Favorite Directors (w/their films rated)
by bubba_blais | created - 19 Mar 2012 | updated - 03 Jan 2016 | Publicmy favorite directors in a general order, with their films rated.
but about the ratings: i have fun rating but please note that ratings in general are not very serious or concrete and to take them with a grain of salt. you are welcome to disagree with them. they are personal and basically useless to others besides giving a general view. obviously though, a rating of "10" or "9.5" would represent examples of films i believe could be masterpieces. for me, "9.5" is basically the highest rating a film can get, the equivalent of a 4 star review or something. whereas a "10" is more or less the same "rating" as a 9.5; yet the two could sometimes be miles apart. a 10 can be completely overwhelming emotionally, or contain something extremely personal for me, or it could be as simple as a moment or an image that elevates it from a 9.5 to a 10. i'm not really sure, i rate a film a 10 because it feels right, i just kinda know.
8 represents a very good film that i'd recommend, but a 7 is more meh, and i'd say the positive aspect of a rating starts to dissipate at around 6.5 and lower. because anything below a 5 is basically all the same rating. what does it matter if it's a 4 or a 2.5? it's obvious i didn't like the film. i usually don't rate much lower than a 5, because i usually can get something, however small, from the directors on this list. so that's rating. take it however way you want.
all these ratings are subject to change for better or worse based on repeated viewings. films have ratings that reflect what i thought of when i saw it and that may have been a few years ago by now. it's possible for me to forget most of the film, or for my taste to change.
and yet, ratings don't matter.
the list is hopefully a nice balance of obvious choices and personal preference. likewise, if you don't see one of your favorites on this list, feel free to recommend them. films too. but keep in mind, there are many directors who i've only seen 1 or 2 of their films and feel i need to see more of before i add them. as well as directors i have planned to get into but not yet seen any of their films (there are lots). chances are that even if you don't see them i still like/have seen their work. and of course directors who i'm just not a fan of. there are lots on the outside looking in. and it isn't completely based around their films, my favorite directors are usually the ones i also find most interesting as people. the ones who's interviews and opinions i seek out, and who i watch documentaries about, things like that. most of the avant-garde type directors i admire i haven't included unless i have seen more than a few short films. the list leans more towards the directors themselves, as people.
i have a strong passion for the avant-garde. there are many experimental filmmakers i love, but in most cases listing and rating their films doesn't make much sense. so only a few have "transcended" and appeared here, and i more or less let them represent that world of filmmaking. maybe i need to make some sort of avant-garde filmmaker list.
lately, i haven't been updating the list with new faces so much as i've just updated the ones already here.
PS - the shorts that are listed also include music videos, and most other short work (videos, sometimes commercials, etc) besides short films. features are works over 45 minutes in length. in general, the short film ratings are considered separate from the feature ratings. and they are even more unreliable.
1. Stanley Kubrick
Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...
Features:
A Clockwork Orange - 10
2001: A Space Odyssey - 10
Barry Lyndon - 10
Eyes Wide Shut - 10
The Shining - 10
Paths of Glory - 10
The Killing - 10
Full Metal Jacket - 9.5
Dr. Strangelove - 9.5
Spartacus - 9
Lolita - 9
Killer's Kiss - 8.5
Fear and Desire - 5.5
Shorts:
Day of the Fight - 8
The Seafarers - 7
Flying Padre - 5
2. Terrence Malick
Writer | Days of Heaven
Terrence Malick was born in Ottawa, Illinois. His family subsequently lived in Oklahoma and he went to school in Austin, Texas. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy in 1965.
A member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, he attended Magdalen ...
Features: The Thin Red Line - 10 Badlands - 10 The Tree of Life - 10 The New World - 10 Days of Heaven - 10 To The Wonder - 8.5
3. Andrei Tarkovsky
Writer | Offret
The most famous Soviet film-maker since Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky (the son of noted poet Arseniy Tarkovsky) studied music and Arabic in Moscow before enrolling in the Soviet film school VGIK. He shot to international attention with his first feature, Ivan's Childhood (1962), which won the...
Features:
Nostalghia - 10
Stalker - 10
The Mirror - 10
Solaris - 9.5
Andrei Rublev - 9.5
Ivan's Childhood - 9
The Sacrifice - 8.5
Shorts:
The Killers (w/ Aleksandr Gordon, Marika Beiku) - 7.5
4. Werner Herzog
Director | Fitzcarraldo
Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has...
Features:
Aguirre: The Wrath of God - 10
Lessons of Darkness - 10
Little Dieter Needs to Fly - 10
Even Dwarfs Started Small - 9.5
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans - 9.5
Fata Morgana - 9.5
Wings of Hope - 9.5
Nosferatu the Vampyre - 9.5
Grizzly Man - 9.5
Stroszek - 9
Into the Abyss - 9
My Best Fiend - 9
Rescue Dawn - 9
The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner - 8.5
Where the Green Ants Dream - 8.5
Fitzcarraldo - 8.5
Ballad of the Little Soldier - 8.5
The Dark Glow of the Mountains - 8.5
The Wheel of Time - 8.5
The White Diamond - 8.5
Death for Five Voices - 8.5
Cave of Forgotten Dreams - 8.5
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (w/ Dmitry Vasyukov) - 8.5
Land of Silence and Darkness - 8
Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun - 8
Woyzeck - 8
Encounters at the End of the World - 8
Bells from the Deep - 8
Invincible - 8
How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck... - 8
Heart of Glass - 8
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser - 7.5
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done - 7.5
The Wild Blue Yonder - 6
Shorts:
La Soufriere - 9
Handicapped Future - 9
La bohème - 9
From One Second to the Next - 9
Werner Herzog: Self Portrait - 8.5
Herkales - 8
Pilgrimage - 7.5
The Flying Doctors of East Africa - 7.5
The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz - 7.5
Last Words - 7
Precautions Against Fanatics - 6
Huies Sermon - 6
Nobody Wants to Play With Me - 6
5. David Lynch
Writer | Twin Peaks
Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future ...
