Top 10 directors

After my list of top 10 writers, I felt obliged to create one for directors. There are many other directors I like who I think are waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Tarantino - Jean Renoir, Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock to name a few - but the reason why they don't appear is that I have only seen one or two movies by them. The criteria to get into this list is that I must have seen at least three films by the director in question. I know less about cinema than I do of literature, so this list may be less accurate and less representative of my tastes than the list of writers.

The 'three key works' I chose for each director aren't my own preferneces, but those generally deemed to be the most pivotal and important in each person's oevure.

10

Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino made non-linear story-telling fashionable, and mediated astute dialogue with visceral violence. He makes trashy fiction and B-movies simultaneously sophisticated and puerile. His films often feature unpleasant characters insidiously taking advantage of others.

3 Key works: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown.

9

Ingmar Bergman

Creating emotional dramatic films, Bergman addressed the human condition by exploring themes like spirituality and existentialism drenched by despair and bleakness.

3 Key works: The Seventh Seal, Persona, Fanny and Alexander.

8

Luis Bunuel

The grandfather of surrealist cinema, Bunuel produced a number of unforgettable eccentric oddities. The absurd permeates in his work, and characters often conform to unerring, bizarre situations without questioning them.

3 Key works: Un Chien Andalou, Los Olvidados, The Discreet Charm of the Buorgeise

7

Stanley Kubrick

Kubrick took every genre and re-invented, be it war movie or science fiction. He proved to be one of the most scintillating auteurs from the post-war Hollywood era.

3 Key Works: Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

6

Coen Brothers

Using their cinephile knowledge of films, the Coens encompass genres from screwballs to thrillers and always with an unquestionablt Coen signature. Their movies always make reference to film history, and always in an unpretentious and enjoyable way.

3 Key works: Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, No Country for Old Men.

5

David Cronenberg

Injecting intelligence into B movies, sci-fi and terror, Cronenberg is the biggest exponent of 'Body Horror'. His films often involve characters experiencing hallucination and bordering into the brink of insanity.

3 Key works: Videodrome, The Fly, History of Violence.

4

Robert Bresson

Bresson's films explore ascetic themes in a fashion more literary than cinematic. His films are often are very sparse and minimalistic, but they result as greatly overpowering and emotional.

3 Key works: A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Diary of a Countrypriest.

3

David Lynch

Lynch conjures up intricately strange and enigmatic pictures, where the unconscious mind predominates and unquestionable and baffling events occur. The darkness resides hidden and latent beneath the serene comfort of suburbia.

3 Key works: Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive.

2

Werner Herzog

Often going to extremes to attain the unattainable, Herzog's film blur the distinction between fiction and documentary no matter what medium they're in. His films often feature obsessives in doomed quests or men with strange talents in specific fields.

3 Key works: Aguirre: The Wrath of God, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Fitzcarraldo.

1

Jean-Luc Godard

Godard deconstructed cinematic language in a way that broadened the possibilities of cinema. His films often consist of disjointed narratives or cinematic essays on political or aesthetic subjects. This can often be impenetrable and self-indulgent, or extremely absorbing and engaging.

3 Key works: Breathless, Pierrot Le Fou, Weekend.

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WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED WITH ALL THESE LARGE SPACES???!!!!!!!!!! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK................... I may have to edit it again!!!!!!!!! AGRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.