Monday, November 28, 2022

Master List by Director 11/28/22

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

J.J. Abrams [5]
Mission: Impossible III (2006) 61
Star Trek (2009) ~62
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) ~52
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) 73
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) 64


Andrew Adamson [4]
Shrek (2001) ~61
Shrek 2 (2004) ~47
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) ~45
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) ~43


Ben Affleck [2]
Argo (2012) ~61
Live by Night (2016) 44


Chantal Akerman [7]
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) 93
Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (1978) 79
D'Est (1993) 75
South (1999) 65
From the Other Side (2002) 73
Là-bas (2006) 60
No Home Movie (2015) 54


Robert Aldrich [2]
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) 73
Ulzana's Raid (1972) 70


Woody Allen [4]
Annie Hall (1977) 83
Midnight in Paris (2011) 66
Café Society (2016) 64
Wonder Wheel (2017) 62


Michael Almereyda [5]
Hamlet (2000) 77
Experimenter: The Stanley Milgram Story (2015) 75
Marjorie Prime (2017) 72
Escapes (2017) 67
Tesla (2020) 75


Pedro Almodóvar [3]
Julieta (2016) 67
Pain and Glory (2019) 74
Parallel Mothers (2021) 73


Lisandro Alonso [2]
La libertad (2001) 83
Jauja (2014) 91


Robert Altman [4]
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) 74
Images (1972) 65
Nashville (1975) 93
A Wedding (1978) 59


Paul Thomas Anderson [9]
Hard Eight (1996) 62
Boogie Nights (1997) 71
Magnolia (1999) 73
Punch-Drunk Love (2002) 75
There Will Be Blood (2007) 79
The Master (2012) 78
Inherent Vice (2014) 85
Phantom Thread (2017) 76
Licorice Pizza (2021) 76


Paul W.S. Anderson [5]
Resident Evil (2002) 65
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) 72
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) 76
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) 75
Monster Hunter (2020) 70


Wes Anderson [10]
Bottle Rocket (1996) ~68
Rushmore (1998) ~76
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) ~76
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) ~73
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) ~63
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) 78
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) 82
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) 85
Isle of Dogs (2018) 75
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021) 74


Anno Hideaki [6]
The End of Evangelion (1997) 94
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007) 73
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009) 76
Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012) 75
Shin Godzilla (2016) 73
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021) 77


Anocha Suwichakornpong [4]
Mundane History (2009) 74
By the Time It Gets Dark (2017) 75
Krabi, 2562 (2019) 58
Come Here (2021) 64


Michelangelo Antonioni [9]
The Lady Without Camelias (1953) 67
L'Avventura (1960) 82
La Notte (1961) 74
L'Eclisse (1962) 76
Red Desert (1964) 76
Blowup (1966) 76
Zabriskie Point (1970) 58
Chung Kuo – Cina (1972) 74
The Passenger (1975) 77


Apichatpong Weerasethakul [8]
Mysterious Object at Noon (2000) 71
Blissfully Yours (2002) 84
Tropical Malady (2004) 92
Syndromes and a Century (2006) 93
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) 91
Mekong Hotel (2012) 59
Cemetery of Splendour (2015) 92
Memoria (2021) 88


Andrea Arnold [2]
Fish Tank (2009) 56
American Honey (2016) 53


Darren Aronofsky [2]
mother! (2017) 28
The Whale (2022) 25


Olivier Assayas [6]
Cold Water (1994) 75
Irma Vep (1996) 83
Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) 72
Personal Shopper (2016) 73
Non-Fiction (2018) 73
Wasp Network (2019) 60


Ari Aster [2]
Hereditary (2018) 47
Midsommar (2019) 45


John G. Avildsen [2]
Rocky (1976) ~63
The Karate Kid (1984) ~52


David Ayer [2]
Fury (2014) ~46
Suicide Squad (2016) 16


Sean Baker [3]
Tangerine (2015) 70
The Florida Project (2017) 72
Red Rocket (2021) 74


Noah Baumbach [6]
The Squid and the Whale (2005) 73
Frances Ha (2012) 83
Mistress America (2015) 86
De Palma (2015) 66
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017) 74
Marriage Story (2019) 78


Michael Bay [5]
The Rock (1996) ~52
Transformers (2007) ~33
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) ~18
6 Underground (2019) 51
Ambulance (2022) 66


Marco Bellocchio [3]
Fists in the Pocket (1965) 62
In the Name of the Father (1971) 64
The Traitor (2019) 77


James Benning [5]
American Dreams (Lost and Found) (1984) 65
El Valley Centro (1999) 68
Easy Rider (2012) 60
Ten Skies (2004) 76
The United States of America (2022) 77


Peter Berg [2]
Hancock (2008) ~37
Deepawter Horizon (2016) 54


Ingmar Bergman [7]
The Seventh Seal (1957) 65
Wild Strawberries (1957) 59
The Virgin Spring (1960) 57
Winter Light (1963) 68
Persona (1966) 96
The Rite (1969) 60
Autumn Sonata (1978) 55


Bernardo Bertolucci [9]
La commare secca (1962) 58
Before the Revolution (1964) 63
Partner. (1968) 65
The Conformist (1970) 78
The Spider's Stratagem (1970) 62
Last Tango in Paris (1972) 63
1900 (1976) 66
La Luna (1979) 63
The Dreamers (2003) 49


Bi Gan [2]
Kaili Blues (2015) 77
Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018) 91


Kathryn Bigelow [3]
Strange Days (1995) 84
The Hurt Locker (2008) 63
Zero Dark Thirty (2012) 65


Anna Biller [2]
Viva (2007) 58
The Love Witch (2016) 63


Brad Bird [4]
The Incredibles (2004) 75
Ratatouille (2007) ~64
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) 74
Incredibles 2 (2018) 62


Shane Black [2]
Iron Man 3 (2013) ~48
The Nice Guys (2016) 60


Don Bluth [2]
The Land Before Time (1988) ~57
Anastasia (1997) ~53


Peter Bogdanovich [3]
Directed by John Ford (1971) 65
The Last Picture Show (1971) 75
Daisy Miller (1974) 74


Sofia Bohdanowicz [2]
Maison du bonheur (2017) 63
MS Slavic 7 (2019) 62


Jon Bois [2]
Section 1 (2022) 82
The People You're Paying to Be in Shorts (2022) 79


Bertrand Bonello [4]
House of Tolerance (2011) 72
Saint Laurent (2014) 61
Nocturama (2016) 73
Zombi Child (2019) 71


Bong Joon-ho [5]
Memories of Murder (2003) 77
The Host (2006) 74
Snowpiercer (2013) 66
Okja (2017) 64
Parasite (2019) 83


Serge Bozon [3]
La France (2007) 82
Mrs. Hyde (2017) 74
Don Juan (2022) 73


Kenneth Branagh [3]
Much Ado About Nothing (1993) ~54
Hamlet (1996) ~61
Thor (2011) ~47


Júlio Bressane [3]
Sentimental Education (2013) 70
Garoto (2015) 77
Beduino (2016) 76


Robert Bresson [13]
Angels of Sin (1943) 72
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) 77
Diary of a Country Priest (1951) 91
A Man Escaped (1956) 92
Pickpocket (1959) 75
The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962) 74
Au hasard Balthazar (1966) 91
Mouchette (1967) 82
Une femme douce (1969) 75
Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971) 77
Lancelot du Lac (1974) 85
The Devil, Probably (1977) 92
L'Argent (1983) 94


Andrew Bujalski [4]
Funny Ha Ha (2002) 64
Computer Chess (2013) 75
Results (2015) 67
Support the Girls (2018) 74


Luis Buñuel [11]
L'Âge d'Or (1930) 59
Los Olvidados (1950) 71
Viridiana (1961) 76
The Exterminating Angel (1962) 76
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964) 64
Simon of the Desert (1965) 78
Belle de Jour (1967) 75
Tristana (1970) 74
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) 77
The Phantom of Liberty (1974) 75
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) 77


Charles Burnett [3]
Killer of Sheep (1977) 78
To Sleep With Anger (1990) 76
The Glass Shield (1994) 68


Tim Burton [4]
Batman (1989) ~56
Batman Returns (1992) ~58
Big Fish (2003) ~53
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) ~44


James Cameron [5]
The Terminator (1984) 78
Aliens (1986) ~78
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) ~75
True Lies (1994) 59
Avatar (2009) ~57


Martin Campbell [2]
The Mask of Zorro (1998) 60
Casino Royale (2006) 64


Jane Campion [2]
The Piano (1993) 74
The Power of the Dog (2021) 75


Antonio Campos [3]
Afterschool (2008) 72
Simon Killer (2012) 50
Christine (2016) 44


Frank Capra [2]
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 62
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) 84


Leos Carax [3]
Pola X (1999) 76
Holy Motors (2012) 78
Annette (2021) 76


John Carpenter [4]
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) 86
Halloween (1978) 82
The Thing (1982) 81
Big Trouble in Little China (1986) 72


Shane Carruth [2]
Primer (2004) 71
Upstream Color (2013) 64


John Cassavetes [3]
Shadows (1959) 76
Faces (1968) 66
A Woman Under the Influence (1974) 77


Lucien Castaing-Taylor [3]
Sweetgrass (2009) 76
Leviathan (2012) 75
Caniba (2017) 71


Claude Chabrol [7]
Le Beau Serge (1958) 78
Les Biches (1968) 71
Le Boucher (1970) 78
La Rupture (1970) 79
Just Before Nightfall (1971) 78
The Bench of Desolation (1974) 78
Violette Nozière (1978) 74


Jackie Chan [2]
Police Story (1985) 82
Police Story 2 (1988) 69


Peter Chan [2]
Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996) 93
Perhaps Love (2004) 74


Chang Cheh [2]
One-Armed Swordsman (1967) 78
Golden Swallow (1968) 81


Charles Chaplin [2]
The Circus (1928) 65
City Lights (1931) ~87


Damien Chazelle [4]
Whiplash (2014) ~64
La La Land (2016) 47
First Man (2018) 58
Babylon (2022) 8


Soi Cheang [3]
Accident (2009) 81
Motorway (2012) 70
SPL II: A Time for Consequences (2015) 81


Stephen Chow [3]
Shaolin Soccer (2001) 75
Kung Fu Hustle (2004) 75
The Mermaid (2016) 62


Jon M. Chu [2]
Now You See Me 2 (2016) 33
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) 36


Věra Chytilová [2]
Daisies (1966) 58
The Apple Game (1977) 49


Shirley Clarke [2]
The Cool World (1963) 74
Portrait of Jason (1967) 75


Robert Clouse [2]
Enter the Dragon (1973) 57
Game of Death (1978) 44


Ethan Coen [18]
Blood Simple (1984) 61
Raising Arizona (1987) 77
Miller's Crossing (1990) 62
Barton Fink (1991) 78
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) 51
Fargo (1996) 77
The Big Lebowski (1998) 67
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) 61
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) 76
Intolerable Cruelty (2003) 74
The Ladykillers (2004) 51
No Country for Old Men (2007) 71
Burn After Reading (2008) 73
A Serious Man (2009) 72
True Grit (2010) 67
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) 77
Hail, Caesar! (2016) 67
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) 77


Joel Coen [19]
Blood Simple (1984) 61
Raising Arizona (1987) 77
Miller's Crossing (1990) 62
Barton Fink (1991) 78
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) 51
Fargo (1996) 77
The Big Lebowski (1998) 67
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) 61
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) 76
Intolerable Cruelty (2003) 74
The Ladykillers (2004) 51
No Country for Old Men (2007) 71
Burn After Reading (2008) 73
A Serious Man (2009) 72
True Grit (2010) 67
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) 77
Hail, Caesar! (2016) 67
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) 77
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) 76


Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud [2]
Despicable Me (2010) ~49
Despicable Me 2 (2013) ~32


Jaume Collet-Serra [7]
House of Wax (2005) 64
Orphan (2009) 74
Unknown (2011) 66
Non-Stop (2014) 76
Run All Night (2015) 65
The Shallows (2016) 73
The Commuter (2018) 72