Features:
Mulholland Dr. - 10
Eraserhead - 10
Lost Highway - 10
The Elephant Man - 9.5
Inland Empire - 9.5
Twin Peaks Pilot - 9.5
Wild at Heart - 9
Blue Velvet - 9
The Straight Story - 8.5
Shorts:
Rabbits (43 mins) - 9.5
The Alphabet: Part 2 - 9.5
The Alphabet - 9
The 3 Rs - 9
Darkened Room - 8.5
Absurd Encounter with Fear - 8.5
The Grandmother - 8
Six Men Getting Sick - 8
I Touch a Red Button - 8
Dream #7 - 7.5
Crazy Clown Time - 7
The Amputee - 6.5
DumbLand - 6
6. Ingmar Bergman
Writer | Smultronstället
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born July 14, 1918, the son of a priest. The film and T.V. series, The Best Intentions (1992) is biographical and shows the early marriage of his parents. The film Sunday's Children (1992) depicts a bicycle journey with his father. In the miniseries Private Confessions (...
Features: Persona - 10 Fanny and Alexander (either version) - 10 The Silence - 10 Wild Strawberries - 9.5 Summer Interlude - 9 Cries and Whispers - 9 Winter Light - 9 The Seventh Seal - 9 Summer With Monika - 8.5 Hour of the Wolf - 8.5 The Passion of Anna - 8.5 The Magician - 8 Crisis - 8 Smiles of a Summer Night - 7.5 Autumn Sonata - 6
7. Harmony Korine
Director | Gummo
Harmony Korine was born in 1973 in Bolinas, California. His family moved to the east coast of the United States when he was five, and he spent his early years in Nashville, Tennessee, and New York. At the age of nineteen, he wrote the critically acclaimed screenplay Kids (1995) for director Larry ...
Features:
Gummo - 10
Julien Donkey-Boy - 10
Spring Breakers - 9.5
Trash Humpers - 9.5
Mister Lonely - 9.5
Shorts:
Umshini Wam - 10
Crutchnap - 10
The Legend of Cambo - 9
Sunday - 9
Lotus Community Workshop - 8.5
Mak and Plak - 8.5
Blood of Havana - 8.5
Act da Fool - 8.5
Gold on the Ceiling - 8
Curb Dance - 7
Snowballs - 5
8. Robert Bresson
Writer | Au hasard Balthazar
Robert Bresson trained as a painter before moving into films as a screenwriter, making a short film (atypically a comedy), Public Affairs (1934) in 1934. After spending more than a year as a German POW during World War II, he made his debut with Angels of Sin (1943) in 1943. His next film, The ...
Features: Au Hasard Balthazar - 10 Lancelot of the Lake - 10 The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne - 10 A Man Escaped - 9.5 Four Nights of a Dreamer - 9.5 Angels of Sin - 9 A Gentle Woman - 9 Mouchette - 8.5 Pickpocket - 8.5 Diary of a Country Priest - 7.5 L'Argent - 7.5 The Devil, Probably - 7
9. Martin Scorsese
Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...
Features:
Raging Bull - 10
After Hours - 9.5
Shutter Island - 9.5
Hugo - 9.5
The Departed - 9.5
Goodfellas - 9
Mean Streets - 9
The Aviator - 9
Who's That Knocking at my Door? - 8.5
The Wolf of Wall Street - 8.5
Gangs of New York - 8.5
Taxi Driver - 8
Cape Fear - 8
The King of Comedy - 7.5
The Color of Money - 7.5
Kundun - 7.5
Shorts:
The Neighbourhood - 8.5
The Key to Reserva - 8.5
It's Not Just You, Murray! - 8.5
The Big Shave - 8.5
What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? - 8
10. Buster Keaton
Actor | The General
Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...
Features:
Seven Chances - 10
Sherlock Jr. - 10
Our Hospitality - 9.5
The General - 9
The Navigator - 9
The Cameraman - 9
Battling Butler - 8.5
Spite Marriage - 8.5
Go West - 8
College - 8
Three Ages - 8
Shorts:
The Scarecrow - 10
Neighbors - 9.5
One Week - 9
The Goat - 9
The Paleface - 8.5
The Playhouse - 8.5
Cops - 8.5
Convict 13 - 8.5
Daydreams - 8
My Wife's Relations - 8
The Electric House - 8
The Haunted House - 8
The Blacksmith - 8
The Frozen North - 7.5
Hard Luck - 7.5
Streamline Swing - 7
*though sometimes he employed a co-director (ex. Eddie Cline) and even directed uncredited a couple times, he remains the creative genius and auteur behind the films listed
11. Béla Tarr
Producer | Werckmeister harmóniák
Béla Tarr was born on July 21, 1955 in Pécs, Hungary. He is a producer and director, known for Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), The Turin Horse (2011) and Satantango (1994). He is married to Ágnes Hranitzky.
