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Seven into ten: the world's most influential filmmakers

Written by Joel Gregory
Thursday, 14 May 2009 00:00

Or perhaps that should be six, given Antarctica’s apparent lethargy regarding a film industry of its own? This understandable anomaly aside, the places and importance film introduces in our daily lives – and on a global scale – is undeniable. The images projected on the big screen impact lives in numerous ways. They can be enriching, uplifting, depressing, transforming, even defining. Questions of how, why, and for whom the art form has this effect will have answers equally numerous, equally complex, and equally changeable. Yet the keys to both issues are held by the same men: the giants of filmmaking, to whom individuals and industry owe so much. So, to which of our continents’ active representatives are we most indebted?

Hayao Miyazaki

The most renowned creator of Japanese anime films in the world and the one whose work has best transferred to a global audience. A talented artist and animator, director and screenwriter, his beautifully rendered and engaging works have earned him critical and commercial success both domestically and worldwide. That Miyazaki deserves such unprecedented success is hard to deny: his features are, without exception, of an outstandingly high quality, not only stylistically, but in their charm, storytelling sophistication and emotive impact (a sincere and admirable promotion of pacifism and environmentalism only endears one further). A wonderful ambassador for his field, and without rival within it.

Ones to watch: My Neighbor Totoro; Spirited Away; Howl’s Moving Castle

Ousmane Sembène

Although clearly a breach of “the rules” as he died almost two years ago, to omit Sembène from this list would seem a greater transgression, for no African filmmaker has before or since exerted the influence of this Senegalese. It is not solely through this medium that it has been felt, for prior to his engagement with movies, he was a novelist of great acclaim. Yet, he transferred his talents thus precisely to enlighten and inspire: “How do you speak to a people? Through cinema,” he said of the decision. His award-winning feature debut was the first ever released by a sub-Saharan African director, and later films received even greater critical reception. Not only through the quality and content of his individual creations, but also in their raising the profile of African cinema, Sembène’s goal to touch and inform was more than achieved.

Ones to watch: La Noire de…; Xala; Moolaadé

Steven Spielberg

Within the world’s most prominent movie industry, there is no more prominent a figure. A name now synonymous with big-budget triumphs, even his directorial debut Firelight, shot at age 16 using his father’s camera, turned a profit (a whopping $1, according to the director). Since then, his successes have been somewhat larger, with Jaws, E.T., and Jurassic Park each breaking box-office records, with three Academy Awards and combined box-office gross of close to 4 billion dollars (more than twice that of any other director) being picked up along the way. Yet it is only when this is married to the resounding overall quality of his 45-year body of work that Spielberg’s status truly makes sense. From defining the summer blockbuster to redefining war films through some of the industry’s most iconic images along the way, the filmography is that of one of cinema’s all-time greats.

Ones to watch: Jaws; Schindler’s List; Saving Private Ryan

Martin Scorsese

“Every filmmaker that comes out is influenced by Martin Scorsese.” And if Woody Allen, a man famed for his way with words, can put it so simply, then who are we to disagree? Often described as American cinema’s best proponent of his art, the regard in which he is held could be seen in the injustice felt that he was not acknowledged as such by the Oscar voters until 2006. While the true landmarks in an extraordinary career are those built earlier and with long-time collaborator Robert De Niro, Scorsese’s standard of work has been remarkable throughout, including in this past decade, and hopes are accordingly high for what the future will hold.

Ones to watch: Taxi Driver; Raging Bull; Goodfellas

Fernando Solanas

Although a director and screenwriter of great regard and the recipient of numerous awards as such, it is not for his work from behind the camera that Argentine Solanas has been most influential. Along with fellow filmmaker Octavio Getino, he authored the manifesto “Towards a Third Cinema”, which helped to revolutionize Latin-American cinema and establish its ideals of promoting political activity and rejecting censorship. He strove to give a voice to the region’s film industry and helped form The Liberation Film Group, which, along with like-minded organizations in Bolivia, Brazil and Cuba, gave inspiration and encouragement to aspiring filmmakers in these and other countries. His personal political involvement has also been great, even standing as an Argentine presidential candidate in 2007.

Ones to watch: La Hora de los Hornos; Sur; El viaje

Francis Ford Coppola

Despite the fact that his finest works came three decades and more ago, that his reputation as a filmmaker in the intervening years has fallen, and that his career is often defined by one trilogy and one war epic so troubled in production that the process itself was documented in an award-winning film, Coppola’s name cannot fail to appear on a list such as this, such was the extent of his genius at its zenith. A storyteller of the highest quality, he wrote (or co-wrote) his landmark films and, as a producer, helped to launch the career of another household name, George Lucas, whose commercial success has eclipsed his own. Yet he will, quite rightly, be remembered for those great peaks in a tumultuous career, the height of which few others manage to scale.

Ones to watch: The Godfather; The Godfather Part II; Apocalypse Now

Jean-Luc Godard

A lover of film yet a scathing critic, an admirer and student of American cinema who later abandoned it, a man filled with emotion but whose films seem almost devoid of it. Godard, perhaps French New Wave’s most influential figure, is far from a simple one. Totally devoted to the importance and truth of cinema, he was a visionary who saw the building blocks of films and how (in his mind) they must be properly manipulated. Although his early work shows vibrancy later clouded by political obsessions, his impact on filmmaking is undeniable if perhaps, even still, ahead of its time.

Ones to watch: Les Carabiniers; Pierre le Fou; Deux ou Trois Choses que Je Sais d’Elle

Werner Herzog

That he is famed as much for his volatility and the extreme nature of his filmmaking as the quality of his work is a discredit to Herzog, if an understandable one given the nature of the stories that surround him (notably the public cooking and eating of his own shoe). A writer and director of great ambition, as evidenced by the extreme locales in which most of his filming takes place, and one concerned with the self-destructive and warped nature of mankind. A dark humour permeates his immersive narratives, often centering on myth and legend and, in those pictures where his epic visions come boldly to fruition, some spectacular results are found.

Ones to watch: Fata Morgana; Aguirre, the Wrath of God; The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Peter Jackson

From a $255,000 horror/comedy in which he played two roles and stuffed his own brains back into his head to the second highest grossing film of all-time in just over 15 years, it’s fair to say that Peter Jackson’s star rose quickly. Almost as remarkable is that only two features separate Jackson from his position as a connoisseur of the splatter genre, working with puppets and stop-motion, and the biggest film trilogy in history. His early pictures were largely praised in their own regard and developed a cult following, and the intervening Heavenly Creatures was also released to critical acclaim. Although none of this could prepare one for the feast of awards to follow, Jackson’s immense directorial skill was patent from his earliest work and has not wavered, despite the difficulty and scale of his more recent undertakings.

Ones to watch: Braindead; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; King Kong

Yash Chopra

The Indian film industry is the world’s most prolific, producing almost 1,000 films per year and selling more tickets than any other, and Bollywood by far its largest branch. That Yash Chopra is the most successful producer in Bollywood’s history perhaps says enough of his enormous influence. To say more: he has produced 44 feature films, including several of Indian cinema’s all-time highest grossing, directed 21, heads one the largest production houses in the world and has been named as Bollywood’s most powerful figure for three years running. Outside his home country, he is just as revered, receiving a lifetime membership to BAFTA, the first Indian ever to be honored by the body, and last year was conferred with France’s Legion of Honour.

Ones to watch: Deewar; Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge; Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi