Felt it was time to revisit this list. Actually feels like more of a true reflection of my little journey through film over the past few years than a top 100 films would be.
My method? A three film minimum, however good a director with only two great movies might seem; film three might be a turkey. This time I used my top three ratings for a director's films as a starting point. Those with three A rated films are the first ones that appear, then A A A- etc. Then it comes down to body of work considerations, how I separate each grouping. I have listed the top 3 films. Might help someone pick future films to watch. Also, I added, at the top of the list, the total of A rated films for each one to help with my ordering. Some of these directors would rise in the list (Michael Curtiz), but I kept it to films I had reviewed in the "filmspotting period" of my life; when my view on movies has been sharpened by writing about them. I have *'ed the directors who would definitely rise with more reviews.
A A A
1. Alfred Hitchcock [6] (North By Northwest, Rear Window, Strangers On A Train)
2. Sidney Lumet [6] (Network, The Verdict, Prince Of The City)
3. Akira Kurosawa [7] (Ikiru, Yojimbo, The Hidden Fortress)
4. The Archers [5] (I Know Where I'm Going, A Matter Of Life And Death, Black Narcissus)
5. The Coen Brothers [5] (Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, Fargo)
6. Stanley Kubrick [4] (2001, Full Metal Jacket, A Clockwork Orange)
7. Jean-Pierre Melville [3] (Bob le flambeur, Leon Morin pretre, Army of Shadows)
8. Francois Truffaut [3] (The 400 Blows, Stolen Kisses, Shoot The Pianist)
9. Alan J Pakula [3] (Klute, The Parallax View, All The President's Men)
10. Billy Wilder [3] (Double Indemnity, Ace In The Hole, Some Like It Hot)
11. Pedro Almodovar [5] (Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Volver, The Skin I Live In)
12. PT Anderson [3] (Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master)
13. Francis Ford Coppola [4] (The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather)
14. Howard Hawks [3] (Only Angels Have Wings, Rio Bravo, His Girl Friday)
A A A-
15. William Friedkin (To Live And Die In LA, Killer Joe, The Exorcist)
16. Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, Joint Security Area)
17. Ingmar Bergman (Wild Strawberries, Scenes From A Marriage, Winter Light)
18. John Cassavettes (Faces, A Woman Under The Influence, Shadows)
19. Roman Polanski (Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, Knife In The Water)
20. Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Close Encounters, Duel)
21. Michael Mann (Manhunter, The Last Of The Mohicans, Thief)
22. Alexander MacKendrick (Whiskey Galore, Sweet Smell of Success, The Man In The White Suit)
A A- A-
23. Gus van Sant (Paranoid Park, Last Days, To Die For)
24. John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, Night Of The Iguana, Wise Blood)
25. Sam Fuller (White Dog, Pickup on South Street, Shock Corridor)
26. Steven Soderburgh (Out Of Sight, Traffic, Side Effects)
27. James Cameron (Aliens, Terminator, Terminator 2)
28. Spike Lee (25th Hour, Do The Right Thing, Clockers)
29. Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho The Bailiff, Ugetsu, The Story Of The Last Chrysanthemums)
30. Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, Dazed & Confused, School of Rock)
31. Peter Yates (The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, Bullitt, Breaking Away)
32. Martin Scorcese (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, King of Comedy)
33. John McTiernan (Die Hard With A Vengeance, Die Hard, The Hunt For Red October)
34. Danny Boyle (Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Trainspotting)
A- A- A-
35. Louis Malle (Lift To The Scaffold, Lacombe Lucien, Au revoir les enfants)
36. Mike Leigh (Vera Drake, Another Year, Secrets & Lies)
A A B+
37. David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network)
38. David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge On The River Kwai, Great Expectations)
39. David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Wild At Heart)
40. Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Blackhawk Down)
41. Wim Wenders (Wings Of Desire, Paris Texas, The American Friend)
42. Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown)
A A B
43. Terence Malick (Days Of Heaven, Badlands, The New World)
A A- B+
44. Luchino Visconti (The Leopard, Rocco And His Brothers, Ossessione)
45. Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, Nosferatu)
46. Sergio Leone (For A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon A Time In The West)
47. Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty)
48. Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust & Bone, The Beat That My Heart Skipped)
49. John Carpenter (The Thing, Dark Star, Halloween)
50. Kristof Kieslowski (The Double Life Of Veronique, Camera Buff, Red)*
51. Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter, The Shooting)
52. Jack Clayton (The Innocents, Room At The Top, The Pumpkin Eater)
A A- B
53. Tony Scott (True Romance, Crimson Tide, Unstoppable)
A- A- B+
54. Richard Fleischer (Armored Car Robbery, The Narrow Margin, The Boston Strangler)
55. Richard Brooks (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry, Looking For Mr. Goodbar)
56. Walter Hill (The Warriors, 48 Hours, Southern Comfort)
57. Nicholas Ray (T-Men, On Dangerous Ground, Rebel Without A Cause)
58. Orson Welles (The Stranger, Mr. Arkadin, Touch Of Evil)
59. Alfonso Cuaron (A Little Princess, Children of Men, Gravity)
60. Anthony Mann (Raw Deal, Winchester 73, The Naked Spur)
61. Delmer Daves (Dark Passage, The Red House, 3:10 To Yuma)
62. John Boorman (Point Blank, Deliverance, Emerald Forest)
63. Jonathon Demme (Stop Making Sense, Silence Of The Lambs, Rachel Getting Married)
64. Max Ophuls (Letter From An Unknown Woman, Madame de...., Lola Montès)
65. Michael Haneke (The Time Of The Wolf, Caché, Amour)
66. Don Coscarelli (John Who Dies At The End, Bubba Ho-tep, Phantasm)
67. Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Crimes And Misdemeanours)
68. Robert Rossen (Body and Soul, All The King's Men, The Hustler)
A A- B
69. Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End)
A A- B-
70. George Cukor (Adam's Rib, Pat & Mike, Gaslight)
A- A- B
71. Fritz Lang (The Big Heat, While The City Sleeps, M)
A B+ B+
72. Michael Curtiz (The Sea Hawk, Mildred Pierce, The Breaking Point)*
73. Carol Reed (The Third Man, The Fallen idol, Our Man In Havana)
74. Stephen Frears (Dirty Pretty Things, High Fidelity, My Beautiful Laundrette)
75. Terence Davies (The Long Day Closes, Of Time And The City, The Deep Blue Sea)
A B+ B
76. Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society, Picnic At Hanging Rock, Witness)
77. David O Russell (American Hustle, Three Kings, Silver Linings Playbook)*
78. Otto Preminger (Advise & Consent, Where The Sidewalk Ends, Fallen Angel)
79. David Mamet (Redbelt, Heist, Spartan)
80. Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, The Brothers Bloom)
81. Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor, Win Win)
A B B
82. Michael Powell (Peeping Tom, The Spy In Black, Edge Of The World)
83. Jules Dassin (Night and the City, Brute Force, Thieves Highway)
84. Shane Meadows (The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone, A Room For Romeo Brass, Somers Town)
A B B-
85. Frank Capra (It's A Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington)
A- B+ B+
86. Luis Bunuel (Viridiana, The Exterminating Angel, The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie)
87. Martin Ritt (The Long Hot Summer, Hud, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold)
88. Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Ararat, Felicia’s Journey)
89. Arthur Penn (The Miracle Worker, Alice's Restaurant, Night Moves)
90. Hal Ashby (The Last Detail, Harold & Maude, Being There)
91. Peter Greenaway (The Draughtman’s Contract, A Zed And Two Noughts, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover)*
92. Jim Jarmusch (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Broken Flowers, Down By Law)
93. Ken Loach (Hidden Agenda, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Route Irish)
94. Ken Russell (Women In Love, The Devils, Altered States)
95. John Ford (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers, The Quiet Man)*
A- B+ B
96. Christopher Nolan (Momento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight Rises)
97. Agnes Varda (Cleo from 5 to 7, Le bonheur, Beaches of Agnes)
98. Don Siegel (Charley Varrick, The Big Steal, The Killers)
99. Robert Wise (The Set-Up, Odds Against Tomorrow, The Haunting)
100. Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Down Terrace, Sightseers)