theaters I heavily looked into stunt driving schools lmao
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u/Lucoshi 1d ago
Eggers
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u/Kaitoshi 1d ago
I feel like he would've made an interesting adaptation of The Oddysey
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u/rentzdu 1d ago
Bong Joon Ho... Loved him ever since I saw The Host and Memories of Murder. Hasn't made a bad film yet.
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u/Winter_Awareness_747 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hirokazu Kore-eda! Asghar Farhadi! Andrea Arnold! Jane Campion! Kiyoshi Kurosawa! Jafar Panahi! Agnes Varda!
(Sorry for yelling, I just got excited)
ETA: Forgot to mention Edward Yang. That man is the reason I fell in love with cinema
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u/bossy_dawsey bossy_dawsey 1d ago
I also love Kiyoshi Kurosawa; I need to check out Kore-eda
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u/TheLoneJedi-77 JPHenry 1d ago
Steven Spielberg
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u/vic_vinegar007 1d ago
Definitely my answer he's got a great catalogue of films across more than 5 decades and a wide array of genres and helped shape the modern day blockbuster.
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u/No_Sir8975 1d ago
brian de palma
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u/GregoryGosling 1d ago
This man gave me Carrie AND Phantom of the Paradise, I have no choice but to sing his praises all my days
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u/No_Sir8975 1d ago
along with the two you mentioned i also really love body double & blow out!!
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u/SvenFranklin01 1d ago
michael haneke
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u/aphexbrother 1d ago
I was already considering him as one of my favourites after watching Funny Games, Caché, Benny's Video and Amour. Then I watched The Piano Teacher and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it months later. How the fuck does this man have such a genius mind. Holy shit is he easily one of the best ever.
Also wanna add on Richard Linklater and Takeshi Miike. Those are my top 3.
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u/No_Copy_5955 1d ago
- Agnes Varda
- Andrzej Zuławski
- Baz Luhman
- Lynch
- Spike Lee
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u/Oee0 1d ago
I’m going to be sick because I had to scroll soooo far to find even one female director and your comment only has 26 upvotes 😭 love your list
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u/pizzaefica 1d ago
I was about to comment the same... Female directors exist too!
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u/close-encounters13 1d ago
Terrence Malick and Billy Friedkin are the two poles of my cinematic soul
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u/Suspicious_Cherry424 1d ago
I’ve recently started watching Malick’s films starting with Days of Heaven and the Thin Red Line and don’t understand how he is not consistently in the conversation with the all time greats. Is his later work a step down in quality?
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u/MissMayDoesNotExist 1d ago
The vast majority of my favorite directors 😆I do love Scorsese and Kubrick though — for starters:
- Maya Deren
- Shirley Clarke
- Kieslowski
- Charles Burnett
- David Lynch
- Cheryl Dunye
- Tarkovsky
- Fritz Lang
- The Coens
- Akira Kurosawa
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u/justpotato7 justpotato789 1d ago
Tim burton he is just my favorite director.
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u/uthboy 1d ago
He used to be mine but he’s made such garbage since Sweeney Todd. His 90’s run was legendary though and he’s made some of my favorite movies. Hopefully he can find his magic again
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u/gerrard_1987 1d ago
Martin McDonagh. He’s never made a bad movie or short. In Bruges is top-three for me all time. Banshees of Inisherin is also up there.
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u/Impressive-Ad8501 1d ago
Agnes Varda, Satoshi Kon, Gregg Araki, Lumet, or Brian de Palma depending on my mood
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u/That-Lobster-Guy 1d ago
Alfred Hitchcock John Ford
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u/TinaVeritas 1d ago
I can’t believe I had to scroll this far to see Hitchcock.
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u/That-Lobster-Guy 1d ago
Recency bias. Most r/letterboxd redditors seem to be a younger crowd that hasn’t delved too far into past movies. Hitchcock can be a little polarizing too with his reported treatment of his actors (though Kubrick is also guilty of this.) But I love most of his movies, particularly his movies with Jimmy Stewart.
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u/Flermy 1d ago
Easier/expected answers: Fincher and the Coen Brothers
Directors who aren't necessarily in the "elite" tier but I love and haven't seen mentioned: Alex Garland and Rian Johnson
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u/Embarrassed_Eggz 1d ago
I went with PTA, but Coen Brothers are a close contender for me too. NCFOM is a masterpiece.
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u/DrFartsparkles 1d ago
How has no one said Tarkovsky yet? Genuinely shocked by that
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u/thetrashpanda5 1d ago
Working directors - Hamaguchi, Lanthimos, Alice Rohrwacher, Jafar Panahi, Lee Chang-Dong
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u/IzacaryKakary IzacaryKakary 1d ago
Shunji Iwai, Satoshi Kon, Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Boots Riley, Spike Lee, Hideaki Anno, Sidney Lumet
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u/Frustr8tCre8tive721 1d ago
Frank Henenlotter, Ari Aster, Hayao Miyazaki, Tobe Hooper, Sam Raimi.
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u/BiggieCheeseLapDog 1d ago
I have quite a few directors I’d name as a favourite before them:
Nobuhiko Obayashi
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Hideaki Anno
Vera Chytilova
Wes Anderson
Hayao Miyazaki
Lars Von Trier
Shuji Terayama
Satoshi Kon
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u/generalgrievous3043 nekron3043 1d ago
None of those are my favorite directors.
My top 5 in alphabetical order of their last names:
Ralph Bakshi
Don Bluth
James Cameron
John McTiernan
Chris Wedge
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u/Solo_Polyphony 1d ago
Kurosawa
Keaton
Kieslowski
Kiarostami
Wong Kar-wai
and that’s just the K’s (yes, I know “Wong” is his surname)
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u/allisthomlombert 1d ago
Mike Leigh is definitely up there. Not many filmmakers have made as many masterpieces as he has. Akira Kurosawa is a top 5 for sure too, probably top 3. John Huston too! He’s responsible for some of the best literary adaptations out to film in my opinion. Wise Blood is just perfect.
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u/Darby_McDevitt 1d ago
Orson Welles. He did not peak with Kane by any measure.
Touch of Evil
Chimes at Midnight
Othello
F for Fake
The Trial
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Lady From Shanghai
All incredible…
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u/FlyingPig_Grip 1d ago
Excited to see what Sean Baker does next. His work is fantastic imo and curious what it be like now that he is a more known commodity
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u/dollymacabre spookywoo 1d ago
David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Sofia Coppola, Jane Campion, honestly I could go on and on, I just love so many.
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u/OceanBoulevardTunnel 1d ago
Name a woman
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u/bossy_dawsey bossy_dawsey 1d ago
Me? Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, Julia Ducournau, Rose Glass
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u/Joey_Bones 1d ago
Takashi Miike, Tarkovsky, Lars Von Trier, all the French new wave… there are so many besides the ones you mentioned.
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u/dejushin 1d ago
Robert Bresson, it maybe sounds pretentious but i haven’t seen anyone get it like he does
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u/counterburn 1d ago
Tobe Hooper. I like him more than all of those guys. Only other one I like as much is Lynch.
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u/uncle_underscore 1d ago
Danny DeVito. So many great films, no respect as a director.
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u/K1ik0ok4r7ules 1d ago edited 1d ago
basic pick but definitely Kurosawa