Survey of Filmmakers: Top 25 Directors
Tallied by Rick Curnutte, Editor
In tandem with our announcement of this publication's new focus upon auteurist writing, we present this unscientific "survey of taste". The results are listed below, in order of total votes tallied. As we told the participants, this is hardly meant to be a definitive poll, as such a thing would be impossible and, ultimately, self-righteous. Rather, this poll serves as a snapshot of this moment from our gracious participants. The survey of filmmakers will remain in constant flux as we receive more and more ballots (a list of contributors will be posted soon). We hope you enjoy the results or, at the very least, find them interesting. Next issue we will present another poll: an updated poll inspired by Andrew Sarris' groundbreaking and auteurist-defining publication, The American Cinema - the Editors
Rank |
|
Director |
|
|
|
|
1. |
|
Alfred Hitchcock |
|
|
|
|
2. |
|
Orson Welles |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
3. |
|
Howard Hawks |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
4. |
|
Jean Renoir |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Robert Bresson |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Stanley Kubrick |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
5. |
|
John Ford |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
6. |
|
Jean-Luc Godard |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Yasujiro Ozu |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
7. |
|
Buster Keaton |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Martin Scorsese |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
8. |
|
Akira Kurosawa |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Carl Theodor Dreyer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Cassavetes |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Kenji Mizoguchi |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
9. |
|
F.W. Murnau |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
10. |
|
Fritz Lang |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Luis Buñuel |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Robert Altman |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Roberto Rossellini |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
11. |
|
Nicholas Ray |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
12. |
|
Alain Resnais |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ernst Lubitsch |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ingmar Bergman |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jacques Rivette |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jacques Tati |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Sergio Leone |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
13. |
|
Abbas Kiarostami |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Andrei Tarkovsky |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Charles Chaplin |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
D.W. Griffith |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Federico Fellini |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jacques Tourneur |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Josef Von Sternberg |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Max Ophuls |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Michelangelo Antonioni |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
14. |
|
Billy Wilder |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
David Lynch |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Otto Preminger |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Preston Sturges |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Rainer Werner Fassbinder |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Sergei Eisenstein |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Steven Spielberg |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Vincente Minnelli |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
15. |
|
Chris Marker |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Clint Eastwood |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
David Cronenberg |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Douglas Sirk |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Francois Truffaut |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hayao Miyazaki |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hou Hsiao-hsien |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jacques Demy |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jean Vigo |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Krzysztof Kieslowski |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Sam Peckinpah |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Samuel Fuller |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Wong Kar-Wai |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
16. |
|
Alexander Dovzhenko |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Andy Warhol |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Chuck Jones |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Dziga Vertov |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jerry Lewis |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Joel & Ethan Coen |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Mikio Naruse |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Nagisa Oshima |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Robert Aldrich |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Satyajit Ray |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Shohei Imamura |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Sidney Lumet |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Terry Gilliam |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Werner Herzog |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Woody Allen |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
17. |
|
Abel Ferrara |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Agnes Varda |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Andre De Toth |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Bob Fosse |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Brian De Palma |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Chantal Akerman |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Charles Walters |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
David Fincher |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Eric Rohmer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Erich von Stroheim |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Francis Ford Coppola |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Frank Borzage |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
George Cukor |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Glauber Rocha |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Isao Takahata |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Carpenter |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Leo McCarey |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Louis Feuillade |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Michael Cimino |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Michael Mann |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Michael Snow |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Mike Nichols |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Oliver Stone |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Peter Jackson |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Quentin Tarantino |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Raoul Walsh |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Roman Polanski |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Terrence Malick |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Zhang Yimou |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
18. |
|
Alejandro Jodorowsky |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Anthony Mann |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Blake Edwards |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Budd Boetticher |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Charles Laughton |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Claude Chabrol |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Danny Boyle |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
David Lean |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Don Siegel |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Elia Kazan |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Frederick Wiseman |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
George Romero |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hal Ashby |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hirokazu Kore-eda |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
James Whale |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jane Campion |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jean Eustache |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jean-Marie Straub & Danielle Huillet |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Frankenheimer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jonathan Demme |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
King Vidor |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Kiyoshi Kurosawa |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Lars von Trier |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Luchino Visconti |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
M. Night Shyamalan |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Manoel de Oliveira |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Marco Ferreri |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Marguerite Duras |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Mario Bava |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Maurice Pialat |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Maysles Bros. |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Mel Brooks |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Michael Powell |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Milos Forman |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Mitchell Leisen |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Olivier Assayas |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ousmane Sembene |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Paul Thomas Anderson |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Peter Weir |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Rene Clair |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Richard Linklater |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ridley Scott |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Sadao Yamanaka |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Seijun Suzuki |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Sergei Paradjanov |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Stanley Donen |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Stanley Kramer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Steven Soderbergh |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Theo Angelopoulos |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Tim Burton |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Todd Haynes |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Tsai Ming-Liang |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Wes Anderson |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