Chris Columbus [3]
Home Alone (1990) 6
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) ~55
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) ~54


Stephen Cone [3]
The Wise Kids (2011) 72
Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (2015) 74
Princess Cyd (2017) 76


Ryan Coogler [2]
Creed (2015) 70
Black Panther (2018) 65


Francis Ford Coppola [3]
The Godfather (1972) ~74
The Conversation (1974) 81
The Godfather, Part II (1974) ~74
Apocalypse Now (1979) 83


Sofia Coppola [4]
Lost in Translation (2003) 86
Marie Antoinette (2006) 81
The Bling Ring (2013) 67
The Beguiled (2017) 67


Pedro Costa [2]
Horse Money (2014) 86
Vitalina Varela (2019) 76


Denis Côté [2]
A Skin So Soft (2017) 63
Social Hygiene (2021) 72


David Cronenberg [4]
Videodrome (1983) 81
eXistenZ (1999) 74
Cosmopolis (2012) 64
Crimes of the Future (2022) 76


Alfonso Cuarón [4]
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) ~60
Children of Men (2006) 73
Gravity (2013) ~72
Roma (2018) 68


George Cukor [3]
Holiday (1938) 79
The Women (1939) 73
A Star Is Born (1954) 94


Adam Curtis [8]
The Century of the Self (2002) 79
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004) 84
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007) 93
It Felt Like a Kiss (2009) 85
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011) 77
Bitter Lake (2015) 81
HyperNormalisation (2016) 85
Can't Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World (2021) 92


Michael Curtiz [2]
Casablanca (1942) 82
Mildred Pierce (1945) 75


Ricky D'Ambrose [2]
Notes on an Appearance (2018) 70
The Cathedral (2021) 75


Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne [3]
Two Days, One Night (2014) 79
The Unknown Girl (2016) 66
Young Ahmed (2019) 68


Terence Davies [4]
The Long Day Closes (1992) 84
Sunset Song (2015) 75
A Quiet Passion (2016) 68
Benediction (2021) 74


Eduardo de Gregorio [2]
Sérail (1976) 76
Short Memory (1979) 76


Brian De Palma [30]
Murder à la Mod (1968) 52
Greetings (1968) 64
The Wedding Party (1969) 34
Dionysus in '69 (1970) 57
Hi, Mom! (1970) 52
Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972) 38
Sisters (1972) 72
Phantom of the Paradise (1974) 75
Obsession (1976) 63
Carrie (1976) 77
The Fury (1978) 63
Home Movies (1980) 62
Dressed to Kill (1980) 74
Blow Out (1981) 81
Scarface (1983) 73
Body Double (1984) 74
Wise Guys (1986) 22
The Untouchables (1987) 62
Casualties of War (1989) 79
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) 50
Raising Cain (1992) 72
Carlito's Way (1993) 87
Mission: Impossible (1996) 75
Snake Eyes (1998) 72
Mission to Mars (2000) 65
Femme Fatale (2002) 85
The Black Dahlia (2006) 66
Redacted (2007) 46
Passion (2012) 87
Domino (2019) 65


Cecil B. DeMille [2]
The Cheat (1915) 60
The Sign of the Cross (1932) 60


Jonathan Demme [6]
Citizens Band (1977) 65
Melvin and Howard (1980) 71
Stop Making Sense (1984) 93
Something Wild (1986) 79
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 72
Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids (2016) 74


Jacques Demy [5]
Lola (1961) 81
Bay of Angels (1963) 76
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) 96
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) 98
Model Shop (1969) 63


Guillermo del Toro [3]
Pan's Labyrinth (2006) 64
Pacific Rim (2013) ~57
The Shape of Water (2017) 55


Claire Denis [15]
Chocolat (1988) 72
No Fear, No Die (1990) 67
Keep It for Yourself (1991) 57
I Can't Sleep (1994) 64
U.S. Go Home (1994) 76
Nénette et Boni (1996) 70
Beau Travail (1999) 84
Trouble Every Day (2001) 77
Friday Night (2002) 78
L'Intrus (2004) 73
35 Shots of Rum (2008) 84
White Material (2009) 74
Bastards (2013) 81
Let the Sunshine In (2017) 76
High Life (2018) 83


Arnaud Desplechin [4]
La Vie des morts (1991) 76
My Golden Days (2015) 83
Ismael's Ghosts (2017) 72
Deception (2021) 70


Gustav Deutsch [2]
Film ist. 1-6 (1998) 54
Film ist. 7-12 (2002) 54


Lav Diaz [2]
Batang West Side (2001) 58
Elegy to the Visitor From the Revolution (2011) 54


Pete Docter [3]
Monsters, Inc. (2001) ~68
Up (2009) ~75
Inside Out (2015) 65


Carl Theodor Dreyer [2]
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) 97
Gertrud (1964) 93


Julia Ducournau [2]
Raw (2016) 55
Titane (2021) 62


Bruno Dumont [4]
P'tit Quinquin (2014) 71
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (2017) 47
Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (2018) 70
France (2021) 75


Marguerite Duras [6]
La Musica (1967) 68
Destroy, She Said (1969) 77
Nathalie Granger (1972) 77
India Song (1975) 93
Le Camion (1977) 76
Le Navire Night (1979) 74


Ava DuVernay [2]
Selma (2014) ~52
13th (2016) 49


Clint Eastwood [9]
Unforgiven (1992) 83
The Bridges of Madison County (1995) 83
Million Dollar Baby (2004) ~60
Invictus (2009) ~42
Sully (2016) 75
The 15:17 to Paris (2018) 65
The Mule (2018) 74
Richard Jewell (2019) 73
Cry Macho (2021) 70


Robert Eggers [2]
The Witch: A New-England Folktale (2015) 51
The Lighthouse (2019) 57


Heinz Emigholz [3]
Streetscapes [Dialogue] (2017) 77
The Last City (2020) 73
The Lobby (2020) 71


Rainer Werner Fassbinder [10]
Pioneers in Ingolstadt (1971) 74
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) 76
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) 84
World on a Wire (1973) 81
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) 85
Fox and His Friends (1975) 77
Fear of Fear (1975) 67
Despair (1978) 69
In a Year With 13 Moons (1978) 82
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) 92


Jon Favreau [4]
Zathura (2005) ~37
Iron Man (2008) ~59
Iron Man 2 (2010) ~40
The Jungle Book (2016) 54


Paul Feig [2]
Bridesmaids (2011) ~54
The Heat (2013) ~47


Federico Fellini [2]
La Dolce Vita (1960) ~71
8½ (1963) ~71


Abel Ferrara [2]
New Rose Hotel (1998) 75
Zeros and Ones (2021) 64


Louis Feuillade [3]
Fantômas (1913) 93
Les Vampires (1915) 88
Tih-Minh (1918) 91


David Fincher [7]
Fight Club (1999) 52
Zodiac (2007) 85
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) ~48
The Social Network (2010) 79
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) 78
Gone Girl (2014) 84
Mank (2020) 55


Victor Fleming [2]
The Wizard of Oz (1939) 74
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) 32


John Ford [5]
Stagecoach (1939) 78
Fort Apache (1948) 86
The Quiet Man (1952) 83
The Long Gray Line (1955) 81
The Searchers (1956) ~82


Miloš Forman [4]
Black Peter (1964) 49
Loves of a Blonde (1965) 66
The Firemen's Ball (1967) 69
Amadeus (1984) ~68


Marc Forster [2]
Quantum of Solace (2008) 39
World War Z (2013) ~44


Bob Fosse [2]
Cabaret (1972) 69
Liza With a Z (1972) 73


John Frankenheimer [2]
Seconds (1966) 78
Ronin (1998) ~60


James Frawley [2]
Kid Blue (1973) 60
The Muppet Movie (1979) 65


Riccardo Freda [2]
The Giants of Thessaly (1960) 64
Roger la Honte (1966) 77


William Friedkin [2]
The Boys in the Band (1970) 48
Cruising (1980) 76


Fukada Kōji [2]
Harmonium (2016) 61
A Girl Missing (2019) 68


Antoine Fuqua [2]
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) ~34
The Magnificent Seven (2016) 53


Philippe Garrel [4]
The Inner Scar (1972) 71
In the Shadow of Women (2015) 68
Lover for a Day (2017) 67
The Salt of Tears (2020) 66


Clyde Geronimi [6]
Cinderella (1950) ~55
Alice in Wonderland (1951) ~55
Peter Pan (1953) ~55
Lady and the Tramp (1955) ~55
Sleeping Beauty (1959) ~55
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) ~55


Greta Gerwig [2]
Lady Bird (2017) 74
Little Women (2019) 76


John Gianvito [2]
Profit motive and the whispering wind (2007) 75
Her Socialist Smile (2020) 66


Mel Gibson [2]
Braveheart (1995) ~40
Hacksaw Ridge (2016) 60


Craig Gillespie [2]
Lars and the Real Girl (2007) 25
I, Tonya (2017) 40


Terry Gilliam [2]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) ~71
Brazil (1985) 88


Tony Gilroy [2]
Michael Clayton (2007) 77
Duplicity (2009) 69


Jonathan Glazer [2]
Sexy Beast (2000) 63
Under the Skin (2013) 68


Jean-Luc Godard [25]
Breathless (1960) 92
Le Petit Soldat (1960) 72
A Woman Is a Woman (1961) 75
Vivre sa vie (1962) 76
Les Carabiniers (1963) 74
Contempt (1963) 75
Band of Outsiders (1964) 71
Une femme mariée (1964) 78
Alphaville (1965) 76
Pierrot le fou (1965) 94
Masculin féminin (1966) 74
Made in U.S.A (1966) 71
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) 76
La Chinoise (1967) 74
Weekend (1967) 91
Far From Vietnam (1967) 74
One Plus One (1968) 74
Le Gai Savoir (1969) 74
Wind From the East (1970) 73
Tout va bien (1972) 77
Every Man for Himself (1980) 78
The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company (1986) 73
Film Socialisme (2010) 79
Goodbye to Language (2014) 85
The Image Book (2018) 78


Claude Goretta [2]
The Wonderful Crook (1975) 63
The Lacemaker (1977) 65


Jean-Pierre Gorin [2]
Wind From the East (1970) 73
Tout va bien (1972) 77


Dominik Graf [8]
Die Katze (1988) 76
The Invincibles (1994) 74
Tatort: Frau Bu lacht (1995) 81
The Friends of the Friends (2002) 75
Dreileben: Don't Follow Me Around (2011) 77
Beloved Sisters (2014) 76
Polizeiruf 110: Smoke on the Water (2014) 73
Fabian, or Going to the Dogs (2021) 74


Debra Granik [2]
Winter's Bone (2010) 63
Leave No Trace (2018) 58


F. Gary Gray [3]
The Italian Job (2003) ~56
Straight Outta Compton (2015) 50
The Fate of the Furious (2017) 57


James Gray [5]
Two Lovers (2008) 79
The Immigrant (2013) 76
The Lost City of Z (2016) 73
Ad Astra (2019) 73
Armageddon Time (2022) 74


Kjell Grede [2]
Hugo and Josephine (1967) 58
Harry Munter (1969) 49


Eugène Green [2]
The Son of Joseph (2016) 74
Atarrabi and Mikelats (2020) 65


Robert Greene [4]
Actress (2014) 64
Kate Plays Christine (2016) 75
Bisbee '17 (2018) 77
Procession (2021) 75


Paul Greengrass [4]
The Bourne Supremacy (2004) ~57
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) ~58
Captain Phillips (2013) ~61
Jason Bourne (2016) 53


Luca Guadagnino [4]
A Bigger Splash (2015) 59
Call Me by Your Name (2017) 73
Suspiria (2018) 67
Bones and All (2022) 57


Alain Guiraudie [2]
Stranger by the Lake (2013) 74
Staying Vertical (2016) 66


James Gunn [2]
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) ~57
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) 57


Hamaguchi Ryūsuke [4]
Happy Hour (2015) 83
Asako I & II (2018) 93
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) 82
Drive My Car (2021) 93


David Hand [2]
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) ~76
Bambi (1942) ~72


