The Directors You Should Know By Name
(Living Only)

Updates are signified by a (*).

More to be Added Soon

I know that I will receive a lot of e-mails saying I left someone out. I welcome those e-mails along with any other comments, suggestions, or bitch-outs you want to give to me. If you are a movie watcher, you should be able to recite these without fail. I'm going to list these directors in alphebetic order. If you have a problem with my prose, please tell me, editing isn't my best talent. Anyway, let's begin...

Woody Allen Woody Allen is losing fans fast. The truth of Woody Allen is that he has directed 37 movies and has been nominated for 20 Academy Awards. The most nominated screenwriter ever and the quirkiest son-of-a-bitch in the business.

*Pedro Almodovar The arthouse lover that I know you all are...must check out this man's movies. He shows complete disregard with the rating system and makes challenging and beautiful movies about why we are so f***ed up. First movies you should see of his: Talk to Her, Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, and All About My Mother.

*Paul Thomas Anderson Making an R rated movie loosely based on the life of John Holmes, a 3 hour epic with 12 plot lines, and making Adam Sandler an award winning actor is just a few entries in PT Anderson's resume. With Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love all under his belt before he turned 32, Anderson has proven to be a remarkable young director who is growing fast.

*Wes Anderson After seeing his first movie, you either loved it or you called it the worst you've ever seen. The quirkiness of Rushmore scared a lot of people away. Next came the Royal Tenenbaums, equally as quirky, again either loved it or hated it. But Wes Anderson and writing partner Owen Wilson are two young geniuses that write movies for the movie lover. The scripts show exactly how people act and every line is intentional with room for humor. Look Deeper.

Darron Aronofsky If you haven't seen Requiem for a Dream, close this window, grab your keys, get into your car, and hit the nearest video store possible. No director in many years has given us psychological thrillers as good as Requiem and PI.

Ingmar Bergman Probably the most accomplished director on this list. I included him because I stated this is for living actors only. Mr. Bergman is 84 years old and has made some of the best movies of all time. The Seventh Seal, The Magic Flute, Cries and Whispers, and Fanny and Alexander. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards and winner of the Irvin Thalberg Lifetime Achievement award in 1971.

Luc Besson French director of the Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita, León: The Professional, and one of my person favorites: The Big Blue.

The Coen Brothers Together, nominated for eight awards. They are responsible for some of the wittiest screenplays ever brought to film. From the disturbing murder tale Blood Simple to the hilarious bowling comedy The Big Lebowski. Every single one of their movies is enjoyable. They also directed Fargo, Man Who Wasn't There, O Brother Where Art Thou, and the upcoming Intolerable Cruelty.

James Cameron James Cameron has the biggest financial pull in Hollywood. He is the only director that can demand $200 million for his movies. He did this in Titanic and won three academy awards for himself and 8 more for the movie. Not to mention made it the highest grossing film of all time. This is $140 million above the number two highest (Star Wars).

Francis Ford Coppola Director of the The Godfather series, Apocalypse Now, and The Conversation to name a few. All three regarded as of-the-best ever made. Coppola has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards and is a winner of 5.

Camerone Crowe Crowe has excelled where view directors have. He takes his own thoughts and experiences and uses them to write his screenplays. The results are masterpieces like Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous.

*Frank Darabont This is a name that not many people know. However, he has directed a movie that is probably in YOUR top 5: The Shawshank Redemption. In 1994 he created this classic and put his name on the Hollywood list of fine directors. His next movie was 5 years later with The Green Mile, also nominated for Best Picture.

Clint Eastwood The master of the western Clint Eastwood. In 1991, he made probably the best western ever made: Unforgiven. A Perfect World, Outlaw Josey Wales, The Rookie, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil all prove what a badass Mr. Eastwood is.

David Fincher Fight Club, the Game, Panic Room, and Seven are Fincher's greatest achievements. He has always been violent and gritty and one helluva storyteller. He is set to direct Mission: Impossible 3, so that should make a bad set of movies into a decent trilogy.

Milos Forman Often considered a miser and a pervert, Milos Forman has directed some of the most controversial Hollywood movies of our day. People vs Larry Flynt, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the near perfect Amadeus.

*Terry Gilliam Another director that probably has a spot on your top 10 list with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He also has directed such classics as Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He's in the process of making Don Quixote for the third time after several disastrous attempts. Everyone say a prayer he can pull it off, because that could be bad ass.

*Jean-Luc Godard Often said as one of the best directors of all time. After a depression of great French movies in the 50's, Godard arose with his "French New Wave" of films and made some of the greatest movies of all time. He directed Band of Outsiders and Contempt to name a few, but if you want to learn a little about French cinema, watch his movies.

