[General Discussion] Favorites (Actor/Actress, Director, Composer...) in Film and Television Productions

Originally Posted by sprouticus

Damn, great topic... I will limit it to 5 answers per category.

What Ghost Rider/Die Hard said.

Actors:

Sir Ian McKellen - Yes, he played Gandalf. Yes, he played Magneto. But before that he was James Whale in Gods and Monsters, he was every major Shakespearean role ever written at the Royal London, he was Amos Starkadder, and he was even the voice of Rudyard Kipling. The man is a fucking icon of the stage.

Peter O'Toole - The Lion in Winter, Lawrence, Man of LaMancha. This guy is heralded as one of the best stage actors of all time, and it transfers over to film exceptionally well. He's a bloody treasure. Even if he did do King Ralph.

Sir Alec Guinness - He was Feisal, he was General Yevgraf Zhivago, he was also Colonel Nicholson. Guinness is a brilliant actor. He can chew scenery around people, and yes. He was fucking Obi wan. The man was diverse and intensely talented.

Toshiro Mifune - Played Tajomaru, and was easily the most famous Japanese actor of his era. The dude is intensely talented, and brought a strength to the characters he played that's rarely been equaled. Kudos, sir.

Max Schreck - The German silent film star. Most famous for his portrayal of Graf Orlok, but his role in Peer Gynt is not to be overlooked. He was an incredibly important actor of the Stanislavski-method school, and gave way to many talented people, such as Benicio Del Toro, Al Pacino and Kevin Spacey. The guy is incredible.

Actresses

Natalie Portman - Yes, she's young. Yes, she's done some shoddy movies, but she's also been Mathilda, Sam, Evey and Jack's Girlfriend. The girl has a presence that just sucks me right in. She has a certain something that makes me really, really hopeful for what she'll do in the future. This is more a nod for potential than anything else.

Cate Blanchett - Another actor who largely gets a nod from me due to their stage acting prior to the film career. In terms of flicks, she does, however, have some stand outs. Jane Winslett-Richardson, Katherine Hepburn, Petal, Connie Falzone, Elizabeth... another one who's stage presence just blows me away.

Ingrid Bergman - The definition of an actress in her era. Casablanca, sure, but how about the role of Charlotte Andergast? The woman was denounced as "a horrible example of womanhood and a powerful influence for evil" by a democratic senator from Colorado. She was exiled to Italy, only to make a triumphant return to both stage and film. The woman is magnificent.

Louise Brooks - Dietrich? Garbo? Both could have had this spot, both probably deserve it. But I just prefer Louise's work. Pandroa's Box and Diary of a Young Girl are amazing performances. In an era where overacting was expected, she was subtle, she was nuanced, and she was absolutely stunning. Probably the single most interesting story of the silent film era, if you haven't read Looking for Lulu, you should. Her story is of an incredibly liberated woman who wouldn't be famous until decades after her retirement. She is probably the most amazing actress I've ever seen.

Anna Karina - Discovered by Godard, she went on to work in European cinema for a very good stretch of time. Une Femme est Une femme and Suzanne Simonin are two of her best roles, though I've been told her greatest work was in Begman's stage production of Apres la Repetition. Unfortunately, I've not seen it. She's not Louise Brooks, but she -is- incredibly talented.

Directors

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro - Now, granted, I think Jeunet is the more talented of the two, but I refuse to separate them. Even when Caro only does art design, he shows up heavily in the way the films look and feel. Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement... you can smell nouvelle vague all over them, and it's in the best possible way. No one has had more influence on the way I like my movies to look, other than maybe the next name that leaps to mind...

Terry Gilliam - Why? Because he made Brazil, that's why. Granted, I may have some professional bias here, but I think this guy just makes amazing looking films. Jabberwocky, Baron Munchhausen, and Twelve Monkeys... the guy just makes films I find completely absorbing. Can't complain about him at all. He also directed my favourite TV commercial of all time: Nike's Secret Tournament campaign, wherein some of the best footy players in the world competed in an underground match held in the bowels of an oil tanker. Amazingly well shot for a TV commercial. Just fantastic. He's also given my favourite quote ever on being passed over for a film. When WB skipped him for directing Harry Potter, he had this to say about Chris Columbus: "I was the perfect guy to do Harry Potter. I remember leaving the meeting, getting in my car, and driving for about two hours along Mullholland Drive just so angry. I mean, Chris Columbus' versions are terrible. Just dull. Pedestrian."