Michael Haneke [2]
The Seventh Continent (1989) 84
Caché (2005) 77


Mia Hansen-Løve [2]
Things to Come (2016) 75
Bergman Island (2021) 63


Hal Hartley [4]
The Unbelievable Truth (1989) 87
Trust (1990) 94
Surviving Desire (1991) 90
Simple Men (1992) 78


Howard Hawks [6]
Scarface (1932) 75
Only Angels Have Wings (1939) 96
His Girl Friday (1940) 94
The Big Sleep (1946) 91
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) 96
Rio Bravo (1959) 95


Todd Haynes [6]
Safe (1995) 84
Far From Heaven (2002) 74
Carol (2015) 93
Wonderstruck (2017) 72
Dark Waters (2019) 70
The Velvet Underground (2021) 75


Michel Hazanavicius [2]
The Artist (2011) ~51
Le Redoutable (2017) 24


Werner Herzog [10]
Signs of Life (1968) 63
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) 66
Fata Morgana (1971) 73
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) 67
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) 74
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) 74
Heart of Glass (1976) 57
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) 73
Lessons of Darkness (1992) 63
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) 62


Alfred Hitchcock [20]
The 39 Steps (1935) 78
Sabotage (1936) 82
The Lady Vanishes (1938) 80
Jamaica Inn (1939) 62
Rebecca (1940) 75
Suspicion (1941) 65
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 76
Notorious (1946) 92
Rope (1948) 73
Strangers on a Train (1951) 71
I Confess (1953) 72
Rear Window (1954) 94
To Catch a Thief (1955) 67
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) 77
The Wrong Man (1956) 84
Vertigo (1958) 98
North by Northwest (1959) 86
Psycho (1960) 85
The Birds (1963) 88
Marnie (1964) 84


Eliza Hittman [2]
Beach Rats (2017) 57
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) 58


Christoph Hochhäusler [2]
The City Below (2010) 81
Dreileben: One Minute of Darkness (2011) 57


Joanna Hogg [5]
Unrelated (2007) 60
Archipelago (2010) 64
Exhibition (2013) 69
The Souvenir (2019) 70
The Souvenir: Part II (2021) 73


Anna Rose Holmer [2]
The Fits (2015) 60
God's Creatures (2022) 57


Hong Sang-soo [28]
The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996) 74
The Power of Kangwon Province (1998) 75
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000) 77
On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (2002) 81
Woman Is the Future of Man (2004) 74
Tale of Cinema (2005) 83
Woman on the Beach (2006) 80
Night and Day (2008) 92
Like You Know It All (2009) 81
Hahaha (2010) 84
Oki's Movie (2010) 82
The Day He Arrives (2011) 93
In Another Country (2012) 83
Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013) 83
Our Sunhi (2013) 79
Hill of Freedom (2014) 84
Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) 91
Yourself and Yours (2016) 96
On the Beach at Night Alone (2017) 82
Claire's Camera (2017) 78
The Day After (2017) 82
Grass (2018) 88
Hotel by the River (2018) 77
The Woman Who Ran (2020) 82
Introduction (2021) 75
In Front of Your Face (2021) 76
The Novelist's Film (2022) 83
Walk Up (2022) 86


Tobe Hooper [2]
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 86
Poltergeist (1982) 82


Hou Hsiao-hsien [6]
Daughter of the Nile (1987) 82
A City of Sadness (1989) 94
Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996) 77
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) 92
Millennium Mambo (2001) 84
The Assassin (2015) 92


Gavin Hood [2]
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) ~28
Eye in the Sky (2015) 52


Tom Hooper [3]
The King's Speech (2010) ~53
Les Misérables (2012) ~46
The Danish Girl (2015) 29


Byron Howard [3]
Bolt (2008) ~48
Tangled (2010) ~52
Zootopia (2016) 54


Ron Howard [6]
Apollo 13 (1995) ~58
Cinderella Man (2005) ~47
The DaVinci Code (2006) ~36
Angels & Demons (2009) ~38
In the Heart of the Sea (2015) 34
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) 62


King Hu [9]
The Story of Sue San (1964) 77
Sons of the Good Earth (1965) 82
Come Drink With Me (1966) 80
Dragon Inn (1967) 95
A Touch of Zen (1971) 99
The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) 85
The Valiant Ones (1975) 80
Raining in the Mountain (1979) 81
Legend of the Mountain (1979) 87


John Hughes [2]
The Breakfast Club (1985) 57
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) ~66


Sammo Hung [3]
Wheels on Meals (1984) 87
Eastern Condors (1987) 84
Pedicab Driver (1989) 92


John Huston [3]
The Maltese Falcon (1941) 63
Wise Blood (1979) 78
Annie (1982) ~44


Ichikawa Kon [4]
The Burmese Harp (1956) 73
Enjo (1958) 65
Alone Across the Pacific (1963) 59
Tokyo Olympiad (1965) 80


Alejandro González Iñárritu [3]
Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) 34
The Revenant (2015) 36
Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022) 40


James Ivory [5]
Shakespeare Wallah (1965) 65
The Autobiography of a Princess (1975) 58
Roseland (1977) 67
The Europeans (1979) 53
Maurice (1987) 61


Peter Jackson [5]
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) ~72
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) ~72
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) ~72
King Kong (2005) ~58
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) ~44
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) ~49


Wilfred Jackson [4]
Cinderella (1950) ~55
Alice in Wonderland (1951) ~55
Peter Pan (1953) ~55
Lady and the Tramp (1955) ~55


Jancsó Miklós [4]
The Round-Up (1966) 74
The Red and the White (1967) 78
Red Psalm (1972) 74
Electra, My Love (1974) 73


Jim Jarmusch [2]
Paterson (2016) 75
The Dead Don't Die (2019) 68


Barry Jenkins [2]
Moonlight (2016) 73
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) 75


Patty Jenkins [2]
Wonder Woman (2017) 48
WW84 (2020) 40


Jia Zhangke [14]
Xiao Shan Going Home (1995) 67
Xiao Wu (1997) 74
Platform (2000) 94
Unknown Pleasures (2002) 76
The World (2004) 78
Dong (2006) 68
Still Life (2006) 83
Useless (2007) 73
24 City (2008) 77
I Wish I Knew (2010) 71
A Touch of Sin (2013) 76
Mountains May Depart (2015) 91
Ash Is Purest White (2018) 84
Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (2020) 76


Kirsten Johnson [2]
Cameraperson (2016) 85
Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020) 64


Rian Johnson [3]
Looper (2012) 72
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) 75
Knives Out (2019) 74


Joe Johnston [2]
Jumanji (1995) ~38
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) ~47


Spike Jonze [3]
Being John Malkovich (1999) 63
Adaptation. (2002) 63
Her (2013) 67


Radu Jude [4]
Aferim! (2015) 63
Scarred Hearts (2016) 64
"I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians" (2018) 76
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021) 75


Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn [3]
Blondes in the Jungle (2009) 66
L for Leisure (2014) 74
Two Plains & a Fancy (2018) 67


Charlie Kaufman [3]
Synecdoche, New York (2008) 46
Anomalisa (2015) 48
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) 46


Buster Keaton [4]
Sherlock Jr. (1924) 81
Seven Chances (1925) 86
The General (1926) 92
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) 75


Abbas Kiarostami [5]
Close-Up (1990) 98
Taste of Cherry (1997) 84
Certified Copy (2010) 91
Like Someone in Love (2012) 93
24 Frames (2017) 63


Krzysztof Kieślowski [4]
Camera Buff (1979) 65
The Double Life of Veronique (1991) 84
Three Colors: Blue (1993) 76
Three Colors: White (1994) 61


Alexander Kluge [3]
Yesterday Girl (1966) 64
Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (1968) 65
Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave (1973) 62


Kobayashi Masaki [3]
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959) 65
Harakiri (1962) 75
Samurai Rebellion (1967) 74


Ulrich Köhler [2]
In My Room (2018) 79
A Voluntary Year (2019) 78


Koreeda Hirokazu [3]
Our Little Sister (2015) 65
After the Storm (2016) 59
Shoplifters (2018) 66


Harmony Korine [3]
Gummo (1997) 73
Trash Humpers (2009) 68
Spring Breakers (2012) 58


Stanley Kubrick [12]
Killer's Kiss (1955) 46
The Killing (1956) 74
Paths of Glory (1957) 87
Spartacus (1960) 62
Lolita (1962) 78
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 75
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 94
A Clockwork Orange (1971) 51
Barry Lyndon (1975) 74
The Shining (1980) 86
Full Metal Jacket (1987) 74
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) 92


Kurosawa Akira [13]
Drunken Angel (1948) 74
Rashomon (1950) ~78
Ikiru (1952) 65
Seven Samurai (1954) 99
Throne of Blood (1957) 74
The Bad Sleep Well (1960) 73
Yojimbo (1961) 76
High and Low (1963) 95
Red Beard (1965) 79
Dodes'ka-den (1970) 67
Dersu Uzala (1975) 78
Kagemusha (1980) 86
Ran (1985) 86


Kurosawa Kiyoshi [9]
The Revenge: A Visit From Fate (1997) 74
Cure (1997) 91
Pulse (2001) 87
Tokyo Sonata (2008) 83
Journey to the Shore (2015) 82
Creepy (2016) 74
Before We Vanish (2017) 75
To the Ends of the Earth (2019) 85
Wife of a Spy (2020) 78


Justin Kurzel [2]
Macbeth (2015) 36
Assassin's Creed (2016) 43


Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert [2]
Swiss Army Man (2016) 30
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) 47


Ringo Lam [2]
City on Fire (1987) 77
School on Fire (1988) 79


Christopher Landon [2]
Happy Death Day (2017) 58
Happy Death Day 2U (2019) 64


Fritz Lang [9]
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922) 86
Metropolis (1927) 78
Spione (1928) 92
M (1931) 95
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) 96
Fury (1936) 83
The Big Heat (1953) 74
Moonfleet (1955) 79
The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) 83


Yorgos Lanthimos [4]
Dogtooth (2009) 64
The Lobster (2015) 61
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) 40
The Favourite (2018) 66


Nadav Lapid [2]
Synonyms (2019) 77
Ahed's Knee (2021) 74


Pablo Larraín [4]
Neruda (2016) 63
Jackie (2016) 46
Ema (2019) 56
Spencer (2021) 46


John Lasseter [4]
Toy Story (1995) ~76
A Bug's Life (1998) ~49
Toy Story 2 (1999) ~70
Cars (2006) ~43


Lau Kar-leung [3]
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) 91
Dirty Ho (1979) 92
My Young Auntie (1981) 82


Francis Lawrence [3]
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) ~59
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) ~49
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) 59


Óliver Laxe [2]
Mimosas (2016) 65
Fire Will Come (2019) 67


David Lean [2]
Brief Encounter (1945) 85
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 83


Ang Lee [8]
Pushing Hands (1991) 54
The Wedding Banquet (1993) 63
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) 95
Brokeback Mountain (2005) 73
Lust, Caution (2007) 65
Life of Pi (2012) ~58
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016) 53
Gemini Man (2019) 64


Spike Lee [6]
Do the Right Thing (1989) 93
Malcolm X (1992) 81
Bamboozled (2000) 81
Chi-Raq (2015) 43
BlacKkKlansman (2018) 70
Da 5 Bloods (2020) 66


Mike Leigh [3]
Naked (1993) 85
Secrets & Lies (1996) 80
Vera Drake (2004) 79


David Leitch [2]
John Wick (2014) 75
Atomic Blonde (2017) 55


Sergio Leone [2]
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) 80
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) 83


Barry Levinson [2]
Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) ~31
Rain Man (1988) ~61


Doug Liman [3]
The Bourne Identity (2002) ~56
Jumper (2008) ~26
Edge of Tomorrow (2014) ~61


Richard Linklater [8]
Dazed and Confused (1993) ~74
Before Sunrise (1995) 85
The School of Rock (2003) 71
Before Sunset (2004) 91
Before Midnight (2013) 87
Boyhood (2014) ~83
Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) 73
Last Flag Flying (2017) 67


