The Film I like Most by ________ _______ and Why!

[Alethia]

opinions change:

pta - punch-drunk love
wes anderson - bottle rocket
coen brothers - fargo
cameron crowe - TIE between say anything and almost famous
david fincher - ...i guess The Game, tho he's never truly impressed me yet
stanley kubrick - TIE between Dr. Strangelove and Clockwork Orange
david lynch - TIE between elephant man and mulholland drive
martin scorsese - raging bull
steven soderbergh - sex, lies, and videotape
steven spielberg - close encounters of the third kind
quentin tarantino - pulp fiction

[cine]

Charles Laughton - Night of the Hunter

Wasn't that his only film?

Damn right.

[Find Your Magali]

Since I could never pick one favorite Spielberg or PTA or Kurosawa film, I'll devote my answers a few of the directors who get somewhat less bulletin-board time here at xixax:

Alan J. Pakula -- All the President's Men
Sydney Pollack -- Tootsie
Errol Morris -- The Thin Blue Line
Henri-Georges Clouzot -- Wages of Fear
Robert Rossen -- The Hustler
Ermanno Olmi -- Il Posto
Sidney Lumet -- 12 Angry Men
Neil LaBute -- Nurse Betty

[ElPandaRoyal]

Paul Thomas Anderson - Magnolia
Wes Anderson - The Royal Tenenbaums
Coens - The Big Lebowski
Cameron Crowe - Jerry Maguire
David Fincher - Fight Club
Stanley Kubrick - A Clockwork Orange
David Lynch - Blue Velvet
Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver
Steven Soderbergh - Traffic
Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List
Quentin Tarantino - Jackie Brown

[Derek]

Paul Thomas Anderson - Magnolia
Wes Anderson - Rushmore
Coens - Fargo
Cameron Crowe - Almost Famous
David Fincher - eh.
Stanley Kubrick - The Shining
David Lynch - Mulholland Dr.
Martin Scorsese - Goodfellas
Steven Soderbergh - Traffic
Steven Spielberg - Schindler's List
Quentin Tarantino - Pulp Fiction (hopefully Kill Bill will eclipse it)

[Vile5]

*Kurosawa - Rashomon/Seven Samurai/Ikiru/Kagemusha/Dreams/ok, etc...
*Hitchcock - Rope/ Vertigo/ Rear Window/Psycho/The Man Who Knew Too Much/ ok, etc...
*Francis Ford Coppola - The Godfather I-II-III/Apocalypse Now
*Fellini - La Dolce Vita/ 8 1/2
*Chaplin - The Kid/ Modern Times
*Billy Wilder - Sunset Boulevard
*Scorsese - Taxi Driver/ GoodFellas/Raging Bull
*PTA - Boogie Nights/ Magnolia/ PDL
*Spike Jonze - Being John Malkovich
*Tarantino - Pulp Fiction
etccccccccc............

[godardian]

david fincher - ...i guess The Game, tho he's never truly impressed me yet

That is exactly my feeling.

[cine]

I'll be holding my breath with you waiting for J Lo to get that best actress nomination for Gigli....BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. OOOHHH!

what the hell does that even mean?  i refuse to believe you are 33 years old.

Yeah, sorry, but did this get resolved yet? Everytime I read his posts, I wonder how old he actually is... If someone could fill me in, that'd be great.

[pookiethecat]

boys don't cry by kimberly peirce. i really like how personal this was to the director.  it has flaws, but considering that this was a debut, it's quite astounding how well-made this movie is.  (shot composition, cinematography, direction of actors, music choices).

this is a new addition to the already established magnolia by paul thomas anderson, donnie darko by richard kelly, heavenly creatures by peter jackson list.

[Alexandro]

PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON - BOOGIE NIGHTS
Magnolia is a better film, but I enjoy this one a lot more. I've seen it hundreds of times and it never for a second feels any less fun or entertaining. The soundtrack absolutely rules and every actor shines both in dramatic and comedic moments. And it has some really cool homages to other films.

WES ANDERSON - THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
this is a masterpiece, you wanna get inside the screen and play with the children's toys and records. And it always makes me cry at the end.

THE COEN BROTHERS - THE BIG LEBOWSKI
This has to be the funniest movie in the world. The more I see it the more I love it. It's funny from all sorts of angles, and those characters are perfect, just perfectly written and performed by everyone. And it's visually interesting.

CAMERON CROWE - VANILLA SKY
I've never understood what all the complaints are about on this one...I think is more of an I hate hollywood-tom cruise attitude than anything else. I s better than Abre los Ojos, which wasa  hollywood concept from the beggining, and has a more interesting focus on love than the original. And Cruise is a better actor than the guy in the spanish version.

DAVID FINCHER - SE7EN
Fight Club is great and more current and relevant as a whole, but the second half kinda slows down or something and I usually lose interest by then. This one on the other hand, keeps surprising and creepy all the way to that terrific desert climax.

STANLEY KUBRICK - 2001
on eo f  the best films ever made by anyone anywhere

DAVID LYNCH - THE ELEPHANT MAN and THE STRAIGHT STORY
This was really hard cause i love all his movies, and some people may say this are the less lynchian movies he's made, but I disagree. This are as personal movies as any other, with all his usual details and stuff. The elephant man is for me, way more disturbing than any of his "horror" films, and it has a beauty and a love for life that's bittersweet and never corny. The same goes for A Straight Story, such a simple anecdote elevated to the status of epic odyssey.