He's also set to do the film adaptation of Good Omens, and the Gorrilaz movies, which gives me hope for both. His stuff is just so Baroque. I fucking love it.

Wes Anderson - Okay, a bit of a hipster choice, maybe. But I don't care. Tenenbaums is one of the most impeccably made films I've ever seen. I have nothing but love for the way this guy makes films. Yes, he's so far up his own ass that hearing him talk makes me cringe. His self-promotion and ego are disgusting, but man, can this dude make movies that are both visualy and intellectually stimulating. Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, the Darjeeling Limited, Hotel Chevalier and Life Aquatic... the guy just makes films. A real hope for American film making to stay interesting. That being said, this choice could easily be swapped with Christopher Nolan, as they both make my list for the same reason Natalie Portman is on my list of actresses. I simply can't wait to see what they do over the course of their entire career. I could have flipped a coin, but as Sprout already mentioned Nolan, I decided to go with Anderson.

Yimou Zhang - Again, this is a coin flip for me. I was either going to go with Joon-ho Bong or Yimou Zhang, but I just recently rewatched Raise the Red Lantern, and that made the choice a little easier. Joon-Ho just doesn't have the work under his belt yet, as good as he is. And he is very, very good. He may one day surpass Yimou as the biggest director in Asia, but not yet. Hero is just too artistic, Raise the Red Lantern too precise. The guy is painting films on canvas, and it's very impressive to watch.

Hayao Miyazaki - BAM. Animator out of nowhere. This 5 people only thing makes is difficult, so I'm going to pull the less-likely choice out for this choice. Why? Because the son of a bitch creates worlds that I find amazing to experience. He tells fairy tales, in the classic sense, in these epic, sweeping ways. I'm not familiar with directing animation, won't pretened that I am, but I know that his stuff seems deeper, somehow, than 99% of the stuff out there.

I'm leaving off the really obvious choices, like Kubrick, the Coens, Cronenberg, Lynch and Kurasowa, because we all know they'll be brought up a million times by the end of this thread. Also, Tarantino is fucking rubbish. He should be relegated to making music videos.

Composers

Bernard Herrmann - Citizen Kane, Hangover Square, Vertigo, Psycho, Taxi Driver... the guy is just amazing.

Ennio Morricone - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 'Nuff said.

Maurice Jarre - Lawrence of Arabia. 'Nuff said.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Ever heard his score for the Adventures of Robin Hood? You should.

David Raksin - Soundtrack to Laura. End of discussion.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by sprouticus

Music videos? I could see someone saying that for someone like Paul WS Anderson or Steven Sommers, guys who make 90-minute music videos, but QT? Come on now. At least say something like "he should be relegated to making student films" if you're going to insult him

Also, agree ten-fold on Natalie Portman. Beautiful, elegant, and talented as all hell. She's brilliant, as is Scarlett Johansson.

Music videos. Big, long, Greedy Fly-esque music videos. I stand by it.

And Johansson strikes me as a Kat Hepburn type. She's going to put out a lot of nuanced roles and be very appreciated for her entire body of work, rather than one single movie.

Originally Posted by Arkhangelsk

Given my lack of exposure to lots of movies, I wasn't going to even try to name off any favorite directors, but I had completely forgotten about Gilliam. I love his stuff, although I'm still slightly peeved that he put Good Omens on the backburner to make Brothers Grimm. Of course, the prospect of the GO movie finally getting off the ground will make up for that .

He had to put movies on the backburner to do Brothers Grimm because he needed the money to finance Tideland. Which was unfortunate, because it sucked. And I say that having worked on the set of it. He had a vision for it, and it just didn't work out how he'd planned. Good Omens coming after those two movies is a good thing. He's done the cheap, tawdry commercial film in BG. And the barebones, minimalist schlock in Tideland. GO should be somewhere inbetween. Good on it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Megalith

All I see here is a bunch of cliched shit.

What about Liam Neeson or Michael Biehn.

The irony is staggering.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.