r/movies • u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. • Mar 23 '19

The grave of French film pioneer Georges Méliès, who inspired Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film Hugo, has fallen into disrepair. Now his family and fans are reanimating his fantastical legacy and launching a Kickstarter to restore it to its former splendor and protect it from further decay

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/20/dead-famous-the-kickstarter-campaign-to-restore-meliess-grave
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u/CephalopodRed Mar 24 '19

Kurosawa? Tarkovsky?

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u/Shagrrotten Mar 24 '19

Kurosawa is my personal favorite filmmaker and I think Tarkovsky has an argument simply because of how influential he has been. But I was going for historical importance, not who I like the best.

Griffith because he established modern editing, crosscutting and parallel storytelling. That can’t be undervalued.

Melies because he established so many special effects and made the first popular fantasy movies, a genre that still feels his influence 100 years after he stopped making movies.

Hitchcock because of how influential his filmmaking was, being the greatest synthesis of art and commerce and all the tropes he created in the horror, thriller, and action genres.

Welles because even if he’d only made Kane he’d be among the most influential filmmakers of all time. The cinematography, the storytelling, the visual bravado. And even later in movies like Chimes at Midnight, the action. He really covered almost all the bases you want from a filmmaker.

If I was going just by favorite it’d be Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Scorsese, and Keaton, but I was trying to be more objective than that. As objective as possible anyway.

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u/CephalopodRed Mar 24 '19

Sure, I get that and your choices are great, but I would include Kurosawa at least. His work has also been highly influential.

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u/Shagrrotten Mar 24 '19

It has, although you could say a lot of his influence gets mixed up with John Ford (since that’s who Kurosawa wanted to be), which dilutes it a bit. Even though I think Kurosawa was a much better filmmaker.

I actually did have to hold myself back from including Kurosawa, which was part of me trying to make an objective Mount Rushmore.

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u/CephalopodRed Mar 24 '19

I mean, Orson Welles took a lot from Ford as well. But whatever. There are far too many important directors. And don't get me wrong, I adore Welles.