Features:
Werckmeister Harmonies - 10
Sátántangó - 10
Damnation - 9.5
The Turin Horse - 9
The Man from London - 7.5
Macbeth - 7
Shorts:
Prologue - 10
*and sometimes Ágnes Hranitzky
12. Guy Maddin
Director | The Heart of the World
Guy Maddin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Herdis Maddin (a hair-dresser) and Charles "Chas" Maddin (grain clerk and general manager of the Maroons, a Winnipeg hockey team). Maddin studied economics at the University of Winnipeg, working as a bank manager, house painter, and photographic...
Features:
The Saddest Music in the World - 10
My Winnipeg - 10
Brand Upon the Brain! - 9.5
Cowards Bend the Knee - 8.5
Careful - 8.5
The Forbidden Room - 8
Archangel - 8
Tales from the Gimli Hospital - 8
Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary - 7.5
Keyhole - 7.5
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs - 6.5
Shorts:
The Heart of the World - 10
Hospital Fragment - 10
Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton - 9
My Dad is 100 Years Old - 9
The Dead Father - 9
Spanky: To the Pier and Back - 9
It's a Wonderful Life - 9
It's My Mother's Birthday Today - 8.5
Night Mayor - 8.5
Odin's Shield Maiden - 8
Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair - 8
A Trip to the Orphanage - 6
Sissy-Boy Slap-Happy - 5
Elms - 5 (w/ Evan Johnson)
13. Elia Kazan
Director | On the Waterfront
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...
Features: A Face in the Crowd - 10 East of Eden - 9.5 America America - 9.5 On the Waterfront - 9.5 Baby Doll - 9.5 Splendor in the Grass - 9 A Streetcar Named Desire - 8
14. Orson Welles
Actor | Citizen Kane
His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was ...
Features:
Citizen Kane - 10
The Lady From Shanghai - 9
F for Fake - 9
Touch of Evil (112 mins) - 8.5
The Trial - 8.5
Macbeth - 8.5
The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice - 8.5
The Magnificent Ambersons - 8
Mr. Arkadin (Comprehensive Version, 106 mins) - 8
The Stranger - 7.5
Shorts:
The Fountain of Youth - 8.5
The Heart of Age - 8.5
Vienna - 7.5
15. Francis Ford Coppola
Producer | Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...
Features:
Apocalypse Now - 10
Apocalypse Now Redux - 10
The Godfather - 10
The Godfather: Part II - 9.5
Rumble Fish - 9
Tetro - 9
Peggy Sue Got Married - 8.5
Dracula - 8.5
The Conversation - 7.5
Twixt - 5.5
Shorts:
Captain EO (in 2d) - 3
16. Luis Buñuel
Writer | Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education (which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior), and subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the ...
Features:
The Phantom of Liberty - 10
The Milky Way - 9.5
That Obscure Object of Desire - 9
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - 9
L'âge d'or - 9
Simon of the Desert - 9
Belle de jour - 8.5
Viridiana - 8.5
The Exterminating Angel - 8
The Brute - 7.5
Robinson Crusoe - 5.5
Shorts:
Un chien andalou - 8
Land Without Bread - 6.5
17. Akira Kurosawa
Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...
Features: Ikiru - 10 Ran - 9.5 Seven Samurai - 9.5 Sanjuro - 9.5 Rashômon - 9.5 Yojimbo - 8.5
18. François Truffaut
Writer | La nuit américaine
French director François Truffaut began to assiduously go to the movies at age seven. He was also a great reader but not a good pupil. He left school at 14 and started working. In 1947, aged 15, he founded a film club and met André Bazin, a French critic, who became his protector. Bazin helped the ...
Features:
Jules and Jim - 10
The 400 Blows - 9
The Last Metro - 8.5
Shoot the Piano Player - 8.5
Day for Night - 8.5
Fahrenheit 451 - 8.5
The Wild Boy - 8
Shorts:
A Story of Water (w/ Godard) - 8
19. Richard Linklater
Director | Waking Life
Self-taught writer-director Richard Stuart Linklater was born in Houston, Texas, to Diane Margaret (Krieger), who taught at a university, and Charles W. Linklater III. Richard was among the first and most successful talents to emerge during the American independent film renaissance of the 1990s. ...
Features: Dazed and Confused - 10 Before Midnight - 9.5 Before Sunset - 9.5 Before Sunrise - 9 Me and Orson Welles - 9 Boyhood - 8.5 Slacker - 8.5 Bernie - 8.5 Waking Life - 8.5 School of Rock - 8.5 A Scanner Darkly - 8
20. Nicolas Roeg
Director | Don't Look Now
When he made his directorial debut in 1970, Nicolas Roeg was already a 23-year veteran of the British film industry, starting out in 1947 as an editing apprentice and working his way up to cinematographer twelve years later. He first came to attention as part of the second unit on David Lean's ...
Features: Walkabout - 10 Don't Look Now - 10 The Man Who Fell to Earth - 9 Insignificance - 8.5 Track 29 - 8.5 Bad Timing - 8.5 The Witches - 8
21. Kar-Wai Wong
Director | Yi dai zong shi
Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1956) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Ah fei zing zyun (1990), Dung che sai duk (1994), Chung Hing sam lam (1994), Do lok tin si (1995), Chun gwong ...
Features: Days of Being Wild - 10 Chungking Express - 9.5 My Blueberry Nights - 9 Ashes of Time Redux - 8.5 In the Mood For Love - 8.5 As Tears Go By - 8.5 The Grandmaster - 8.5 Fallen Angels - 7
22. Samuel Fuller
Writer | Shock Corridor
At age 17, Samuel Fuller was the youngest reporter ever to be in charge of the events section of the New York Journal. After having participated in the European battle theater in World War II, he directed some minor action productions for which he mostly wrote the scripts himself and which he also ...
