The Top 50 Greatest Directors of All Time
by EmboldenedLoser | created - 05 Feb 2012 | updated - 5 days ago | PublicI have only accounted for the movies that I've seen of theirs, and based these directors by their movies that I've seen. IMDb says that I have rated 2,500+ feature-length films, and I'm only going to watch even more, so to always improve upon this list to make it even more established and legitimate. Directors are those that make the movies and give them their glory or rotten smell, and sadly enough, they are often overlooked by the people acting in their movies who get all the fame and attention. It's best to give filmmakers of the past, present, and even future their proper respect for the hard work and mastery to every detail in their film direction.
The list only includes feature-length films made by directors; and excludes any documentary films, short films, TV episodes, and mini-series made by directors. To qualify for the list, I must have seen and rated at least three feature-length films by a director.
An asterisk (*) next to my rating for a movie denotes that it's ranked in my list for the 150 greatest films ever.
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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Killing (7.5/10)
- Paths of Glory (8.5/10)
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (10/10)*
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (10/10)*
- A Clockwork Orange (9/10)*
- The Shining (9.5/10)*
- Full Metal Jacket (8/10)
- Eyes Wide Shut (9/10)*
- Lolita (7/10)
- Barry Lyndon (10/10)*
- Spartacus (7/10)
- Killer's Kiss (6/10)
- Fear and Desire (6/10)
2. 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...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Rashomon (9.5/10)*
- Ikiru (8.5/10)*
- Throne of Blood (8.5/10)
- Ran (9/10)*
- Seven Samurai (10/10)*
- Yojimbo (8/10)
- Sanjuro (7/10)
- High and Low (10/10)*
- Dreams (7/10)
- Dersu Uzala (8/10)
- Kagemusha (7.5/10)
- The Hidden Fortress (8/10)
- Red Beard (8/10)
- Stray Dog (8/10)
- Drunken Angel (7.5/10)
- The Bad Sleep Well (7/10)
3. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Mulholland Drive (10/10)*
- The Elephant Man (8/10)
- Blue Velvet (9.5/10)*
- Lost Highway (8.5/10)
- Eraserhead (9/10)*
- Wild at Heart (7.5/10)
- The Straight Story (7.5/10)
- Dune (6.5/10)
- Inland Empire (8/10)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (9/10)*
- Twin Peaks: The Return (8.5/10)* [18 part film]
4. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Taxi Driver (10/10)*
- Raging Bull (9.5/10)*
- Goodfellas (10/10)*
- The Aviator (7.5/10)
- The Departed (8/10)
- Shutter Island (7/10)
- Kundun (6.5/10)
- The Wolf of Wall Street (8/10)
- Hugo (7/10)
- Gangs of New York (7/10)
- Casino (8/10)
- After Hours (8/10)
- The King of Comedy (8.5/10)
- The Irishman (7/10)
- Cape Fear (7/10)
- Mean Streets (7/10)
- Silence (7.5/10)
- Bringing Out the Dead (7.5/10)
- The Color of Money (6/10)
- The Last Temptation of Christ (6/10)
- The Age of Innocence (6.5/10)
- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (7/10)
- Killers of the Flower Moon (8/10)
5. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Rebecca (8.5/10)
- Notorious (7/10)
- Rope (7.5/10)
- Strangers on a Train (8/10)
- Dial M for Murder (7/10)
- Rear Window (9.5/10)*
- Vertigo (10/10)*
- North By Northwest (8.5/10)*
- Psycho (9.5/10)*
- The Birds (8.5/10)
- The 39 Steps (7/10)
- Shadow of a Doubt (7.5/10)
- The Lady Vanishes (7/10)
- Frenzy (6.5/10)
- The Wrong Man (7/10)
- Marnie (7.5/10)
- To Catch a Thief (6.5/10)
6. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Godfather (10/10)*
- The Godfather: Part II (9.5/10)*
- Apocalypse Now (9.5/10)*
- The Outsiders (6.5/10)
- The Conversation (8.5/10)
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (7.5/10)
- The Godfather: Part III (6/10)
- Rumble Fish (8/10)
- The Rainmaker (6/10)
7. 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 (...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Seventh Seal (9/10)*
- Persona (10/10)*
- Wild Strawberries (9/10)*
- Fanny and Alexander (7.5/10)
- The Virgin Spring (7/10)
- Autumn Sonata (8/10)
- Cries and Whispers (8/10)
- Hour of the Wolf (8/10)
- Winter Light (8.5/10)
- The Silence (7/10)
- Through a Glass Darkly (7.5/10)
8. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Citizen Kane (10/10)*
- Touch of Evil (9/10)*
- The Lady from Shanghai (7.5/10)
- The Magnificent Ambersons (8/10)
- The Trial (7.5/10)
- The Stranger (7/10)
- F for Fake (9.5/10) [documentary film]
- Chimes at Midnight (8/10)
9. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Sunset Boulevard (10/10)*
- Some Like It Hot (8.5/10)
- Double Indemnity (9/10)*
- The Apartment (9.5/10)*
- Stalag 17 (7/10)
- Witness for the Prosecution (7.5/10)
- Ace in the Hole (8/10)
- Sabrina (7/10)
- The Lost Weekend (7/10)
- The Seven Year Itch (5.5/10)
- One, Two, Three (7.5/10)
10. 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...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- There Will Be Blood (9.5/10)*
- Boogie Nights (8.5/10)*
- Magnolia (8.5/10)
- Punch-Drunk Love (8.5/10)*
- The Master (9/10)*
- Phantom Thread (7/10)
- Inherent Vice (7/10)
- Licorice Pizza (7.5/10)
- Hard Eight (6.5/10)
