Friedkin. Five achievable films total is a low number and that hurts- but clearly some great visuals (the shots below are an alarming reminder that I’m long overdue for a rewatch of Sorcerer and To Live and Die in L.A.) and two big hairy 1970’s American New Wave Masterpieces (The French Connection and The Exorcist) put Friedkin here. His filmography actually grades him out higher than 108th (the filmography alone ranks him 70th) and having two films in the top 207 of all-time is such an achievement--- but I have a hard time finding similarities between his films—especially his

Forman.  I am no slave to the Academy Awards by any stretch - but it’s a little crazy that an important figure in 1960’s international cinema (Czech) and a permissible two-time winner of the Academy Award for best director is all the way down here at #107 all-time. I’m not saying he was the outright “best director” in 1975 or 1984 but who would complain too much for the director who made One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus to walk away with the statue. And those two films are largely Forman’s defense. Forman is here because of

Pabst. Pabst is here because of the distinct visual stamp he put on his work. The filmography is strong but with only six films in the archives and only one top 500 film—it’s the distinct visuals that put him here. It’s a really brief stretch- from 1927 to 1933 where Pabst reigned. But what a stretch! I’ll get to it below but his work with sound and, especially, detailed mise-en-scene make him one of the all-time greats. Best film: The 3 Penny Opera I’m not overly familiar with Brechtian style so have to do my best here to analyze

Iñárritu.  Again for the purposes of this list (written in 2019) I’m honoring the 10-year moratorium so I’m not really factoring in films that came out from 2009-present. Iñárritu has had an incredible 2010’s decade adding Birdman and The Revenant so he’ll jump up this list when I update my top directors list at some point. Even without that 1-2 (his best two films) he’s a style-plus director with a clear style and story structure that he started in Amores Perros, used again in 21 Grams and carried through to Babel. The visual style is there and the interconnected

Walsh.  I’m worlds apart from the critics’ consensus on Raoul Walsh who brought us some of the best Bogart and Cagney movies. He’s a style-minus auteur but the filmography is strong (he has 6 films that rank in the top 100 of their decade).  If you look closely he really brought us some of the best Hollywood action films over the period of several decades. I think White Heat  is a major masterpiece and has some of the most indelible images in the history of the gangster genre (that Cagney scene and the factory set piece are indelible). I think

Fosse. Quality (and consistency) over quantity is the case for Fosse. He only directed 5 films (between 1969-1983) and all are in the archives, 3 in the top 100 of their respective decade (the 3 1970’s films) and 2 landed in the top 500 of all-time. The 3 big ones all feature performers (Liza in Cabaret, Hoffman as comedian Lenny Bruce, and Roy Scheider playing essentially Fosse himself in the autobiographical All That Jazz) and Fosse’s trademark performance structure. There’s more consistency here than say Dark Knight/Memento from Nolan, Exorcist/French Connection from Friedkin, or even One Flew Over the

Huston. Huston’s strength is his depth of filmography. He’s a style-minus director so he needs that filmography to compete on this list. When Bogart gems like Key Largo and Beat the Devil are a director’s 8th and 9th best film it means you really have director with an abundance of great films. Of course Huston’s two best films (both in the top 500 of all-time) are also largely carried on the back of Bogart as well and I would listen to an argument that Huston should be closer to #150-200 on this list and that Bogart is one of the very rare actor as

Weerasethakul. It’ll get to it in stylistic innovations/traits below—but there is no other auteur that makes films like Apichatpong Weerasethakul—completely distinct works that are interconnected, stylistic and narratively bold-- and stick in your memory long after you’ve seen them. His strengths here for the purposes of this ranking is the work Syndromes and a Century (I have it just outside of my top 100 at #128) and the level of authorship in his entire body of work. He’s very well-respected by TSPDT as well- that that it influences my list but 4 of the 5 archiveable films below are

Carpenter. Carpenter’s filmography would rank him farther down the list (around #125-130) but there’s authorship in his work that isn’t there with directors ahead of him on the filmography list like William Friedkin or Milos Forman. He’s also not as front-loaded with one big film like Curtiz (Casablanca), Carol Reed (The Third Man), Argento (Suspiria) or Peter Jackson (LOTR). It’s a small window, but from 1978 to 1982 Carpenter was one of the best filmmakers on the planet. gorgeous landscape shot from The Fog- an underrated little film sort of lost in the strong run from Carpenter from 1976

Miyazaki. With Walt Disney’s actual influence as a film artist/director (vs. his acknowledged brilliance as a businessman, innovator and producer) an ongoing debate for decades there is little disagreement from most cinephiles that Miyazaki is the grand master of animation amongst auteurs. It’s actually hard think of who would be 2nd behind him? It would probably be Sharpsteen, Satoshi Kon, Docter, Bird, Stanton, or Lasseter, but name the 4th or 5th best movie from those guys… even 3rd in some cases… very weak. Miyazaki has 10 archiveable films and though they’re not all top 100 films of their respective decade, they all bear

Lubitsch. For this list it is best not to look at Lubitsch’s best film but the quality and consistency of authorship of his 6th, 7th, 8th best films.  These are all excellent films that carried “The Lubitsch Touch” which has been a term around now for 80+ some years to describe Lubitsch’s sophisticated content and direction. This far down the list of the all-time greatest auteurs it’s impressive to have two of the top 500 films (even if there isn’t a masterpiece) but, more importantly for Lubitsch’s case, it’s those 6 films that are in the top 100 of

Minnelli. Minnelli is very well respected by the consensus on TSPDT (he’s their #67 ranked auteur)- as he should be. Minnelli is another auteur in the long line of the “style over substance” guys who tend to be the directors I respect and admire most. He’s a former production and costume designer—that’s his lineage to becoming an director and it shows in his work. For the purposes of this list it’s really his depth of his top 5-6 that get him in the top 100 auteurs as he doesn’t really have a masterpiece and his #1 film (Meet Me