Liu Jiayin [2]
Oxhide (2005) 84
Oxhide II (2009) 92


Mariano Llinás [2]
Historias extraordinarias (2008) 79
La Flor (2018) 97


Ken Loach [4]
Kes (1969) 66
Family Life (1971) 59
Black Jack (1979) 63
I, Daniel Blake (2016) 59


Julia Loktev [2]
Day Night Day Night (2006) 75
The Loneliest Planet (2011) 77


Kenneth Lonergan [3]
You Can Count on Me (2000) 75
Margaret (2011) 87 [extended cut]
Manchester By The Sea (2016) 85


Joseph Losey [4]
The Servant (1963) 77
King & Country (1964) 65
The Assassination of Trotsky (1972) 60
A Doll's House (1973) 67


David Lowery [3]
A Ghost Story (2017) 58
The Old Man & the Gun (2018) 60
The Green Knight (2021) 49


Ernst Lubitsch [4]
The Marriage Circle (1924) 59
Trouble in Paradise (1932) 80
Design for Living (1933) 71
Heaven Can Wait (1943) 75


George Lucas [5]
American Graffiti (1973) ~71
Star Wars (1977) 77
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) ~52
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) ~51
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) ~55


Sidney Lumet [3]
Fail-Safe (1964) 60
Dog Day Afternoon (1975) 57
Network (1976) 71


Hamilton Luske [6]
Pinocchio (1940) ~83
Cinderella (1950) ~55
Alice in Wonderland (1951) ~55
Peter Pan (1953) ~55
Lady and the Tramp (1955) ~55
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) ~55


David Lynch [11]
Eraserhead (1977) 99
The Elephant Man (1980) 72
Dune (1984) 75
Blue Velvet (1986) 95
Wild at Heart (1990) 82
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) 95
Lost Highway (1997) 85
The Straight Story (1999) 72
Mulholland Dr. (2001) 100
Inland Empire (2006) 93
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) 97


Kevin Macdonald [2]
Life in a Day (2011) 47
Life in a Day 2020 (2021) 38


Guy Maddin [2]
The Forbidden Room (2015) 83
The Green Fog (2017) 66


Keith Maitland [2]
Tower (2016) 68
Dear Mr. Brody (2021) 56


Dušan Makavejev [2]
Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (1967) 69
W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971) 72


Terrence Malick [10]
Badlands (1973) 83
Days of Heaven (1978) 91
The Thin Red Line (1998) 87
The New World (2005) 91 [extended cut]
The Tree of Life (2011) 92
To the Wonder (2012) 78
Knight of Cups (2015) 65
Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (2016) 62
Song to Song (2017) 74
A Hidden Life (2019) 75


Louis Malle [5]
Elevator to the Gallows (1958) 57
Murmur of the Heart (1971) 71
Lacombe Lucien (1974) 63
Black Moon (1975) 40
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) 54


James Mangold [2]
The Wolverine (2013) ~48
Logan (2017) 47


Joseph L. Mankiewicz [3]
A Letter to Three Wives (1949) 75
No Way Out (1950) 56
All About Eve (1950) 75


Anthony Mann [2]
T-Men (1947) 57
The Tall Target (1951) 74


Michael Mann [11]
Thief (1981) 81
The Keep (1983) 72
Manhunter (1986) 93
The Last of the Mohicans (1992) 79
Heat (1995) 95
The Insider (1999) 77
Ali (2001) 79
Collateral (2004) 77
Miami Vice (2006) 92
Public Enemies (2009) 85
Blackhat (2015) 92 [director's cut]


Pietro Marcello [2]
Lost and Beautiful (2015) 65
Martin Eden (2019) 91


Chris Marker [5]
Le Joli Mai (1963) 75
The Koumiko Mystery (1965) 76
Far From Vietnam (1967) 74
A Grin Without a Cat (1977) 72
Sans soleil (1983) 100


Garry Marshall [2]
The Princess Diaries (2001) ~43
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004) ~38


Lucrecia Martel [3]
La Ciénaga (2001) 77
The Headless Woman (2008) 83
Zama (2017) 76


Elaine May [4]
A New Leaf (1971) 93
The Heartbreak Kid (1972) 81
Mikey and Nicky (1976) 77
Ishtar (1987) 83


Albert Maysles [2]
Grey Gardens (1975) 74
In Transit (2015) 65


Leo McCarey [3]
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) 95
The Awful Truth (1937) 96
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) 78


Adam McKay [3]
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) 45
The Big Short (2015) 28
Vice (2018) 40


Ashley McKenzie [2]
Werewolf (2016) 58
Queens of the Qing Dynasty (2022) 75


Christopher McQuarrie [2]
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) 77
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) 78


Steve McQueen [7]
12 Years a Slave (2013) ~73
Widows (2018) 61
Lovers Rock (2020) 76
Mangrove (2020) 72
Red, White and Blue (2020) 74
Alex Wheatle (2020) 66
Education (2020) 74


John McTiernan [4]
Predator (1987) ~64
Die Hard (1988) ~75
The Hunt for Red October (1990) ~58
Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) ~67


Adolfas Mekas [2]
Hallelujah the Hills (1963) 60
Going Home (1972) 58


Jonas Mekas [2]
The Brig (1964) 75
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972) 74


Jean-Pierre Melville [4]
Les Enfants Terribles (1950) 67
Magnet of Doom (1963) 55
Le Samouraï (1967) 64
Army of Shadows (1969) 69


Sam Mendes [2]
Skyfall (2012) 62
Spectre (2015) 46


Kleber Mendonça Filho [2]
Aquarius (2016) 74
Bacurau (2019) 75


Bennett Miller [2]
Moneyball (2011) ~62
Foxcatcher (2014) 55


George Miller [6]
Mad Max (1979) 54
Mad Max 2 (1981) 68
Lorenzo's Oil (1992) ~47
Happy Feet (2006) ~43
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) 82
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) 63


Roberto Minervini [2]
The Other Side (2015) 73
What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? (2018) 75


Rob Minkoff [3]
The Lion King (1994) 44
The Haunted Mansion (2003) ~32
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) ~42


Vincente Minnelli [3]
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) 97
The Clock (1945) 86
An American in Paris (1951) 74


David Robert Mitchell [2]
It Follows (2014) 54
Under the Silver Lake (2018) 58


Miyazaki Hayao [6]
Castle in the Sky (1986) ~65
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) 92
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) 82
Princess Mononoke (1997) ~75
Spirited Away (2001) 94
The Wind Rises (2013) 85


Mizoguchi Kenji [6]
Women of the Night (1948) 75
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953) 79
A Geisha (1953) 76
Sansho the Bailiff (1954) 93
The Crucified Lovers (1954) 78
Shin Heike Monogatari (1955) 66


Brett Morgen [2]
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015) 47
Jane (2017) 60


Errol Morris [2]
Gates of Heaven (1978) 68
The Thin Blue Line (1988) 75


Luc Moullet [2]
A Girl Is a Gun (1971) 71
Les Sièges de l'Alcazar (1989) 75


Emmanuel Mouret [2]
Vénus et Fleur (2004) 75
Diary of a Fleeting Affair (2022) 80


Cristian Mungiu [2]
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) 74
Graduation (2016) 61


F.W. Murnau [3]
Nosferatu (1922) 80
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) ~97
Tabu (1931) 79


John Musker & Ron Clements [4]
The Little Mermaid (1989) ~54
Aladdin (1992) ~51
Hercules (1997) 37
Moana (2016) 60


Naruse Mikio [2]
Floating Clouds (1955) 85
Yearning (1964) 92


Paul Negoescu [2]
A Month in Thailand (2012) 68
Two Lottery Tickets (2016) 67


Nemes László [2]
Son of Saul (2015) 46
Sunset (2018) 46


Christopher Nolan [9]
Memento (2000) 66
Batman Begins (2005) ~58
The Prestige (2006) ~62
The Dark Knight (2008) ~64
Inception (2010) ~61
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) ~57
Interstellar (2014) ~59
Dunkirk (2017) 60
Tenet (2020) 50


Phillip Noyce [5]
Newsfront (1978) 59
Patriot Games (1992) ~56
Clear and Present Danger (1994) ~56
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) 43
The Quiet American (2002) ~47


Ōbayashi Nobuhiko [9]
House (1977) 77
Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast (1986) 86
His Motorbike, Her Island (1986) 82
Beijing Watermelon (1989) 94
The Rocking Horsemen (1992) 92
Casting Blossoms to the Sky (2012) 75
Seven Weeks (2014) 60
Hanagatami (2017) 83
Labyrinth of Cinema (2019) 76


Oda Kaori [2]
Aragane (2015) 81
Cenote (2019) 76


Ermanno Olmi [3]
I fidanzati (1963) 67
One Fine Day (1968) 66
The Scavengers (1970) 63


Marcel Ophuls [3]
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) 76
A Sense of Loss (1972) 70
The Memory of Justice (1976) 71


Max Ophuls [4]
Liebelei (1933) 76
Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) 95
La Ronde (1950) 77
Lola Montès (1955) 82


Ōshima Nagisa [14]
Cruel Story of Youth (1960) 73
Night and Fog in Japan (1960) 74
Violence at Noon (1966) 72
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967) 64
Death by Hanging (1968) 84
Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968) 68
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969) 62
Boy (1969) 80
The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970) 66
The Ceremony (1971) 77
In the Realm of the Senses (1976) 78
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) 66
100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1994) 60
Gohatto (1999) 82


Ruben Östlund [2]
The Square (2017) 63
Triangle of Sadness (2022) 64


Ozu Yasujirō [5]
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? (1932) 79
Dragnet Girl (1933) 77
Late Spring (1949) 97
Tokyo Story (1953) ~97
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) 81


Alan J. Pakula [2]
Klute (1971) 72
All the President's Men (1976) 78


Jafar Panâhi [2]
This Is Not a Film (2011) 81
3 Faces (2018) 73


Sergei Parajanov [2]
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965) 77
The Color of Pomegranates (1969) 82


Véréna Paravel [2]
Leviathan (2012) 75
Caniba (2017) 71


Park Chan-wook [6]
Joint Security Area (2000) 66
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) 66
Oldboy (2003) 75
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) 74
The Handmaiden (2016) 82
Decision to Leave (2022) 78


Pier Paolo Pasolini [6]
Accattone (1961) 65
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) 91
The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) 63
Porcile (1969) 59
The Decameron (1971) 72
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) 83


Ivan Passer [2]
Intimate Lighting (1965) 57
Born to Win (1971) 47


Raoul Peck [2]
Lumumba (2000) 63
I Am Not Your Negro (2016) 74


Jordan Peele [2]
Get Out (2017) 68
Us (2019) 70
Nope (2022) 75


Nicolás Pereda [2]
Minotaur (2015) 57
Fauna (2020) 74


Alex Ross Perry [6]
Impolex (2009) 64
The Color Wheel (2011) 77
Listen Up Philip (2014) 83
Queen of Earth (2015) 74
Golden Exits (2017) 75
Her Smell (2018) 80


Wolfgang Petersen [2]
Das Boot (1981) ~61
Air Force One (1997) 57


Christian Petzold [6]
The State I Am In (2000) 72
Dreileben: Beats Being Dead (2011) 80
Barbara (2012) 77
Phoenix (2014) 91
Transit (2018) 92
Undine (2020) 64


Maurice Pialat [4]
L'Enfance nue (1968) 73
We Won't Grow Old Together (1972) 79
The Mouth Agape (1974) 78
Loulou (1980) 76


Matías Piñeiro [5]
Rosalinda (2011) 60
Viola (2012) 68
The Princess of France (2014) 83
Hermia & Helena (2016) 71
Isabella (2020) 68


Roman Polański [4]
Knife in the Water (1962) 69
Rosemary's Baby (1968) 77
Chinatown (1974) 78
The Ghost Writer (2010) 78


Corneliu Porumboiu [3]
The Treasure (2015) 65
Infinite Football (2018) 72
The Whistlers (2019) 76


Joel Potrykus [2]
Buzzard (2014) 71
Relaxer (2018) 64


Michael Powell [2]
The Red Shoes (1948) 83
Peeping Tom (1960) 81


Otto Preminger [2]
Laura (1944) 74
Daisy Kenyon (1947) 82


Cristi Puiu [3]
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) 77
Sieranevada (2016) 76
Malmkrog (2020) 78