Features: I Shot Jesse James - 9 Pickup on South Street - 9 Shock Corridor - 9 The Naked Kiss - 8.5 Forty Guns - 8.5 The Big Red One (162 mins) - 8 The Steel Helmet - 8 White Dog - 7.5 The Baron of Arizona - 7
23. Paul Thomas Anderson
Director | Punch-Drunk Love
Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making...
Features:
There Will Be Blood - 10
Punch-Drunk Love - 9.5
Boogie Nights - 9.5
Magnolia - 9.5
Inherent Vice - 8.5
Sydney - 7.5
The Master - 7
Shorts:
Cigarettes & Coffee - 8.5
24. Robert Altman
Director | Gosford Park
Robert Altman was born on February 20th, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri, to B.C. (an insurance salesman) and Helen Altman. He entered St. Peters Catholic school at the age six, and spent a short time at a Catholic high school. From there, he went to Rockhurst High School. It was then that he started...
Features: McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 10 3 Women - 9.5 Nashville - 9.5 The Long Goodbye - 9 California Split - 8.5 M.A.S.H - 8.5 Thieves Like Us - 7.5 The Player - 7.5
25. Peter Greenaway
Director | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Peter Greenaway trained as a painter and began working as a film editor for the Central Office of Information in 1965. Shortly afterwards he started to make his own films. He has produced a wealth of short and feature-length films, but also paintings, novels and other books. He has held several ...
Features:
A Zed & Two Noughts - 9.5
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover - 9.5
The Falls - 9
The Draughtsman's Contract - 9
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story - 8
Nightwatching - 8
Shorts:
Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London & Oxfordshire, 1985 - 9.5
Just in Time - 9
Vertical Features Remake - 9
A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist - 8.5
European Showerbath - 8.5
Water Wrackets - 8.5
Intervals - 8
H is for House - 7.5
Dear Phone - 6
Windows - 6
26. Louis Malle
Director | Au revoir les enfants
Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies ...
Features:
Au Revoir Les Enfants - 9.5
The Fire Within - 9.5
My Dinner With Andre - 9.5
Elevator to the Gallows - 9.5
The Lovers - 8.5
Black Moon - 8.5
Murmur of the Heart - 8.5
Lacombe, Lucien - 8
Vanya on 42nd St. - 8
Zazie dans le metro - 8
Humain, trop humain - 7.5
Shorts:
Vive Le Tour - 8
Crazieologie - 8
27. Peter Watkins
Director | The War Game
Peter Watkins began his career in advertising as an assistant producer and turned to amateur filmmaking in the late 1950s. In the mid-'60s he was commissioned by BBC-TV to make two feature-length docudramas incorporating a quasi-newsreel style and nonprofessional actors. The second of these, The ...
Features: Edvard Munch - 10 The War Game - 9.5 Punishment Park - 9.5 Paris, la commune - 9.5 Culloden - 9 The Gladiators - 8 The Freethinker - 8
28. Jan Svankmajer
Director | Otesánek
After studying at the Institute of Industrial Arts and the Marionette Faculty of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s, Jan Svankmajer started working as a theatre director, chiefly in association with the Theatre of Masks and the Black Theatre. He first experimented with film-making after ...
Features:
Lunacy - 9
Alice - 9
Shorts:
Dimensions of Dialogue - 10
The Last Trick - 10
Darkness/Light/Darkness - 10
Virile Games - 10
Food - 9.5
Don Juan - 9
Jabberwocky - 9
Flora - 8
Meat Love - 8
Down to the Cellar - 7.5
29. Arthur Lipsett
Director | N-Zone
Arthur Lipsett was born on May 13, 1936 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was a director and editor, known for N-Zone (1970), A Trip Down Memory Lane (1965) and Free Fall (1964). He died on May 1, 1986 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Features:
N-Zone - 10
Shorts:
Very Nice, Very Nice - 10
Free Fall - 10
21-87 - 10
A Trip Down Memory Lane - 9.5
30. Agnès Varda
Director | Cléo de 5 à 7
Agnès Varda was born on May 30, 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on March 29, 2019 in Paris, France.
Features:
The Gleaners & I - 10
The Beaches of Agnès - 9.5
La Pointe Courte - 9
Cleo from 9 to 5 - 9
Two Years Later - 8.5
Vagabond - 8.5
Le Bonheur - 8.5
Daguerréotypes - 7.5
The World of Jacques Demy - 7
Shorts:
You've Got Beautiful Stairs You Know - 8.5
Diary of a Pregnant Woman - 8.5
Ydessa, the Bears and etc. - 8.5
Salut les Cubains - 8.5
Ulysse - 8
Plaisir d'amour en Iran - 8
Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald - 8
Rue Daguerre in 2005 - 8
Le lion volatil - 7.5
Women Reply - 7
31. Carl Theodor Dreyer
Writer | Gertrud
The illegitimate son of a Danish farmer and his Swedish housekeeper, Carl Theodor Dreyer was born in Copenhagen on the 3th of February, 1889. He spent his early years in various foster homes before being adopted by the Dreyers at the age of two. Contrary to popular belief (perhaps nourished by the ...
Features:
Day of Wrath - 9.5
Gertrud - 9.5
The Passion of Joan of Arc - 9
Ordet - 8.5
Vampyr - 8
Shorts:
They Caught the Ferry - 9.5
Thorvaldsen - 7
The Struggle Against Cancer - 5
32. Michael Haneke
Writer | Caché
A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world ...
