1. Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)
For me, this man is the whole reason I got into filmmaking. Firstly he was a specialist in his field- suspense. This man could create suspense out of simply anything from the progressive gathering of birds on a childrens climbing frame (The Birds, 1963) to Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint hanging hundreds of feet off Mount Rushmore (North By Northwest, 1959).
Furthermore by looking at the list of films on his C.V you can see the acomplishments he made from film. Firstly he is one of small collective of British Directors who becomes a huge sucess in his homeland and goes on to do the same in Hollywood and in addition to this he was a director for almost 60 years, most of them being at the top of his game. How many of them can you list today?
So let's start at beginning. During the 1920's Hitchcock managed to get involved in the Film Industry through title design, art direction, assistant directing and eventully onto directing. This all came via a period of experience spent in Germany during the countries era of its greatest influence on cinema, the Expressionist movement. This being something that would greatly influence Hitchcock's career. During the 1920's he started to develop his techniques for the mystery, thrillers and suspense with films such as The Lodger (1927) and Blackmail (1929), the latter being credited as the first British 'talkie' (something that I will bring up later). During the 1930's he carried on producing some of the great films of British cinema such as The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1939) until Hollywood came calling in the form of David O. Selznick, the producer behind such films as Gone With The Wind (1939).
Through the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's Alfred Hitchcock mastered the art of suspense and created some of the most famous films of their era. Rebecca (1940), Shadow Of A Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Strangers On A Train (1951), Dial 'M' For Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964) are just some of the infamous films he made before you start looking deeper into his work and discover his hidden gems. How many more directors can boost so many excellent, famous films over that length of time?
Hitchcock was also a man who wasn't afraid of trying new ideas in either imagery or story. Even harking back to the 1920's Hitchcock was constantly trying out new and clever ideas. The use of sound first used in Blackmail (1929) is an excellent example of Hitchcock taking a brand new technology and utilising it to its best use. A fine example is when the female lead in the film becomes more scared and paranoid over the word 'knife' (which is clearly emphasised through the power of sound) after she stabs a man in self defense. Hitchcock's fondness for technique and illusion carried on with the idea of a film as one long take (albeit being several finely placed edits) taking place in realtime in Rope (1948), the ingenius use of the 'dolly zoom' used in Vertigo (1958) and the use of editing to create presumption and illusion in the shower scene from Psycho (1960) a film which could be described as the first 'slasher' horror. How many of them do we have today. All this from a man who never won an Oscar.
It's no suprise I did my Dissertation on Hitchcock's influence on modern cinema. To me, he was man who firstly enjoyed telling a good simple story that pulls at the nerves of the viewer to create suspense and scattering them with ideas and techniques that at the time were a gamble (some of his techniques did fail) and more importantly ahead of his time.
Favourite Hitchcock Film: Vertigo (1958)
I'm a huge Hitchcock fan and I could talk about him all day but I won't. However the next four directors won't get as much coverage as Alfred Hitchcock. Simply because I like their films and I don't know as much about them as I do Hitchcock.
2. Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999)
To me, Stanley Kubrick was so much the opposite of Hitchcock yet in some ways very simular. Firstly, Hitchcock made 67 films over 54 years. Whilst Kubrick made just 16 films over 48 years. However both has sucess on both sides of the Atlantic and were amazing visionaries.
Kubrick though was not like Hitchcock a man to stick to one genre. In fact almost every film he tried a new idea, a new look, a new genre. His first set of films Flying Padre (1951) and Day Of The Fight (1951) were short documentary films. Kubrick through seemed to progress through a steady cycle of ideas and genre so that by the time he reached his last film Eyes Wide Shut (1999), he was a million miles away from were he started at. After trying his hand at Crime Thrillers with Killer's Kiss (1955) and The Killing (1956) Kubrick moved onto films that involved either wars or revolution with Paths Of Glory (1957), Spactacus (1960) and Dr. Strangelove (1964). While Paths Of Glory (1957) is an excellent War film, Spactacus is a great example of the 'Swords and Sandals' of the late 1950's/early 1960's and Dr. Strangelove is a superb satrical look on the dark serious issues surrounding the Cold War. Two years before Dr. Strangelove Kubrick made yet an another excellent film from a contraversial matter with his adaption of Nabokov's Lolita (1962). This over the ten years would start another cycle of Kubrick's, his contraversial films.
Lolita in many shape and forms is a name synomomous with contraversy and being frowned upon even in todays warped cultures. At times showing war through comedy, although effective can be contraversial if handled wrong, 2001: A Space Odyssey could even be viewed as religiously contraverstial (but aren't alot of things sci-fi?) whilst A Clockwork Orange (1971) is perhaps one of the most contraverstial films ever to grace cinema with its looks on violence. However Kubrick managed to handle all of these films spot on with amazing results.
It was with 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971) that Kubrick more of a visual visual and technical genius in the world of cinema. The effects used in 2001: A Space Odyssey were way ahead of the time and still look spectacular today. This along with A Clockwork Orange (1971) used amazing use of editing (the infamous 'match cut' from 2001 and Alex watching the film while receiving therapy in A Clockwork Orange).