Bob Rafelson [2]
Five Easy Pieces (1970) 65
The King of Marvin Gardens (1972) 64


Sam Raimi [3]
Spider-Man (2002) ~57
Spider-Man 2 (2004) ~60
Spider-Man 3 (2007) ~53


S. S. Rajamouli [3]
Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) 69
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) 76
RRR (2022) 79


Brett Ratner [4]
Rush Hour (1998) ~55
Rush Hour 2 (2002) ~47
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) ~39
Rush Hour 3 (2007) ~37


Nicholas Ray [2]
The Lusty Men (1952) 82
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) 84


Satyajit Ray [9]
Pather Panchali (1955) 75
Aparajito (1957) 71
The World of Apu (1959) 81
The Big City (1963) 73
Charulata (1964) 81
Days and Nights in the Forest (1970) 77
The Adversary (1970) 68
The Middleman (1976) 72
Distant Thunder (1973) 65


Peyton Reed [3]
Bring It On (2000) ~39
Ant-Man (2015) 54
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) 62


Dee Rees [2]
Pariah (2011) 56
Mudbound (2017) 65


Nicolas Winding Refn [4]
Bronson (2008) 48
Drive (2011) 52
Only God Forgives (2013) 27
The Neon Demon (2016) 34


Kelly Reichardt [7]
River of Grass (1994) 73
Old Joy (2006) 76
Wendy and Lucy (2008) 79
Meek's Cutoff (2010) 91
Night Moves (2013) 71
Certain Women (2016) 82
First Cow (2019) 77


Rob Reiner [3]
The Princess Bride (1987) ~73
When Harry Met Sally... (1989) 57
A Few Good Men (1992) ~58


Wolfgang Reitherman [6]
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) ~55
The Sword in the Stone (1963) ~55
The Jungle Book (1967) ~55
The Aristocats (1970) ~48
Robin Hood (1973) ~55
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) ~52


Martín Rejtman [2]
Silvia Prieto (1999) 75
Two Shots Fired (2014) 78


Jean Renoir [7]
La Chienne (1931) 77
Toni (1935) 74
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936) 76
A Day in the Country (1936) 86
Grand Illusion (1937) 73
The Rules of the Game (1939) 98
The Golden Coach (1952) 83


Alain Resnais [9]
Hiroshima mon amour (1959) 86
Last Year at Marienbad (1961) 96
Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963) 94
The War Is Over (1966) 76
Far From Vietnam (1967) 74
Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968) 82
Stavisky... (1974) 78
Providence (1977) 84
You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (2012) 77


Guy Ritchie [3]
Sherlock Holmes (2009) ~58
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) ~60
Wrath of Man (2021) 56


Michael Ritchie [2]
Prime Cut (1972) 63
Smile (1975) 65


Ben Rivers [3]
Slow Action (2011) 66
The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers (2015) 52
Krabi, 2562 (2019) 58


Jacques Rivette [9]
Paris Belongs to Us (1961) 78
The Nun (1966) 77
L'Amour fou (1969) 82
Out 1: Noli me tangere (1971) 95
Out 1: Spectre (1972) 93
Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) 98
Duelle (une quarantaine) (1976) 85
Noroît (une vengeance) (1976) 77
Merry-Go-Round (1981) 75


João Pedro Rodrigues [2]
The Ornithologist (2016) 72
Will-o'-the-Wisp (2022) 67


Éric Rohmer [13]
The Sign of Leo (1962) 66
Suzanne's Career (1963) 73
La Collectionneuse (1967) 91
My Night at Maud's (1969) 85
Claire's Knee (1970) 84
Love in the Afternoon (1972) 79
The Marquise of O... (1976) 84
Perceval le Gallois (1978) 94
The Aviator's Wife (1981) 87
Pauline at the Beach (1983) 78
The Green Ray (1986) 82
4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (1987) 79
Triple Agent (2004) 75


George A. Romero [3]
Night of the Living Dead (1968) 78
Dawn of the Dead (1978) 83
Day of the Dead (1985) 77


Axelle Ropert [2]
Tirez la langue, mademoiselle (2013) 78
Petite Solange (2021) 66


Francesco Rosi [3]
Salvatore Giuliano (1962) 46
Hands Over the City (1963) 60
Illustrious Corpses (1976) 59


Gianfranco Rosi [2]
Fire at Sea (2016) 68
Notturno (2020) 74


Roberto Rossellini [4]
Rome, Open City (1945) 73
Europa '51 (1952) 75
Journey to Italy (1954) 90
The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966) 82


Jean Rouch [2]
Chronicle of a Summer (1961) 72
The Lion Hunters (1965) 58


Alan Rudolph [3]
Remember My Name (1978) 79
Choose Me (1984) 83
Trouble in Mind (1985) 67


Raúl Ruiz [3]
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (1978) 82
Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) 94
The Wandering Soap Opera (2017) 66


David O. Russell [4]
The Fighter (2010) 57
American Hustle (2013) ~54
Joy (2015) 61
Amsterdam (2022) 68


Anthony & Joe Russo [4]
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) ~56
Captain America: Civil War (2016) 55
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) 59
Avengers: Endgame (2019) 60


Kiro Russo [2]
Dark Skull (2016) 63
El Gran Movimiento (2021) 75


Josh & Benny Safdie [3]
Heaven Knows What (2014) 71
Good Time (2017) 76
Uncut Gems (2019) 81


Dan Sallitt [2]
The Unspeakable Act (2012) 77
Fourteen (2019) 83


Jeremy Saulnier [2]
Blue Ruin (2013) 59
Green Room (2015) 61


Carlos Saura [2]
The Hunt (1966) 64
The Garden of Delights (1970) 60


Céline Sciamma [2]
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) 58
Petite Maman (2021) 65


Angela Schanelec [2]
The Dreamed Path (2016) 76
I Was at Home, But... (2019) 79


Volker Schlöndorff [2]
Young Törless (1966) 59
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) 65


Paul Schrader [2]
First Reformed (2017) 85
The Card Counter (2021) 64


Joel Schumacher [4]
Falling Down (1993) 36
Batman Forever (1995) ~13
Batman & Robin (1997) ~18
Phone Booth (2002) 46


Martin Scorsese [14]
Mean Streets (1973) 77
Italianamerican (1974) 70
Taxi Driver (1976) ~83
American Boy: A Portrait of Steven Prince (1978) 66
Raging Bull (1980) ~78
After Hours (1985) 74
Goodfellas (1990) 76
Gangs of New York (2002) 67
The Departed (2006) ~61
Hugo (2011) ~59
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) 78
Silence (2016) 92
Conjuring the Rolling Thunder Re-vue (2019) 66
I Heard You Paint Houses (2019) 91


Ridley Scott [7]
Alien (1979) ~78
Blade Runner (1982) 95 [Final Cut]
Gladiator (2000) ~60
Prometheus (2012) 64
The Martian (2015) 64
Alien: Covenant (2017) 66
All the Money in the World (2017) 60


Tony Scott [6]
Top Gun (1986) 59
True Romance (1993) 69
Crimson Tide (1995) ~54
Deja Vu (2006) 83
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) 61
Unstoppable (2010) 76


Ousmane Sembène [3]
Black Girl (1966) 76
Mandabi (1968) 70
Xala (1975) 74


Albert Serra [3]
The Death of Louis XIV (2016) 65
Liberté (2019) 75
Pacifiction (2022) 85


Tom Shadyac [2]
Bruce Almighty (2003) ~36
Evan Almighty (2007) ~28


Ben Sharpsteen [2]
Pinocchio (1940) ~83
Dumbo (1941) ~81


M. Night Shyamalan [4]
Unbreakable (2000) 65
Split (2016) 64
Glass (2019) 63
Old (2021) 55


Don Siegel [3]
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 70
Dirty Harry (1971) 78
Charley Varrick (1973) 67


Joan Micklin Silver [2]
Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976) 73
Between the Lines (1977) 74


Nathan Silver [2]
Thirst Street (2017) 66
The Great Pretender (2018) 67


Bryan Singer [3]
X-Men (2000) ~57
X2 (2003) ~58
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) ~53
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) 55


Douglas Sirk [2]
Magnificent Obsession (1954) 75
All That Heaven Allows (1955) 78


Jerzy Skolimowski [7]
Identification Marks: None (1964) 64
Walkover (1965) 66
Barrier (1966) 61
Le Départ (1967) 74
Deep End (1970) 77
The Shout (1978) 68
EO (2022) 83


Michael Glover Smith [2]
Mercury in Retrograde (2017) 64
Relative (2022) 67


Michael Snow [2]
Wavelength (1967) 94
To Lavoisier, Who Died in the Reign of Terror (1991) 73


Zack Snyder [2]
Man of Steel (2013) ~48
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) 65


Steven Soderbergh [7]
sex, lies, and videotape (1989) 67
Ocean's Eleven (2001) 69
Logan Lucky (2017) 66
Unsane (2018) 64
High Flying Bird (2019) 67
Let Them All Talk a.k.a. The Fall of 2019 (2020) 59
No Sudden Move (2021) 63


Alexander Sokurov [2]
Russian Ark (2002) 71
Francofonia (2015) 56


Yuliya Solntseva [3]
Poem of an Inland Sea (1958) 65
The Story of the Flaming Years (1961) 67
The Enchanted Desna (1964) 73


Steven Spielberg [21]
Jaws (1975) ~84
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) 85
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 86
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) 83
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) ~65
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) ~65
Jurassic Park (1993) ~74
Schindler's List (1993) ~75
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) ~52
Saving Private Ryan (1998) ~68
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) 93
Minority Report (2002) ~65
Catch Me if You Can (2002) 74
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) ~52
War Horse (2011) ~51
Lincoln (2012) 82
Bridge of Spies (2015) 71
The Post (2017) 75
Ready Player One (2018) 63
West Side Story (2021) 79
The Fabelmans (2022) 81


Chad Stahelski [3]
John Wick (2014) 75
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) 73
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) 72


Sylvester Stallone [3]
Rocky II (1979) ~43
Rocky III (1982) ~45
Rocky IV (1985) ~47


Andrew Stanton [2]
Finding Nemo (2003) ~64
WALL-E (2008) ~82


Courtney Stephens [2]
The American Sector (2020) 64
Terra Femme (2021) 63


Josef von Sternberg [8]
The Docks of New York (1928) 91
Thunderbolt (1929) 72
The Blue Angel (1930) 77
Morocco (1930) 84
Dishonored (1931) 81
Shanghai Express (1932) 94
Blonde Venus (1932) 75
The Saga of Anatahan (1953) 79


Jean-François Stévenin [2]
Double messieurs (1986) 79
Mischka (2002) 68


Tim Story [2]
Fantastic Four (2005) ~26
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) ~25


Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet [10]
Not Reconciled (1965) 76
Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) 76
Othon (1970) 83
History Lessons (1972) 75
Moses und Aron (1975) 87
Fortini/Cani (1976) 72
From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979) 76
Too Early/Too Late (1982) 78
Class Relations (1984) 74
The Death of Empedocles (1987) 71


Peter Strickland [2]
The Duke of Burgundy (2014) 61
In Fabric (2018) 43


Erich von Stroheim [3]
Greed (1924) 92
The Merry Widow (1925) 68
The Wedding March (1928) 76


Suzuki Seijun [2]
Eight Hours of Terror (1957) 75
Branded to Kill (1967) 71


Szabó István [2]
Father (1966) 60
Confidence (1980) 69


Takahata Isao [5]
Grave of the Fireflies (1988) ~51
Only Yesterday (1991) 82
Pom Poko (1994) 84
My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999) 81
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) 79


Alain Tanner [2]
The Middle of the World (1974) 73
Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976) 69


Quentin Tarantino [10]
Reservoir Dogs (1992) 56
Pulp Fiction (1994) 71
Jackie Brown (1997) 71
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) 76
Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) 66
Death Proof (2007) 84
Inglourious Basterds (2009) 79
Django Unchained (2012) 61
The Hateful Eight (2015) 74
Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019) 78