Features: Cache - 10 The Seventh Continent - 10 Amour - 9 The White Ribbon - 9 Benny's Video - 8.5 Funny Games - 8.5 Code Unknown - 7.5
33. Federico Fellini
Writer | Le notti di Cabiria
The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the ...
Features: La Dolce Vita - 10 8 1/2 - 10 I Vitelloni - 9.5 La Strada - 8.5 Amarcord - 8
34. Ernst Lubitsch
Director | To Be or Not to Be
From Ernst Lubitsch's experiences in Sophien Gymnasium (high school) theater, he decided to leave school at the age of 16 and pursue a career on the stage. He had to compromise with his father and keep the account books for the family tailor business while he acted in cabarets and music halls at ...
Features: The Shop Around the Corner - 10 To Be or Not to Be - 9.5 Heaven Can Wait - 9 The Smiling Lieutenant - 8.5 Ninotchka - 8.5 Design for Living - 8 Trouble in Paradise - 8 Meyer in Berlin - 7.5 The Merry Jail - 7.5
35. Jean-Luc Godard
Director | Bande à part
Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the second of four children in a bourgeois Franco-Swiss family. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic, and his mother came from a preeminent family of Swiss bankers. During World War II Godard became a naturalized citizen of ...
Features:
A Woman is a Woman - 10
Band of Outsiders - 9.5
A Married Woman - 9
Goodbye to Language 3D - 8.5
In Praise of Love - 8.5
Pierrot le fou - 8.5
Breathless - 8.5
Numero Deux - 8.5
Vivre Sa Vie - 8
La Chinoise - 8
Masculine Feminine - 7.5
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her - 7
Made in U.S.A - 7
Contempt - 6.5
Shorts:
Une Catastrophe - 8.5
All the Boys are Called Patrick - 8
A Story of Water (w/ Truffaut) - 8
Charlotte and Her Boyfriend - 6.5
The Three Disasters - 6
36. Lars von Trier
Writer | Dancer in the Dark
Probably the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer over 60 years earlier, Lars von Trier studied film at the Danish Film School and attracted international attention with his very first feature, The Element of Crime (1984). A highly ...
Features:
Dancer in the Dark - 9.5
Nymph()maniac: Vol. I - (118 mins) - 9.5
Nymph()maniac: Vol. II (123 mins) - 9.5
Dogville - 9.5
Europa - 9.5
The Five Obstructions (w/ Jorgen Leth) - 9
Melancholia - 9
Breaking the Waves - 9
The Idiots - 8.5
The Element of Crime - 7
Antichrist - 6
Epidemic - 2.5
Shorts:
Nocturne - 9
Why Try to Escape from Which You Know You Can't Escape from? Because You Are a Coward - 8.5
The Trip to Squash Land - 7
A Flower - 6
37. Stan Brakhage
Director | The Loom
Stan Brakhage was born on January 14, 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was a director and cinematographer, known for The Loom (1986), The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him (2000) and Visions in Meditation (1990). He was married to Marilyn Jull and Jane Wodening. He died on March 9, 2003 in ...
Features:
Dog Star Man - 8.5
Shorts:
The Dante Quartet - 10
Commingled Containers - 10
Window Water Baby Moving - 10
Eye Myth - 10
The Horseman, The Woman, And The Moth - 9.5
Kindering - 9.5
The Dark Tower - 9.5
Untitled (For Marilyn) - 9.5
Black Ice - 9.5
The Garden of Earthly Delights - 9
Glaze of Cathexis - 9
Commingled Containers - 9
Stellar - 9
Roman Numeral: II - 9
Night Music - 8.5
Love Song - 8.5
Moth Light - 8.5
Rage Net - 8.5
Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse - 8.5
Sexual Meditation: Open Field - 8
I... Dreaming - 7.5
Cat's Cradle - 7.5
Study in Color and Black and White - 7.5
The Wold Shadow - 7
The Stars are Beautiful - 6
Crack Glass Eulogy - 5
*Brakhage's "ratings" are more or less in relation to only his other films. if you are familiar with him you know that with some of his films it would be ridiculous to compare/contrast them with basically anyone else!
38. Billy Wilder
Writer | The Apartment
Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many ...
Features: Sabrina - 9.5 Witness for the Prosecution - 9.5 Sunset Blvd. - 9.5 Double Indemnity - 9 The Lost Weekend - 8.5 Some Like it Hot - 7.5
39. Woody Allen
Writer | Annie Hall
Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.
Allen ...
Features: Broadway Danny Rose - 10 Stardust Memories - 9.5 Annie Hall - 9.5 The Purple Rose of Cairo - 9 Crimes and Misdemeanours - 9 Midnight In Paris - 9 Magic in the Moonlight - 8.5 Vicky Christina Barcelona - 8.5 Bananas - 8.5 Husbands and Wives - 8 Radio Days - 8 To Rome With Love - 7.5 Manhattan Murder Mystery - 7.5 What's Up, Tiger Lily? - 7 You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - 6.5 Cassandra's Dream - 5.5
40. Josef von Sternberg
Director | The Devil Is a Woman
Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, a former soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as "an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me." Forced by poverty to drop ...
Features: The Scarlett Empress - 9.5 The Blue Angel - 9.5 The Docks of New York - 8.5 The Shanghai Gesture - 8 Underworld - 8 The Last Command - 8 The Salvation Hunters - 6.5
41. Michael Mann
Producer | The Insider
As a director, screenwriter, and producer, four-time Academy Award nominee Michael Mann has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema. After writing and directing the Primetime Emmy Award-winning television movie The Jericho Mile (1979), Mann ...