After A Clockwork Orange (1971), Kubrick became even more sparse in his film making as he made just 4 films in 25 years. In 1975 he made Barry Lyndon (1975) which was Kubrick's attempt at a costume drama/romance but again revisited the idea of war, a theme he would once more return to. In 1980, Kubrick made his first and only foray into Horror with The Shining (1980). Another example of Kubrick being a visual genius and showing that he is perfectly capable of being able to built up suspense and tension on the viewer as much as Hitchcock could. Seven years on Kubrick made Full Metal Jacket, returning to a film on the horrors of reflected this time through Vietnam and regarded as one of the best examples of a war movie. By now films such as Platoon (1986) and Apocalypse Now (1979) had shown the horrors of war but this is something Kubrick had been doing since Paths Of Glory (1957). His final film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) was perhaps at first something of an enigma as alot of people regard as his worst film, however ten years since its release this is a film that has evolved and fitted perfected into the jigsaw of the works of Stanley Kubrick. Firstly several of his themes re-appear that emerged from previous such as erotica (Lolita and to an extent A Clockwork Orange) and romance (again, Lolita, Barry Lyndon and Spactacus). These tied in with Kubricks excellent imagery and eye for detail in what he personally described as his best film. It will never be known if Kubrick had reached a final edit of the film and it is by know means his best work, however it underlines and concludes everything great about Kubrick. A director who took his time on films in order to create near perfection through amazing imagery and although he used re-occuring themes he was never afraid of venturing and suceeding in different genres of films.
Favourite Kubrick Film: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
3. Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
As you may to guess right now, my choice in favourite directors are men who are visionaries who bring great imagery and imagination to their films (the next two will carry that theory). In Akira Kurosawa we are presented with a man who was so fond on detail from editing, direction of action all the way to the design of a costume. A man who was so determined to portray his vision onto film that through his painting training he would craft his storyboards as full scale paintings. It is no wonder that Western Cinema recognised his genius and paid seemingly great tribute by taking his Japanese classics and recreating them for Hollywood Cinema. The Magnificent Seven (1960) is a remake of Seven Samurai (1954), A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) and Last Man Standing (1996) is a remake of Yojimbo (1961). In addition to this ideas used by Kurosawa have been taken on board and used with different effect such as the idea of a princess being protected by peasants being a basis for Star Wars (1977) and the ideas of truth telling, a story within a story and character/audience manipulation in Rashomon (1950) being reused in The Usual Suspects (1995).
All this coming from a director who found himself heavily influenced by Western Film and Literature with Kurosawa being a huge fan of John Ford and alot of his works loosely based around Shakespeare works, Ran (1985) being the best example after being based on King Lear.
However to me it seems that Kurosawa was hugely influencial on the Western Cinema because of the way he made his films. Although his films are firmly set within Japanese culture they are crafted through the directors ideas to be recognisable through any style of cinema. In way simular to Shakespeare's stories being capable of being perfected adapted into any society, culture or age.
The setting and characters of Yojimbo (1961) could easily be re-imaged as a Wild West town full of Cowboys as they ultimately were. In Seven Samurai (1954) the use of editing and portrayal of the final battle sequence is so excellent put together that it could be re-created as a war battle in the Second World War, an ancient battle such as portrayed in 300 (2007) or the characters from Stray Dog (1948) being equally excepted as cops from New York, Chicago or Los Angeles.
Kurosawa to me was a man who amazed and inspired the greats of the Western Cinema that followed into carrying on or recreating his incredible ideas.
Favourite Kurosawa Film: Seven Samurai (1954)
4. David Lynch (1946-)
David Lynch comes to me as a director who has so many layers to his works. A man who is capable as creating a great thriller like Hitchcock, created something that is stunning and incredible to look at like Kurosawa and like Kubrick someone who has not been afraid to try new ideas. But look deeper into Lynch's work and you see that he creates darkness and disturbia out of the things we have come to symbolise out of happiness such as a leafy idillic American suburb in Blue Velvet (1986), something that has become common practise in modern viewings such as American Beauty (1999) and Desperate Housewives (2004-).
As much as Lynch pulls in the viewer into a mysterious he will equally cut them free and leave them in a sea of confusion with the audience being left with more questions than answers as he showed in Twin Peaks (1990-1991), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992), Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Drive (2001). However you could turn around and ask what is point in making a film that doesn't solve everything for you?
That is exactly the recent why you should appreciate the film. David Lynch has created use with a film that even after days, weeks, years maybe after viewing the film you are still asking questions. This may lead you to explore the film again and again for explanations and then telling your friends about 'the oddest and strangest film you've ever seen' and getting them to watch the film themselves. Before you know it the films popularaty has risen and in looking for the answers you appreciate the craftsmanship of David Lynch's films. Almost like the meaning of life, you may never know the answer, but in looking for it you appreciate everything in the middle. This has been carried on by films such as Memento (2000) and Donnie Darko (2001).
Another power of this tool that David Lynch uses is that eventually you may come to your own conclusion about what the film is about. But the unique thing is, that unlike the average Hollywood film were everyone who saw the film knows what it is about you can come away from a David Lynch with your own personal intrepretation.
Favourite David Lynch Film: Mulholland Drive (2001)
5. Steven Spielberg (1946-)
Spielberg is perhaps the most famous director of all time, definatelt of his era. Spielberg, portrays what the Hollywood Epic can be. From humble beginnings such as Duel (1971) Spielberg showed his capablility of creating a good story like his influences such as Hitchcock. As time goes on and Spielberg became more and more sucessful his films became more ambitious and more epic. Jaws was at first glance a film made out as good thriller but again with the little that Spielberg had he showed what he could.
Now alot of directors have shown this, but alot have failed at the big hurdle of creating a film that is accepted by critics and money makers. Spielberg is the best example of showing that it is possible of marrying the two together.
Films such as the Indiana Jones quadrilogy (1981, 1984, 1989, 2008) show that Spielberg can create a great adventure. Films such as Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977), E.T (1982) and Jurassic Park (1993) show Spielberg as being a director of using the lastest technology to its best use whilst films such as Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Munich (2005) show Spielberg portraying history and conscience into film.
To me, Spielberg is 'jack of all trades' on an Epic scale who can bring together the two poles of cinema viewers (critics and mainstream).
Favourite Spielberg Film: Jaws (1975)
