The world's most influential film directors and their masterpieces

'Last Tango in Paris' (1972) - A movie that pushed the boundaries of the cinema industry, 'Last Tango in Paris' was a controversial film that was banned in many areas of the world. Marlon Brando, 48 at the time, and Maria Schneider, an up-and-coming 19-year-old, caused an uproar when they starred in this film that portrayed scenes involving sexual violence.

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D.W. Griffith (1875–1948) - American filmmaker David Wark Griffith was instrumental in pioneering modern cinematic techniques. An important figure in the history of film, he is one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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'Intolerance' (1916) - One of the great masterpieces of the silent era, the film consists of four singular, but parallel, stories that demonstrate humankind's persistent intolerance throughout the centuries. It's preserved in the National Film Registry.

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Fritz Lang (1890–1976) -

Born in Vienna, the filmmaker was a leading light of the Expressionist movement.

(Photo: Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)

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'Metropolis' (1927) - One of his most celebrated films, the silent 'Metropolis,' is regarded as a pioneering work of the science fiction genre. It was the first film to be inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

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Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) - The "Master of Suspense" was born near London and entered the film industry in 1919. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema.

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'North by Northwest' (1959) - His 53 films include the thriller 'North by Northwest,' starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. It has been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the US Library of Congress.

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Orson Welles (1915–1985) - One of cinema's legendary figures and often dubbed "the ultimate auteur," Welles, who hailed from Wisconsin, is equally known for his stage and radio work. He signed his first film contract in 1939.

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'Citizen Kane' (1941) - Consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made, 'Citizen Kane' is especially praised for its cinematography. Welles's character, Charles Foster Kane, is loosely based on the American newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

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Jean-Luc Godard (1930–) - Hugely influential in the 1960s French New Wave film movement, the French-Swiss filmmaker started by making documentary shorts.

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'À bout de souffle' (1960) - Known in English as 'Breathless,' this French New Wave crime drama was Godard's first feature-length work and launched the career of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo.

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John Ford (1894–1973) - An American filmmaker of enormous influence, Ford is responsible for some of the greatest Westerns ever made, and for his adaptations of classic 20th-century American novels.

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'The Searchers' (1956) - A commercial and critical success, 'The Searchers' saw John Ford and actor John Wayne make one of the most defining movies of their age. Preserved in the National Film Registry, the work was named the greatest American Western by the American Film Institute in 2008.

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Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) - A native New Yorker, Kubrick rose to prominence as a successful documentary photographer before embarking on a film career in the early 1950s. He remains one of the most important and influential directors in cinematic history.

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'2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968) - Inspired by a short story by science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, '2001: A Space Odyssey' garnered Kubrick an Oscar for his direction of visual effects. A cult favorite, the film has a place in the National Film Registry and remains one of the most recognized and distinguished films ever made.

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Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948) - A Soviet filmmaker, Eisenstein had studied architecture and engineering before a career in theater and, later, as a film theorist. In 1925, he directed his first film.

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'Battleship Potemkin' (1925) - A silent film, 'Battleship Potemkin' was acclaimed critically worldwide. It dramatizes the 1905 mutiny by the crew of the battleship against the officers. The film's Odessa Steps sequence is regarded as a classic scene in world cinema.

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Federico Fellini (1920–1993) - Born in Rimini, Italy, Fellini is consistently ranked as one of cinema's most influential filmmakers. Four of his films won Oscars in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

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'La Dolce Vita' (1960) - A huge box office hit in Europe, 'La Dolce Vita' in fact won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, along with the Palme d'Or at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.

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Steven Spielberg (1946–) - Arguably the most commercially successful director of all time, Spielberg is responsible for some of the most cherished and critically acclaimed films in the history of cinema.

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'Schindler's List' (1993) - This epic historical period drama marked a move away from Spielberg's previous family-orientated blockbusters. Instead, the multi-award-winning 'Schindler's List' told the story of one man's efforts to save the lives of more than 1,000 mostly Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust.

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Sergio Leone (1929–1989) - Credited with creating the so-called "Spaghetti Western," the Italian director turned the conventional Hollywood Western on its head with his unique film-making style, and techniques that included extreme close-up shots and drawn-out long shots.

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'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' (1966) - The third film in Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, this sweeping epic set during the American civil war was a huge financial success despite lukewarm reviews at the time. It's now regarded as one of the greatest and most influential Western movies ever made.

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Akira Kurosawa (1910 –1998) - The Japanese director cemented his reputation in the late 1940s. In 1951, he won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for 'Rashomon,' a film that helped expose Japanese cinema to Western audiences.

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'Seven Samurai' (1954) - This epic samurai drama set in the late 16th century ranked number one on Empire magazine's list of "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010. It's consistently voted by critics as being among one of cinema's greatest films.

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Martin Scorsese (1942–) - A name synonymous with some of the most stylish and critically-acclaimed films of the last 40-odd years, Scorsese is widely regarded as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers of his generation.

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'Taxi Driver' (1976) - 'Taxi Driver' won the won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for four Academy Awards. Highly-regarded by critics, the movie was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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Jean Renoir (1894–1979) - The second son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the celebrated artist, Paris-born Renoir made more than 40 films from the silent era to the beginning of the 1970s.

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'La Grande Illusion' (1937) - Known as 'The Grand Illusion' in English, this World War I drama is regarded by critics and historians alike as one of the masterpieces of French cinema.

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François Truffaut 1932–1984) - One of the founders of the French New Wave movement, Truffaut was eight when he saw his first film, and decided to be a filmmaker, but not before first becoming a film critic.

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'Les Quatre Cents Coups' (1959) - Called 'The 400 Blows' in English, this was Truffaut's debut film. It went on to win numerous awards, was a commercial success, and is generally regarded as one of the best French films in the history of cinema.

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