Features: Miami Vice - 9.5 Blackhat - 9.5 Heat - 9.5 Collateral - 9 The Insider - 9 Public Enemies - 9 Ali - 9 The Keep - 8.5 Thief - 8.5 Manhunter - 8
42. David Fincher
Director | Se7en
David Fincher was born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and was raised in Marin County, California. When he was 18 years old he went to work for John Korty at Korty Films in Mill Valley. He subsequently worked at ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) from 1981-1983. Fincher left ILM to direct TV commercials...
Features: Zodiac - 9.5 The Social Network - 9 Se7en - 9 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 9 Gone Girl - 8.5 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 8.5 Fight Club - 8.5 Panic Room - 8
43. Leos Carax
Director | Holy Motors
Leos Carax made several short films and also wrote film criticism, then at the age of 24 years made a very strong first feature Boy Meets Girl (1984). The film played at the 1984 Cannes film festival and was a critical triumph. It paved the way for Carax's second feature Bad Blood (1986) (Bad Blood...
Features:
The Lovers on the Bridge - 9.5
Mauvais Sang - 9.5
Holy Motors - 9
Pola X - 8.5
Boy Meets Girl - 8
Shorts:
Merde - 9.5
Sans Titre - 9.5
My Last Minute - 9
Gradiva - 8.5
NakedEyes - 8
Crystal - 7.5
44. Andrey Zvyagintsev
Director | Nelyubov
Director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev is the winner of the Venice Film Festival (2003) and the Cannes Film Festival (2011, 2014, 2017). Two-time the Academy Awards and the BAFTA Awards nominee. Winner or the Golden Globe Awards (2015) for his film "Leviathan". In 2018, his latest work "...
Features:
The Return - 10
Leviathan - 9
Elena - 9
Shorts:
Mystery - 8.5
Apocrypha - 8
45. Alfred Hitchcock
Director | Psycho
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...
Features: Vertigo - 10 North by Northwest - 9.5 Rear Window - 9.5 The Birds - 9 Notorious - 8 Rope - 8 Psycho - 8 Young and Innocent - 8 Dial M for Murder - 8 The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) - 7.5 To Catch A Thief - 7
46. Spike Jonze
Producer | Her
Spike Jonze made up one-third (along with Andy Jenkins and Mark Lewman) of the triumvirate of genius minds behind Dirt Magazine, the brother publication of the much lamented ground-breaking Sassy Magazine. These three uncommon characters were all editors for Grand Royal Magazine as well, under the ...
Features:
Her - 10
Adaptation. - 10
Where The Wild Things Are - 8
Being John Malkovich - 7
Shorts:
I'm Here - 9
Scenes From The Suburbs - 8
How They Get There - 7.5
We Were Once a Fairytale - 6.5
47. Sergei Parajanov
Director | Tini zabutykh predkiv
One of the 20th century's greatest masters of cinema Sergei Parajanov was born in Georgia to Armenian parents and it was always unlikely that his work would conform to the strict socialist realism that Soviet authorities preferred. After studying film and music, Parajanov became an assistant ...
Features:
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors - 10
The Legend of the Suram Fortress - 9
The Color of Pomegranates - 9
Shorts:
Kivski Freski - 8
Hakob Hovnatanyan - 7.5
48. Éric Rohmer
Director | Ma nuit chez Maud
Admirers have always had difficulty explaining Éric Rohmer's "Je ne sais quoi." Part of the challenge stems from the fact that, despite his place in French Nouvelle Vague (i.e., New Wave), his work is unlike that of his colleagues. While this may be due to the auteur's unwillingness to conform, ...
Features:
A Summer's Tale - 9.5
Love in the Afternoon - 9
La Collectionneuse - 9
My Night at Maud's - 9
Pauline at the Beach - 8.5
Claire's Knee - 8
Boyfriends & Girlfriends - 8
The Lady and the Duke - 8
Suzanne's Career - 8
Summer - 6
Shorts:
Nadja in Paris - 9.5
Veronica and Her Dunce - 8.5
The Bakery Girl of Monceau - 8.5
Charlotte and Her Steak - 8
The Curve - 7.5
A Modern Co-ed - 6
49. Abel Gance
Writer | La roue
Born an illegitimate son of a wealthy physician, Abel Flamant, and a working class mother, Francoise Perethon. He was raised by his mother and her boyfriend, who later became her husband, Adolphe Gance. Pressured by his parents, he began his working career as a lawyer's clerk in hopes of achieving ...
Features: Napoleon - 10
50. Joel Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...
with his brother ethan coen, AKA "The Coen Brothers"
Features:
A Serious Man - 9.5
No Country For Old Men - 9.5
True Grit - 9.5
Burn After Reading - 9.5
Miller's Crossing - 9
Barton Fink - 8
Inside Llewyn Davis - 8
The Big Lebowski - 8
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - 8
Raising Arizona - 6.5
Fargo - 6
51. Jean Vigo
Writer | Zéro de conduite : Jeunes diables au collège
Jean Vigo had bad health since he was a child. Son of anarchist militant Miguel Almareyda, he also never really recovered from his father's mysterious death in jail when he was 12. Abandoned by his mother, he passed from boarding school to boarding school. Aged 23, through meetings with people ...
Features:
L'Atalante - 8.5
Shorts:
À propos de Nice - 10
Zero for Conduct - 8
Taris - 8
52. Charles Chaplin
Writer | The Great Dictator
Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...