William Friedkin |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
19. |
|
Alan Clarke |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Alan Parker |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Alexander Sokurov |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Allan Dwan |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Allan Moyle |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Andrew Repasky McElhinney |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Anne-Marie Miéville |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Arthur Dong |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Atom Egoyan |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Bahman Ghobadi |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Baz Luhrman |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Bernardo Bertolucci |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Bill Forsyth |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Bruce Baillie |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Bruce Beresford |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Bruce Conner |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Cameron Crowe |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Carol Reed |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Catherine Breillat |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Cecil B. DeMille |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Charles Burnett |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Claire Denis |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Clarence Brown |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Curtis Hanson |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
David Butler |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
David Mamet |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
David O. Russell |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Dmitri Kirsanoff |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Dusan Makavejev |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Edgar G. Ulmer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Elaine May |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Emile de Antonio |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Erica Jordan |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ermanno Olmi |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ernie Gehr |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Francesco Rosi |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Frank Capra |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Frank Tashlin |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Fred Astaire |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Fred Schepisi |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Fred Zinnemann |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Frederic Back |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Frederico Fellini |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Georges Méliès |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Gerardo de Leon |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Gerd Oswald |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Gillian Armstrong |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Gillo Pontecorvo |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Gordon Douglas |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Gregory Markopoulos |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Grigori Kozintsev |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Guillermo del Toro |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Guru Dutt |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hal Hartley |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Harold Prince |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Henris-Georges Clouzot |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Henry King |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Herk Harvey |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hiroshi Shimizu |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hiroyuki Imaishi |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hiroyuki Kitakubo |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hiroyuki Okiura |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Hong Sang-soo |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ichikawa Kon |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ida Lupino |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ish Klein |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
István Szabó |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jack Smith |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jacques Becker |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jan Svankmajer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jean Cocteau |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jean Rouch |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jean-Jacques Beineix |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jerzy Skolimowski |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Jim Jarmusch |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Joe Dante |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Joel Coen |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Johan van der Keuken |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Boorman |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John G. Avildsen |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Howard Davies |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Huston |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Landis |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John M. Stahl |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Milius |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
John Sayles |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Joseph Cornell |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Joseph Losey |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Joseph Mankiewicz |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Julie Taymor |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Katsuhiro Ôtomo |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Larry Cohen |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Leni Riefenstahl |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Lewis Milestone |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Liliana Cavani |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Lina Wertmüller |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Lino Brocka |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Lloyd Bacon |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Luc Moullet |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Lucio Fulci |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Lynne Stopkewich |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Mamoru Oshî |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Marcel Carne |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Mario O'Hara |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
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Martin Sulík |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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Maya Deren |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
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Michael Winner |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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Michel Deville |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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Mike Leigh |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Miklos Jancso |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Monte Hellman |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Morten Henriksen |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Norman Mailer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Norman Z. McLeod |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Patrice Chereau |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Paul Sharits |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Peter Bogdanovich |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Peter Greenaway |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Peter Watkins |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Philippe Garrel |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Pier Paolo Pasolini |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Raul Ruiz |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Raymond Longford |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Rebecca Miller |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Richard Donner |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Richard Fleischer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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Richard Lester |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Rintaro |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Ritwik Ghatak |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Robert J. Flaherty |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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Robert Mulligan |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
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|
Robert Stevenson |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Robert Youngson |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Robert Zemeckis |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Rogério Sganzerla |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Rouben Mamoulian |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Roy Boulting |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Roy Ward Baker |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Russ Meyer |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Sam Mendes |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Sam Raimi |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Spencer Williams |
|
IMDB |
|
TSPDT |
|
|
Stan Brakhage |
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| |
