Director List
To the readers:
The following is a hand-picked, somewhat random list of some of my favorite film directors — plus some filmmakers I like without managing to love — and what I believe to be their best films. The list is in no particular order of any importance. Some of the choices may piss you off. Good. Or you might agree, or find some of them boring. Good. In any case, I hope you dig some of it, and I hope you are managing to create your own lists as well because, well, it’s fun. — Nick
JOEL AND ETHAN COEN
1. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2. Fargo
3. Inside Llewyn Davis
4. The Man Who Wasn’t There
5. The Big Lebowski
6. No Country for Old Men
7. Burn After Reading
8. Barton Fink
9. A Serious Man
10. Miller’s Crossing
11. Blood Simple
12. The Ladykillers
13. Raising Arizona
14. Intolerable Cruelty
15. True Grit
16. The Hudsucker Proxy
JIM JARMUSCH
1. Down by Law
2. Stranger than Paradise
3. Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
4. Mystery Train
5. Dead Man
6. Broken Flowers
7. Only Lovers Left Alive
8. Coffee and Cigarettes
9. Night on Earth
10. The Limits of Control
ROMAN POLANSKI
1. Cul de Sac
2. Rosemary’s Baby
3. Chinatown
4. Knife in the Water
5. Repulsion
6. The Pianist
7. MacBeth
8. The Tenant
9. The Fat and the Lean (short)
10. Venus in Furs
11. Bitter Moon
12. Break up the Dance (short)
13. The Ghost Writer
14. Carnage
15. What?
WES ANDERSON
1. The Royal Tenenbaums
2. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
3. Bottle Rocket
4. Rushmore
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel
6. The Darjeeling Limited
7. Fantastic Mr. Fox
8. Moonrise Kingdom.
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON
1. Boogie Nights
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Punch-Drunk Love
3. Inherent Vice
4. Magnolia
5. The Master
6. Hard Eight
DAVID CRONENBERG
1. Videodrome
2. The Fly
3. Naked Lunch
4. Scanners
5. Eastern Promises
6. The Brood
7. Shivers/They Came From Within
8. The Dead Zone
9. eXistenZ
10. Maps to the Stars
11. A History of Violence
12. Cosmopolis
MARTIN SCORSESE
1. Taxi Driver
2. Goodfellas
3. The King of Comedy
4. Mean Streets
5. The Last Waltz
6. Raging Bull
7. Casino
8. After Hours
9. The Aviator
10. The Departed
11. Alice Doesn’t Live here anymore
12. Who’s that Knocking at my door?
13. The Wolf of Wall Street
14. Kundun
15. Shutter Island
16. Hugo
17. Cape Fear
18. Gangs of New York
19. The Color of Money
ROBERT ALTMAN
1. Nashville
2. The Long Goodbye
3. California Split
4. Brewster McCloud
5. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
6. MASH
7. 3 Women
8. Images
9. The Player
10. Short Cuts
11. Gosford Park
12. A Prairie Home Companion
NOAH BAUMBACH
1. Greenberg
2. The Squid and the Whale
3. Mistress America
4. Frances Ha
5. While We’re Young
6. Margot at the Wedding
7. Kicking and Screaming
BRIAN DE PALMA
1. Blow Out
2. The Fury
3. Carlito’s Way
4. Carrie
5. Sisters
6. Scarface
7. Hi, Mom!
8. Mission: Impossible
9. The Untouchables
10. Phantom of the Paradise
11. Snake Eyes
12. Mission to Mars
DAVID FINCHER
1. Zodiac
2. The Social Network
3. Se7en
4. Fight Club
5. The Game
6. Panic Room
7. Gone Girl
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10. Alien3
STANLEY KUBRICK
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Barry Lyndon
3. The Shining
4. The Killing
5. A Clockwork Orange
6. Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying & Love The Bomb
7. Eyes Wide Shut
8. Spartacus
9. Lolita
FEDERICO ELLINI
1. 8/12
2. Amarcord
3. La Dolce Vita
4. I Vitelloni
5. Nights of Cambria
6. Juliet of the Spirits
7. La Strada
8. Fellini Satirycon
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN
1. The Dark Knight
2. Memento
3. The Prestige
4. Interstellar
5. Insomnia
6. Inception
7. The Dark Knight Rises
8. Batman Begins
WOODY ALLEN
1. Manhattan
2. Stardust Memories
3. Love and Death
4. Annie Hall
5. Hannah and her Sisters
6. Crimes and Misdemeanors
7. Sleeper
8. Everything you ever wanted to know about sex (but were afraid to ask)
9. Broadway Danny Rose
10. Zelig
11. Bananas
12. Radio Days
13. Whats up, Tiger Lily?
14. Midnight in Paris
15. Blue Jasmine
16. Match Point
17. Melinda and Melinda
18. Shadows and Fog
19. To Rome with Love
20. Whatever Works
21. Deconstructing Harry
22. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
23. Irrational Man
INGMAR BERGMAN
1. Persona
2. Wild Strawberries
3. The Seventh Seal
4. The Silence
5. The Virgin Spring
6. Autumn Sonata
7. The Magic Flute
8. Hour of the Wolf
9. The Passion of Anna
STEVEN SPIELBERG
1. Jurassic Park
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Jaws
4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
5. Saving Private Ryan
6. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
7. Duel
8. Close Encounters of the third Kind
9. Poltergeist
10. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
11. War of the Worlds
12. Catch me if you Can
13. Schindler’s List
14. Munich
15. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
16. Lincoln
17. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
18. Hook
19. The Terminal
DAVID LYNCH
1. Mulholland Drive
2. Blue Velvet
3. Inland Empire
4. Wild at Heart
5. Eraserhead
6. Twin Peaks
7. Lost Highway
8. The Elephant Man
JAMES GRAY
1. The Immigrant
2. The Yards
3. Two Lovers
4. We Own the Night
5. Little Odessa
QUENTIN TARANTINO
1. Jackie Brown
2. Reservoir Dogs
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Kill Bill vol. 1
5. Django Unchained
6. Inglorious Basterds
7. Kill Bill vol. 2
8. Death Proof
ROBERT RODRIGUEZ
1. From Dusk Till Dawn
2. The Faculty
3. El Mariachi
4. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
5. Planet Terror
6. Sin City
7. Desperado
8. Machete
9. Spy Kids
10. Spy Kids: The Island of Lost Dreams
11. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
12. Shorts
EDGAR WRIGHT
1. Shaun of the Dead
2. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
3. Hot Fuzz
4. The World’s End
5. Spaced
MICHAEL MANN
1. Heat
2. Collateral
3. The Insider
4. Public Enemies
5. Thief
6. Miami Vice
7. Blackhat
8. Manhunter
9. Ali
10. Luck
RICHARD LINKLATER
- Dazed and Confused
- Waking Life
- Before Sunrise
- Bernie
- Before Sunset
- Boyhood
- The School of Rock
- A Scanner Darkly
- Tape
- The Bad News Bears
- Fast Food Nation
FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT
- Jules and Jim
- Stolen Kisses
- Shoot the Piano Player!
- The 400 Blows
- Bed and Board
- Small Change
- Day for Night
- The Wild Child
