The Greatest Directors Ever

TOTAL FILM had the balls to put together yet another Top 100 list: This time it's the greatest directors ever ... and guess which place Fincher snatched?

The problems with these kinds of rankings are manifold: They cannot ever be accurate! You will find a dozen or more details in every list you will entirely disagree with! And of course it is a matter of personal tastes: How do you even begin to value the works of Fritz Lang against Quentin Tarantino's? They are two profoundly different characters, with varied styles and even from very different aeras! How do you place Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman and Billy Wilder and a ton of other guys on the same list and try to put them in a reasonable order?

I am certain you ask a hundred different people you will get a hundred different lists. Or even better: You get the internet community to vote (as does IMDB) you will end up with a list that mingles hardcore fanboys, bashers and cineasts and chunks out a list nobody can fully agree with.

The only way I believe you can look at these lists is as an indicator or expression of personal taste; in this case of the folks over at Total Film -- who, I am sure, have spend weeks arguing and compromising about the order!

To the great joy and surprise of us fanatics, David Fincher has scored a phenomenal 10th place, outranking talents and masters such as James Cameron, Tim Burton, Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, Terrence Malick, Billy Wilder and Quentin Tarantino.

And quite frankly, the first thing I was thinking: I would love to hear Fincher's opinion on this. I bet he hates lists alltogether!

So with hopefully many masterpiece-movies more to come you can only wonder which place Fincher will take in 20, 30 years!?

Thanks to Shannon for the link! Hop over and have a look. And feel free to discuss what you think ...

The Greatest Directors Ever - Part I
The Greatest Directors Ever - Part II