Features:
Modern Times - 10
The Gold Rush (1925 original version) - 9.5
City Lights - 9
The Kid (50min) - 9
Shorts:
The Rink - 9.5
53. John Ford
Director | The Quiet Man
John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, ...
Features: Young Mr. Lincoln - 9 My Darling Clementine - 9 Rio Grande - 8.5 The Informant - 8.5 Fort Apache - 8.5 How Green Was My Valley - 8 The Grapes of Wrath - 8 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - 8 The Searchers - 7 The Quiet Man - 7 Stagecoach - 6.5
54. Peter Tscherkassky
Director | Outer Space
Born in 1958 in Vienna. 1979 - 84 stay in Berlin. Filmmaker since 1979. Studied philosophy. Doctoral thesis: ^ÓFilm as Art. Towards a critical aesthetics of cinematography^Ô (1985/86). 1989 National Art Award for Film. Teaches filmmaking at the Academy of Art, Linz. Founding member of Sixpack Film....
Shorts: Instructions for a Light & Sound Machine - 10 Dream Work - 10 Outer Space - 10 The Exquisite Corpus - 9 Coming Attractions - 9 L'Arivee - 8.5 Manufraktur - 8.5 Get Ready - 8
55. Edward Yang
Writer | Yi yi
Born on November 6, 1947 in Shanghai, China, Edward Yang has become one of the most talented international filmmakers of his generation. Along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-Liang, Yang ranks among the leading artists of the Taiwanese New Wave, and one of the world's most brilliant auteurs. ...
Features: Yi Yi - 10 The Terrorizers - 10 Tapei Story - 10
56. Errol Morris
Director | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
His documentaries helped spur a rebirth of non-fiction film in the 80s & garnered wide critical success. But until 2003's "The Fog of War," Morris was shunned by the Academy Awards.
Morris' first two films won much acclaim (Gates of Heaven (1978) and Vernon, Florida (1981)). In the second movie, ...
Features: Vernon, Florida - 9.5 Tabloid - 9 Gates of Heaven - 8 The Thin Blue Line - 8 A Brief History of Time - 7.5 Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control - 7.5
57. Sam Peckinpah
Writer | The Wild Bunch
"If they move", commands stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's bloody, high-body-count eulogy to the mythologized Old West. "Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle", observed critic Pauline Kael. That ...
Features: Straw Dogs - 10 Cross of Iron - 9.5 The Wild Bunch - 8.5 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - 8 The Ballad of Cable Hogue - 7 Ride the High Country - 7
58. Darren Aronofsky
Writer | Pi
Darren Aronofsky was born February 12, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Darren was always artistic: he loved classic movies and, as a teenager, he even spent time doing graffiti art. After high school, Darren went to Harvard University to study film (both live-action and animation). He won ...
Features: Black Swan - 10 Requiem For a Dream - 9.5 The Wrestler - 8 The Fountain - 8 Pi - 8 Noah - 7
59. Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer | The Neon Demon
Writer, director, and producer Nicolas Winding Refn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1970, to Anders Refn, a film director and editor, and Vibeke Winding (née Tuxen), a cinematographer. Just before he turned 11, in 1981, he moved to New York with his parents, where he lived out his teen years. ...
Features: Drive - 9.5 Bronson - 9.5 Only God Forgives - 9 Valhalla Rising - 8
60. Kim Ki-duk
Writer | Bin-jip
He studied fine arts in Paris in 1990-1992. In 1993 he won the award for Best Screenplay from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting with "A Painter and A Criminal Condemned to Death". After two more screenplay awards, he made his directorial debut with Crocodile (1996) ("Crocodile"). Then he ...
Features: 3-Iron - 9.5 Samaritan Girl - 8.5 Pieta - 8.5 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring - 8 Moebius - 7.5 The Isle - 7.5 Breath - 7.5
61. Chantal Akerman
Director | Les rendez-vous d'Anna
Chantal Akerman was born on June 6, 1950 in Brussels, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for The Meetings of Anna (1978), I, You, He, She (1974) and A Couch in New York (1996). She was married to Sonia Wieder-Atherton. She died on October 5, 2015 in Paris, France.
Features:
The Meetings of Anna - 9
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles - 9
News from Home - 9
Hotel Monterey - 8.5
I, You, He, She - 5.5
Shorts:
J'ai faim, j'ai froid - 8
La chambre - 8
Saute ma ville - 6
62. Jeff Nichols
Writer | Take Shelter
Jeff Nichols was born on December 7, 1978 in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Take Shelter (2011), Mud (2012) and Midnight Special (2016).
Features: Take Shelter - 9.5 Shotgun Stories - 8.5 Mud - 8
63. Wes Anderson
Director | Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wesley Wales Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His mother, Texas Ann (Burroughs), is an archaeologist turned real estate agent, and his father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and PR. He has two brothers, Eric and Mel. Anderson's parents divorced when he was a young child, an ...
Features:
Moonrise Kingdom - 9
The Darjeeling Limited - 9
The Grand Budapest Hotel - 8.5
Rushmore - 8.5
Fantastic Mr. Fox - 8.5
Bottle Rocket - 8
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissu - 6.5
Shorts:
Hotel Chevalier - 8
Bottle Rocket - 7.5
64. Preston Sturges
Writer | Sullivan's Travels
Preston Sturges' own life is as unlikely as some of the plots of his best work. He was born into a wealthy family. As a boy he helped out on stage productions for his mother's friend, Isadora Duncan (the scarf that strangled her was made by his mother's company, Maison Desti). He served in the U.S....
