Auteur.1

For the Auteur's project, you will become the expert in the work of a film director that you like. We will research, analyze, deconstruct, and construct - and watch their films.

Our first step, therefore, is to choose our directors. Here are the rules:

1. No Tarantino. He just remixes other director's work*.

2. No Michael Bay. If you need an explanation, please see your guidance counselor about switching classes.

3. No doubling up. There are plenty of directors to go around.

4. Choose someone with a cohesive body of work and an obvious formalist style. For example, James Cameron (Aliens, Titanic, Avatar) or even Steven Spielberg (Jaws, ET, Schindler’s List) have made some of the century's most remarkable films, but it would be harder to analyze their style than someone with a more articulated and formalist approach like Jean Jeunet (Amelie, City of Lost Children).

Here are some (very imperfect) lists of directors to choose from:

IMDB

Metacritic's Best Directors of the 21st Century

Guardian

AMC

Some interesting (and obvious/commonly studied) choices might include (but are not limited to)

Federico Fellini

Tim Burton

Jean Luc Goddard

François Truffaut

Ingmar Bergman

Fritz Lang

Pedro Almodovar

Alfred Hitchcock

Charlie Chaplin

Buster Keaton

Luis Bunuel

The Cohen Brothers

Andrei Tarkovski

Jacques Tati

David Lynch

However, since most 'best director' lists tend to be freakishly male and white, you might also want to look at:

Spike Lee

John Singleton

Rick Famuyiwa

Mira Nair

Tran Anh Hung

Chen Kaige

Maya Deren

Stephen Chow

Zhang Yimou

Julie Taymor

Wong Kar Wai

Akira Kurosawa

Jane Campion

Bong Joon-ho

Chan-Wook Park

Kidla Tahimik

Satyajit Ray

Juzo Itame

Guillermo Del Toro

Raul Ruiz

Jafar Panahi

Here's a pretty good list that's a little more balanced at IMDB.

*this is a simple and sarcastic response but I also don't want you making a film that you need to ebay 10 gallons of fake blood for.