Here’s a list of directors who I believe to be true artists. These guys have had a great impact on me and I would recommend all of their work. This is by no means a complete list. Just the tip of the iceberg, but hopefully it will get you some insight into what cinema as an art form can achieve.
1. Akira Kurosawa
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/kurosawa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurosawa
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/kurosawa.html
My personal favorites- (plot summaries from Criterion Collection)
Roshomon (1950)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=138
Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, Rashomon is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man’s murder and the rape of his wife. Toshiro Mifune gives another commanding performance in the eloquent masterwork that revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema to the world.
Ikiru (1952)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=221
Considered by some to be Akira Kurosawa’s greatest achievement, Ikiru presents the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an exploration of a man’s death. Takashi Shimura portrays Kanji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer forced to strip the veneer off his existence and find meaning in his final days. Told in two parts, Ikiru offers Watanabe’s quest in the present, and then through a series of flashbacks. The result is a multifaceted look at a life through a prism of perspectives, resulting in a full portrait of a man who lacked understanding from others in life.
Kagemusha (1980)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=267
In his late, color masterpiece Kagemusha, Akira Kurosawa returned to the samurai film and to a primary theme of his career—the play between illusion and reality. Sumptuously reconstructing the splendor of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a historical epic that is also a meditation on the nature of power.
Throne of Blood (1957)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,36071,00.html
One of the most celebrated screen adaptations of Shakespeare into film, Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood re-imagines Macbeth in feudal Japan. Starring Kurosawa’s longtime collaborator Toshiro Mifune and the legendary Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless wife, the film tells of a valiant warrior’s savage rise to power and his ignominious fall. With Throne of Blood, Kurosawa fuses one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies with the formal elements of Japanese Noh theater to make a Macbeth that is all his own—a classic tale of ambition and duplicity set against a ghostly landscape of fog and inescapable doom.
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=190§ion=synopsis
2. Stanley Kubrick
Enigmatic, Creative, Cinematic Perfectionist and Hollywood Outsider of the Post-War Era; Director of Deeply-Layered, Complex, and Wide-Ranging Films in Many Different Genres
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/kubrick.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubrick
http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/mainmenu/mainmenu.html
My personal favorites (each one of his films is a masterpiece)-
2001: A space Odyssey (1968)
http://www.filmsite.org/twot.html
“I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophical content...I intended the film to be an intensely subjective experience that reaches the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does...You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film.”
-S. Kubrick
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
"Brilliant. A tour de force of extraordinary images, music, words and feelings."
– Vincent Canby, THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.filmsite.org/cloc.html
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
http://www.filmsite.org/drst.html
Paths of Glory (1957)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,30619,00.html
Regarded as Kubrick's breakthrough film, this chilling tale of a WWI battle was banned in France until the early 1970's. The film depicts Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, who is ordered by his superiors to attack 'The Anthill' even though the attack is regarded as a suicide mission. After the first wave of troops storm the Anthill, the rest of the troops fall back. The attack fails and the Dax's superiors order an example to be made of one soldier per platoon. They are ordered to be executed for cowardice.
Kubrick's first film to deal with the fultility of war, which would become a central theme in Kubrick's later works.
3. Ingmar Bergman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingmar_Bergman
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/bergman.html
http://www.hal-pc.org/~questers/bergman.html
My personal favorites-
Seventh Seal (1957)
After a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight challenges Death to a fateful game of chess. More than forty years after its initial release, Ingmar Bergman’s stunning allegory of man’s apocalyptic search for meaning remains a textbook on the art of filmmaking and an essential building block in any collection.
Wild Strawberries (1957)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,56897,00.html
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=139
The film that catapulted Bergman to the forefront of world cinema is the director’s richest, most humane movie. Traveling to receive an honorary degree, Professor Isak Borg (masterfully played by the veteran Swedish director Victor Sjöström), is forced to face his past, come to terms with his faults, and accept the inevitability of his approaching death. Through flashbacks and fantasies, dreams and nightmares, Wild Strawberries captures a startling voyage of self-discovery and renewed belief in mankind.