11. Ethan Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel...
& Joel Coen (The Coen Brothers).
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Fargo (9/10)*
- The Big Lebowski (9/10)*
- No Country for Old Men (9.5/10)*
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? (7/10)
- Burn After Reading (6.5/10)
- True Grit (7/10)
- Inside Llewyn Davis (8/10)
- Barton Fink (8.5/10)
- A Serious Man (8/10)
- Miller's Crossing (7.5/10)
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (6.5/10)
- The Man Who Wasn't There (7/10)
- Hail, Caesar! (7/10)
- Raising Arizona (8/10)
- Blood Simple (7.5/10)
- The Tragedy of Macbeth (7/10) [directed solely by Joel Coen]
- The Hudsucker Proxy (6.5/10)
- The Ladykillers (6/10)
- Intolerable Cruelty (6/10)
- Drive-Away Dolls (5.5/10) [directed solely by Ethan Coen]
12. 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...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Reservoir Dogs (8.5/10)
- Pulp Fiction (10/10)*
- Jackie Brown (7.5/10)
- Kill Bill Vol. 1 (8/10)
- Kill Bill Vol. 2 (7.5/10)
- Death Proof (7/10)
- Inglorious Basterds (9/10)*
- Django Unchained (8/10)
- The Hateful Eight (7/10)
- Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (8.5/10)
13. Yasujirô Ozu
Writer | Tôkyô monogatari
Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Late Spring (9.5/10)*
- Tokyo Story (10/10)*
- Early Summer (7.5/10)
- An Autumn Afternoon (8.5/10)
- I Was Born, But... (7/10)
- Floating Weeds (8/10)
- Good Morning (7.5/10)
- Late Autumn (7/10)
- Tokyo Twilight (7.5/10)
14. 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. ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Yi Yi: A One and a Two... (9.5/10)*
- A Brighter Summer Day (10/10)*
- Taipei Story (7.5/10)
- The Terrorizers (8/10)
15. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- In the Mood for Love (9/10)*
- Chungking Express (10/10)*
- 2046 (6.5/10)
- Fallen Angels (8.5/10)
- The Grandmaster (6.5/10)
- Happy Together (7.5/10)
- Days of Being Wild (7/10)
16. 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...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Nashville (9/10)*
- The Long Goodbye (9/10)*
- Gosford Park (7/10)
- MASH (7/10)
- The Player (8/10)
- Short Cuts (7.5/10)
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller (8.5/10)*
- Three Women (8/10)
- Popeye (6/10)
17. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Thin Red Line (8/10)
- The Tree of Life (9.5/10)*
- Badlands (9/10)*
- Days of Heaven (8.5/10)*
- The New World (7.5/10)
- A Hidden Life (7/10)
18. 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...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Stalker (10/10)*
- Solaris (8.5/10)
- Andrei Rublev (7.5/10)
- The Mirror (8/10)
- Ivan's Childhood (8/10)
- Nostalghia (7/10)
- The Sacrifice (7/10)
19. Sergio Leone
Writer | Once Upon a Time in America
Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- A Fistful of Dollars (7/10)
- For A Few Dollars More (7.5/10)
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (9/10)*
- Once Upon a Time in the West (9.5/10)*
- Duck, You Sucker (7/10)
- Once Upon a Time in America (8.5/10)
20. 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...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Eastern Promises (7/10)
- A History of Violence (8/10)
- The Fly (8.5/10)
- A Dangerous Method (5/10)
- eXistenZ (6.5/10)
- Videodrome (9/10)*
- Dead Ringers (8/10)
- Spider (7/10)
- The Dead Zone (7/10)
- Crimes of the Future [2022] (7/10)