Andrei Tarkovsky [4]
Ivan's Childhood (1962) ~61
Andrei Rublev (1966) 76
Solaris (1972) 66
Stalker (1979) 82


Teshigahara Hiroshi [2]
Woman in the Dunes (1964) 91
Summer Soldiers (1972) 57


Johnnie To [23]
The Odd One Dies (1997) 77
A Hero Never Dies (1998) 76
The Mission (1999) 74
Love on a Diet (2001) 76
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (2002) 84
PTU (2003) 91
Turn Left, Turn Right (2003) ~64
Running on Karma (2003) 83
Breaking News (2004) 75
Throw Down (2004) 87
Election (2005) 76
Election 2 (2006) 91
Exiled (2006) 78
Sparrow (2008) 92
Don't Go Breaking My Heart (2011) 87
Life Without Principle (2011) 65
Romancing in Thin Air (2012) 84
Drug War (2012) 85
Blind Detective (2013) 77
Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 (2014) 86
Office (2015) 74
Three (2016) 72
Chasing Dream (2019) 72


Jacques Tourneur [6]
Cat People (1942) 83
I Walked With a Zombie (1943) 84
The Leopard Man (1943) 77
Canyon Passage (1946) 86
Out of the Past (1947) 85
Berlin Express (1948) 77


Joachim Trier [2]
Thelma (2017) 60
The Worst Person in the World (2021) 64


Justine Triet [2]
Victoria (2016) 70
Sibyl (2019) 74


Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise [3]
Beauty and the Beast (1991) ~55
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) ~55
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2002) ~47


Jonás Trueba [2]
The August Virgin (2019) 76
Who's Stopping Us (2021) 82


François Truffaut [14]
The 400 Blows (1959) 92
Shoot the Piano Player (1960) 73
Jules et Jim (1962) 78
Stolen Kisses (1968) 64
The Wild Child (1970) 77
Bed and Board (1970) 62
Two English Girls (1971) 92
Day for Night (1973) 76
The Story of Adèle H. (1975) 74
Small Change (1976) 75
The Man Who Loved Women (1977) 74
The Green Room (1978) 78
Love on the Run (1979) 61
The Last Metro (1980) 72


Tsai Ming-liang [14]
Rebels of the Neon God (1992) 76
Vive L'Amour (1994) 82
The River (1997) 85
The Hole (1998) 92
What Time Is It There? (2001) 83
Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) 97
The Wayward Cloud (2005) 77
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006) 79
Face (2009) 77
Stray Dogs (2013) 95
Journey to the West (2014) 78
Afternoon (2015) 82
Your Face (2018) 68
Days (2020) 82


Tsui Hark [6]
Dangerous Encounters – First Kind (1980) 81
Shanghai Blues (1984) 92
Peking Opera Blues (1986) 93
Once Upon a Time in China (1991) 91
Once Upon a Time in China II (1992) 85
Green Snake (1993) 85


Jon Turteltaub [2]
National Treasure (2004) ~48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) ~46


Morten Tyldum [2]
The Imitation Game (2014) ~44
Passengers (2016) 50


Lee Unkrich [2]
Toy Story 3 (2010) ~65
Coco (2017) 58


Jean-Marc Vallée [2]
C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) 48
Demoliton (2015) 57


Agnès Varda [8]
Cléo From 5 to 7 (1962) 79
Le bonheur (1965) 77
Les Créatures (1966) 59
Far From Vietnam (1967) 74
Lions Love (1969) 65
One Sings, the Other Doesn't (1977) 76
The Beaches of Agnès (2008) 73
Faces Places (2017) 77


Matthew Vaughn [4]
Layer Cake (2004) 43
Stardust (2007) ~44
X-Men: First Class (2011) ~53
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) ~28


Paul Vecchiali [3]
Femmes Femmes (1974) 95
At the Top of the Stairs (1983) 75
Rosa la rose, fille publique (1986) 84


Pacho Velez [2]
Manakamana (2013) 83
The American Sector (2020) 64


Gore Verbinski [4]
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) ~57
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) ~49
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) ~38
A Cure for Wellness (2016) 64


Paul Verhoeven [6]
RoboCop (1987) ~82
Total Recall (1990) 81
Basic Instinct (1992) 75
Starship Troopers (1997) 80
Elle (2016) 76
Benedetta (2021) 73


Jean Vigo [2]
Zero for Conduct (1933) 66
L'Atalante (1934) 76


Denis Villeneuve [4]
Sicario (2015) 77
Arrival (2016) 64
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) 61
Dune: Part One (2021) 60


Luchino Visconti [3]
Ossessione (1943) 72
Sandra (1965) 63
Conversation Piece (1974) 65


Lars von Trier [5]
Breaking the Waves (1996) 86
Dancer in the Dark (2000) 74
The Five Obstructions (2003) 71
Melancholia (2011) 78
The House That Jack Built (2018) 71


Lana Wachowski [7]
Bound (1996) 73
The Matrix (1999) 78
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) 68
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) 60
Speed Racer (2008) 82
Cloud Atlas (2012) 68
The Matrix Resurrections (2021) 63


Lilly Wachowski [6]
Bound (1996) 73
The Matrix (1999) 78
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) 68
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) 60
Speed Racer (2008) 82
Cloud Atlas (2012) 68


Wai Ka-fai [5]
Too Many Ways to Be No. 1 (1997) 84
Love on a Diet (2001) 76
My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (2002) 84
Turn Left, Turn Right (2003) ~64
Running on Karma (2003) 83


Taika Waititi [3]
What We Do in the Shadows (2014) 54
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) 53
Jojo Rabbit (2019) 4


Andrzej Wajda [4]
Siberian Lady Macbeth (1962) 55
Without Anesthesia (1978) 66
The Maids of Wilko (1979) 60
The Conductor (1980) 71


Kurt Walker [2]
Hit 2 Pass (2014) 60
s01e03 (2020) 60


Raoul Walsh [2]
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) 77
The Big Trail (1930) 77


Patrick Wang [2]
A Bread Factory – Part One: For the Sake of Gold (2018) 54
A Bread Factory – Part Two: Walk With Me a While (2018) 56


Denzel Washington [2]
The Great Debaters (2007) ~37
Fences (2016) 58


John Waters [2]
Pink Flamingos (1972) 76
Female Trouble (1974) 77


Mark Waters [2]
Freaky Friday (2003) ~49
Mean Girls (2004) ~50


Peter Watkins [2]
The War Game (1965) 80
Punishment Park (1971) 83


Marc Webb [3]
(500) Days of Summer (2009) 24
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) ~43
The Amazing Spider-Man (2014) ~30


Claudia Weill [2]
Girlfriends (1978) 75
It's My Turn (1980) 60


Peter Weir [3]
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) 62
Gallipoli (1981) ~56
Witness (1985) 69


Orson Welles [9]
Citizen Kane (1941) 98
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) 99
Othello (1951) 74
Mr. Arkadin (1955) 77 [Confidential Report]
Touch of Evil (1958) 88
Chimes at Midnight (1965) 73
The Immortal Story (1968) 79
F for Fake (1973) 86
The Other Side of the Wind (2018) 82


William A. Wellman [2]
The Public Enemy (1931) 51
A Star Is Born (1937) 67


Simon Wells [2]
Balto (1995) ~54
The Prince of Egypt (1998) ~56


Wim Wenders [8]
Alice in the Cities (1974) 74
Kings of the Road (1976) 65
The American Friend (1977) 77
Paris, Texas (1984) 94
Wings of Desire (1987) 90
Until the End of the World (1991) 74 [director's cut]
Buena Vista Social Club (1999) 62
Pina (2011) 72


Joss Whedon [3]
Serenity (2005) ~56
The Avengers (2012) ~57
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) 59


Bo Widerberg [3]
Raven's End (1963) 64
Elvira Madigan (1967) 65
Ådalen 31 (1969) 71


Billy Wilder [6]
Bad Seed (1934) 57
Double Indemnity (1944) 76
Sunset Blvd. (1950) 75
Some Like It Hot (1959) ~78
The Apartment (1960) 81
Avanti! (1972) 84


Chris Williams [2]
Bolt (2008) ~48
Big Hero 6 (2014) ~42


Robert Wise [2]
West Side Story (1961) 77
The Sound of Music (1965) ~59


Frederick Wiseman [6]
Titicut Follies (1967) 62
High School (1968) 64
Hospital (1970) 63
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (2017) 73
Monrovia, Indiana (2018) 76
City Hall (2020) 74


Helena Wittmann [2]
Drift (2017) 68
Human Flowers of Flesh (2022) 73


Wong Kar-wai [11]
As Tears Go By (1988) 79
Days of Being Wild (1990) 93
Chungking Express (1994) 98
Ashes of Time (1994) 93 [Redux]
Fallen Angels (1995) 83
Happy Together (1997) 84
In the Mood for Love (2000) 100
2046 (2004) 91
The Hand (2004) 84
My Blueberry Nights (2007) 75
The Grandmaster (2013) 85


John Woo [9]
A Better Tomorrow (1986) 76
A Better Tomorrow II (1987) 66
The Killer (1989) 93
Bullet in the Head (1990) 86
Hard-Boiled (1992) 92
Face/Off (1997) 82
Mission: Impossible II (2000) 64
Red Cliff (2008) ~58
Red Cliff Part II (2008) ~58


Edgar Wright [5]
Shaun of the Dead (2004) 73
Hot Fuzz (2007) 73
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) 81
The World's End (2013) 76
Baby Driver (2017) 66


Joe Wright [3]
Pride & Prejudice (2005) ~57
The Soloist (2009) ~38
The Woman in the Window (2021) 55


Edward Yang [7]
That Day, on the Beach (1983) 93
Taipei Story (1985) 94
The Terrorizers (1986) 95
A Brighter Summer Day (1991) 100
A Confucian Confusion (1994) 93
Mahjong (1996) 94
Yi Yi (2000) 100


David Yates [5]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) ~54
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) ~53
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) ~48
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) ~57
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) 56


Wilson Yip [4]
SPL: Kill Zone (2005) 58
Ip Man (2008) ~58
Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster (2010) ~54
SPL: Paradox (2017) 64


Yuen Woo-ping [3]
Tai-Chi Master (1993) 73
Wing Chun (1994) 76
Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy (2018) 63


Krzysztof Zanussi [4]
Family Life (1971) 66
The Illumination (1973) 68
Camouflage (1977) 66
The Constant Factor (1980) 62


Robert Zemeckis [9]
Back to the Future (1985) 78
Back to the Future Part II (1989) 67
Back to the Future Part III (1990) 66
Forrest Gump (1994) ~45
Contact (1997) ~53
Cast Away (2000) ~48
The Walk (2015) 67
Allied (2016) 66
Welcome to Marwen (2018) 73


Zhang Yimou [14]
Red Sorghum (1987) 64
Ju Dou (1990) 73
Raise the Red Lantern (1991) 75
The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) 55
To Live (1994) 76
The Road Home (1999) 52
Happy Times (2000) 53
Hero (2002) 79
House of Flying Daggers (2004) 74
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) ~54
The Great Wall (2016) 58
Shadow (2018) 48
One Second (2020) 52
Cliff Walkers (2021) 63


Chloé Zhao [3]
The Rider (2017) 67
Nomadland (2020) 65
Eternals (2021) 56


Zhu Shengze [3]
Another Year (2016) 72
Present.Perfect. (2019) 82
A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces (2021) 77


Fred Zinnemann [2]
Act of Violence (1949) 57
High Noon (1952) 52


Andrzej Żuławski [3]
Possession (1981) 85
On the Silver Globe (1988) 42
Cosmos (2015) 44


Ramon Zürcher [2]
The Strange Little Cat (2013) 78
The Girl and the Spider (2021) 77

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Walk Up First Draft

Complete first draft for Reverse Shot.

