This one is a no-brainer for me: Steven Spielberg. And that’s because his Raiders of the Lost Ark is the movie that made me fall in love with movies. I was 12 years old the summer the film was released, and it completely blew my geeky little mind, and I have been forever since chasing the feeling of enraptured escapism that movie created in me.
Sep 25, 2023·edited Sep 25, 2023Liked by MaryAnn Johanson
I have always dreaded answering questions of this nature. What's your favourite book? Your favourite author? Painting? Film? It depends so much on the mood of the day - what you could fancy!
I don't have one altogether favourite film director - but I have quite a few I admire.
I'm sorry to say that Steven Spielberg is not among them though. The only film by him that I really liked was Schindler's List. And even there I'm still gnashing my teeth because somebody decided to rename Thomas Keneally's original title of Schindler's Ark with the bland term List. Hadn't anybody at the studio ever heard of the story of Noah, or of the Ark of the Covenant?
Amongst my favourite film directors - in no particular order - are David Lean, Carol Reed, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Renoir, Buster Keaton and Orson Welles. These directros were masters of their craft, and were not producing formulaic pap to fill screens and pass the time. They produced films that made people think - and were, many of them, pioneers of their technique. I can watch films like Brief Encounter, North by Northwest and The Third Man again and again and still take delight in them.
So that's as close as I'm going to get to nominating a favourite director. But if you really twist my arm - OK, if I have to name one I'll go for Stanley Kubrick! And my favourites amongst his films? 2001 A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. Brilliant films produced by a completely obsessed director! (You don't create art unless you are obsessed!)
It sounds like such a cliche, but it really is Alfred Hitchcock for me. When I was a kid, I stumbled onto Rebecca on tv and fell in love with it. Then I watched his other films, and adored them, as well. It’s not just that he knows how to stage and cut a scene (I didn’t know about any of that when I was a kid). It’s how he cast beloved actors in morally ambiguous roles (especially Grant and Stewart). It’s how he EXCELS at building scenes in which women interact with one another, filling them with multiple subtle interactions as they have dinner, for example. God, I love his films!
Of current directors: I agree with your choice of Steven Spielberg.
All time it's Akira Kurosawa. He's the director of my favorite film, Seven Samurai, as well as Ikiru, Kagemusha, Yojimbo, Rashomon, and others, all of which are great films.
I have always dreaded answering questions of this nature. What's your favourite book? Your favourite author? Painting? Film? It depends so much on the mood of the day - what you could fancy!
I don't have one altogether favourite film director - but I have quite a few I admire.
I'm sorry to say that Steven Spielberg is not among them though. The only film by him that I really liked was Schindler's List. And even there I'm still gnashing my teeth because somebody decided to rename Thomas Keneally's original title of Schindler's Ark with the bland term List. Hadn't anybody at the studio ever heard of the story of Noah, or of the Ark of the Covenant?
Amongst my favourite film directors - in no particular order - are David Lean, Carol Reed, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Renoir, Buster Keaton and Orson Welles. These directros were masters of their craft, and were not producing formulaic pap to fill screens and pass the time. They produced films that made people think - and were, many of them, pioneers of their technique. I can watch films like Brief Encounter, North by Northwest and The Third Man again and again and still take delight in them.
So that's as close as I'm going to get to nominating a favourite director. But if you really twist my arm - OK, if I have to name one I'll go for Stanley Kubrick! And my favourites amongst his films? 2001 A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. Brilliant films produced by a completely obsessed director! (You don't create art unless you are obsessed!)
It sounds like such a cliche, but it really is Alfred Hitchcock for me. When I was a kid, I stumbled onto Rebecca on tv and fell in love with it. Then I watched his other films, and adored them, as well. It’s not just that he knows how to stage and cut a scene (I didn’t know about any of that when I was a kid). It’s how he cast beloved actors in morally ambiguous roles (especially Grant and Stewart). It’s how he EXCELS at building scenes in which women interact with one another, filling them with multiple subtle interactions as they have dinner, for example. God, I love his films!
Of current directors: I agree with your choice of Steven Spielberg.
All time it's Akira Kurosawa. He's the director of my favorite film, Seven Samurai, as well as Ikiru, Kagemusha, Yojimbo, Rashomon, and others, all of which are great films.