- Naked Lunch (7.5/10)
- Scanners (7/10)
- The Brood (7/10)
- Crash (8/10)
- Maps to the Stars (6.5/10)
- Cosmopolis (7.5/10)
21. Kenji Mizoguchi
Director | Ugetsu monogatari
Coming from a lower class family Mizoguchi entered the production company Nikkatsu as an actor specialized in female roles. Later he became an assistant director and made his first film in 1922. Although he filmed almost 90 movies in the silent era, only his last 12 productions are really known ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Life of Oharu (8/10)
- Sansho the Bailiff (9.5/10)*
- Ugetsu (9/10)*
- Street of Shame (7/10)
- The Story from Chikamatsu (7/10)
- The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (7.5/10)
22. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Heat (9.5/10)*
- Collateral (8/10)
- Public Enemies (6/10)
- The Insider (7.5/10)
- The Last of the Mohicans (7/10)
- Miami Vice (8.5/10)
- Ali (6/10)
- Manhunter (7/10)
- Thief (8/10)
- Blackhat (6.5/10)
- The Keep (5.5/10)
- Ferrari (6.5/10)
23. 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.
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Turin Horse (7.5/10) [co-directed]
- Werckmeister Harmonies (9/10)* [co-directed]
- Satantango (9.5/10)*
- Damnation (6.5/10)
24. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Grand Budapest Hotel (8.5/10)*
- Moonrise Kingdom (7.5/10)
- The Royal Tenenbaums (9/10)*
- Fantastic Mr. Fox (8/10)
- The Darjeeling Unlimited (6.5/10)
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (7/10)
- Rushmore (8/10)
- Isle of Dogs (7/10)
- The French Dispatch (6.5/10)
- Bottle Rocket (7/10)
- Asteroid City (6.5/10)
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (7/10) [short film]
25. Michelangelo Antonioni
Writer | Blow-Up
Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Blow-Up (7.5/10)
- L'Avventura (9/10)*
- The Passenger (8/10)
- La Notte (8.5/10)*
- L'Eclisse (7/10)
- Red Desert (8/10)
- Zabriskie Point (6.5/10)
26. 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...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Grizzly Man (8.5/10) [documentary film]
- Aguirre, the Wrath of God (9.5/10)*
- Nosferatu the Vampyre (8/10)
- Fitzcarraldo (7.5/10)
- Encounters at the End of the World (7/10) [documentary film]
- The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (7/10)
- Into the Abyss (7.5/10) [documentary film]
- Rescue Dawn (5/10)
- Stroszek (7.5/10)
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams (6.5/10) [documentary film]
- My Best Fiend (8/10) [documentary film]
27. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Amour (7/10)
- Cache (9/10)*
- Funny Games [1997] (8/10)
- The White Ribbon (7.5/10)
- The Piano Teacher (8.5/10)*
- The Seventh Continent (8/10)
- Code Unknown (6.5/10)
- Benny's Video (6/10)
- Happy End (5.5/10)
28. John Carpenter
Writer | The Fog
John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Thing (9.5/10)*
- Halloween (8.5/10)
- Escape from New York (7.5/10)
- Big Trouble in Little China (7/10)
- They Live (8/10)
- The Fog (6.5/10)
- In the Mouth of Madness (7/10)
- Assault on Precinct 13 (7.5/10)
- Starman (6.5/10)
- Prince of Darkness (7.5/10)
- Christine (6.5/10)
- The Ward (4.5/10)
- Escape from L.A. (6/10)
- Vampires (5/10)
- Ghosts of Mars (4.5/10)
- Village of the Damned (5.5/10)
- Memoirs of an Invisible Man (5/10)
- Dark Star (5/10)
29. Hayao Miyazaki
Writer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking visuals in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.
