As I sit here, revisiting some really amazing films, I contemplate my thoughts on who my favourite director working today is. Without a doubt if I put absolutely no real thought into it and just give you my knee-jerk reaction to such a question I have to say Darren Aronofsky. He’s everything I want in a filmmaker. He’s someone who puts characters first. If there isn’t something visceral happening with the main character in the film then he has little to no interest in making the movie. He was slated to take on the next iteration of the Wolverine franchise but later dropped off due to personal reasons but somehow his name being attached immediately made a franchise I have no hope for jump in credibility for the short period of time that he was set to work on it.
Aronofksy has made: Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler and Black Swan. In my view a 100% director. I won’t claim Pi to be his best work, but it definitely is an interesting film and looking at it as a first time feature for a filmmaker who would later give us some of the most beautifully designed character pieces where we never leave a film without knowing the main character’s true essence.
So thinking more and more about it I guess my love for Aronofsky isn’t unwarranted. He’s brilliant. However, taking a moment to contemplate my other options: Christopher Nolan (the new king of the action thriller), David Fincher (a pretty much perfect technical filmmaker), Jason Reitman (who refuses to be as audacious as some other filmmaker but consistently incredible within his genre) and Martin Scorsese (who just won’t stop making great cinema). Off the top of my head I can’t seem to think of anyone else worth mentioning.
However, I feel sometimes that while Scorsese will probably be the toughest to discredit in this argument, Aronofsky is the only of the five mentioned that never seems to lose his emotional base at any point through any of his films. He’s able to take independent filmmaking techniques and make the most unmarketable idea filmmable within budget making little to no sacrifices in the view of the art.
For me, it's a whole slew of them… Sofia Coppola, Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Terrence Malick, Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky, Todd Haynes, Wes Anderson, Mike Leigh, Pedro Almodovar, Wong Kar-Wai, and Guillermo del Toro. There's a whole lot more but I'll just leave you with the short list.
Tarantino and Sofia Coppola are also two of my favs, but for some reason when I sat down to write this the names I listed came to me more instinctual than the others. I should really check out some Almodovar films.
Mine would be Martin Scorsese
Good pick. What's your fav films from him?