My Cinematic Marathons

1. Joel Coen

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 ...

and Ethan Coen

19 Films / 5 Favorites

Blood Simple. (1984) ★★★★ Raising Arizona (1987) ★★ Miller's Crossing (1990) ★★★ Barton Fink (1991) ★★★★★ The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) ★★★★ Fargo (1996) ★★★★ The Big Lebowski (1998) ★★★★★ O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) ★★★★★ The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) ★★★★★ Intolerable Cruelty (2003) ★ The Ladykillers (2004) ★ Paris, je t'aime (2006) ★★★★ No Country for Old Men (2007) ★★★★★ To Each His Own Cinema "World Cinema" (2007) ★★★ Burn After Reading (2008) ★★ A Serious Man (2009) ★★★ True Grit (2010) ★★★ Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) ★★★★ Hail, Caesar! (2015) ★★★

2. 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 ...

63 Films / 13 Favorites

Caught in the Rain (1914 Short Film) ★★ Laughing Gas (1914 Short Film) ★★ The Property Man (1914 Short Film) ★★ The Face on the Barroom Floor (1914 Short Film) ★★ Recreation (1914 Short Film) ★★★ The Masquerader (1914 Short Film) ★★★ His New Profession (1914 Short Film) ★★★ The Rounders (1914 Short Film) ★★★ The New Janitor (1914 Short Film) ★★★ Tango Tangles (1914 Short Film) ★★★★★ Those Love Pangs (1914 Short Film) ★★ Dough and Dynamite (1914 Short Film) ★★★ Gentlemen of Nerve (1914 Short Film) ★★ His Musical Career (1914 Short Film) ★★ His Trysting Place (1914 Short Film) ★★ His Prehistoric Past (1914 Short Film) ★★ Getting Acquainted (1915 Short Film) ★★★ His New Job (1915 Short Film) ★★★★ A Night Out (1915 Short Film) ★★ The Champion (1915 Short Film) ★★★ In the Park (1915 Short Film) ★★★ A Jitney Elopement (1915 Short Film) ★★★ The Tramp (1915 Short Film) ★★★★ By the Sea (1915 Short Film) ★★★ Work (1915 Short Film) ★★ The Bank (1915 Short Film) ★★★ Shanghaied (1915 Short Film) ★★★ A Night in the Show (1915 Short Film) ★★★ Burlesque on Carmen (1915 Short Film) ★★★★★ A Woman (1915 Short Film) ★★★★ Police (1916 Short Film) ★★ The Floorwalker (1916 Short Film) ★★ The Fireman (1916 Short Film) ★★★★ The Vagabond (1916 Short Film) ★★★ One A.M. (1916 Short Film) ★★★★★ The Count (1916 Short Film) ★★★ The Pawnshop (1916 Short Film) ★★★★ Behind the Screen (1916 Short Film) ★★★ The Rink (1916 Short Film) ★★★ Easy Street (1917 Short Film) ★★★★ The Cure (1917 Short Film) ★★★ The Immigrant (1917 Short Film) ★★★★ The Adventurer (1917 Short Film) ★★★ A Dog's Life (1918 Short Film) ★★★ The Bond (1918 Short Film) ★★ Triple Trouble (1918 Short Film) ★★ Shoulder Arms (1918 Short Film) ★★ Sunnyside (1919 Short Film) ★★ A Day's Pleasure (1919 Short Film) ★★ The Kid (1921) ★★★★★ The Idle Class (1921 Short Film) ★★ Pay Day (1922 Short Film) ★★★ The Pilgrim (1923 Short Film) ★★★★★ A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923) ★★★★★ The Gold Rush (1925) ★★★★★ The Circus (1928) ★★★★★ City Lights (1931) ★★★★★ Modern Times (1936) ★★★★★ The Great Dictator (1940) ★★★★★ Monsieur Verdoux (1947) ★★★★★ Limelight (1952) ★★★★★ A King in New York (1957) ★★★ A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) ★★

3. 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 ...

30 Films / 8 Favorites

The Rough House (1917 Short Film) ★★★ One Week (1920 Short Film) ★★★★★ Convict 13 (1920 Short Film) ★★★★ The Scarecrow (1920 Short Film) ★★★★ Neighbors (1920 Short Film) ★★★★ Hard Luck (1921 Short Film) ★★★ The 'High Sign' (1921 Short Film) ★★★★ The Goat (1921 Short Film) ★★★★ The Play House (1921 Short Film) ★★★★★ The Boat (1921 Short Film) ★★★ The Paleface (1922 Short Film) ★★★ Cops (1922 Short Film) ★★★★ My Wife's Relations (1922 Short Film) ★★★ The Blacksmith (1922 Short Film) ★★★ The Frozen North (1922 Short Film) ★★★ The Electric House (1922 Short Film) ★★★★ Day Dreams (1922 Short Film) ★★★★ Three Ages (1923) ★★★★ Our Hospitality (1923) ★★★★ Sherlock Jr. (1924) ★★★★★ The Navigator (1924) ★★★★★ Seven Chances (1925) ★★★★★ Go West (1925) ★★★★ Battling Butler (1926) ★★★ The General (1926) ★★★★★ College (1927) ★★★ Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) ★★★ The Cameraman (1928) ★★★★★ Spite Marriage (1929) ★★★★ The Railrodder (1965 Short Film) ★★★

4. Jacques Tati

Writer | Playtime

The comic genius Jacques Tati was born Taticheff, descended from a noble Russian family. His grandfather, Count Dimitri, had been a general in the Imperial Army and had served as military attaché to the Russian Embassy in Paris. His father, Emmanuel Taticheff, was a well-to-do picture framer who ...