Miyazaki started his career in 1963 as an animator at the ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Spirited Away (9.5/10)*
- Princess Mononoke (8.5/10)
- Howl's Moving Castle (7/10)
- My Neighbor Totoro (8/10)
- Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind (7.5/10)
- Castle in the Sky (7/10)
- Ponyo (6.5/10)
- Kiki's Delivery Service (7.5/10)
- Porco Rosso (7.5/10)
- The Wind Rises (6.5/10)
- Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro (7/10)
30. 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, ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Quiet Man (6.5/10)
- Stagecoach (7.5/10)
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (8.5/10)
- The Grapes of Wrath (7.5/10)
- The Searchers (9.5/10)*
- How Green Was My Valley (7/10)
- Fort Apache (7.5/10)
- My Darling Clementine (7/10)
31. Fritz Lang
Actor | Le mépris
Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Metropolis (8.5/10)
- M (9.5/10)*
- The Big Heat (8/10)
- Scarlet Street (7.5/10)
- The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (7/10)
- The Woman in the Window (7/10)
- Fury (7/10)
32. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Pianist (7/10)
- Chinatown (9.5/10)*
- Rosemary's Baby (8.5/10)*
- The Ghost Writer (6/10)
- Repulsion (8/10)
- The Ninth Gate (5/10)
- The Tenant (7/10)
- Knife in the Water (6.5/10)
Has made some good movies but not a nice guy.
33. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Passion of Joan of Arc (8.5/10)
- Ordet (9/10)*
- Vampyr (7.5/10)
- Day of Wrath (8/10)
34. Brian De Palma
Director | Body Double
Brian De Palma is one of the well-known directors who spear-headed the new movement in Hollywood during the 1970s. He is known for his many films that go from violent pictures, to Hitchcock-like thrillers. Born on September 11, 1940, De Palma was born in Newark, New Jersey in an Italian-American ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Scarface (7/10)
- The Untouchables (7/10)
- Carlito's Way (7.5/10)
- Carrie (8.5/10)
- Blow Out (9/10)*
- Dressed to Kill (6.5/10)
- Phantom of the Paradise (8/10)
- Mission: Impossible (6/10)
- Body Double (5.5/10)
- Sisters (7.5/10)
- Femme Fatale (4.5/10)
35. James Cameron
Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water
James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Terminator (8/10)
- Aliens (8/10)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (9/10)*
- True Lies (6/10)
- Titanic (7/10)
- Avatar (8/10)
- The Abyss (7/10)
- Avatar: The Way of Water (7.5/10)
36. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Breathless (8/10)
- Vivre Sa Vie (8/10)
- Pierrot le Fou (9/10)*
- Band of Outsiders (7/10)
- Contempt (7.5/10)
- Masculin Feminin (7/10)
- Alphaville (7/10)
- Weekend (7.5/10)
- A Woman Is a Woman (6.5/10)
37. Ridley Scott
Producer | The Martian
Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Gladiator (5/10)
- Alien (9.5/10)*
- The Martian (6/10)
- Blade Runner (9/10)*
- Prometheus (5.5/10)
- American Gangster (6.5/10)
- Black Hawk Down (6/10)
- Alien: Covenant (5/10)
- Thelma & Louise (7.5/10)
- The Last Duel (7/10)
- Hannibal (6/10)
38. Michael Powell
Director | Peeping Tom
The son of Thomas William Powell and Mabel (nee Corbett). Michael Powell was always a self-confessed movie addict. He was brought up partly in Canterbury ("The Garden of England") and partly in the south of France (where his parents ran a hotel). Educated at Kings School, Canterbury and Dulwich ...
& Emeric Pressburger
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Red Shoes (9/10)*
- Peeping Tom (7/10) [directed solely by Michael Powell]
- Black Narcissus (8.5/10)*
- Stairway to Heaven (7.5/10)
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (7.5/10)
39. Abbas Kiarostami
Writer | Copie conforme
Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Taste of Cherry (8.5/10)
- Close-Up (9.5/10)*
- Where Is the Friend's Home? (7.5/10)
- The Wind Will Carry Us (6.5/10)
- And Life Goes On... (7/10)
- Through the Olive Trees (6.5/10)
- Certified Copy (7/10)
- 24 Frames (6.5/10)
40. Paul Schrader
Writer | First Reformed
Although his name is often linked to that of the "movie brat" generation (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, etc.) Paul Schrader's background couldn't have been more different than theirs. His strict Calvinist parents refused to allow him to see a...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- First Reformed (8.5/10)*
- The Card Counter (6.5/10)
- Affliction (7/10)
- Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (9/10)*
- Blue Collar (7.5/10)
- Light Sleeper (6.5/10)
41. John Cassavetes
Actor | Rosemary's Baby
John Cassavetes was a Greek-American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He is considered a pioneer of American independent film, as he often financed his own films.