As surely as communal drinking, playful structural experiments, and zooms, the familiarity of spaces has long been a cornerstone of Hong Sang-soo’s films. Indeed, besides the selection of his actors, which has increasingly revolved around his repertory players like Kim Min-hee, Kwon Hae-hyo, and Lee Hye-young, the only preparation he does for his films is location scouting. A few weeks before the shoot, he asks various cafés, bars, and other such locations if he can film there, leaving such afterthoughts as narrative and dialogue to the day each scene is shot. While other Hong films have used places as an anchoring device, returning over and over to them as a means to ground the viewer amidst the confounding iterations of a similar narrative several times over, none of them have been so overtly dedicated to this conceit as Walk Up, his second film of 2022. The space here is a walk-up apartment building with four floors and a basement owned by interior designer Ms. Kim (Lee), which filmmaker Byung-soo (Kwon) tours during the first of the film’s four parts. The first and second floors are occupied by Sun-hee (Song Seon-mi), a restauranteur; the third by a couple; the fourth by a reclusive male artist; and the basement is designated as a workspace for Kim, even though she spends little time there. Throughout each of the four parts, this fundamental configuration stays the same, but the people who embody these archetypes change dramatically. As separated by an indeterminate amount of time, the four days depicted in Walk Up gradually traces vast changes in Byung-soo’s life over what might be a few months, a year, a decade, or even — in keeping with Hong’s penchant for repetition — across alternate realities. This sense of slippage isn’t necessarily new to Hong’s work but Walk Up’s willingness to totally deviate in the events — but not the structure, which is of course structured around one or two scenes of people speaking unguardedly under the influence of wine or soju — of each part means that the fuzzy temporal links are more subterranean and trickier to parse than any of his prior films. Indeed, each part opens with Byung-soo in different circumstances, especially the first, which finds him visiting the building with his estranged daughter Jeong-su (Park Mi-so). It is the first time he has seen either his daughter or Kim in a number of years, and that initial awkwardness seems to build until it is abruptly broken by the apartment tour, a physical activity to provide anything else to talk about. Walk Up is deceptively withholding in this initial tour, even as it clearly establishes the spaces that Byung-soo will occupy in the following parts. The second floor of the restaurant, reserved for cooking classes and special customers, is only glimpsed through a curtained window. Eccentricities abound, each little detail latching into the viewer’s mind: the tenants’ propensity for leaving their doors unlocked, the Bressonian view of shoes on the stairs which makes great use of verticality, the sight of Byung-soo surrounded by the fourth-floor painters’ scattered belongings. Crucially, none of these inhabitants are either seen or named, left as abstractions for one to fill in based on image and dialogue. These absences form one of Walk Up’s most enriching and complex aspects. Much of the film is given over to conversations about people not currently in the scene, forcing the viewer to triangulate their view of a character between past and future scenes and what is said about them out of earshot. For instance, Jeong-su and Jules (Shin Seok-ho), an employee of some sort in the apartment building, have a conversation about Ms. Kim immediately after the tour finishes, where the young man’s characterization of his employer runs largely counter to the viewer’s perception of her at this moment. To complicate things even further, it is totally unclear whether the two older adults still remain on the rooftop during this scene, or if they are already in the basement that serves as the location for the rest of the first part. Such little disruptions of equilibrium come to accrue a great force that culminates in one of the deftest sleights of hand by any filmmaker in recent memory, a conclusion that only further deepens the ambiguity. To say too much about the turns that Walk Up takes would be to deny even a little bit of the immense paths of exploration that Hong undertakes in this single location that stands in so much more. But one thing can be said without further elaboration: this is perhaps Hong’s most haunting film, one which captures the drudgery of life even in almost completely different circumstances. Whether it be romantic entanglements, familial troubles, or monetary issues, they remain doggedly attached to Byung-soo. The clue really is in the title: in such a compact building, walking up isn’t very different from standing still.

Saturday, October 8, 2022

God's Creatures First Draft

Complete first draft for In Review Online.

God’s Creatures begins with a promise of something more productively jarring than it actually embodies: a Leviathan-esque hurtle through the ocean water, the bubbles obscuring the image, followed by a foreboding shot of the ocean waves. The second feature from the creative team of Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer — 2015’s The Fits was the latter’s directorial debut, while Davis was the editor and makes her official debut here — thus feints at something more experiential, in keeping with its predecessor’s canny combination of a realistic portrayal of a young girl coming of age in a specific milieu (young dancers in Cincinnati) with a grounded surrealness, flights of fancy taking off in sync with their character’s emotions. In God’s Creatures, however, the balance is heavily tilted towards the realism end of Davis and Holmer’s spectrum. The film takes place on the coast of Ireland in a village where seemingly everyone is involved in oyster farming; the men gather the oysters from the baskets, while the women work in the factory, filleting fish and prying open oysters. Overseeing the latter is Aileen (Emily Watson), the foreperson whose normal life is upended when her son Brian (Paul Mescal) unexpectedly returns from a long, quasi-rebellious stint in Australia. This return is in many ways heralded by a young man’s death, a drowning caused in part by the village’s apparent tradition that nobody should learn to swim, an apt metaphor for the social dynamics that God’s Creatures somewhat inelegantly explores: masculinity, family, and the village at large. The village itself isn’t especially characterized, however, with characters typically jerry-rigged for a singular purpose, and so the brunt of the drama rests on Aileen, Brian, and the rest of her family, including the elderly and wordless father. God’s Creatures pivots on a serious crime, which neatly bisects the film into halves, but one of its better qualities is the evenness in tone and mood throughout. From the very first time the foreboding strings come in (admittedly something of a cliché in the current independent scene), a tension arises, borne out in many ways by Davis and Holmer’s precise Scope framings. An impromptu song in the bar unfolds in a pleasing sense of depth, the rows of oyster baskets make for an expansive view of both decay and renewal, and the factory is a hive of activity, tracking with admirable skill as Aileen makes her way around the floor; later, her sense of dislocation and uncertainty is ratcheted up without feeling out of place. But while Watson and Mescal handle the mother-son relationship — tested by his absence and the crime he committed — quite well, the tendency towards stacking the deck limits the potency that God’s Creatures could have. Symbols abound: fungus growing in the oysters, a number of deaths in the village, Brian’s easygoing relationship with his grandfather, all of which come to signal the village’s seedy underside to a too obvious degree. By the ending, these motifs have been hammered home, with little ambiguity left as to each character’s fate; where the film succeeds is in its ultimate embrace of interiority, long scenes of reckoning and quietude that speak much more convincingly than the events taking place around them.

Amsterdam First Draft

Complete first draft for Slant Magazine.

David O. Russell shouldn’t be the kind of filmmaker who needs championing. Notoriously verbally abusive on set and accused of molestation by his transgender niece, he was nevertheless a veritable force in early 2010s Hollywood, hoovering up considerable success at both the box office and the Academy Awards and continuing to attract some of the most star-studded ensembles outside of a superhero movie. His films are unabashedly commercial, black comedies where the abundance of familiar faces and slapdash plots can start to feel like little more than glitzy table shuffling. But Amsterdam, Russell’s first film since 2015’s Joy, strikes a different chord than the glut of films that made him both admired and despised, though it wouldn’t appear to be the case on first glance. Nominally, the plot is, like American Hustle (2013), based on a true intrigue: the Business Plot, which in 1933 sought to instigate a veteran-led coup against Franklin Delano Roosevelt and install retired General Smedley Butler as a fascist dictator in the mold of Mussolini and Hitler; Butler instead testified to Congress, though none of the wealthy businessmen were ever arrested. The film takes this conspiracy as its spine: Butler’s fictionalized counterpart is General Gilbert Dillenbeck (played by Robert De Niro in one of his most considered and forceful recent performances), and the protagonists attempt to clear their names and in the process stumble upon the mysterious “Committee of the 5.” However, Amsterdam is first and foremost a surprisingly indelible portrait of an almost utopic friendship between three World War I participants: Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), attorney Harold Woodman (John David Washington), and the mysterious Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie). Indeed, the title is both a feint and the key to the film: none of the “central” narrative takes place outside of New England, but an extended flashback (that occurs while Berendsen and Woodman are fleeing from unknown assailants) reorients the audience’s view, telling the story of how the two men became friends in the army and met Voze, a nurse and bon vivant who draws them into her orbit. This section, which takes up somewhere close to half an hour of the film, is in many ways the justification for Amsterdam, observing the simple pleasures of bohemian life in Amsterdam, full as it is with dancing, artistry — Voze is an artist who, among works in many other media, creates small sculptures out of bullets and shrapnel salvaged from the bodies of soldiers, including those of the heavily scarred Berendsen and Woodman, as perfect a metaphor for the kind of earnest subversion that Russell is working towards here — and most importantly time away from the United States. For Berendsen, this offers a release from his wife and her rich family of doctors, who openly disparage the half-Jewish man attempting to practice on Park Avenue. For Woodman and Voze, his Blackness and their interracial relationship is far more accepted in this cosmopolitan setting; when the film inevitably leaves this otherworldly realm, never to return to that enchanted town, it is a genuine loss, one which propels the rest of the film. Amsterdam isn’t the only great thing about Amsterdam of course; even in that city there are undercurrents of the outside world, signaled by the presence of two “birdwatchers” (spies) played by the pleasingly incongruous duo of Mike Myers and Michael Shannon, and those notions only expand. New York, where Berendsen and Woodman work together, appears to be more evidently shot on a backlot than any period film in recent memory, and the slightly magical and artificial nature speaks well to the strange qualities of this film. The expected bevy of notable faces that Russell is able to still assemble help provide much of that frisson: the mere presences of Taylor Swift and Chris Rock; the expected alienness of Anya Taylor-Joy, who pinballs off an unexpectedly strong Rami Malek playing up his urbane tics; and of course the main cast, all of whom are wonderful, especially Washington and Robbie, who handle their tentative romance with superb control. Stuffed with devices as it is — plot fake outs, timeline shuffling, narration that’s relayed between the three main characters, informative chyrons — the film takes the form of a light picaresque; it is never really in question who the conspirators are, whether the plot will actually succeed or not. Indeed, that’s the point of Amsterdam, which recalls nothing less than Inherent Vice in its use of a threadbare detective narrative to explore both human interactions and grander ideas about the American society of its time. Inequity is of course everywhere, and Russell almost risks taking too modern of a viewpoint, especially with the threats to democracy that certainly deliberately echo Trump. But what lingers most readily are the little privileged moments: an intimate dance in a doctor’s office; the enchantingly anachronistic art that Voze creates, including overlapping faces and the prominent use of a film camera as self-portraiture; and above all the use of song, a linking device that speaks to the history and harmony that this film manages to capture in its own earnest, even sentimental way.

Monday, September 19, 2022

Casablanca Beats First Draft

Complete first draft for In Review Online.

Casablanca Beats was perhaps the most unexpected inclusion in the landmark Cannes 2021 competition selection. Filled to the brim with both old guard auteurs and rising stars who had made splashes with previous films as it was, Nabil Ayouch was comparatively unknown. The Moroccan director has worked steadily since 1992, and his 2015 film Much Loved attracted great controversy when it played in Directors’ Fortnight due to its forthright depiction of sex work, but he has had very little history with the festival otherwise, and little of the international recognition that even such lesser competitors like Justin Kurzel, Juho Kuosmanen, or Joachim Lafosse had. Though likable in certain respects, this extends to Casablanca Beats itself. Filmed at an arts center that Ayouch himself co-founded in the Casablanca suburb of Sidi Moumen, known as an impoverished area of the city with a strong contingent of Muslim fundamentalism, it follows a class of young teens cultivating their interest in the rap under the watch of their new teacher Anas (rapper Anas Basbousi; every character shares their name with their actor), moving over the course of what seems to be a few months. At the onset of the film, Anas seems to be the firm center of gravity: the film begins with him driving into Sidi Moumen in the car that he appears to live out of during the course of the year, and the first session plunges both him and the viewer into a classroom of entirely unfamiliar faces, previously seen in a dance class just prior. He then lectures about the reason for hip-hop’s creation and its enablement of both Afro-American culture — including a clanking mention of Barack Obama — and the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. As the film progresses, however, and after a confrontational scene where he tears into his new pupils’ first attempts at braggadocio, the steely-eyed Anas fades into the background, with no apparent reason for the change in his demeanor as students successively take the spotlight. Typically, this is signaled by a walk home that one of them takes, introducing a particular family dynamic: a cautious Muslim radical, a fairly dreary family life, some kind of girls’ shelter with contentious relationships. Yet Casablanca Beats never truly develops as either an examination of rap or as a wider portrait of these people united in an attempt to disrupt the conservative culture. Some scenes do encourage a more politicized view past the evocations of personal struggle that the students’ raps uniformly center upon: a conversation about the 2003 and 2007 Casablanca suicide bombings, whose perpetrators came from Sidi Moumen; a debate about how women should dress and walk in public (notably one of the young women appears to wear a hijab to bed, which brought to mind Kiarostami’s resistance to filming domestic spaces due to this ludicrous state of affairs). But these debates rarely feel connected to the actual raps, and the resolution of the film, a concert besieged by angry parents that leads to Anas’s firing without any protest from him, followed by a sentimental rap from the students as he drives away, takes the most banal avenue possible. Casablanca Beats comes most alive in its scenes of actual rap; everyone here does genuinely have a nice flow that consciously develops over the film, a growing confidence that attempts to paper over a lot of gaps that Ayouch seems to have neglected. In a few sequences that appear to be imagined, including a performance and a dance-off with Muslim men, Ayouch’s style, which opts exclusively for vague handheld close-ups, takes flight. Such moments of dynamism don’t last though, and the narrative beats never truly come alive.