The Silence (1963)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=211§ion=synopsis
Two sisters—the sickly, intellectual Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and the sensual, pragmatic Anna (Gunnel Lindblom)—travel by train with Anna’s young son Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom) to a foreign country seemingly on the brink of war. Attempting to cope with their alien surroundings, the sisters resort to their personal vices while vying for Johan’s affection, and in so doing sabotage any hope for a future together. Regarded as one of the most sexually provocative films of its day, Ingmar Bergman’s The Silence offers a brilliant, disturbing vision of emotional isolation in a suffocating spiritual void.
Hour of the wolf (1968)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063759/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vargtimmen
Smiles of a summer night (1955)
After fifteen films of mostly local acclaim, the 1956 prize-winning comedy Smiles of a Summer Night at last ushered in an international audience for director Ingmar Bergman. Set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, four women and four men attempt to juggle the laws of attraction amidst their daily bourgeois life. When a weekend in the country brings them all face to face, the women ally to force the men's hands in their matters of the heart, exposing their pretentions and insecurities along the way. Chock full of flirtatious propositions and sharp-witted wisdom delivered by such legends of the Swedish screen as Gunnar Björnstrand, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, and Ulla Jacobsson, Smiles of a Summer Night is one of film history's great tragicomedies, a bittersweet view of the transience of human carnality.
4. John Luc Godard
French Director, Noted as Ex-Cahiers du Cinema Critic and New Wave Filmmaker
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/godard.html
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/godard.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard
My personal favorites-
Breathless (1959)
Godard's first feature-length film is one of the inaugural and best-known films of the French New Wave. He wrote it with fellow New Wave director, François Truffaut, and released it the year after Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour. Together the three films brought international acclaim to the New Wave.
Breathless shocked contemporary audiences with its bold visual style and editing—much of which broke the rules of classical Hollywood cinema. Most notable of its innovations were jolting jump cuts and hand-held camera.
Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is a young thug who models himself after Humphrey Bogart. After stealing a car, Michel shoots a policeman who has followed him onto a country road. Penniless and on the run from the police, he turns to his American girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg), a student and aspiring journalist, who sells the New York Herald Tribune on the streets of Paris. The ambiguous Patricia agrees to hide him and the two spend their time evading the police and dallying in her apartment, while he tries to raise money for a trip to Italy.
Contempt (1963)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=171§ion=synopsis
American film producer Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) hires respected Austrian director Fritz Lang (playing himself) to direct a film adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey. Dissatisfied with Lang's treatment of the material as an art film, Prokosch hires Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli), a novelist and playwright, to rework the script. The conflict between artistic expression and commercial opportunity parallels Paul's sudden estrangement from his wife Camille Javal (Brigitte Bardot), who is mysteriously aloof with him after being left alone with Prokosch, a millionaire playboy.
Band of Outsiders (1964)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bande_%C3%A0_part
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=174
Bande à part is a 1964 comedy-drama film with film noir elements, directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It is released as Band of Outsiders in North America; its French title derives from the phrase faire bande à part, which means "to do something apart from the group."
Odile (Anna Karina) meets would-be criminals Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey) in an English language class and the two men persuade her to assist them in staging a robbery.
French New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard takes to the streets of Paris to re-imagine the gangster genre, spinning an audacious yarn that’s at once sentimental and insouciant, romantic and melancholy.
Week-End (1967)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Week_End
A stylish and rather jaded bourgeois French married couple, Roland and Corrine (he in his forties, she in her twenties) set out for her parents place in the country to secure her inheritance - by murdering her father, if necessary. They find themselves on a chaotically picaresque car journey through a French countryside populated by increasingly bizarre characters and punctuated by violent car accidents. The plot becomes little more than an excuse for brilliantly inventive vignettes involving everything from schematic delineations of the class struggle to figures from literature and history, creating an overall impression of a humorous, beautiful, but also senseless and frightening world. All this is also the armature for great formal experimentation, including intertitles that intrude suddenly to cut off the action. Near the beginning two pop up to let you know you're watching 'a film adrift in the cosmos' and then 'a film found on a scrap heap'.
5. Jim Jarmusch
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/jarmusch.html
My personal favorites-
Dead Man (1995)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man
Dead Man is a 1995 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Michael Wincott, Lance Henriksen, and Robert Mitchum (in his final role). The movie is something of a Modern Western, with many twisted elements of the Western. The film is black-and-white.