Curtis Hanson Hanson has taken all kinds of projects and added his own intelligence and charm and has made a few recent masterpieces. L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys, and Eminem's 8 Mile.

Peter Jackson Director of the recent Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the upcoming King Kong remake. Has had his share of bad movies but is definitely worthy to be on this list as of lately.

*Spike Jonze Young Spike Jonze has already made two great movies and been nominated for two Academy Awards. He is prodigy of filmmaking that is basically incomperable to most other directors. His two movies have been very very different from the norm. Being John Malkovich was about a portal into Mr. Malko's mind while Adaptation is a story of a man writing a story of the story you are watching. Interestingly enough, they make perfect sense.

Ang Lee A short, soft, Taiwanese visionary, Ang Lee has directed excellent movies in chinese, mandarin, and english. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility, and the new Hulk movie set for this summer.

George Lucas I'm not a big fan, but he is the vision behind the biggest movie series in cinema history. Is worth over $3 billion which he made basically straight from his Star Wars movies.

David Lynch Mulholland Drive. Wild at Heart. The Straight Story. Lost Highway. Blue Velvet. Eraserhead. Obviously David Lynch is the most bizarre director alive. His movies have never made any coherent sense the first viewing. But like them or hate them, you will think about them and it'll seriously bother you of you don't understand. After multiple viewings, they start to make sense and you can only wonder how he thought of such complexity....Let the hatemail flow.

Michael Mann My Personal favorite director. Two of his movies are on my all time top 5: The Insider and HEAT. No other director, in my simple little humble opinion, can you use as much imagination in his movies. His works include crime sagas, boxer biopics, slashers flicks, courtroom dramas, and even historical epics. Heat, Ali, Manhunter, Insider, and Last of the Mohicans.

Sam Mendes In 1999, Sam Mendes decided to direct a movie after years of success on the stage. He has brought us a few recent masterpieces: American Beauty and Road to Perdition.

Christopher Nolan 33 year old director of recent art-house megahits Memento, Insomnia, and Following. His ability to tell complex stories very easily makes him a young director to watch.

Roman Polanski If someone directed a movie about his life it'd be better than 90% of the movies out there. Although he is exiled in Europe and cannot return to the US in fear of incarceration, he has managed to make some of the best films ever made. Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, and the best movie of 2002...The Pianist.

Martin Scorsese Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, Kundun, Cape Fear, King of Comedy, Color of Money, Mean Streets, the Last Temptation of Christ, and most recently Gangs of New York. It is begginning to be a practical joke that this man hasn't won an Oscar yet. I would rank almost all of the above movies in my top 50 of all time.

M. Night Shyamalan Night has released three movies worldwide and all three have crossed the $100 million dollar mark. First, the Sixth Sense which is the highest grossing thriller of all time. Then, Unbrakeable followed by Signs. We are all eagerly awaiting the announcement of his next project.

Stephen Spielberg The most powerful director and influential filmmaker alive today. Was the first director to have a $100 million dollar hit. He's responsible for more than half of the top 20 movies in box office history. Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Jaws, Minority Report, Indiana Jones, and Saving Private Ryan just to name a few.

*Oliver Stone Next to David Lynch, Oliver Stone is probably the most controversial director of all time (forgeting Pier Paolo Passolini, see my thoughts on Salo). He directed the cult classic campy trash Natural Born Killers which caused him to be the defendent of over 100 lawsuits involving murders. He wrote Scarface, directed Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, and Any Given Sunday to name a few.

Quentin Tarantino I have already posted many thoughts on Quentin Tarantino. Obviously Pulp Fiction and Resevoir Dogs have made him established. We look towards Kill Bill to solidify that fact.

Tom Tykwer This director has made some of my favorite movies. Run Lola Run, Winter Sleepers, Princess and the Warrior, and his latest...Heaven. Heaven was assigned to him by the late Kryzysztof Kieslowski. His movies are slow, yet smart, and beautiful to watch. I recommend all of his movies.

The Wachowski Brothers First they made a lesbian heist movie starring Gena Gershon entitled Bound, and followed that up with the most revolutionary movie in a decade...The Matrix. I speak for the lot of us when I say Matrix: Reloaded may soon be the biggest sequel in movie history.

Robert Zemeckis Forrest Gump, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, and the Back to the Future Movies. Robert Zemeckis has given us some of the most entertaining Hollywood Movies ever and made a lot of money doing it. From horror, to action, to scifi, to historical drama, he can do it all and he has Hollywood behind him.