101 DIRECTORS' ESSENTIAL FILMS
di Kenji
Do click on Read More and the green links. Thanks to all following this surprisingly popular list. For now, my 5 favourite directors- Mizoguchi, Renoir, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, Satyajit Ray- at the top. No particular order otherwise.
Taking into account importance, critical opinion and popular success (there are some directors and films included that i’m not very keen on), this is still a partly personal selection, so we have a few wild cards. As of November 2017, the 5 films i’ve chosen to represent the little known Sri Lankan director Lester James Peries have still had less than 100 ratings combined, despite averaging 4.3 out of 5! Do see his films if you can. I don’t think the Oscars are a good guide to quality, so directors are not always represented by Oscar winning films.
Bubbling under: Argento, Carné, Cronenberg, Cuaron, Diaz, Eastwood, Hong, Inarritu, Ivens, Jackson, Jarmusch, Jia, Kazan, Kore-eda, Oshima, Glauber Rocha, Scott, Sen, Sirk, Sokurov, Tourneur, Vigo, Vlacil, Von Trier…
Of course, the Directors Cups on this site showcased a lot, Nikolaidis and Ruiz the surprise finalists in the first, Monteiro the winner of the 2nd, beating Mizoguchi in the final. (Mubi used to have a tremendous forum, on which the cups took place.)
In future there should be more by women, and from Latin America, and quite a few countries are hard done by. In any event, there is also the list 500 Directors which I like!
My lists on individual directors:
Mizoguchi Revered
Directors Round Mizoguchi
Tarkovsky’s Legacy
Films Admired by Tarkovsky
Satyajit Ray
Le Cinéma, c’est Jean Renoir
Essential Hitchcock
Essential Kubrick
Essential Godard
Lester James Peries, hidden master
Yoshida
Eric Rohmer
John Pilger
Joris Ivens
Quay brothers
Alice Guy-Blaché, Queen of the Pioneers
The Best of Wim Wenders
Gaston Kaboré
Greenaway A-Z
~
My favourite list-maker on Mubi is Apursansar, who is extremely knowledgeable and always up on recent films from round the world, and an expert on Latin American, Asian and German films in particular.
Some other lists I’ve done:
Kenji’s Canon: The Big 1000
My 101 Favourite Films
Kenji’s Japanese Canon
Pastel Films
The Labyrinth
The Kenji Awards
The Mubi/Auteurs World Cup Films (thanks to all who helped that groundbreaking event work)
The Welsh Connection
Let there be Light: The Birth of Films
A Rosefinch Sang: the Czechoslovakian New Wave
19th Century Britain
Essential Films by Women
Portugal, Land of my Dreams
A Library of Film Books
Essential French Films
The Silent Era: 1888-1929
The Best of British
Hidden Treasures
Mali
Under the Spell of Shahrzade in the Realms of Silk and Spice
Favourite Short Films
Tumbleweed and Tomahawks
The Caucasus
Spain: Mystery, Passion, Life
Canada: A Collection of Contraband Curiosities
An Exquisite Soirée at Baron Kenjitski’s Magnificent Chateau
Romanticism
Great Cinematographers
Four Seasons: Autumn
Painters and Films
Mental Illness
Notable Films by Black Directors
Essential African Films
Essential Hungarian Films
Poland
Kazakhstan
Nepal
Belgium
They Do Not Exist: Palestine
Lesotho
Double Bills