200 Great Directors' Best Films

These are the top rated films of each director listed by a consensus of critics polls, I’ve included my choices below those if they differ. I included some directors who only had one great picture, such as Laughton, Beatty, Attenborough, if I considered that one film important enough. [Updated: 8.28.09*] Allen, Woody: Manhattan (1979) US (photo rt) – I prefer Hannah and Her Sisters Almodóvar, Pedro: All About My Mother (1999) Spain-France Altman, Robert: Nashville (1975) US – My pick: McCabe and Mrs. Miller Anderson, Paul Thomas: Boogie Nights (1997)* Angelopoulos, Theo: The Travelling Players (1975) Greece Antonioni, Michelangelo: L’Avventura (1960) Italy-France Aronofsky, Darren: Requiem for a Dream (2000) US - many prefer Pi, not me Ashby, Hal: Harold and Maude (1972)US Attenborough, Richard: Gandhi (1982) UK - worth the two decades he spent Beatty, Warren: Reds (1981) US Beresford, Bruce: Driving Miss Daisy (1989) US - many prefer Breaker Morant Bergman, Ingmar: Persona (1966) Sweden Bertolucci, Bernardo: The Conformist (1969) Italy-France-Germany Bogdanovich, Peter: The Last Picture Show (1971) US Bondarchuk, Sergei: War and Peace (1968) Russia Boyle, Danny: Trainspotting (1995) UK – mine: Slumdog Millionaire Bresson, Robert: Au hasard Balthazar (1966) France Brest, Martin: Midnight Run (1988) US – good, but I like Going in Style Brooks, Mel: The Producers (1968) US Buñuel, Luis: Viridiana (1961) Spain – I prefer The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeousie Burton, Tim: Edward Scissorhands (1990) - I like Big Fish better Cameron, James: The Terminator (1984) US – I like Aliens and Terminator 2 Camus, Marcel: Black Orpheus (1959) Brazil-France Capra, Frank: It's a Wonderful Life (1946) US – I prefer Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Carné, Marcel: Les Enfants du paradis (1945) France Cassavetes, John: A Woman Under the Influence (1974) US Cavani, Liliana: The Night Porter (1973) Italy Chaplin, Charles: City Lights (1931) US – I guess I’d pick Modern Times Chen Kaige: Farewell, My Concubine (1993) Hong Kong-China Cimino, Michael: The Deer Hunter (1978) US – he did another film? Clément, René: Forbidden Games (1951) France Clouzot, Henri-Georges: The Wages of Fear (1952) France-Italy Cocteau, Jean: La Belle et la bête (1946) France Cooper, Merian C./Ernest B. Schoedsack: King Kong (1933) US - admirable effects, stupid story Coen, Joel and Ethan Coen: Fargo (1995) US – close, I’ll go with Raising Arizona Coppola, Francis: The Godfather (1972) US – I like Godfather II best (photo rt) Cukor, George: The Philadelphia Story (1940) US – close, I’ll take My Fair Lady Curtiz, Michael: Casablanca (1942) US Darabont, Frank: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) US De Palma, Brian: Carrie (1976) US De Sica, Vittorio: Bicycle Thieves (1948) Italy Demme, Jonathan: The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Deren, Maya: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) US Dieterle, William: Portrait of Jennie (1948) US Donen, Stanley/Gene Kelly: Singin' in the Rain (1952) US Dovzhenko, Alexander: Earth (1930) Russia Dreyer, Carl: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) France Eastwood, Clint: Unforgiven (1992) US – Good, but I prefer Mystic River Egoyan, Atom: The Sweet Hereafter (1997) Canada Eisenstein, Sergei: Battleship Potemkin (1925) Russia Fassbinder, Rainer Werner: Ali - Fear Eats the Soul (1974) Germany Fellini, Federico: 8½ (1963) Italy Fincher, David: Fight Club (1997) US - I still prefer The Game Flaherty, Robert: Nanook of the North (1922) US Fleming, Victor: Gone with the Wind (1939) US – gimme the giant girl in Wizard of Oz Ford, John: The Searchers (1956) US – argh, I’ll take Mister Roberts Forman, Milos: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) US – I like Amadeus Fosse, Bob: Cabaret (1972) US – I think All That Jazz was more interesting Frankenheimer, John: The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - my pick: The Train Frears, Stephen: Dangerious Liaisons (1988) US Friedkin, William: The Exorcist (1973) US – yuck, French Connection is far better Gance, Abel: Napoléon (silent, 1927) France Gilliam, Terry: Brazil (1985) UK (photo rt) Godard, Jean-Luc: Breathless (1959) France Griffith, D.W.: Intolerance (1916) US Hallström, Lasse: My Life as a Dog (1985) Sweden Hamer, Robert: Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) UK Hawks, Howard: Rio Bravo (1959) US – r.u. kidding? His Girl Friday Herzog, Werner: Aguirre - The Wrath of God (1972) Germany – I like Fitzcarraldo Hitchcock, Alfred: Vertigo (1958) US Howard, Ron: A Beautiful Mind (2003) US - my pick: Parenthood Hughes, John: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) US Huston, John: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) US - mine: The Maltese Falcon (42)* (photo bottom) Ivory, James: A Room With a View (1986) US Jackson, Peter: The Lord of the Rings (trilogy, 2001) US-New Zealand Jewison, Norman: In the Heat of the Night (1967) US Kaufman, Philip: The Right Stuff (1983) US Kazan, Elia: On the Waterfront (1954) US (photo rt) Keaton, Buster/Clyde Bruckman: The General (1926) US Kiarostami, Abbas: Close-Up (1989) Iran Kieslowski, Krszystof: Dekalog (Decalogue, 1988) Poland Kubrick, Stanley: 2001 - A Space Odyssey (1968) UK Kurosawa, Akira: The Seven Samurai (1954) Japan Lang, Fritz: M (1931) Germany Laughton, Charles: Night of the Hunter (1955) UK - his only film as director Lean, David: Lawrence of Arabia (1962) UK Lee, Ang: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2002) China-Taiwan-US - he's underrated Lee, Spike: Do the Right Thing (1989) US Leone, Sergio: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Italy-US – I much prefer Once Upon a Time in America, the long version LeRoy, Mervyn: Goldiggers of 1933 (1933) Lester, Richard: A Hard Day's Night (1964) UK Levinson, Barry: Diner (1982) US Losey, Joseph: The Servant (1963) UK Lubitsch, Ernst: To Be or Not to Be (1942) US – give me Trouble in Paradise Lucas, George: Star Wars (1977) US Lumet, Sidney: Network (1976) US Lynch, David: Blue Velvet (1986) US Mackendrick, Alexander: The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) US (photo rt) Malick, Terrence: Days of Heaven (1978) US Malle, Louis: Lacombe, Lucien (1974) France – my pick: Atlantic City Mankiewicz, Joseph L.: All About Eve (1950) US Marker, Chris: La Jetée (1962) France Mazursky, Paul: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) US - never liked this, loved Enemies-A Love Story McCarey, Leo: Duck Soup (1933) US McLeod, Norman Z.: It's a Gift (1934) US Meirelles, Fernando: City of God (2002) Brazil-Germany-France Mendes, Sam: An American Beauty (1999) I like 2008's Revolutionary Road Milestone, Lewis: All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) US Miller, George: The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2) (1981) Australia Minghella, Anthony: The English Patient (1996) US Minnelli, Vincente: The Band Wagon (1953) US – I like Meet Me in St. Louis Mizoguchi, Kenji: Ugetsu monogatari (1953) Japan Morris, Errol: The Thin Blue Line (1988) US - I prefer the pure documentary Fast, Cheap and Out of Control Mulligan, Robert: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) US Murnau, F.W.: Sunrise (silent, 1927) US *Best Silent* Nair, Mira: Salaam Bombay! (1988) India Nichols, Mike: The Graduate (1967) US (photo rt) Nolan, Christopher: Memento (2000) US Ophüls, Max: Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) US Ozu, Yasujiro: Tokyo Story (1953) Japan Pabst, G.W.: Pandora's Box (silent, 1928) Germany Pakula, Alan J.: All the President's Men (1976) US Pasolini, Pier Paolo: The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) France-Italy Peckinpah, Sam: The Wild Bunch (1969) US Penn, Arthur: Bonnie and Clyde (1967) US Pennebaker, D.A.: Don't Look Back (1967) US Polanski, Roman: Chinatown (1974) US Pollack, Sydney: Tootsie (1982) US Pontecorvo, Gillo: The Battle of Algiers (1965) Algeria-Italy (photo rt) Powell, Michael/Emeric Pressburger: A Matter of Life and Death (1946) UK – I think I prefer The Red Shoes, and A Canterbury Tale Rafelson, Bob: Five Easy Pieces (1970) US Ramis, Harold: Groundhog Day (1993) US Ray, Nicholas: Johnny Guitar (1954) US – easily In a Lonely Place Ray, Satyajit: Pather Panchali (1955) India Reed, Carol: The Third Man (1949) UK – I actually prefer Outcast of the Islands Reiner, Rob: This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – my pick: When Harry Met Sally Reisz, Karel: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - I love Morgan! Renoir, Jean: The Rules of the Game (1939) France – like many others, I prefer La Grande Illusion; they’re close in the poll Resnais, Alain: Last Year at Marienbad (1961) France-Italy – not a big fan, but Hiroshima, Mon Amour over this Richardson, Tony: Tom Jones (1963) UK Riefenstahl, Leni: Triumph of the Will (1935) Germany (Nazi) Ritt, Martin: Hud (1963) US - although Norma Rae is more inspirational Rivette, Jacques: Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) France Roeg, Nicolas: Don't Look Now (1973) UK – I vastly prefer Walkabout, even Performance Roehmer, Eric: My Night at Maud's (1969) France Rossellini, Roberto: Voyage in Italy (1953) Italy Rossen, Robert: The Hustler (1961) US Salles, Walter: Central Station (1998) Brazil-France - a tossup, or: The Motorcycle Diaries Sandrich, Mark: Top Hat (1935) US - I prefer the hilarious The Gay Divorcee Sayles, John: Lone Star (1995) US Schlesinger, John: Midnight Cowboy (1969) US Scorsese, Martin: Raging Bull (1980) US – right, but Taxi Driver is close Scott, Ridley: Blade Runner (1982) US – yes, but Gladiator is close Sharpsteen, Ben: Fantasia (1940) US Siegel, Don: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) US Singer, Bryan: The Usual Suspects (1995) US Sirk, Douglas: Written on the Wind (1956) US Sjöström, Victor: The Wind (1928) US Spielberg, Steven: Jaws (1975) US – over E.T., Close Encounters, Schindler’s List? I even liked Minority Report, Raiders/Lost Ark, Pvt. Ryan more.. Stanton, Andrew: Wall-E (2008) US - not listed yet, I added him for this and Finding Nemo Stevens, George: Shane (1953) US Stone, Oliver: JFK (1991) US - me and Oscar prefer Platoon Sturges, John: The Magnificent Seven (1960) US Sturges, Preston: The Lady Eve (1941) US Szabó, István: Mephisto (1981) Hungary Tarantino, Quentin: Pulp Fiction (1994) US – inspired by Wong Kar-Wai Tarkovsky, Andrei: Andrei Rublev (1966) Russia (photo rt) Tati, Jacques: Playtime (1967) France Tornatore, Giuseppe: Cinema Paradiso (1988) Italy-France Tourneur, Jacques: Out of the Past (1947) US Truffaut, François: Jules et Jim (1961) France Vidor, King: The Crowd (1928) US Vigo, Jean: L’Atalante (1934) France Visconti, Luchino: The Leopard (1963) Italy – not a fan of this, give me Death in Venice von Sternberg, Josef: The Blue Angel (1930) Germany von Stroheim, Erich: Greed (1924) US von Trier, Lars: Breaking the Waves (1996) Denmark-Sweden Wajda, Andrzej: Ashes and Diamonds (1958) Poland Washowski Brothers, Andy and Larry: The Matrix (1999)* Weir, Peter: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Australia – I like Fearless, many like Witness Welles, Orson: Citizen Kane (1941) US Wertmuller, Lina: Seven Beauties (1976) Italy - first woman director nominated for best directing Oscar® Wilder, Billy: Some Like it Hot (1959) US – good but mine: Sunset Boulevard (photo rt) Wise, Robert: West Side Story (1960) US - co-dir w Jerome Robbins Wong Kar-Wai: Chungking Express (1994) Hong Kong – and the sequel Fallen Angels Wyler, William: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) US Zemeckis, Robert: Back to the Future (1985) US Zhang Yimou: Raise the Red Lantern (1991) Hong Kong – my pick: Hero, one of my favorite films, China’s top grossing Zinnemann, Fred: High Noon (1952)US Note: Currently at 182, I intend to add to this list until I have at least 200 directors The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 42)