9 Films / 5 Favorites

Gai dimanche (1935 Short Film) ★★★★ L'école des facteurs (1947 Short Film) ★★★★ Jour de fête (1949) ★★★★★ Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953) ★★★★★ Mon oncle (1958) ★★★★★ Playtime (1967) ★★★★★ Trafic (1971) ★★★★★ Parade (1974 TV Movie) ★★★★ Forza Bastia (2002 Short Documentary) ★★★

5. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...

11 Films / 3 Favorites

Doodlebug (1997 Short Film) ★★★★ Following (1998) ★★★★ Memento (2000) ★★★★★ Insomnia (2002) ★★★ Batman Begins (2005) ★★★ The Prestige (2006) ★★★★ The Dark Knight (2008) ★★★★★ Inception (2010) ★★★★★ The Dark Knight Rises (2012) ★★★ Interstellar (2014) ★★★★ Dunkirk (2017) ★★★★

6. 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 ...

16 Films / 6 Favorites

Flying Padre: An RKO-Pathe Screenliner (1951 Documentary short) ★★★★ Day of the Fight (1951 Documentary short) ★★★ Fear and Desire (1953) ★★★ The Seafarers (1953 Documentary short) ★★★ Killer's Kiss (1955) ★★★ The Killing (1956) ★★★★★ Paths of Glory (1957) ★★★★★ Spartacus (1960) ★★★ Lolita (1962) ★★★ Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) ★★★★ 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) ★★★★★ A Clockwork Orange (1971) ★★★★ Barry Lyndon (1975) ★★★★ The Shining (1980) ★★★★★ Full Metal Jacket (1987) ★★★★★ Eyes Wide Shut (1999) ★★★★★

7. 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 ...

11 Films / 7 Favorites

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) ★★★★ Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) ★★★★★ Castle in the Sky (1986) ★★★★★ My Neighbor Totoro (1988) ★★★★★ Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) ★★★★★ Porco Rosso (1992) ★★★ Princess Mononoke (1997) ★★★★★ Spirited Away (2001) ★★★★★ Howl's Moving Castle (2004) ★★★★★ Ponyo (2008) ★★★★ The Wind Rises (2013) ★★★★

8. 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). ...

12 Films / 8 Favorites

Shadows (1959) ★★★★★ Too Late Blues (1961) ★★★★ A Child Is Waiting (1963) ★★★★ Faces (1968) ★★★★ Husbands (1970) ★★★★★ Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) ★★★★★ A Woman Under the Influence (1974) ★★★★★ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) ★★★★★ Opening Night (1977) ★★★★★ Gloria (1980) ★★★★★ Love Streams (1984) ★★★★★ Big Trouble (1986) ★★★

9. 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 ...

31 Films / 10 Favorites

The Bread and Alley (1970 Short Film) ★★★★ The Breaktime (1972 Short Film) ★★★★ The Experience (1973) ★★★★★ The Traveler (1974) ★★★★ Two Solutions for One Problem (1975 Short Film) ★★★★★ The Colours (1976) ★★★ A Suit for Wedding (1976) ★★★★ The Report (1977) ★★★★ First Case, Second Case (1996 Documentary) ★★★ Orderly or Unorderly (1981 Short Film) ★★★★★ The Chorus (1982 Short Film) ★★★★ First Graders (1984 Documentary) ★★★★ Where is the Friend's Home? (1987) ★★★★★ Homework (1989 Documentary) ★★★★★ Close-Up (1990 Documentary) ★★★★★ And Life Goes on... (1992) ★★★★★ Through the Olive Trees (1994) ★★★★★ Lumière and Company (1995 Documentary) ★★★★ Taste of Cherry (1997) ★★★★★ The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) ★★★★★ ABC Africa (2001 Documentary) ★★★ Ten (2002) ★★★★★ Five Dedicated to Ozu (2003 Documentary) ★★★ 10 on Ten (2004 Documentary) ★★★★ Tickets (2005) ★★★★ Roads of Kiarostami (2006 Documentary Short) ★★★ To Each His Own Cinema "Where is my Romeo?" (2007) ★★★★ Shirin (2008) ★★★ Certified Copy (2010) ★★★★★ Like Someone in Love (2012) ★★★★ Venice 70: Future Reloaded "segment" (2013 Documentary) ★★★★

10. 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...

11 Films / 3 Favorites

My Best Friend's Birthday (1987) ★ Reservoir Dogs (1992) ★★★★ Pulp Fiction (1994) ★★★★★ Jackie Brown (1997) ★★★ Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) ★★★★ Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) ★★★★ Grindhouse (2007) ★★ Death Proof (2007) ★★ Inglourious Basterds (2009) ★★★★★ Django Unchained (2012) ★★★★ The Hateful Eight (2015) ★★★★★

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.

13 Films / 4 Favorites

Hotel Magnezit (1978 Short Film) ★★★ Family Nest (1979) ★★★ The Outsider (1981) ★★★ The Prefab People (1982) ★★★★ Macbeth (1982 TV Movie) ★★★ Almanac of Fall (1984) ★★★★ Damnation (1988) ★★★★ Satantango (1994) ★★★★★ Journey on the Plain (1995 Short Film) ★★★ Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) ★★★★★ Visions of Europe "Prologue" (2004) ★★★★ The Man from London (2007) ★★★★★ The Turin Horse (2011) ★★★★★

12. 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 ...

