Aaryk Noctivagus

David Lean was on the list... in fourth place.

Aaryk Noctivagus

I was thinking along the same lines.

harryfielder

And again to mention Mr Ken Russell....:

Aitch,

http://www.turnipnet.com/aitch/aitch/gallery.htm

Ted Holmes

Well said

TheLatePeterCook2

I'd have placed Carol Reed ahead of Lean, as he seems to have more empathy with actors and there seems to be more humanity in his films. I find that there is a coldness in Lean's work which makes his films easy to admire and hard to like.


My top 15 would be:

01. Hitchcock
02. Chaplin
03. Michael Powell
04. Carol Reed
05. Lean
06. Robert Hamer
07. Alex MacKendrick
08. Roy Ward Baker
09. L Anderson
10. Terence Fisher
11. Val Guest
12. J-Lee Thompson
13. Tony Richardson
14. Jack Clayton
15. Seth Holt

BerkFilmFan

Top three directors from the list of 25 directors that were previously posted in order of personal favorites: Mike Leigh, Ridley Scott, Alfred Hitchcock because each of them are original, fiercely independent and have produced some of my favorite movies.

dremble wedge

Danny Boyle at #14? I must say laughed outright...

That could only make sense in the sort of list where Paul W.S. Anderson is at #8!

stevie boy

Basil Dearden should be in the top 10

Cooper S

Amazed that Launder and Gilliat haven't been mentioned - quintessentially British film-makers who'd certainly be in my top 21 as writer/directors. And the Boulting brothers don't seem to have had a look in either.

'I've only got one spare'

'Well, borrow one !'

stevie boy

both good shouts

Sean Kaye-Smith

...I'd say. But I would replace Mike Leigh with Derek Jarman.

As for John Boorman, I'm really glad you put him high in your list, but, with respect, I am tired of hearing that only some of his films work. Everything from 'Catch Us If You Can' (1965) to 'Hope and Glory' (1987) is wonderful. That includes the extraordinary 'Zardoz' (1974) - is there another British film remotely like it? And the excellent 'The Exorcist II - The Heretic' (1977), a brave and haunting meditation on the horror film which hysterical American audiences (and Mark Kermode of course) couldn't cope with. After 1990 his work is often less striking, but consider the last twenty years or so of similarly great film makers like Nic Roeg and Ken Russell and Boorman's later career has been triumphant in comparison.
Roll on 'Memoirs of Hadrian': will we ever get it?

GRAEME

I think The General is the only Boorman film I have thought worthy of the praise heeped upon this overated director.

Deliverance aside, Zardoz is mostly inane; Point Blank pretentious and Exorcist II is just about the worst film I have ever seen! I saw Heretic in a double bill with the original and it was laugh out loud bad. "a brave and haunting meditation on the horror film" are you being sarcastic?

All men leak.

dremble wedge

Excalibur makes up for a hundred Exorcist IIs.

philly

This is an alternative top 21 british directors that i have collated from the top 1000 greatest films poll at "they shoot films don't they site"
1. ALFRED HITCHCOCK
2. CHARLES CHAPLIN
3. DAVID LEAN
4. MICHAEL POWELL/EMERIC PRESSBURGER
5. CAROL REED
6. RIDLEY SCOTT
7. NICHOLAS ROEG
8. JOHN BOORMAN
9. JAMES WHALE
10. TERRY GILLIAM
11. HUMPHREY JENNINGS
12. LAURENCE OLIVIER
13. BILL FORSYTH
14. TERRY JONES
15. ALEXANDER MACKENDRICK
16. KEN LOACH
17. LINDSAY ANDERSON
18. KAREL REISZ
19. TERENCE DAVIES
20. TONY RICHARDSON
21. MIKE LEIGH
This list has interestingly thrown up a few names that are not listed in the post, i personally would have liked to have seen PETER WATKINS an underrated director who can be now reappraised as most of his films have been released or will be released by the end of the year

Third Man

Anthony Asquith should be on this list as a few have already said especially when you think of films like The Browning Version, Pygmalion and Cottage on Dartmoor. Perhaps his examination of the upper classes in his more lauded films is seen as not very trendy and an acquired taste?
Simon