Film Directors

D. W. Griffith

 

Country: United States of America

Films from: 1914-20 to 1930

 

Alongside Carl Theodor Dreyer and Sergei Eisenstein, DW Griffith is considered one of the founding fathers of modern cinema – albeit, perhaps, the most controversial of the three thanks to his epic 1915 masterpiece Birth of a Nation (a technically brilliant and innovative film, the subject matter – it was an adaptation of Thomas Dixon’s novel, The Clansman – continues to incite fierce debate to this day). Certainly Birth of a Nation was the first film to have queues stretching around the block and, as King Kong’s inamorata Lilian Gish later explained in an interview, ‘They lost count of the amount of money they made…’ Irrespective of the controversy, film-makers as diverse as John Ford, Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin (who called him ‘The Teacher of Us All’) cite him as one of the greats – and who are we to disagree with them?

 

Top Rated films by D. W. Griffith

 

More Directors from United States of America

Jules Dassin Otto Preminger Francis Ford Coppola

Douglas Sirk Bob Fosse David Lynch

Billy Wilder Steven Spielberg Hal Hartley

Fritz Lang Preston Sturges Albert Maysles

Albert Maysles

 

Country: United States of America

Films from: 1964 to 2010

 

Albert and David Maysles were a documentary film-making team, as comfortable among rock star types as blue collar workers, whose movies range from all-time classic rock docs like Gimme Shelter and the very first film of the Beatles in the States to (relatively) offbeat fare like Salesman (which followed a small group of door-to-door salesman as they attempted to sell expensive Bibles in low income neighbourhoods). Justly feted by the likes of Jean Luc-Godard, their work is held up as the very epitome of what a documentary can achieve with a measure of innovation and a pinch of heart to temper the cerebral muscle on display.

 

Top Rated films by Albert Maysles

 

More Directors from United States of America

Steven Spielberg Albert Maysles Martin Scorsese

Charlie Chaplin Bob Fosse Hal Hartley

Francis Ford Coppola Preston Sturges Joel & Ethan Coen

Billy Wilder Woody Allen Otto Preminger