9 Films / 3 Favorites

Badlands (1973) ★★★★★ Days of Heaven (1978) ★★★★★ The Thin Red Line (1998) ★★★★ The New World (2005) ★★★★ The Tree of Life (2011) ★★★★★ To the Wonder (2012) ★★★★ Knight of Cups (2015) ★★★ Voyage of Time: Life's Journey (2016 Documentary) ★★★ Song to Song (2017) ★★

13. Elia Suleiman

Director | Yadon ilaheyya

Elia Suleiman was born on July 28, 1960 in Nazareth, Israel. He is a director and writer, known for Divine Intervention (2002), It Must Be Heaven (2019) and The Time That Remains (2009). He is married to Yasmine Hamdan.

6 Films / 2 Favorites

Introduction to the End of an Argument (1990 Documentary) ★★★★ Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) ★★★★ Divine Intervention (2002) ★★★★★ To Each His Own Cinema "Irtebak" (2007) ★★★★ The Time that Remains (2009) ★★★★★ 7 Days In Havana "Diary of a Beginner" (2012) ★★★★

14. 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 ...

19 Films / 3 Favorites

Three Paths to the Lake (1976 TV Movie) ★★ Lemminge (1979 TV Mini-Series) ★★ Variation or "Utopias exist - yes, I know..." (1983 TV Movie) ★★★ Who Was Edgar Allan? (1984 TV Movie) ★★ Fraulein: A German Melodrama (1986 TV Movie) ★★ The Seventh Continent (1989) ★★★★★ Benny's Video (1992) ★★★ 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) ★★★★ Lumière and Company (1995 Documentary) ★★★★ The Castle (1997) ★★★ Funny Games (1997) ★★★★★ Code Unknown (2000) ★★★★ The Piano Teacher (2001) ★★★★★ Time of the Wolf (2003) ★★★★ Hidden (2005) ★★★★ Funny Games U.S. (2007) ★★★★ The White Ribbon (2009) ★★★★ Amour (2012) ★★★★★ Happy End (2017) ★★★★

15. Tsai Ming-liang

Director | Qingshaonian Nuozha

Born in Kuching, Malaysia, he graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and worked as a theatrical producer and TV director. His second feature film, Vive L'Amour (1994), won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His ...

17 Films / 2 Favorites

Rebels of the Neon God (1992) ★★★★ Vive L'Amour (1994) ★★★ The River (1997) ★★★★ The Hole (1998) ★★★★★ Fish, Underground (2001 Short Film) ★★★ What Time Is It There? (2001) ★★★★★ The Skywalk Is Gone (2002 Short Film) ★★★ Good Bye, Dragon Inn (2003) ★★★★ Welcome to São Paulo (2004) ★★★ The Wayward Cloud (2005) ★★★ I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006) ★★★★ Sleeping on Dark Waters (2008 Documentary) ★★★★ Visage (2009) ★★★ Walker (2012 Short Film) ★★★ Stray Dogs (2013) ★★★★ Journey to the West (2014 Documentary) ★★★ No No Sleep (2015 Short Film) ★★★

16. 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 ...

15 Films / 3 Favorites

As Tears Go By (1988) ★★ Days of Being Wild (1990) ★★★ Chungking Express (1994) ★★★★★ Ashes of Time (1994) ★★★ Fallen Angels (1995) ★★★★★ Happy Together (1997) ★★★★ In the Mood for Love (2000) ★★★★★ Hua yang de nian hua (2000 Short Film) ★★★ Six Days (2002 Short Film) ★★★ 2046 (2004) ★★★★ Eros "The Hand" (2004) ★★★ My Blueberry Nights (2007) ★★★ To Each His Own Cinema "I Travelled 9000 km To Give It To You" (2007) ★★★★ There's Only One Sun (2007 Short Film) ★★★ The Grandmaster (2013) ★★★

17. 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 ...

21 Films / 5 Favorites

Six Figures Getting Sick (1966 Short Film) ★★★ Absurd Encounter with Fear (1967 Short Film) ★★★ The Alphabet (1968 Short Film) ★★★★ The Grandmother (1970 Short Film) ★★★★ The Amputee (1974 Short Film) ★★★ Eraserhead (1977) ★★★ The Elephant Man (1980) ★★★★ Dune (1984) ★ Blue Velvet (1986) ★★★★★ The French as Seen by... "The Cowboy and the Frenchman" (1988 TV Mini-Series) ★ Wild at Heart (1990) ★★★ Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted (1990) ★★ Twin Peaks (1990–1991 TV Series) ★★★★★ Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) ★★★★ Lumière and Company "Premonition Following An Evil Deed" (1995 Documentary) ★★★★ Lost Highway (1997) ★★★★★ The Straight Story (1999) ★★★★★ Mulholland Dr. (2001) ★★★★★ Rabbits (2002) ★★ Inland Empire (2006) ★★ Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014) ★★★★

18. 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.

