Raoul Ruiz
Jean Epstein
Mikio Naruse
Jacques Rivette
Chris Marker
Les Blank
Frank Borzage
Víctor Erice
Manoel de Oliveira
Francois Ozon
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Theodoros Angelopoulos
Yoshishige Yoshida
Paul Morrissey
Some of these aren’t particularly underrated (like Rivette who is generally well-known), but I include them since I’ve met a large amount of cinephiles unfamiliar with their work.
JP, did you read the book on Borzage that someone wrote a year or two ago? It was long overdue, the first critical study of his work. Robbe-Grillet makes me think of Marguerite Duras. And Ozon is a very good choice.
Michael Bay
John Boorman
John Carpenter
David Cronenberg
Jonathan Demme
David Gordon Green
Spike Jonze
Michael Mann
Paul Verhoeven (this guy literally turns shit into gold)
Edgar Wright
Mary Harron
Neil Marshall
Hal Hartley
Daniel, Cronenberg is not under rated in the slightest look at his awards page on IMDB he is more of a candidate for over rated (not that i think he is)
Why is micheal bay at the top of your list? i spelled his name wrong because he sucks
Vincent Gallo.
Travis Wilkerson.
Ya come on-how you can you even consider someone who makes Transformers and The Island to be a quality filmaker? Those movies are complete commercial crap.
Mac, Buffalo ‘66 was pretty amazing. Like a strange short story. I think he really nailed that dysfunctional family dynamic by pushing it to such extremes. But I gotta dock him a notch for breaking Polly Jean Harvey’s heart.
Satyajit Ray
Paul Vecchiali
Jean-Claude Guiguet
Jacques Nolot
Charles Walters
Hal Ashby
Luc Moullet
Jean Rouch
Barbet Schroeder
Julien Duvivier
Marcel L’Herbier
Jean Gremillion
Jean-Claude Biette (who, not coincidentally, is related to the top two names in the post above this one)
Justin Biberkopf
Abel Ferrara
Beth B
Alan Rudolph
Percy Adlon
Mike Figgis
Lina Wertmuller
Michael Cuesta
Ulrich Seidl
all underrated and underappreciated, in my opinion