Cassavetes was born in New York City in 1929 to Nicholas John Cassavetes (1893-1979) and his wife, Katherine Demetre (1906-1983). ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- A Woman Under the Influence (9/10)*
- The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (6.5/10)
- Opening Night (8/10)
- Faces (7/10)
- Love Streams (8.5/10)
- Shadows (6.5/10)
- Husbands (6.5/10)
42. Wim Wenders
Director | Der Himmel über Berlin
Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Paris, Texas (9.5/10)*
- Wings of Desire (8/10)
- The American Friend (7/10)
- Alice in the Cities (7.5/10)
- Kings of the Road (7.5/10)
- Perfect Days (7/10)
43. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (8.5/10)
- The Exterminating Angel (8.5/10)*
- Viridiana (8/10)
- Los Olvidados (7/10)
- Belle de Jour (7.5/10)
- That Obscure Object of Desire (6.5/10)
- Un chien andalou (6.5/10) [short film]
44. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Writer | Faustrecht der Freiheit
Above all, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a rebel whose life and art was marked by gross contradiction. Openly homosexual, he married twice; one of his wives acted in his films and the other served as his editor. Accused variously by detractors of being anticommunist, male chauvinist, antiSemitic and...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (8.5/10)*
- The Marriage of Maria Braun (8/10)
- The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (8/10)
- Veronika Voss (6.5/10)
- Fox and His Friends (7.5/10)
- In a Year with 13 Moons (7.5/10)
45. 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 ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- 8 1/2 (8.5/10)*
- La Dolce Vita (7.5/10)
- La strada (8/10)
- Nights of Cabiria (8/10)
- I Remember (7.5/10)
- I Vitelloni (6.5/10)
46. Jim Jarmusch
Director | Paterson
Moved to New York City at the age of seventeen from Akron, Ohio. Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English, class of '75. Without any prior film experience, he was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts, New York.
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Only Lovers Left Alive (7/10)
- Broken Flowers (7/10)
- Dead Man (8.5/10)*
- Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (7.5/10)
- Paterson (6.5/10)
- The Dead Don't Die (6.5/10)
- Night on Earth (7/10)
- Down by Law (8/10)
- Stranger Than Paradise (8/10)
- Mystery Train (6/10)
47. Paul Verhoeven
Director | RoboCop
Paul Verhoeven graduated from the University of Leiden, with a degree in math and physics. He entered the Royal Netherlands Navy, where he began his film career by making documentaries for the Navy and later for TV. In 1969, he directed the popular Dutch TV series, Floris (1969), about a medieval ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Total Recall (7.5/10)
- Starship Troopers (8/10)
- RoboCop (8.5/10)*
- Basic Instinct (7/10)
- Hollow Man (4/10)
- Black Book (7/10)
- Showgirls (8/10)
- Elle (7/10)
- Benedetta (6.5/10)
48. Mike Leigh
Director | Secrets & Lies
Mike Leigh is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Secrets & Lies (8/10)
- Happy-Go-Lucky (7.5/10)
- Naked (9/10)*
- Another Year (7.5/10)
- Topsy-Turvy (6.5/10)
- Vera Drake (7/10)
- Life Is Sweet (7/10)
49. Jonathan Glazer
Director | Under the Skin
Jonathan first found fame for his revolutionary work on Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' and Jamiroquai's multi-MTV award winning 'Virtual Insanity' video.
In 1999 he directed the ground-breaking Guinness 'Surfer', which picked up 2 D&AD Black Pencils and the top spot at most of the other awards ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Sexy Beast (8/10)
- Birth (6/10)
- Under the Skin (8.5/10)*
- The Zone of Interest (8/10)
50. Dario Argento
Writer | Profondo rosso
Dario Argento was born on September 7, 1940, in Rome, Italy, the first-born son of famed Italian producer Salvatore Argento and Brazilian fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk tales told by his parents and other ...
Films seen (my rating for the film/out of 10):
- Suspiria (9/10)*
- Deep Red (8/10)
- Phenomena (6/10)
- Tenebrae (7.5/10)
- The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (7/10)
- Inferno (7.5/10)
- Opera (6.5/10)
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