17 Films / 5 Favorites

Permanent Vacation (1980) ★★★ Stranger Than Paradise (1984) ★★★★★ Down by Law (1986) ★★★★★ Coffee and Cigarettes (1986 Short Film) ★★★★ Coffee and Cigarettes II (1989 Short Film) ★★★★ Mystery Train (1989) ★★★★ Night on Earth (1991) ★★★★★ Dead Man (1995) ★★★★★ Coffee and Cigarettes III (1995 Short Film) ★★★ Year of the Horse (1997) ★★ Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) ★★★★★ Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) ★★★★ Broken Flowers (2005) ★★★ The Limits of Control (2009) ★★★★ Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) ★★★★ Paterson (2016) ★★★★ Gimme Danger (2016 Documentary) ★★★★

19. 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 ...

37 Films / 15 Favorites

Days of Youth (1929) ★★★★ Fighting Friends (1929 Short Film) ★★★ I Passed But... (1929) ★★★ A Straightforward Boy (1929 Short Film) ★★★ That Night's Wife (1930) ★★★★★ Walk Cheerfully (1930) ★★★★ I Failed But... (1930) ★★★★ The Lady and Her Favorite (1931) ★★★ Tokyo Chorus (1931) ★★★ I Was Born, But... (1932) ★★★★★ Where Are the Dreams of Youth? (1932) ★★★ Woman of Tokyo (1933) ★★★★ Dragnet Girl (1933) ★★★★ Passing Fancy (1933) ★★★★★ A Mother Should Be Loved (1934) ★★★★ A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) ★★★★ An Inn in Tokyo (1935) ★★★★ The Only Son (1936) ★★★★★ The Lion Dance (1936 Documentary Short) ★★★ What Did the Lady Forget? (1937) ★★★★ The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (1941) ★★★ There Was a Father (1942) ★★★★★ The Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947) ★★★★★ A Hen in the Wind (1948) ★★★★ Late Spring (1949) ★★★★★ The Munekata Sisters (1950) ★★★★ Early Summer (1951) ★★★★★ Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) ★★★★★ Tokyo Story (1953) ★★★★★ Early Spring (1956) ★★★★★ Tokyo Twilight (1957) ★★★★★ Equinox Flower (1958) ★★★★ Good Morning (1959) ★★★★★ Floating Weeds (1959) ★★★★★ Late Autumn (1960) ★★★★ The End of Summer (1961) ★★★★ An Autumn Afternoon (1962) ★★★★★

20. Erich von Stroheim

Actor | Sunset Boulevard

Erich von Stroheim was born Erich Oswald Stroheim in 1885, in Vienna, Austria, to Johanna (Bondy), from Prague, and Benno Stroheim, a hatter from Gleiwitz, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland). His family was Jewish.

After spending some time working in his father's hat factory, he emigrated to America ...

8 Films / 4 Favorites

Blind Husbands (1919) ★★★★★ Foolish Wives (1922) ★★★★★ Merry-Go-Round (1923) ★★★★ Greed (1924) ★★★★★ The Merry Widow (1925) ★★★★★ The Wedding March (1928) ★★★★ Queen Kelly (1929) ★★★★ The Great Gabbo (1929) ★★

21. Takeshi Kitano

Actor | Zatôichi

Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw ...

19 Films / 4 Favorites

Warning, This Man Is Wild (1989) ★★★ The Third and Fourth of October (1990) ★★★★★ A Scene at the Sea (1991) ★★★ Sonatine (1993) ★★★★★ Getting Any? (1994) ★★★ Kids Return (1996) ★★★★ Fireworks (1997) ★★★★★ Kikujiro (1999) ★★★★★ Brother (2000) ★★★ Dolls (2002) ★★ Zatoichi (2003) ★★★ Takeshis' (2005) ★★★★ To Each His Own Cinema "One Fine Day" (2007) ★★★★ Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007) ★★★★ Achilles and the Tortoise (2008) ★★★★ Outrage (2010) ★★★★ Outrag: Beyond (2012) ★★★★ Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen (2015) ★★★ Outrage: Final Chapter (2017) ★★★★

22. 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...

11 Films / 4 Favorites

The Killers (1956) ★★★ There Will Be No Leave Today (1959) ★★★★ The Steamroller and the Violin (1961) ★★★★ Ivan's Childhood (1962) ★★★★ Andrei Rublev (1966) ★★★★★ Solaris (1972) ★★★ The Mirror (1975) ★★★★ Stalker (1979) ★★★★★ Nostalgia (1983) ★★★★★ Voyage in Time (1983 TV Movie) ★★★★ The Sacrifice (1986) ★★★★★

23. 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 ...

