The 20 greatest films from the 20 greatest directors

All his life, he wanted to be a gangster movie director. Influenced by the gritty, rough-and-tumble mean streets where he grew up, Scorsese has cornered the gangster flick market with realistic, vivacious, and viciously cathartic thrillers about everyday dudes being roped into fatal crimes. While picking a best Scorsese movie is like picking a best candy at the movie theater--there are so many sweet options to choose from--we had to go with this epic about gangsters who experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, crafted with explosive music, montages, and cinematography that's the equivalent of cinematic cocaine.

Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey exists in another universe than other science fiction movies. An elliptical waltz through space, the beginning and end of Earth, and the way technology can obliterate the planet as a metaphoric meteor, the film has almost more to say than it shows, which is really saying something. This might be the most visually resplendent film of them all.

My pick for the greatest movie ever made. The Mirror is a window into the life of Andrei Tarkovsky's parents, who lived in the fertile Russian countryside during an era of great tumult. The story on paper is a bore, but if you believe cinema is the ultimate expression of sight and sound, there is no greater display of sight and sound than this philosophical, meditative, and profoundly moving mirror to a bygone life. 

I'll never look at showers the same way again after watching Psycho. When I was 10, my dad showed me this unsettling slice of B-movie pulp, about a serial killer who slices his victims at his wayside motel. Directed by the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, the film laid the bloody blueprint for slashers, modern horror, and my fear of showers to this day. 

Wait, who is this director? While not everyone is familiar with Japan's greatest director, those who have been blessed by Ozu's dramas retain them on their wall of memory like a family postcard. Deeply moving slices of life about families across generations and how those generations clash and intersect, these movies are quietly paced yet speak volumes about the Japanese experience. Tokyo Story is one of the best movies ever made--a gorgeous family scrapbook about the tender memories we hold in our hearts for our family members, set against the rising fumes of industrialism. 

Greatest animated movie ever, period. It's not even a discussion. My Neighbor Totoro takes animation's boundless creative canvas and pushes it even further. When two young sisters move to the countryside with their dad, caring for their mother with cancer, they process their grief through fuzzy monsters and flying cat buses that soar majestically through your imagination. The hand-painted visuals are gorgeous, but the story of young kids dealing with their mother's bout with cancer is what movingly sets this film above the rest.

Jaws opens wide every year at movie theaters, and jaws still hit the floor. Steven Spielberg has plenty of classic contenders for our list, but there's nothing quite like this atmospheric horror flick about a shark terrorizing tourist waters. Seriously, just about every other shark movie since has been chum in the water. Jaws invented the blockbuster with the help of a nifty script, a crafty ensemble of characters, and a tricky use of tension, assuming that with horror movies, it's what can't be seen that's a whole lot scarier than what can.

The emo double feature of the year would be Ingmar Bergman and news footage from Iran. There's not much more out there that can compare to the aching depression of Bergman's oeuvre, filmed in stark black and white, featuring tormented souls who have less color than limestone rock and the most dazzling, depressing cinematography imaginable. His greatest film, The Seventh Seal, is about a stoic traveler who meets death himself, making for a philosophical yet occasionally whimsical dance with death.

The Godfather, The Godfather 2, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation--dude had an Usain Bolt-like run. During the American New Wave, when censors lifted and outside factors like war, racism, paranoia, and hippie intolerance were influencing film, Coppola found a niche in groundbreaking storytelling. The Godfather could have easily just been another mafia family get-together, but what's on screen changed cinema forever, cheffing a full-course spaghetti meal of creative innovations that remains unmatched to this day.

The word "epic" gets thrown around a lot when describing film, but no director deserves such praise quite like David Lean. The screen is almost struggling to contain such a vast image: the sight of eternal desert mirages and endless jungle foliage, backdropped by soaring classical music. David Lean did everything on a giant scale, but his best film, Lawrence of Arabia, about a power-hungry general in the Arabian desert, is grounded in human emotion. A case study in the most dazzling field imaginable (the sparkling sands of Arabia!), Lawrence of Arabia is epic in the most epic sense.

Speaking of epic, Akira Kurosawa's samurai epics are a sight to behold. Inspiring everything from The Searchers to Star Wars, these action flicks are themselves inspired by Shakespeare and folklore, giving them an edge of poetry and character study. The seven samurai protecting an innocent village get some cool fight scenes, to be sure, but it's the characters themselves that stick with you throughout this jaw-dropping, sword-fighting extravaganza.

It's not Fellini's best movie, but it is my desert island movie. A whimsical reminiscence of Fellini's childhood in Italy, Amarcord is bursting with Fellini-esque creations, colorful side characters, childish humor, astute observations about growing up and staying young, and some of the most beautiful images ever to grace the screen. 

I reckon you can't make a list of the best directors without John Ford, son. The man who invented the Western with Stagecoach, Ford turned Monument Valley into an uncanny valley of cinematic monuments. The greatest Western ever made, The Searchers, sees a man try to rescue his kidnapped daughter, caught between the worlds of societal life and one-man-army heroics.

In the space of best directors, no one can hear you scream about our picks. I'm sure not everyone agrees with our list, but there aren't many who can argue with our choice of Ridley Scott, director of Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator. His best film brought the slasher to a different stratosphere, space, with claustrophobic horror tactics that'll have you squirming in your stomach.

Billy Wilder notoriously was fed up with Marilyn Monroe on set, yet the performance speaks for itself. Monroe lights up the screen with ditzy, delirious beauty, while the slapstick comedy around her- surrounding cross-dressing musicians who needed a gig- is utterly perfect. 

Giving new meaning to "till death do us part," this Technicolor daydream sees a war pilot crash-land, get sent to heaven, and escape to see his wife back on Earth. Ethereally romantic and lyrically gorgeous, this is one of those movies that feels like a dream to watch, much like the director's other classics.

We had to include a French New Wave director here, which most would assume would be Jean-Luc Godard. While he has more hits than Truffaut, this film critic-turned-movie director launched the French New Wave with this realistic tale of a boy in Paris. Based on his own experience, the film is bursting with childlike spontaneity, improvisational movie tactics that became incredibly influential, and a grounded story of an everyday tween who, despite his rebellious behavior, stares you in the face with such impassioned drive, you gotta root for this little kid.

Those who aren't familiar with Wong Kar Wai should take notice. Universally considered one of the greatest directors ever, the Hong Kong-based filmmaker has crafted beloved classics like In the Mood for Love and underrated classics like Fallen Angels. Utilizing flashy techniques like montage, slow motion, impeccable set designs, and costumes, this film about gangsters and everyday people in Hong Kong is truly a visceral, unique spectacle.

Most people would include Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel on this list, which are great. But for me, Rushmore is quirky Wes Anderson before the quirk got overbearing. Like Fellini and Jacques Tati, his greatest influences, Anderson's unique style went a little over the top later in his career, but this simple story of an ambitious idiot nerd in high school is pure comedic charm.

A sort of Swiss Army Knife of cinema, Rob Reiner could direct any genre with winning results. Romance in When Harry Met Sally, childhood in Stand by Me, and every genre imaginable in The Princess Bride--Rob Reiner could do it all. With the swashbuckling fairytale romance, The Princess Bride, we got to see a wonderful example of what this director could create.