These are MY FAVORITE directors of each decade from what I've seen at this point. I haven't seen enough to give a reliable, objective analysis, so I'm keeping it very subjective. Unfortunately some of my favorite directors don't appear because they never truly dominated a decade...
1930s: Charlie Chaplin
City Lights and
Modern Times are my two favorite films of this decade, so this wasn't a hard choice for me.
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1940s: Billy Wilder
This one wasn't easy.
Hitchcock,
Wilder and
Huston all made some great films during this decade. I ultimately went with Wilder because I just LOVE
The Lost Weekend and
Double Indemnity. The other two had more quantity, but I went with quality. I think
Welles might beat him, but I still have to see some of his '40s work that is not called
Citizen Kane.
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1950s: Alfred Hitchcock
Do I really have to explain this one? Just look at all of his films that came out during the '50s. It's insane.
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1960s: Stanley Kubrick
His four '60s films are enough. Two of them are among my absolute favorites.
Fellini is a big contender, though.
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1970s: Robert Altman
MASH,
Nashville,
3 Women,
The Long Goodbye,
McCabe & Mrs. Miller, etc. The films pretty much speak for themselves.
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1980s: Woody Allen
After having a great decade in the '70s, Woody absolutely nailed it in the '80s (especially the later half).
Scorsese is his biggest opponent.
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1990s: The Coen Brothers
(Joel Coen)
PTA,
Tarantino,
Scorsese,
Wong Kar Wai,
Altman and
Allen were also candidates, but the Coens take the win, because they are the best quality- and quantity-wise.
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2000s: The Coen Brothers
(Ethan Coen)
This is probably my least favorite decade of films, although it still contains some very good ones. I let the
Coens have the win again, mainly because of their first two pictures of the decade. The other five didn't hurt either, though. Other candidates were
Tarantino,
Wes Anderson and
Scorsese.
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2010s: Martin Scorsese
Most interesting contemporary directors only made one movie in this decade so far and if not, I haven't seen their most recent work yet. Scorsese made three pictures already though and I liked them all, so he gets the temporary lead. I'm pretty sure he's not going to keep it, though.
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