58 Films / 10 Favorites

The Pleasure Garden (1925) ★★★ The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) ★★★★ The Ring (1927) ★★ Downhill (1927) ★★ The Farmer's Wife (1928) ★★ Easy Virtue (1928) ★★★ Champagne (1928) ★ The Manxman (1929) ★★ Blackmail (1929) ★★★★ Juno and the Paycock (1929) ★★ Elstree Calling (1930) ★★★ Murder! (1930) ★★★ The Skin Game (1931) ★★ Mary (1931) ★★★ Rich and Strange (1931) ★★★ Number Seventeen (1932) ★★ Waltzes from Vienna (1934) ★ The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) ★★★ The 39 Steps (1935) ★★★★★ Secret Agent (1936) ★★ Sabotage (1936) ★★★ Young and Innocent (1937) ★★ The Lady Vanishes (1938) ★★★★★ Jamaica Inn (1939) ★ Rebecca (1940) ★★★★ Foreign Correspondent (1940) ★★★ Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) ★★ Suspicion (1941) ★★★ Saboteur (1942) ★★★★ Shadow of a Doubt (1943) ★★★★★ Lifeboat (1944) ★★★★ Bon Voyage (1944 Short Film) ★★ Madagascar Adventure (1944 Short Film) ★★ Spellbound (1945) ★★★★ Notorious (1946) ★★★★ The Paradine Case (1947) ★★★ Rope (1948) ★★★★★ Under Capricorn (1949) ★★ Stage Fright (1950) ★★★ Strangers on a Train (1951) ★★★★ I Confess (1953) ★★★★ Dial M for Murder (1954) ★★★★★ Rear Window (1954) ★★★★★ To Catch a Thief (1955) ★★★ The Trouble with Harry (1955) ★★★★★ The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) ★★★★ The Wrong Man (1956) ★★★ Suspicion "Four O'Clock" (1957 TV Series) ★★ Vertigo (1958) ★★★★★ North by Northwest (1959) ★★★★ Startime "Incident at a Corner" (1960 TV Series) ★★★★ Psycho (1960) ★★★★★ The Birds (1963) ★★★★★ Marnie (1964) ★★★ Torn Curtain (1966) ★★★★ Topaz (1969) ★★★ Frenzy (1972) ★★★ Family Plot (1976) ★★★★

24. Alejandro Jodorowsky

Writer | El Topo

Alejandro Jodorowsky was born in Tocopilla, Chile on February 17, 1929. In 1939 he moved to Santiago where he attended university, was a circus clown and a puppeteer. In 1953 he went to Paris and studied mime with Marcel Marceau. He worked with Maurice Chevalier there and made a short film, La ...

10 Films / 3 Favorites

The Severed Heads (1957 Short Film) ★★★ Endless Theater (1965 Short Film) ★★ Fando and Lis (1968) ★★★ El Topo (1970) ★★★★★ The Holy Mountain (1973) ★★★★★ Tusk (1980) ★★ Santa Sangre (1989) ★★★★★ The Rainbow Thief (1990) ★★★ The Dance of Reality (2013) ★★★★ Endless Poetry (2016) ★★★

25. 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 ...

92 Films / 11 Favorites

A Flirtatious Woman (1955 Short Film) ★★★ Operation Concrete (1958 Documentary short) ★★ All the Boys Are Called Patrick (1959 Short Film) ★★★★ Breathless (1960) ★★★★★ Charlotte and Her Boyfriend (1960 Short Film) ★★★ A Story of Water (1961 Short Film) ★★★ A Woman Is a Woman (1961) ★★★★★ The Seven Deadly Sins "Sloth" (1962) ★★★ Vivre sa vie (1962) ★★★★★ The Little Soldier (1963) ★★★★ Ro.Go.Pa.G. "New World" (1963) ★★★★ The Carabineers (1963) ★★★ Contempt (1963) ★★★★★ Band of Outsiders (1964) ★★★★ The Beautiful Swindlers "Le Grand escroc" (1964) ★★★ A Married Woman (1964) ★★★★ Alphaville, a Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution (1965) ★★★★★ Six in Paris... "Montparnasse-Levallois" (1965) ★★ Pierrot le Fou (1965) ★★★★★ Masculine, Feminine (1966) ★★★★★ Made in U.S.A (1966) ★★★★ Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967) ★★★★★ The Oldest Profession "Anticipation, or love in 2000" (1967) ★★★★ Far from Vietnam "Camera-Eye" (1967 Documentary) ★★★ La chinoise (1967) ★★★★ Week End (1967) ★★★★★ Film-Tract n° 1968 (1968 Short Film) ★★★ Sympathy for the Devil (1968 Documentary) ★★ A Film Like Any Other (1968) ★★ Cinétracts (1968 Documentary) ★★★ Love and Anger "Love" (1969) ★★★ Gay Science (1969) ★★ Pravda (1970 Documentary) ★★★★ British Sounds (1970 Documentary) ★★ East Wind (1970) ★ Schick After Shave (1971 Short Film) ★★ Struggle in Italy (1971) ★★ Vladimir and Rosa (1971) ★★ 1 P.M. (1971 Documentary) ★★★ Everything's All Right (1972) ★★★★ Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still (1972 Documentary) ★★ Number Two (1975) ★★★ Six Times Two; Over and Under the Media (1976 TV Mini-Series) ★★★ Here and Elsewhere (1976) ★★★★ The Tour of France by Two Children (1977-1978 TV Mini-Series Documentary) ★★★★★ Dream On (1977 TV Short Film) ★★★ How Is It Going? (1978) ★★ A Few Remarks on the Direction and Production of the Film 'Every Man For Himself' (1979) ★★★★ Every Man For Himself (1980) ★★★ A Letter to Freddy Buache (1982 Documentary Short) ★★★★ To Alter the Image (1982 TV Movie) ★★★★ Passion (1982) ★★★★ Screenplay of the film 'Passion' (1982 Documentary) ★★★★ First Name: Carmen (1983) ★★★ A Few Notes About the Film 'Hail Mary' (1983 Short Film) ★★ Hail Mary (1985) ★★★ Detective (1985) ★★★ Série noire "Grandeur et décadence d'un petit commerce de cinéma " (1986 TV Series) ★★ Meetin' WA (1986 Documentary Short) ★★★★ King Lear (1987) ★★★ Aria "Armide" (1987) ★★★ Keep Your Right Up (1987) ★★★ Closed (1988 Short Film) ★★ The Power of Speech (1988 Short Film) ★★★ We All Parade (1988 Short Film) ★★ Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998 Documentary) ★★★★ Le rapport Darty (1989) ★ New Wave (1990) ★★★ Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (1991) ★★★★★ The King of Ads (1991) ★★ The Childhood of Art (1992 Short Film) ★★★ The French as Seen by... "The Last Word" (1993) ★ The Kids Play Russian (1993) ★★★ Oh, Woe Is Me (1993) ★★★★ I Hail Sarajevo (1993 Short Film) ★★★ JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait in December (1993) ★★★★ For Ever Mozart (1996) ★★★ Adieu au TNS (1998 Short Film) ★ Origins of the 21st Century (2000) ★★★ The Old Place (2000) ★★★ In Praise of Love (2001) ★★★ Liberty and Homeland (2002 Short Film) ★ Ten Minutes Older: The Cello "In The Dark Time" (2002) ★★★ Prayers for Refuseniks (2004 Short Film) ★ Our Music (2004) ★★★★ Vrai faux passeport (2006 Documentary) ★★★★ Tribute to Eric Rohmer (2010) ★★★ Film Socialism (2010) ★★ 3x3D "The Three Disasters" (2013) ★★★ Khan Khanne (2014 Short Film) ★ Goodbye to Language (2014) ★★★★ Remerciements de Jean-Luc Godard à son Prix d'honneur du cinéma suisse (2015 Short Film) ★

