Director Masterpieces
Films of noted directors that define their careers with one amazing movie out of many.
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21 titles
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsRobert De NiroJodie FosterCybill ShepherdA mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.Director: Martin Scorcese. Most would say "Raging Bull" is his best, but this dark, violent character study holds stronger today.
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsKeith CarradineKaren BlackRonee BlakleyOver the course of a few hectic days, numerous interrelated people prepare for a political convention.Director: Robert Altman. He made better films as he got older, but nothing defines his career and his style as this parody.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJeffrey HunterVera MilesAn American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.Director: John Ford. Brilliant story telling and great camera work show why he got four Academy Awards. But he didn't get nominated for this.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJames StewartGrace KellyWendell CoreyA wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his Greenwich Village courtyard apartment window and, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Probably the greatest director of all time. Most would say "Vertigo" defined his career, but I think this is better in terms of acting and tension.
- DirectorDarren AronofskyStarsEllen BurstynJared LetoJennifer ConnellyThe drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..Director: Darren Aronofsky. A director still finding his voice, but if it ends up being as brilliant as in this film, he'll rank with Martin Scorcese.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsBette DavisHerbert MarshallTeresa WrightThe ruthless, moneyed Hubbard clan lives in, and poisons, their part of the Deep South at the turn of the twentieth century.Director: William Wyler. The acting, the technique, the flow of the plot make this far better than "Ben Hur" or "The Best Years of Our Lives".
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsAl PacinoJohn CazalePenelope AllenThree amateur bank robbers plan to hold up a bank. A nice simple robbery: Walk in, take the money, and run. Unfortunately, the supposedly uncomplicated heist suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could go wrong does.Director: Sidney Lumet. One of the best directors to never win an Oscar. This brilliant character study defines the 1970s. "Network" is a close second.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJacqueline BissetJean-Pierre LéaudFrançois TruffautA committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.Director: Francois Truffaut. Probably the most brilliant love letter to movie making of all time.
- DirectorIngmar BergmanStarsBertil GuvePernilla AllwinKristina AdolphsonTwo young Swedish children in the 1900s experience the many comedies and tragedies of their lively and affectionate theatrical family, the Ekdahls.Director: Ingmar Bergman. His most accessible movie and mesmerizing from start to finish.
- DirectorFrancis Ford CoppolaStarsMartin SheenMarlon BrandoRobert DuvallA U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.Director: Francis Coppola. A flawed masterpiece to be sure, but scene by scene some of the most brilliant film making put on screen.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsMalcolm McDowellPatrick MageeMichael BatesIn the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.Director: Stanley Kubrick. A brilliant study of violence and social response. No one has done it better.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.Director: Stanley Kubrick. Ok, a tie here, but this film of psychological breakdown stands the test of time.
- DirectorVictor FlemingGeorge CukorSam WoodStarsClark GableVivien LeighThomas MitchellA sheltered and manipulative Southern belle and a roguish profiteer face off in a turbulent romance as the society around them crumbles with the end of slavery and is rebuilt during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.Director: Victor Fleming. The best example of American film making ever. It's understandable why he had a nervous breakdown making it.
- DirectorPeter BogdanovichStarsTimothy BottomsJeff BridgesCybill ShepherdIn 1951, a group of high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied North Texas town that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically.Director: Peter Bogdanovich. Bleak, stark, brilliantly photographed and directed. Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Ben Johnson, Eileen Brennan, Timothy Bottoms. What more can be said?
- DirectorWilliam FriedkinStarsEllen BurstynMax von SydowLinda BlairWhen a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.Director: William Friedkin. The best horror movie ever made.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.Director: Milos Forman. This is a hard one, because "One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest" is so close, but the production design and photography by the brilliant Miroslav Ondricek places it as number one.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsBette DavisAnne BaxterGeorge SandersA seemingly timid but secretly ruthless ingénue insinuates herself into the lives of an aging Broadway star and her circle of theater friends.Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The best screenplay ever written and the best performance that Bette Davis, and for that matter the entire cast, ever gave.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsMarilyn MonroeTony CurtisJack LemmonAfter two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.Director: Billy Wilder. So many to chose from, but in this movie he captured the perfect comedy, with brilliant performances from Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. How did Charlton beat out Jack in the Oscar for this?
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsGiulietta MasinaFrançois PérierFranca MarziA waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.Director: Federico Fellini. A challenging and esoteric filmmaker. I like this one the best, because it is so heart breaking and yet so hopeful at the same time.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsSigourney WeaverMichael BiehnCarrie HennDecades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.Director: James Cameron. A brilliant director of action, innovation and acting. But he's never done it better than this movie.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsLiam NeesonRalph FiennesBen KingsleyIn German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.Director: Steven Spielberg. A director who ALWAYS goes too far, and he does in this one too, but this reconstruction of the holocaust is haunting.