Meme: 15 Directors

Ah, the Internet Meme.  If it weren't for the proliferation of these dastardly virtual viruses we'd probably all be a lot more productive but not nearly as entertained.  I caught this particular bug from J.D. over at Radiator Heaven, who apparently was infected after seeing the kickoff over at Films From the Supermassive Black Hole and the most righteous posting over at The Dancing Image.

The easy part is coming up with the list.  From J.D.'s post:

List off the first 15 directors that come to your head that have shaped the way you look at movies. You know, the ones that will always stick with you. Don't take too long to think about it.

After about a minute or so I had about 20 directors.  This list is simply the first 15 I scribbled down, with the bonus 16th cleverly concealed in the image above (try and figure it out!).

The harder part was deciding how to visually present the list.  I'd love to take some time and care with this and use video clips like MovieMan0283 did (seriously, his entry is a crash-course in film and should be checked out), but for now I'll follow J.D.'s steps and use simple images of the people themselves:

Michael Curtiz

Howard Hawks

Akira Kurosawa

Woody Allen

Alfred Hitchcock

The Coen Brothers

Guillermo del Toro

Orson Welles

Martin Scorsese

Jean-Pierre Melville

Jean-Luc Godard

Francis Ford Coppola

David Lynch

Terry Gilliam

Ingmar Bergman

There are, of course, others that should be on this list - Spielberg was right below Kubrick, Tarantino was below him, and John Huston just slipped my mind until I started looking for pictures.  But these are the one that came to my head first, and they're in no particular order with the exception of Michael Curtiz, who doesn't get enough credit as a director, and has the distinction of directing the  #1 and #2 films on my list of all-time favorites.

Over the next few months I'll come back and revisit each of these directors and shed a little light on why their films have affected the way I look at not only cinema but the world.  In the meantime, enjoy the pics (I tried to keep to a certain style) and let me know who would be on your list.