26. Jafar Panahi

Director | Taxi

Jafar Panahi (Born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved ...

9 Films / 3 Favorites

The White Balloon (1995) ★★★★ The Mirror (1997) ★★★★★ The Circle (2000) ★★★★★ Crimson Gold (2003) ★★★★★ Offside (2006) ★★★★ The Accordion (2010 Short Film) ★★★ This Is Not a Film (2011 Documentary) ★★★★ Closed Curtain (2013) ★★★ Taxi (2015) ★★★★

27. 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. ...

10 Films / 3 Favorites

Pusher (1996) ★★★ Bleeder (1999) ★★★★ Fear X (2003) ★★★★ Pusher II (2004) ★★★★★ Pusher III (2005) ★★★ Bronson (2008) ★★★★ Valhalla Rising (2009) ★★★ Drive (2010) ★★★★★ Only God Forgives (2013) ★★★★★ The Neon Demon (2016) ★★★★

28. 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...

31 Films / 10 Favorites

Sanshiro Sugata (1943) ★★★ The Most Beautiful (1944) ★★ Sanshiro Sugata Part Two (1945) ★★★ The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945) ★★★ No Regrets for Our Youth (1946) ★★★★ One Wonderful Sunday (1947) ★★★★ Drunken Angel (1948) ★★★★ The Quiet Duel (1949) ★★★★ Stray Dog (1949) ★★★★★ Scandal (1950) ★★★ Rashomon (1950) ★★★★★ The Idiot (1951) ★★★ To Live (1952) ★★★★★ Seven Samurai (1954) ★★★★★ I Live in Fear (1955) ★★★★ The Castle of the Spider's Web (1957) ★★★★★ The Lower Depths (1957) ★★★★★ Three Bad Men in a Hidden Fortress (1958) ★★★★★ The Bad Sleep Well (1960) ★★★★ Yojimbo (1961) ★★★★ Sanjûrô (1962) ★★★★ Heaven and Hell (1963) ★★★★★ Red Beard (1965) ★★★★ Song of the Horse (1970 TV Movie documentary) ★★★ Dodesukaden (1970) ★★★★ Dersu Uzala (1975) ★★★ The Shadow Warrior (1980) ★★★★ Revolt (1985) ★★★★★ Dreams (1990) ★★★ Rhapsody in August (1991) ★★★ Maadadayo (1993) ★★★★★

29. 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 ...

22 Films / 6 Favorites

The President (1919) ★★★ The Parson's Widow (1920) ★★★★ Leaves Out of the Book of Satan (1920) ★★★ Die Gezeichneten (1922) ★★★ Once Upon a Time (1922) ★★ Michael (1924) ★★★★ Master of the House (1925) ★★★★★ The Bride of Glomdal (1926) ★★★★ The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) ★★★★★ Vampyr: The Strange Adventure of David Gray (1932) ★★★★★ Good Mothers (1942 Short documentary) ★★★ Day of Wrath (1943) ★★★★★ Two People (1945) ★★★★ Water from the land (1946 Short documentary) ★★ The Village Church (1947 Short documentary) ★★ The Struggle Against Cancer (1947 Short documentary) ★★★ They Caught the Ferry (1948 Short Film) ★★★★ Thorvaldsen (1949 Short documentary) ★★★ The Storstrom Bridge (1950 Short documentary) ★★★ The Castle Within the Castle (1954 Short documentary) ★★ The Word (1955) ★★★★★ Gertrud (1965) ★★★★★

30. Hsiao-Hsien Hou

Producer | Cike Nie Yin Niang

Of the ten films that Hsiao-Hsien Hou directed between 1980 and 1989, seven received best film or best director awards from prestigious international films festivals in Venice, Berlin, Hawaii, and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes. In a 1988 worldwide critics' poll, Hou was championed ...

