@flieger: well this will disgust you even more then - I bumped him off #50 to add Kevin Smith :p
I couldn't leave the director of one the ultimate films ever off my list. I mean when you compare Clerks to Rio Bravo or His Girl Friday - Clerks is the clear winner!!!!
As for Lewis, he only made one good film and he never let anyone watch it! I mean you have seen the nutty professor haven't you.....eeew!
@Bondo: It is Kevin's dialogue that I admire more than his direction - although he is getting better! Sometimes I wonder how his films would go with a different director, such as Joss Whedon.
I just remembered I forgot Jan Švankmajer - who I would probably put around the mid 20s, knocking Mr Smith to 51, and Hawks to 52. Looking at my list I probably would have done a slight reshuffle, but not too much - like Dardennes and Hou Hsiao-hsien both could have been a little higher. I originally put about 80 names down that I thought were in the elite column, and had to cut back to reach my 50, so there have been a few cuts that were hard to make.