Ghost Dog: The way of the samurai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dog:_The_Way_of_the_Samurai
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is a 1999 film written and directed by
Jim Jarmusch. The film takes place in a fictional Northeastern city and its environs in the present day United States.[1] Forest Whitaker stars as the title character, the mysterious "Ghost Dog", an African American hitman in the employ of the Mafia, and who follows the ancient code of the samurai as outlined in the book of Yamamoto Tsunetomo's recorded sayings, Hagakure.
Broken Flowers (2005)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Flowers
Broken Flowers is a 2005 comedy-drama film directed and written by Jim Jarmusch and produced by Jon Kilik and Stacey Smith. It stars Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Julie Delpy, and Mark Webber. It opened August 5, 2005 in limited release.
In 2005 Cannes Film Festival, the film was nominated for "Golden Palm" Award and won "Grand Prize of the Jury".
6. Martin Scorsese
Renowned, Notable, Modern American Film-maker of a "New Hollywood" Generation; Director of Contemporary, Visually-Stimulating Films That Predominantly Featured New York City, and Had Urban/Crime Themes
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/scorsese.html
My personal favorites-
Taxi Driver (1976)
Taxi Driver is a 1976 film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film stars Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a lonely, isolated, and psychotic taxi driver and Jodie Foster as the teenage prostitute he attempts to save.
Raging Bull (1980)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,112416,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raging_Bull
Raging Bull is a 1980 film directed by Martin Scorsese, adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from the memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It is commonly ranked as one of the greatest films ever made. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a temperamental and paranoid but tenacious boxer who alienates himself from his friends and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, La Motta's brother and manager, and Cathy Moriarty as his abused wife. The film features supporting roles from Nicholas Colasanto (who was eventually to play the character "Coach" on the TV sitcom Cheers), Theresa Saldana, and Frank Vincent, who has starred in many films directed by Martin Scorsese.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Temptation_of_Christ_%28film%29
The Last Temptation of Christ is a film adaptation of the controversial 1951 novel of the same name by Nikos Kazantzakis. Martin Scorsese directed a film based on the book, which was released by Universal Pictures in 1988. It stars Willem Dafoe as Jesus Christ, Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot and Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene. David Bowie and Harry Dean Stanton also appear as Pontius Pilate and Paul, respectively. The film was shot entirely in Morocco.
Like the novel, the film depicts the life of Jesus Christ, and its central thesis is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance and lust. This results in the book and film depicting Christ imagining himself engaged in sexual activities, a notion that has caused outrage from some Christians. The movie includes a disclaimer explaining that it departs from the commonly-accepted Biblical portrayal of Jesus' life, and that it is not intended to be an exact recreation of the events detailed in the Gospels.
7. Yasujiro Ozu
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/ozu.html
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/ozu.html
My personal favorites-
Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) (1953)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,217142,00.html
Early Summer (Bakushu) (1951)
The Mamiya family is seeking a husband for their daughter, Noriko, but she has ideas of her own. Played by the extraordinary Setsuko Hara, Noriko impulsively chooses her childhood friend, at once fulfilling her family's desires while tearing them apart. A seemingly simple story, Early Summer is one of Yasujiro Ozu's most complex works—a nuanced examination of life's changes across three generations.
8. Francois Truffaut 1932-1984
Film Critic and French Film-maker, Part of the New Wave Movement in the 1950s
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/truffaut.html
My personal favorites-
The 400 Blows (1959)
François Truffaut’s first feature, The 400 Blows (Les Quatre cents coups), is also his most personal. Told through the eyes of Truffaut’s life-long cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), The 400 Blows sensitively recreates the trials of Truffaut’s own difficult childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, petty crime, and a friendship that would last a lifetime. The film marks Truffaut’s passage from leading critic of the French New Wave to his emergence as one of Europe’s most brilliant auteurs.
Three years after The 400 Blows took the world by storm, François Truffaut returned with the second chapter in the ongoing saga of romantic ne’er-do-well Antoine Doinel, Antoine and Colette. Originally appearing in the international omnibus film Love at Twenty, this nimble short subject is classic Truffaut, depicting a teenage Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) living on his own and pursuing his first love affair, initiating a lifelong career of quixotic dreams and amorous restlessness.
Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=315§ion=synopsis
François Truffaut is drunk on the possibilities of cinema in this, his most playful film. Part thriller, part comedy, part tragedy, Shoot the Piano Player relates the adventures of mild-mannered piano player Charlie (Charles Aznavour, in a triumph of hangdog deadpan) as he stumbles into the criminal underworld and a whirlwind love affair. Loaded with gags, guns, clowns, and thugs, this razor-sharp homage to the American gangster film is pure nouvelle vague.
Jules and Jim (1961)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,219651,00.html
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=281§ion=synopsis
Hailed as one of the finest films ever made, legendary director François Truffaut’s early masterpiece Jules and Jim charts the relationship between two friends and the object of their mutual obsession over the course of twenty-five years. Jeanne Moreau stars as Catherine, the alluring and willful young woman whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre) into one of cinema’s most captivating romantic triangles. An exuberant and poignant meditation on freedom, loyalty, and the fortitude of love, Jules and Jim was a worldwide smash upon its release in 1962 and remains as audacious and entrancing today.
9. Abbas Kiarostami
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/kiarostami.html
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/kiarostami.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_Kiarostami
My personal favorites-
Through the Olive Trees (Zir-e Derakhtan-e Zeytun) (1994)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_Olive_Trees
Taste of Cherry/The Taste of Cherry (Tam-e Gilas) (1987)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taste_of_Cherry
Ten (2002)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301978/
10. Federico Fellini 1920-1993
Visionary, Surrealistic Italian Screenwriter and Director
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/fellini.html
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/fellini.html
8 1/2 (1963) (One of my all time favorites)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,44103,00.html
11. Satyajit Ray 1921-1992
Award-Winning Indian-Born Director, the Most Famous of All-Time, and Noted for the Acclaimed "Apu Trilogy"
“Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon", said Akira Kurosawa, the great master of Japanese cinema.
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/ray.html
http://www.satyajitray.org/about_ray/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyajit_Ray
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/ray.html
My personal favorites-
Pather Panchali (1955)
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010304/REVIEWS08/103040301/1023
“one of the most stunning first films in movie history. Ray is a welcome jolt of flesh, blood and spirit” – Jack Kroll, Newsweek
Pather Panchali portrays life in rural Bengal in the 1920s. It focuses on the lives of Apu (full name: Apurba Kumar Roy) and his family members.
The story revolves around a poor Brahmin family. The father, Harihar, is a priest who is unable to make ends meet to keep his family together. The mother, Sarbajaya, has the chief responsibility for raising her mischievous daughter Durga and caring for her elderly sister-in-law Indir, who is a distant relative and whose independent spirit sometimes irritates her.
The Music Room (1958)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,36064,00.html
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19990117/REVIEWS08/401010342/1023
The Big City (1963)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahanagar
Mahanagar is a 1963 film directed by Satyajit Ray. It is sometimes released as The Big City in the English-speaking world. Based on a short story written by Narendranath Mitra, it tells the story of a housewife who disconcerts her traditionalist family by getting a job as a salesperson. It explores the evolving independence of a middle-class woman, Arati Mazumdar (Madhabi Mukherjee), as she takes her first job because of increasing financial pressure due to her husband's income not being enough for the family to live on. This decision is purely a financial one and is made in spite of opposition from both families. Arati subsequently grows to delight in her newfound financial and psychological independence. Eventually, her husband loses his job and she becomes the sole breadwinner, which leads to even more conflict.
Charulata (1964)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charulata
Charulata, sometimes released in the English-speaking world as The Lonely Wife, is a 1964 film by Bengali director Satyajit Ray, based upon the novella Nastanirh ("The Broken Nest") by Rabindranath Tagore.
The film tells the story of a lonely housewife, known as Charu (Madhabi Mukherjee), who lives a wealthy, secluded and idle life in 1870's Calcutta. Her husband, Bhupati (Sailen Mukherjee), runs a newspaper, The Sentinel, and spends more time at work than with his wife. However, he notices that Charu is lonely, and asks his cousin, Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee), to keep her company. Amal is a writer and is asked to help Charu with her own writing. However, after some time, Charu and Amal's feelings for each other move beyond those of a mentoring relationship.
