Edit: ^
12 Angry Men
The 400 Blows
Badlands
Breathless
Citizen Kane
Eraserhead
Pather Panchali
Stranger Than Paradise
I have not seen all, but many of them come highly recommended.
Gracias Grey Daisies
Ray’s Pather Panchali
A few of my faves… some recent ones in there…
Badlands (Malick)
Knife in Water (Polanski)
George Washington (GordonGreen)
TwentyFourSeven (Medows)
Last Resort (Pawlikowski)
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Jones)
The Scent of Green Papaya (Anh Hung)
Maborosi (Kore-eda)
Ivan´s Childhood (Tarkovsky)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Erice)
Hiroshima mon amour (Resnais)
Night of the Hunter
Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel)
A Time for Drunken Horses (Ghobadi)
Killer of Sheep (Burnett)
The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf)
Fists in the Pocket (Bellocchio)
Young Torless (Schlondorff)
The White Balloon (Panahi)
Accattone (Pasolini)
The Seventh Continent (Haneke)
Elevator to the Gallows (Malle)
All I can think of for the moment. Previous posters made some excellent choices that I would also include, but I don’t want to be repetitive.
Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter
Terence Malik’s Badlands
John Huston’s Maltese Falcon
Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap
Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali
Nicholas Ray’s They Live By Night
Michael Moore’s Roger and Me
Francois Truffaut’s 400 Blows
Steven Spielberg’s Duel (if we’re not counting student films and TV episodes)
Quentin Tarantino’s Reservior Dogs
George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone
Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane
Regarding acting performances here are a few off the top of my head:
Brigitte Helm in Metropolis
The Marx Brothers in The Cocoanuts
Gene Wilder in Bonnie and Clyde
Anna Karina in A Woman is a Woman
Natalie Portman in The Professional
Eddie Murphy in 48 HRS
I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot more, so forgive me…
Spielprg- Duel
A lot of great debut films mentioned, but for some reason none impress me as much as Badlands (for a debut, that is). Night of the Hunter is a close second.
“Pi” by Darren Aronofsky and “Ratcatcher” by Lynne Ramsay come to mind.
“Amores Perros”- Alejandro González Iñárritu
Body Heat – Lawrence Kasdan
THX 1138 – Lucas
The Duelists- Scott
Seven – Fincher
Dark Star – Carpenter
In the Company of Men – Labute
Zero Effect – Jake Kasdan
@LAW: STRANGER THAN PARADISE was actually not Jarmusch’s first feature. He made a little-known movie called PERMANENT VACATION (1980) before PARADISE (1982).
Also, @ Peter Smith: Yes, I agree that THX 1138 was quite an achievement for a first feature, but I always preferred Lucas’s student short, ELECTRONIC LABYRINTH THX 1138 4EB, on which the feature was based. The short is, of course, shorter than the feature and, for some reason, the ending has more impact. This short is available on a DVD called REEL TALENT: FIRST FILMS BY LEGENDARY DIRECTORS, which includes shorts by Lucas, Zemeckis, Shawn Levy, Jon Turtletaub, and James Foley, among others.
I’ve managed to see several of the short films or student productions of the great auteurs and many are EXTREMELY interesting in terms of the filmmakers’ later careers. Terence Malick’s AFI short is a Western that starred Warren Oates and I’d love to describe it but it has a twist ending that shouldn’t be disclosed. DePalma’s student film looked incompetent to me, whereas 3-4 cute Scorsese shorts are available in a collection called SCORSESE X 4 (I have it on VHS). Truffaut and Godard’s shorts are available as extras on DVDs of their features, as are many of Resnais’s early documentaries. Polanski’s TWO MEN AND A WARDROBE is also around, and if someone can explain it to me I’d appreciate it. I know that it’s supposed to be some kind of allegory about life in communist Poland, but why a wardrobe? Why those specific actions? “Who are those guys?”
@Peter Smith – Se7en wasn’t Fincher’s debut, Alien3 was.
Badlands
Night of the Hunter
I feel sorry for Josh Dushane.
I am astounded by others who insist on continuing here.
Resevoir Dogs
Citizen Kane
Todd Haynes’ Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story – though a short – was a remarkable debut.
Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 4, the first piece released in the cycle, is really damned good.
I don’t think anyone mentioned E. Elias Merhige’s ‘Begotten’.
And I would include ‘Meshes in the Afternoon’ since Maya Deren never made a feature length film.
The Mayor Of Hell
I am involved in a local film society and we are going to do a series on Notable Directors’ first films. I thought I’d cheat a lil and ask the opinion of this lovely film community. What are the best 1st features?