20 Films / 4 Favorites

Lovable You (1980) ★★ The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982) ★★★★ Play While You Play (1982) ★★ The Boys from Fengkuei (1983) ★★★★ The Sandwich Man (1983) ★★★★ A Summer at Grandpa's (1984) ★★★★★ A Time to Live and a Time to Die (1985) ★★★★★ Dust in the Wind (1986) ★★★★ Daughter of the Nile (1987) ★★★★ A City of Sadness (1989) ★★★★★ The Puppetmaster (1993) ★★★ Good Men, Good Women (1995) ★★★★ Goodbye, South, Goodbye (1996) ★★★★ Flowers of Shanghai (1998) ★★★ Millennium Mambo (2001) ★★★★★ Café Lumière (2003) ★★★ Three Times (2005) ★★★ Flight of the Red Balloon (2007) ★★★★ To Each His Own Cinema "The Electric Princess House" (2007) ★★★ The Assassin (2015) ★★★

31. 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 ...

4 Films / 1 Favorites

À propos de Nice (1930 Short Documentary) ★★★★ Jean Taris, Swimming Champion (1931 Short Documentary) ★★★ Zero for Conduct (1933 Short Film) ★★★★ L'Atalante (1934) ★★★★★

32. Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Producer | Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da

Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul on January 26th, 1959. In 1976, he began studying chemical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, in a context of strong student unrest, boycotts and political polarization. In 1978, he switched courses to Electrical Engineering at Bogazici University. ...

8 Films / 4 Favorites

Cocoon (1995 Short Film) ★★★ The Small Town (1997) ★★★★ Clouds of May (1999) ★★★★ Distant (2002) ★★★★★ Climates (2006) ★★★★ Three Monkeys (2008) ★★★★★ Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) ★★★★★ Winter Sleep (2014) ★★★★★

33. 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...

43 Films / * Favorites

The City Tramp (1966 Short Film) ★★★★ The Little Chaos (1966 Short Film) ★★★ Love Is Colder Than Death (1969) ★★★★ Katzelmacher (1969) ★★★★ Gods of the Plague (1970) ★★ The Coffeehouse (1970 TV Movie) ★★ *Why Does Herr R Run Amok (1970) ★ The American Soldier (1970) ★★★ The Niklashausen Journey (1970 TV Movie) ★★★ *Rio Das Mortes (1971) ★ *Pioniere In Ingolstadt (1971 TV Movie) ★ *Whity (1971) ★ *Beware Of A Holy Whore (1971) ★ *The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972) ★ The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) ★★★★★ *Bremen Freedom (1972 TV Movie) ★ *Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (1972-1973 TV Mini-Series) ★ *Wildwechsel (1973 TV Movie) ★ *World on a Wire (1973) ★ *Nora Helmer (1974 TV Movie) ★ Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) ★★★★★ *Martha (1974 TV Movie) ★ *Effi Briest (1974) ★ *Like a Bird on a Wire (1975 TV Movie) ★ Fox and His Friends (1975) ★★★★★ *Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975) ★ *Fear of Fear (1975 TV Movie) ★ *I Only Want You to Love Me (1976 TV Movie) ★ *Satans Brew (1976) ★ *Chinese Roulette (1976) ★ *Frauen in New York (1977 TV Movie) ★ *The Stationmaster's Wife (1977 TV Movie) ★ *Germany in Autumn (1978) ★ Despair (1978) ★★★★★ *In a Year of 13 Moons (1978) ★ The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) ★★★★★ *The Third Generation (1979) ★ Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980 TV Mini-Series) ★★★★★ Lili Marleen (1981) ★★★★ *Theater in Trance (1981 Documentary) ★ *Lola (1981) ★ *The Longing of Veronica Voss (1982) ★ *Querelle (1982) ★

34. Jean Cocteau

Writer | La Belle et la Bête

Jean Cocteau was one of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer, and actor. He began writing at 10 and was a published poet by age 16. He collaborated with the "Russian Ballet" company of Sergei...

35. Jean Renoir

Writer | La règle du jeu

Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he ...

36. Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Writer | Gabbeh

Mohsen Makhmalbaf is known as one of the most influential filmmakers and founders of the new wave of Iranian cinema in the world today.

Many of his films like Salam Cinema, A Moment Of Innocence, Gabbeh, Kandahar and The President have been widely well received across the globe and have brought him ...

37. 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 ...

38. Zhangke Jia

Producer | Jiang hu er nü

Zhangke Jia was born on May 24, 1970 in Fenyang, Shanxi, China. He is a producer and director, known for Jiang hu er nü (2018), A Touch of Sin (2013) and Mountains May Depart (2015). He has been married to Tao Zhao since January 7, 2012.

39. 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 ...

40. 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. ...

41. 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. ...

42. 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 ...

43. Howard Hawks

Director | Rio Bravo

What do the classic films Scarface (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), His Girl Friday (1940), Sergeant York (1941), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Red River (1948) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Rio Bravo (1959) have in...

44. 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 ...

45. 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 ...

46. 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...

47. 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 ...

48. 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 ...

49. Roberto Rossellini

Writer | Roma città aperta

The master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, as one of the creators of neo-realism, is one of the most influential directors of all time. His neo-realist films influenced France's nouvelle vague movement in the 1950s and '60s that changed the face of international cinema. He also influenced American ...

50. Sergei Eisenstein

Director | Ivan Groznyy

The son of an affluent architect, Eisenstein attended the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd as a young man. With the fall of the tsar in 1917, he worked as an engineer for the Red Army. In the following years, Eisenstein joined up with the Moscow Proletkult Theater as a set designer and ...

51. 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 ...

52. 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 ...

