Douglas Sirk
4 titles, 82nd in points with 10,048

Douglas Sirk made some well crafted films of what many would call soap opera, but if included in that class, then he made some of the best ones ever made during this era of the 50’s, dominated by Madison Avenue and a desire to conform.

These are all the films of American director Douglas Sirk that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the

Rob Reiner: actor, director, dadRob Reiner
3 titles, 93rd in points with 9,078

Rob Reiner is best known as (a) the son of Carl Reiner, who played the producer on the Dick Van Dyke show (b) the Meathead on All in the Family on tv (c) a quality comedy director. Pick any letter, I first knew him as Meathead; at any rate, he’s far funnier than his dad.

These are all the films of American director

Vincente and Liza Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
5 titles, 91st in points with 9,392

Minnelli is perhaps best known as the husband of Judy Garland that father Liza Minnelli, giving rise to one of the greatest Oscar® trivia facts ever: who is the only Oscar®-winner whose parents also won Oscars®? He is an underrated director, considered two of his films won best picture, and his most popular films

Darren Aronofsky
3 titles, 86th in points with 9,885

For my money, Aronofsky is the best young director currently working - well, ok, it's a toss up between him and Christopher Nolan, who’s also very good, but I think Aronofsky is more creative and has a more diverse body of work so far – he seems to go more out on a limb, such as The Fountain, than most modern directors. Aronofsky's films

Wim Wenders
4 titles, 77th in points with 11,082

These are all the films of German director (who made most of these in the U.S.) Wenders that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Wings of Desire (1987) #165 A bit of modern magic has some angels mingling with the living
2. Paris, Texas (1984) #316 Interesting film, especially for the

David Cronenberg
6 titles, 75th in points with 11,293

Cronenberg is a mixed bag. On the one hand he’s noted for over the top horror fantasy films like The Fly and Videodrome. On the other, he can make some serious dramas, albeit a bit disturbing, such as Dead Ringers, A History of Violence, and Eastern Promises, which lean toward the realistic. Dead Ringers is, in fact, based on a true story

Nicholas Ray
4 titles, 80th in points with 10,267

Nicholas Ray was a maverick and innovative American director who had great influence on other younger directors, especially in Europe. Before directing, Ray was close friends through radical theater in New York with Elia Kazan, and when Kazan got his first directing job for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, he hired Ray as first assistant director,

Jonathan Demme
4 titles, 78th in points with 10,819

Some may say that Demme is more popular than talented but I think he can direct a variety of films well, as I like his concert documentaries as much as his feature films. The best picture winning Silence of the Lambs is a classic homicide mystery, mixing elements of film noir with horror to create two of the creepiest portraits of psycho

Ernst Lubitsch
5 titles, 72nd in points with 11,597

Born in Berlin, Germany in 1892, Lubitsch came to Hollywood in 1922 (contracted as director by Mary Pickford), then made his mark with a too short career of classic comedies, dying there in 1947 at age 55 after his sixth heart attack. What’s called The Lubitsch Touch is a sophisticated comedy of manners, a term applied after a few successful

Leo McCarey
4 titles, 70th in points with 11,916

McCarey had a great touch with comedy, directing the best Marx Brothers film, and his own top rated film, Duck Soup. He won a directing Oscar® for 37’s The Awful Truth, a sparkling comedy with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, then a 2nd for directing, and 1st for writing, for Going My Way (1944), which also netted Oscars® for best picture, and for

Cassavetes, John
5 titles, 66th in points with 12,669

John Cassavetes was a so-so actor, best known as Mia Farrow's husband in Rosemary's Baby, who would rather have been behind the camera, so he picked one up and improvised a few films. The only problem with his improvised films is they look like higher class home movies, with friends like Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara hanging out with

John Lasseter
3 toy titles, 63rd in points with 12,806

John Lasseter's main claim to fame (and we're all grateful) was as basically the idea behind, and the co-founder of Pixar Studios, with dollar help from Steve Jobs of Apple Computer. Lasseter was working as an animator at his dream job, for Disney (he also once operated the adventureland boat ride at Disneyland!), when he was told to

Michael Curtiz
3 titles, 69th in points with 12,398

Born Manó Kertész Kaminer in Budapest, Hungary in 1886. After acting in then directing films there, Kaminer moved the the U.S. in 1926 to begin directing movies in Hollywood, and of course, created a stage name. He directed films first as Kertész Mihály, then in the U.S. as Michael Kertész. He has 173 film titles to his credit as director

David Fincher
4 titles, 64th in pts w 12,755

Fincher should be rising in the polls over time as he's just hitting his stride. I predict he'll end up in the top 20 eventually, as will Christopher Nolan.

These are all the films of American director David Fincher’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.



1. Fight Club (1999) #201
2. The

D.W. Griffith
3 titles, 58th in points with 13,198

These are all the films of classic American director D.W. Griffith's that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Intolerance (1916) #148
2. Birth of a Nation, The (1915) #162
3. Broken Blossoms (1919) #247

Out of the top 1000
4. Way Down East (1920) #1779
5. True Heart Susie #1880

Preston Sturges
4 titles, 60th in points with 13,154

As a wealthy kid, he worked on staged productions for his mother’s friend, Isadora Duncan – in fact, his mother’s company made the scarf that strangled the famous dancer after it became entangled in the wheel of a sports car. Beat that for a background in the movies.

These are all the films of classic American director Preston Sturges’ that

Paul Thomas Anderson
4 titles, 53rd in points with 13,990

1. There Will Be Blood (2007) #150
2. Boogie Nights (1997) #212
3. Magnolia (1999) #320
4. Punch-Drunk Love (2002) #536

Out of the top 1000
5. Hard Eight (1997) #1630


Interesting that my favorite of his films, Hard Eight (1997), is the one not in the top 1000, but it’s an excellent con-artist film, and also Anderson's tightest

Terrence Malick
4 titles, 55th in points with 13,683

These are all the films of U.S. director Terrence Malick’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Days of Heaven (1978) #110
2. Badlands (1972) #232
3. The Thin Red Line (1998) #373 [photo top]
4. Tree of Life, The (2011) #650
5. New World, The (2005) #1329 [photo bottom]


An

Elia Kazan
3 titles, 54th in points with 13,688

Severely underrated on the polls today, all seven of these films should be in the top 1000. America, America is based on his own immigrant uncle’s experience coming to the the U.S.

These are all the films of U.S. director Elia Kazan’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. On the

Victor Fleming
2 titles, 48th in points with 15,032

These are both the films of U.S. director Victor Fleming’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls. He managed to crack the top 50 directors with just two titles.



1. The Wizard of Oz (1939) #6
2. Gone With the Wind (1939) #103


These two are maybe ranked a little too highly, but they’ve