Nayak (The Hero) (1966)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayak_%28film%29
Nayak, released in the US as Nayak: The Hero is a 1966 film written and directed by Satyajit Ray. It was Ray's second entirely original screenplay (after Kanchenjungha). The story concerns a matinee idol (played by Uttam Kumar) on a cross-country train journey, who is placed in the midst of various psychodramas unfolding among a varied cast of mostly wealthy characters.
Shatrani Ke Khilari (The Chess Players) (1977)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatranj_Ke_Khiladi
The Chess Players (Shatranj Ke Khiladi) is a 1977 film by Bengali director Satyajit Ray, based on the short story of the same name by Munshi Premchand, featuring the actors Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, David Abraham and Tom Alter. Richard Attenborough plays the role of General James Outram, and Amjad Khan plays the role of Avadh king Wajid Ali Shah.
The film is set in 1856 and shows the life and customs of 19th century India at the eve of the Indian rebellion of 1857, and importantly the politics of colonial expansion by the British East India Company and the deluded divisions of Indian monarchs.
12. Fritz Lang
Pioneering Abstract German Expressionist and Resourceful Early Director of Dark Film Noirs
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/lang.html
My personal favorites-
Metropolis (1927)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%28film%29
Metropolis is a silent science fiction film created by the famed Austrian director Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany in the Babelsberg Studios during the brief years of the Weimar Republic and released in 1927, it was the most expensive silent film of the time, costing approximately 7 million Reichsmark (equivalent to around $200 million in 2005) to make.[1] The screenplay was written in 1924 by Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou, and novelized by von Harbou in 1926. It is set in a futuristic urban dystopia, and, like its contemporary The Battleship Potemkin, addresses the then-current political themes of capitalism vs. communism.
M (1931)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=30#synopsis
A simple, haunting phrase whistled off-screen tells us that a young girl will be killed. "Who is the murderer?" pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) closes in on little Elsie Beckmann. In his harrowing masterwork M, Fritz Lang merges trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller.
13. Alfred Hitchcock
Acknowledged British Master of Manipulative Terror and Thrillers, Widely Known as the "Master of Suspense" and Arguably the Most Imitated Director of All Time; also Host of His Own TV Mystery Series
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/05/hitchcock.html
My personal favorites (There are too many to put down!)
Vertigo
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,119347,00.html
39 Steps (1935)
The best known of Hitchcock’s British films, this civilized spy yarn follows the escapades of Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), who stumbles into a conspiracy that involves him in a hectic chase across the Scottish moors—a chase in which he is both the pursuer and the pursued. Adapted from John Buchan’s novel, this classic Hitchcock “wrong man” thriller encapsulates themes that anticipate the director’s biggest American films (especially North by Northwest), and is a standout among his early works.
Trouble with Harry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Harry
The Trouble with Harry is an American black comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the novel by Jack Trevor Story. It was released in the United States on October 3, 1955.
The film follows several quirky residents of a small town in Vermont as they deal with a dead body that has inconveniently turned up on a local mountainside (which is the eponymous "trouble with Harry"). The film starred John Forsythe and Edmund Gwenn, and co-starred Shirley MacLaine and Jerry Mathers, both in their first film roles.
14. Krzysztof Kieslowski 1941-96
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/kieslowski.html
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/kieslowski.html
My personal favorites-
Camera Buff (Amator) (1979)
Camera Buff (Amator) is a 1979 Polish film written and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski about a humble factory worker whose newfound hobby, amateur film, becomes an obsession and transforms his modest and contented life.
Three Colors Blue (93)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Colors:_Blue
According to Kieślowski, the subject of the film is liberty, specifically emotional liberty, rather than its social or political meaning.[1] It is set in Paris, where Julie, wife of the famous composer Patrice de Courcy, must cope with the death of her husband and daughter in an automobile accident she herself survives. While recovering in the hospital, Julie attempts suicide. For the remainder of the film, Julie devotes herself to mental suicide, disassociating herself from all past memories and distancing herself from former friendships.