53. 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, ...

54. 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. ...

55. 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 (...

56. 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, ...

57. Satyajit Ray

Writer | Pather Panchali

Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on May 2, 1921. His father, Late Sukumar Ray was an eminent poet and writer in the history of Bengali literature. In 1940, after receiving his degree in science and economics from Calcutta University, he attended Tagore's Viswa-Bharati University. His first movie ...

58. 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 ...

59. Aki Kaurismäki

Producer | Le Havre

Aki Kaurismäki did a wide variety of jobs including postman, dish-washer and film critic, before forming a production and distribution company, Villealfa (in homage to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965)) with his older brother Mika Kaurismäki, also a film-maker. Both Aki and Mika are prolific ...

60. Roy Andersson

Director | En kärlekshistoria

Roy Arne Lennart Andersson is a Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdist humor and melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by long takes, and stiff caricaturing of Swedish culture and grotesque. Over his career Andersson earned ...

61. 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 ...

62. Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Writer | Zemlya

Aleksandr Dovzhenko was born on September 10, 1894 in Vyunishche, Sosnitsa Ueyzd, Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Sosnitsa, Sosnitsa Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a writer and director, known for Earth (1930), Shors (1939) and Life in Bloom (1949). He was married to Yuliya ...

63. 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.

64. 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...

65. Marcel Carné

Director | Le quai des brumes

Marcel Carné, the son of a cabinet maker, entered the movies as the assistant of Jacques Feyder. At the age of 25 he directed his first movie Jenny (1936). Colaborating with the writer Jacques Prévert, the decorator Alexandre Trauner, the musician and composer Maurice Jaubert and the actor Jean ...

66. Jacques Demy

Soundtrack | Les parapluies de Cherbourg

Jacques Demy was born on June 5, 1931 in Pontchâteau, Loire-Atlantique, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and A Room in Town (1982). He was married to Agnès Varda. He died on October 27, 1990 in Paris, France.

67. 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, ...

68. Claude Chabrol

Director | Le beau Serge

Claude Chabrol was born on June 24, 1930 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for Le Beau Serge (1958), La Cérémonie (1995) and Story of Women (1988). He was married to Aurore Chabrol, Stéphane Audran and Agnès Goute. He died on September 12, 2010 in Paris, France.

69. Jacques Rivette

Director | La Belle Noiseuse

Although François Truffaut has written that the New Wave began "thanks to Rivette," the films of this masterful French director are not well known. Rivette, like his "Cahiers du Cinéma" colleagues Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer, did graduate to filmmaking but, like Rohmer...

70. 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 ...

71. Masaki Kobayashi

Director | Seppuku

Masaki Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on October 4, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.

72. 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 ...

73. Jonas Mekas

Director | The Brig

Jonas Mekas, born December 24, 1922, Semeniskiai, Birzai, Lithuania, is a director, cinematographer, editor, writer, actor, poet, artist and publicist. More than 60 years of tireless work in film, arts and media has earned him the epithet "The Godfather of American Avant-Garde Cinema". In 1944 ...

74. Nagisa Ôshima

Director | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

Nagisa Oshima's career extends from the initiation of the "Nuberu bagu" (New Wave) movement in Japanese cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to the contemporary use of cinema and television to express paradoxes in modern society. After an early involvement with the student protest movement in ...

75. Shôhei Imamura

Director | Kuroi ame

Shohei Imamura's films dig beneath the surface of Japanese society to reveal a wellspring of sensual, often irrational, energy that lies beneath. Along with his colleagues Nagisa Ôshima and Masahiro Shinoda, Imamura began his serious directorial career as a member of the New Wave movement in Japan....

76. King Vidor

Director | War and Peace

King Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter of Hungarian descent. He was born in Galveston, Texas to lumberman Charles Shelton Vidor and his wife Kate Wallis. King's paternal grandfather Károly (Charles) Vidor had fled Hungary as a refugee following the failed ...

77. William Friedkin

Director | To Live and Die in L.A.

Friedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young Will became infatuated with ...

78. Isao Takahata

Director | Hotaru no haka

Isao Takahata was born on October 29, 1935 in Ise, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Pom Poko (1994) and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013). He died on April 5, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.

79. 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.

80. Jean Rouch

Director | Moi, un noir

Jean Rouch was born on May 31, 1917 in Paris, France. He was a director and cinematographer, known for Moi, un noir (1958), Madame L'Eau (1993) and Six in Paris (1965). He was married to Joselyne Lamothe. He died on February 18, 2004 in Birni N'Konni, Niger.

81. Dziga Vertov

Director | Chelovek s kino-apparatom

Dziga Vertov was born on January 2, 1896 in Bialystok, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire [now Podlaskie, Poland]. He was a director and writer, known for Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Three Songs About Lenin (1934) and The Sixth Part of the World (1926). He was married to Elizaveta Svilova. He ...

82. Robert J. Flaherty

Director | Louisiana Story

Robert J. Flaherty was born on February 16, 1884 in Iron Mountain, Michigan, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Louisiana Story (1948), Man of Aran (1934) and Elephant Boy (1937). He was married to Frances H. Flaherty. He died on July 23, 1951 in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA.

83. Kore-eda Hirokazu

Director | Manbiki kazoku

Born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at T.V. Man Union. Snuck off set to film Mou hitotsu no kyouiku - Ina shogakkou haru gumi no kiroku (1991). His first feature, Maborosi (1995), ...