Features: Sullivan's Travels - 9 Christmas in July - 9 Unfaithfully Yours - 8.5 The Palm Beach Story - 8 The Lady Eve - 7 The Miracle of Morgan's Creek - 7 The Great McGinty - 7
65. Terry Gilliam
Writer | Brazil
Terry Gilliam was born near Medicine Lake, Minnesota. When he was 12 his family moved to Los Angeles where he became a fan of MAD magazine. In his early twenties he was often stopped by the police who suspected him of being a drug addict and Gilliam had to explain that he worked in advertising. In ...
Features:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - 9.5
Brazil - 9
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - 9
The Zero Theorem - 6.5
Shorts:
Storytime - 10
Beware of the Elephants - 9.5
The Miracle of Flight - 8.5
66. Quentin Tarantino
Writer | Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.
In January of...
Features:
Pulp Fiction - 10
Django Unchained - 9.5
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 - 9.5
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 - 9.5
Inglorious Basterds - 9.5
Death Proof - 8.5
Jackie Brown - 8.5
Reservoir Dogs - 8.5
Shorts:
My Best Friend's Birthday - 7.5
67. George Stevens
Director | Giant
George Stevens, a filmmaker known as a meticulous craftsman with a brilliant eye for composition and a sensitive touch with actors, is one of the great American filmmakers, ranking with John Ford, William Wyler and Howard Hawks as a creator of classic Hollywood cinema, bringing to the screen ...
Features: A Place in the Sun - 9.5 Giant - 9 Shane - 7.5
68. Roman Polanski
Director | Chinatown
Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.
His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...
Features:
Venus in Furs - 9
Chinatown - 9
Rosemary's Baby - 9
The Pianist - 8
Knife in the Water - 8
Repulsion - 8
Carnage - 7.5
The Fearless Vampire Killers - 6.5
Shorts:
The Lamp - 9
The Fat and the Lean - 8.5
A Therapy - 8
Two Men and a Wardrobe - 7.5
When Angels Fall - 7
Break up the Dance - 7
Mammals - 7
Teeth Smile - 7
Murder - 6.5
69. Alain Resnais
Director | Hiroshima mon amour
Alain Resnais was born on June 3, 1922 in Vannes, Morbihan, France. He was a director and editor, known for Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), Same Old Song (1997) and My American Uncle (1980). He was married to Sabine Azéma and Florence Malraux. He died on March 1, 2014 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, ...
Features:
Last Year at Marienbad - 9
Hiroshima mon amour - 8.5
Wild Grass - 7.5
Shorts:
Night and Fog - 10
Le Chant du Styrène - 8.5
Toute la mémoire du monde - 8
70. Steve McQueen
Director | 12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen was born on October 9, 1969 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). He is married to Bianca Stigter. They have two children.
Features: Shame - 9.5 Hunger - 8.5 12 Years a Slave - 8
71. David Cronenberg
Actor | The Fly
David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early...
Features: Videodrome - 9.5 The Fly - 8.5 Cosmopolis - 8 Eastern Promises - 8 Naked Lunch - 7.5 A History of Violence - 7.5 eXistenZ - 2.5
72. F.W. Murnau
Director | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
F.W. Murnau was a German film director. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air ...
Features: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans - 9.5 Faust (116mins) - 9 Tabu - 8.5 The Last Laugh - 8
73. Claire Denis
Director | High Life
The films of Claire Denis frequently explore the fragile connections between people and the ways in which the most seemingly inconsequential relationship can have life-changing effects. At the heart of Denis' cinema is a fascination with the delights and difficulties of belonging and otherness, the...
Features: Beau Travail - 9.5 White Material - 9 Bastards - 8 35 Shots of Rum - 7.5 Nenette and Boni - 7
74. Nicholas Ray
Director | Rebel Without a Cause
Nicholas Ray was born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle in 1911, in small-town Galesville, Wisconsin, to Lena (Toppen) and Raymond Joseph Kienzle, a contractor and builder. He was of German and Norwegian descent. Ray's early experience with film came with some radio broadcasting in high school. He left the ...
Features: Rebel Without a Cause - 9.5 In a Lonely Place - 9 Lightning Over Water - 8 (w/ Wim Wenders) Bigger Than Life - 8 Bitter Victory - 7
75. Steven Spielberg
Producer | Schindler's List
One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...
Features: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial - 9.5 Catch Me If You Can - 9.5 Raiders of the Lost Ark - 9.5 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - 9.5 War of the Worlds - 9 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - 8 Jurassic Park - 7.5 Saving Private Ryan - 7.5 Jaws - 7.5 Hook - 7.5 Lincoln - 7 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 6.5
76. Budd Boetticher
Director | Bullfighter and the Lady
Brilliant, distinguished American director, particularly of Westerns, whose simple, bleak style disguises a complex artistic temperament. The adopted son of a wealthy hardware retailer, Boetticher attended Culver Military Academy and Ohio State University, where he excelled in football and boxing.
...
Features:
The Tall T - 9
Seven Men From Now - 8.5
Decision at Sundown - 8
Ride Lonesome - 8
Comanche Station - 8
Buchanan Rides Alone - 7
*most of what i've seen by budd needs a rewatch
77. Peter Jackson
Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...
Features: Heavenly Creatures - 9 Return of the King - 9 The Fellowship of the Ring - 9 The Two Towers - 9 King Kong - 8 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - 7 Bad Taste - 7 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - 6 The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies - 4.5
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