MARTIN SCORSESE - GOOD FELLAS
Even harder for me, but Good fellas is my favorite movie ever and it's never a letdown at no point. Raging Bull, however, would be his very best film I guess.

STEVEN SODERBEGH - OUT OF SIGHT
the perfect balance between intelligent and light. very classy without feeling like a whorish attempt to cash some big bucks like ocean's eleven. And J Lo is hot.

STEVEN SPIELBERG - A.I.
probably the most underrated film so far this century

QUENTIN TARANTINO - PULP FICTION
a masterpice of timing and performance...this movie changed everything back in 1994

[Ravi]

PTA - Magnolia
An openly emotional and honest film.  PTA bearing his soul through these characters.

Wes Anderson - Royal Tenenbaums
Its great to go on a journey with these characters.  WA creates a world that is both somewhat surreal and real and relatable.

Tim Burton - Pee Wee's Big Adventure
The ultimate feel-good movie.  I feel happy whenever I watch it.

Hitchcock - Vertigo
Terrific film about the nature of illusion vs. reality, desire, obsession.  Gorgeous visualization of the themes.

Scorsese - Taxi Driver
Brilliant film about anger, self-loathing, loneliness, and redemption.

[soixante]

PTA -- Boogie Nights.  

Wes Anderson -- Rushmore.

Coen Bros. -- Raising Arizona.  Hudsucker Proxy is underrated.

Crowe -- Jerry Maguire

Fincher -- Fight Club

Kubrick -- Barry Lyndon

Lynch -- Blue Velvet

Scorsese -- Mean Streets

Soderbergh -- Traffic

Spielberg -- Raiders of the Lost Ark

QT -- Pulp Fiction

Also:

Godard (My Life to Live), Penn (Bonnie and Clyde), Nichols (Carnal Knowledge), Fosse (Star 80), Coppola (The Conversation), Polanski (Rosemary's Baby), Boorman (Deliverance), Lester (Petulia), Ashby (Shampoo), Pakula (All The President's Men), Cimino (Deer Hunter), Ballard (Black Stallion), Allen (Annie Hall), Altman (McCabe and Mrs. Miller), Rafelson (Five Easy Pieces), Peckinpah (Straw Dogs), Friedkin (French Connection), Ritchie (The Candidate), Malick (Days of Heaven), Reisz (The Gambler), Russell (Women in Love), Leigh (Naked), Eastwood (Unforgiven), Linklater (Dazed and Confused), Van Sant (Elephant), Toback (Black and White), Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon), Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Haynes (Safe), Schrader (Blue Collar), Ivory (Remains of the Day), R. Scott (Black Hawk Down), T. Scott (True Romance), Payne (About Schmidt), Fuller (Big Red One), Demme (Melvin and Howard), Sayles (Return of Secaucus 7), Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy), Schatzberg (Scarecrow), Kaufman (Unbearable Lightness of Being), Stillman (Metropolitan), Lucas (American Graffiti), Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant), Stone (Natural Born Killers), Solondz (Happiness), Welles (Citizen Kane), Hitchcock (Psycho), Ford (The Searchers), Wilder (Sunset Boulevard), Kazan (Streetcar Named Desire), Fellini (La Strada), Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin), Renoir (Rules of the Game).

[cine]

AND WHY, SOIXANTE!

[soixante]

PTA == Boogie Nights.  Magnolia is great, but Boogie Nights is perfect.

Wes == Rushmore.  What was fresh and funny in 1998 became too cute in Life Aquatic.

Coens == Raising Arizona.  Their funniest film.  Great performances by John Goodman and Cage.

Crowe == Jerry Maguire.  Not a huge Crowe fan, but it does take us into a world I've never seen before -- that of sports agents.

Fincher == Fight Club.  Seven was also great, but Fight Club is prophetic -- it ends with skyscrapers imploding.

Kubrick == Barry Lyndon.  Kubrick's icy detachment and penchant for perfectionism have never been put to better use.

Lynch == Blue Velvet.  Dennis Hopper creates one of the most memorable villains in film history.

Scorsese == Mean Streets.  Scorsese's rawest, most personal film.  There's nothing more exciting than when a major artist first achieves mastery of his craft.

Soderbergh == Traffic.  Great acting.  Unique color scheme.

Spielberg == Raiders of the Lost Ark.  One great action set piece after another.

Tarantino == Pulp Fiction.  Despite the complexity of the structure, the storyline is always clear-cut.  Almost every line of dialogue is quotable.

As for the others, I'll have to tackle that another time.

[Tommy Both]

pta - boogie nights (most watched, most accesible for repeated viewing, screenplay, and everything else...)

wes anderson - rushmore (jason and bill / every little detail )

coen brothers - big lebowski ( experience )

cameron crowe - people are gonna hate me for saying this: vanilla sky (mood)

david fincher - fight club ( one of the nineties best )

stanley kubrick - strangelove ( i love u sellers )

david lynch - lost highway ( don't care it's pullman in the lead )

martin scorsese - taxi driver ( de niro and new york at its best)

steven soderbergh - traffic ( everything except dennis quaid, and a lil bit of zeta )

steven spielberg - Munich (2005)

quentin tarantino - pulp fiction ( why? because i say so )