Saturday, September 3, 2022

The Walk First Draft

Complete first draft for In Review Online.

In the 2010s, something strange happened to Robert Zemeckis: he almost became respectable again. After his trilogy of mo-cap extravaganzas, he suddenly returned to, if not prominence, then a certain level of respect for his next two films. Flight, in some ways, made sense: Denzel Washington being as much of a powerhouse as ever, an examination of addiction and guilt, a spectacular centerpiece. But it makes an odd pair with its successor, 2015’s The Walk; though both films involve extensive special effects and were New York Film Festival gala world premieres — spanning both Richard Peña’s and Kent Jones’s festival director tenures — the similarities, at least on a surface level, end there. I should note here that I’ve never seen either James Marsh’s documentary Man on Wire (2008) or The Walk in its proper 3D form. Indeed, both of my viewings of the latter were significantly compromised: the first was literally on an airplane — approximately 38,000 feet higher than Philippe Petit was — and the second was on my laptop. But the universally adored part of this film, the high-wire walk itself, which takes up a full twenty minutes, still manages to captivate me. The sense that I got, both at the time and in the intervening years as Zemeckis’s reputation — first unfairly and now perhaps fairly — sunk once again, was that the preceding hour and twenty minutes were simply a means to an end, a necessary inconvenience in order to experience the simple thrill of being perched above the void. But to view The Walk as merely twenty minutes of great filmmaking doesn’t capture what makes it so odd and compelling. This is evident from the very first shot: a tight widescreen close-up on Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit, with piercing blue eyes and a hyperactive French accent, monologuing at the viewer while the camera pulls back to reveal him perched atop the Statue of Liberty torch, with an impossibly sparkling New York City in the background. Zemeckis will return to this narration time and again, both with and without image, only reinforcing what was already evident: that Petit will survive his death-defying feat, that there will be numerous complications and intense planning to achieve this. But it also places the film into an almost mystical realm, most obviously invoked by the arrival of the mysterious visitor on the South Tower roof (which in turn reminded me of The Falling Man) and the clouds that swell as Petit makes his first step. This tone, which reaches its apex during the successive walk Petit makes, including the sublime crane down from him lying down on the wire to the adoring watchers below, makes for a great counterweight to the first hour, and especially the extended thirty-minute sequence of preparations on the day of August 6. The heist movie comparisons have already been made clearly, and the fairly tight construction makes the film relatively zip by, but the two approaches are allowed to meld together: the door that the construction worker leaves open is both a necessary step to progress the plan and an almost divine intervention, as are the serendipitous introductions of Barry Greenhouse and Jean-Pierre. Chance and skill have an equal place in The Walk, where little gambits and risks add up across both Petit and his collaborators. The Walk is certainly romantic, swooning and thrilling to the passion of Petit even as his more unhinged impulses get their day in the sun. The viewer of course connects to the applauding audiences because the experience is so exhilarating, the sight of seeing this man suspended so high in the air. But the final gesture of the film, a brief turn of expression after Petit mentions that his pass to the World Trade Center observation deck was meant to be forever, rings deeply. There is an air of melancholy that pervades the film, where the simulacrum of both the Twin Towers and Manhattan are necessary because these worlds are impossible to access now. But Zemeckis’s final touch, fading out on his constructed New York skyline to not erase the towers, but to encase them in gold, unites all of his most pleasing impulses. The Walk is not necessarily a great film — too airy, too manic, even too silly at times — but it offers great riches throughout.

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Back to the Future First Draft

Complete first draft for In Review Online.

Cinephilia is necessarily littered with the detritus of half-remembered viewing experiences, films only glimpsed from childhood in a perspective almost wholly incompatible with the viewer’s current state of mind. Those two ideas overlap, a double (or triple, or quadruple, etc.) image which stirs up all sorts of memories. Sure, a viewer may have a better of how the camera moves in one instant, how a particular editing pattern might seem rote where it once was thrilling, but those primordial sensations still remain; the thrill is never truly gone unless someone’s willing to make a total break. I didn’t truly become obsessed with film until the latter half of high school, but from an early age (probably until my teens) my favorite film was Back to the Future. I only had the vaguest idea of who Robert Zemeckis was; I saw Forrest Gump around this time, but the technological prowess of that film by design totally passed me by, and its qualities seemed totally divorced from the adoration I felt for the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown. I was a science obsessive, a child captivated by action and popcorn filmmaking, a boy fascinated by the loop-the-loops of gags and time travel quandaries — it certainly didn’t hurt that it was one of the first films I ever saw with substantial swearing. I even had a pen with the Japanese hoverboard on it and a miniature model of the Texaco station, both from Back to the Future Part II. Even at that young age, perhaps out of that standard anti-sequel bias, I recognized that II and III weren’t quite as good as the original — one of my first memories of Rotten Tomatoes was the substantially lower approval ratings for the sequels — but I didn’t care. I became obsessed with the idea of a potential sequel almost two decades on, tracking any possible developments on the official website, and was virtually counting down the days until October 21, 2015, when flying cars and hydrated pizzas and Jaws 19 would finally come true. In something of an effort to remain more closely tied to these rose-tinted memories, I only watched parts of the films in the trilogy, letting my mind piece together the connective tissue that links the myriad set-pieces, but even from this limited viewing the dichotomy between the first film and its predecessors only became clearer. The first still remains one of the great works of Americana from the past forty years, a lightning bolt of summation that nevertheless manages to be an oddly small-scale film: there really are only five characters that truly matter here (Marty, Doc, Lorraine, George, and Biff), and the film takes great pleasure in constantly shuffling the tables, throwing in little bits of nonsensical gambits — the Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan scene, featuring the music of Eddie Van Halen, is a particular favorite. It’s by no means perfect: the aging makeup in 1985 is distracting, Zemeckis and screenwriter Bob Gale often get a little too cute — Marty getting to invent the skateboard chief among them — certain aspects like the random guy who tries to dance with Lorraine get to be a little too grating, and the metaphysical implications of people’s lives constantly changing based on one little interaction is too frightening to contemplate; I also have to point out that Chuck Berry released “Maybellene,” arguably even more important than “Johnny B. Goode,” well before the school dance. But it’s also just as thrilling to revisit and see the blatantly adult things (aside from the language) hiding in plain sight to a child: the blues band smoking weed, the proliferation of porno theaters in the Hill Valley town square, the relentless incestual horniness of Lorraine (more on that in a bit). By contrast, the two sequels, while both well-constructed and engaging in their own right, shunt themselves into a bit of a corner, in doing so presaging much of modern franchise filmmaking. There’s the eerie remake of the final scene of the original in II, a sort of throwaway gag of a finale reshot with a new actress and an oh-so-subtle pause in Doc’s reaction to Marty’s worries about his future; the uncanny recasting of Crispin Glover; the back-to-back production of the sequels. Whereas the first film felt free to both swiftly create and then refer back to Hill Valley 1985, the sequels end up acting as more of a reference to the original rather than any wider idea about what it meant to live in the future, or in the Wild West. Indeed, III especially acts as a grab bag of cinematic references — none of which I knew at the time, I learned about e.g. A Fistful of Dollars through this film — irrespective of whether they belong to the Western genre or not: the playing of “My Darling Clementine” exists side-by-side with a Taxi Driver riff, though I’m pretty sure no one in Ford films (or Monument Valley generally) wore blue and pink shirts with nebulas on them. Instead of Marty’s displacement, referring to then-Senator John F. Kennedy and Tab, not knowing how to open a bottle and getting the mocking suggestion that Jerry Lewis (one of the names that I of course didn’t know at the time) would be Vice President, there’s such scenes as the Café 80s scene, recreating the skateboard/truck chase from the original yet unceremoniously crammed into the opening; I always forget that the 2015 aspect of II only takes up a third of the film. That film has the special awkwardness of having to set up entirely new signifiers and plotlines that will be directly paid off in III: the introduction of Mad Dog Tannen, the hilarious Clint Eastwood motif (considering his and Michael J. Fox’s substantial difference in stature), the random introduction of Needles, and above all the misguided attempt to have him grow via the “chicken” device. It’s not that these films don’t understand the genius of the first film: the recreation of 1955 is astonishing in its deft restaging/reshooting, helped by the quick sequel production time stalling any aging; the reintroduction of Strickland again and again is a total riot; and Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson especially have so much fun playing their various temporal incarnations across time, though the disturbing nature of Fox playing his daughter in II and being the incredibly Irish husband to his mother’s actress in III cannot be discounted. But these crucially lack the sense of tech fetish awe afforded to even the plutonium, or the magnificent, prolonged introductions to Marty and Doc, the discovery of love echoing across time where a novel cover speaks to all the strange things that have occurred. By the end, the sentimental idea that the future ultimately isn’t written comes as a bit of a cop out after the train barrels through the DeLorean. Of course, the fact that Back to the Future has its anchors in the two great decades of American conservatism in the 20th century is a key part of its ultimately safe mainstream appeal, though the most charitable reading would suggest that the time travel acts as a sly parody/disruptor of this normalcy; the Trumpian overtones of the alternate 1985 collide oddly with a crime-ridden ‘70s vibe, though the suggestion that a second term of Reagan is so much better than a fifth term of Nixon is laughable. In pure political terms, a number of representational elements really become troubling: the cartoonish Libyan terrorists, the Black family in alternate 1985 almost shot like a horror film, the Native Americans who disappear after their magnificent entrance into the drive-thru. And of course, there is the routine usage of damsels in distress, often of a sexually violating nature. What balances them out are perhaps the two best performances in the entire series: Lea Thompson in the first and Mary Steenburgen in the third, two absolutely radiant and steadfast performances that contain so much longing appropriate to their eras: barely repressed erotic desire and timidly passionate meeting of the minds. They are the glue just as much as the beautiful friendship between Marty and Doc; just as these improbable friends maintain their compassion across centuries, so do these women carve out a slice in this timey-wimey hijinks for real emotion, which Zemeckis graciously and deftly affords them. Back to the Future Part IV never did come to pass, perhaps for the best, but another fictional misbegotten sequel perhaps provides even more insight: Jaws 19. On the marquee, it is clearly stated that it is directed by “Max Spielberg.” Whether this was out of some fear on producer Steven’s part that he wouldn’t live to see 2015, or out of his hope that his child would become a successful director (even a hack), it was yet another prediction that didn’t come true. Spielberg has improbably become a bastion of classicism — demonstrated by his actual 2015 film Bridge of Spies — but Zemeckis’s own subsequent history is left unsaid. Though he might have wanted to believe that it was as open to his own writing as it is for Marty and Jennifer at the end of III, his future was already made: the relative modesty of his first three films would be forever gone; with this quantum leap visited twice more, he barreled past the point of no return, and his reputation, for better and worse, as a technical inventor was sealed.