My 40 Favourite Directors

Here are forty directors (not listed in any order) whose films I have come to admire as my film education has increased, and as a result of my exposure to new and exciting filmmakers. This list stretches from early cinema pioneers like Sergei Eisenstein and Charlie Chaplin to present-day masters like David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson - and the skilled auteurs like Robert Bresson, Stanley Kubrick and Ingmar Bergman who were at their peak in between.

To be considered, I had to have seen and immensely enjoyed at least two of their films. I have listed the films from each filmmaker that I have personally seen and can recommend. Come and share your thoughts on these filmmakers.

Sergei Eisenstein

Essential Viewing: Strike (1924), The Battleship Potemkin (1925), Ivan the Terrible Part 1 (1944)

Charlie Chaplin

The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940)

Alfred Hitchcock 

Notorious (1946), Strangers on A Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963)

Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger

Black Narcissus (1946), The Red Shoes (1948), Peeping Tom (1960)

Billy Wilder

Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960)

Akira Kurosawa

Rashomon (1950), The Seven Samurai (1954), Ran (1985)

Robert Bresson

A Man Escaped (1956), Pickpocket (1958), Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

Ingmar Bergman

The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Through A Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1972)

Stanley Kubrick

The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957) Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Jean Luc Godard

Breathless (1959), A Woman is a Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Contempt (1963), Band A'Part (1964), Pierrot Le Fou (1965), Masculine Feminine (1966), Weekend (1967)

Roman Polanski

Knife in the Water (1962), Repulsion (1965), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974), The Pianist (2002), The Ghost Writer (2010), Carnage (2011)

Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Rublev (1969), Solaris (1972), The Mirror (1975), Stalker (1979), The Sacrifice (1986)

Dario Argento

The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (1970), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971), Deep Red (1975), Suspiria (1977), Inferno (1980), Tenebre (1982)

Werner Herzog

Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Grizzly Man (2005), Rescue Dawn (2007), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), The Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011)

Francis Ford Coppola

The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979)

Terrence Malick

Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), The New World (2005), The Tree of Life (2011)

Martin Scorsese

Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010)

Terry Gilliam

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Brazil (1985), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Steven Spielberg

Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler's List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005)

Woody Allen

Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Match Point (2005), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Midnight in Paris (2011)

David Lynch

Eraserhead (1977), Blue Velvet (1986), Mulholland Drive (2001)

Ridley Scott

Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Gladiator (2000), Matchstick Men (2003), American Gangster (2007)

David Cronenberg

Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), Naked Lunch (1991), Crash (1996), eXistenZ (1999), A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007)

Jim Jarmusch

Night on Earth (1991), Dead Man (1995), Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999), Broken Flowers (2005)

Michael Mann

Manhunter (1986), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Collateral (2004)

Oliver Stone

Platoon (1986), Wall Street (1987), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), The Doors (1991), JFK (1991), Any Given Sunday (1999)

Joel and Ethan Coen

Blood Simple (1984), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother Where Art Thou (2000), No Country for Old Men (2007), Burn After Reading (2008),  A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010)

Pedro Almodovar

All About My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002), Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009), The Skin I Live In (2011)

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Camera Buff (1979), Dekalog (1989-90), The Double Life of Veronique (1991), Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993), Trois Couleurs: Blanc (1994), Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994)

Steven Soderbergh

Traffic (2000), Ocean's Eleven (2001), The Informant (2009), Contagion (2011)

Quentin Tarantino

Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Inglourious Basterds (2009)

David Fincher

Se7en (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Zodiac (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Social Network (2010), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Danny Boyle

Trainspotting (1996), 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), 127 Hours (2010)

Hayao Miyazaki

Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001)

Paul Thomas Anderson

Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007)

Michael Haneke

The Seventh Continent (1989), Funny Games (1997), Code Unknown (2000), Time of the Wolf (2003), Hidden (2005), The White Ribbon (2009)

Wes Anderson

Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Darren Aronofsky

 Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Wrestler (2008), Black Swan (2010)

Alfonso Cuaron

Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006)

Christopher Nolan

Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010)

You might have noticed there are no female directors here, and this is a feature I am a little ashamed about. I have watched some fantastic films by some female directors, but not enough of their films to consider their work amongst my favourite. Sofia Coppola, Lynn Ramsay, Debra Granik, Lisa Cholodenko, Susanne Bier, and Claire Denis would head my list of female directors - but mostly due to the strength of a lone film I have seen by them. I will make it a priority in future (perhaps in May) to work through their resumes more.