Three Colors White (94)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Colors:_White
This film illustrates the second theme of the Three Colors trilogy, equality, through the two desires of the protagonist Karol Karol: improving his station in life, and revenge. In contrast to the introspective, melancholy, and eventually hopeful stories of Blue and Red, White is a black comedy.
Three Colors Red (94)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Colors:_Red
Set in Geneva, Switzerland, and like its predecessors, a multi-layered story with many messages, Red has perhaps the simplest storyline in the Three Colors trilogy. It also received more English media recognition than Blue or White, after the critical successes of the first two parts of the trilogy.
A Short Film About Killing (Krótki film o zabijaniu) (1988)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,4135,140594,00.html
Double life of Veronique (1991)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=359§ion=synopsis
Krzysztof Kieslowski's international breakthrough remains one of his most beloved films, a ravishing, mysterious rumination on identity, love, and human intuition. Irène Jacob is incandescent as both Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. Though unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, purely emotional bond, which Kieslowski details in gorgeous reflections, colors, and movements. Aided by Slawomir Idziak's shimmering cinematography and Zbigniew Preisner's haunting, operatic score, Kieslowski creates one of cinema's most purely metaphysical works. The Double Life of Veronique is an unforgettable symphony of feeling.
15. David Lynch
Acclaimed Writer/Director of Experimental, Avante-Garde, Dark and Disturbing Art House Films
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/lynch.html
http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/
My personal favorites-
Eraserhead (1977)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraserhead
Eraserhead (released in France as The Labyrinth Man) is a 1977 surrealist-horror film written and directed by David Lynch. The film stars Jack Nance and Charlotte Stewart. Eraserhead initially polarized and baffled many critics and movie-goers, but over time the film has become a cult classic.
In 2004, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Lynch has described his film as a "dream of dark and troubling things."[1]
Eraserhead is considered a difficult film to understand and is open to various interpretations. For example, the review at DVD Verdict offers at least three interpretations.[2] The story does not have a strictly linear plot, it is punctuated with fantasy/dream sequences of differing lengths, and the boundary between these sequences and the primary narrative strand is often blurred. Many have interpreted it as a visual-sound experience rather than a narrative or story, a film that is more about conveying a very specific and powerful mood and atmosphere. Lynch has said he has yet to read an interpretation of the film that is the same as his own.
Blue Velvet (1986)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,140596,00.html
Lost Highway (1997)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/
Lost Highway is a 1997 psychological thriller directed by David Lynch. It is a crime film, arguably an example of contemporary film noir, but with surreal imagery and themes. Lynch co-wrote the screenplay with Barry Gifford; the score is by Angelo Badalamenti.
After a bizarre encounter at a party, a jazz saxophonist is framed for the murder of his wife and sent to prison, where he inexplicably morphs into a young mechanic and begins leading a new life.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulholland_Dr.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/
Mulholland Drive (often abbreviated Mulholland Dr.) is a 2001 Academy Award-nominated psychological thriller written and directed by David Lynch. It stars Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux.
The plot is structured around an aspiring actress named Betty Elms (Watts), who befriends an amnesiac (Harring) whom she finds hiding in her aunt's apartment when she arrives in Los Angeles, California. The film includes several other seemingly unrelated vignettes, which eventually connect in various ways, as well as other surreal scenes and images which are all involved in the cryptic narrative.
Strongly acclaimed by many critics, but only a moderate box-office success, the film has achieved the status of a cult classic.
16. Robert Bresson
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/bresson.html
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/bresson.html
Pickpocket (1959)
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,,74835,00.html
Robert Bresson’s incomparable tale of crime and redemption follows Michel, a young pickpocket who spends his days working the streets, subway cars, and train stations of Paris. As his compulsion grows, however, so too does his fear that his luck is about to run out. Tautly choreographed and crafted in Bresson’s inimitable style, Pickpocket reveals a master director at the height of his powers.
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)
http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=297§ion=synopsis
A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, director Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of man. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson’s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this seemingly simple story becomes a moving parable of purity and transcendence.
L'Argent (Money) (1983)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Argent_%281983_film%29
L'Argent (Money), inspired by the Leo Tolstoy short story The Forged Coupon, is the final film by French film director Robert Bresson.