As requested by @
Citizen Rules here is a list of my favourite films. I tried to organise it but I know it's wrong or messy in places. Probably forgot quite a few favourites. Most directors mentioned on this list I find myself enjoying the majority of their films.
It might be pretentious but at least it's varied (I think)
1910s
A Man There Was (Victor Sjostrom, 1917)
Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, 1916)
1920s
3 Bad Men (John Ford, 1926)
Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920)
The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
The General (Buster Keaton, 1926)
The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1925)
Greed (Eric von Stronheim, 1924)
Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Nanook of the North (Robert J. Flaherty, 1922)
Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928)
Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1928)
Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
Underworld (Josef von Sternberg, 1927)
1930s
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
La Bete Humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938)
The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)
The Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau, 1932)
Ceiling Zero (Howard Hawks, 1936)
City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932)
Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937)
King Kong (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
The Rules of the Games (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Scarface (Howard Hawks, 1932)
Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
A Star is Born (William A. Wellmen, 1937)
Steamboat 'Round the Bend (John Ford, 1935)
Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)
Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, 1939)
1940s
At Land (Maya Deren, 1944)
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
The Best Years of Our Live (William Wyler, 1946)
Black Narcissus (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1947)
Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945)
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1943)
Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, 1945)
The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin, 1940)
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940)
How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941)
I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)
Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949)
Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944)
Letter from an Unkown Woman (Max Ophuls, 1948)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945)
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin, 1947)
My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946)
Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946)
Pursued (Raoul Walsh, 1947)
The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949)
Spring in a Small Town (Mu Fei, 1948)
1950s
An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey, 1957)
Anatomy of a Murderer (Otto Preminger, 1959)
The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
Bigger than life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)
Day of the Outlaw (Andre de Toth, 1959)
Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959)
In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)
Late Chrysanthemums (Mikio Naruse, 1954)
The Long Gray Line (John Ford, 1955)
A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)
The Man from Laramie (Anthony Mann, 1955)
Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
The Naked Spur (Anthony Mann, 1953)
Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1956)
Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)
North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)
Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1950)
The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, 1952)
Some Came Running (Vincente Minnelli, 1958)
Stalag 17 (Billy Wilder, 1953)
The Sun Shines Bright (John Ford, 1953)
The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956)
Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
Ugetsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Wichita (Jacques Tourneur, 1955)
Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950)
Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1956)
1960s
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her... (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
7 Women (John Ford, 1966)
8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
An Autumn Afternoon (Yasujiro Ozu, 1962)
L'Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
Belle de Jour (Luis Bunuel, 1967)
Blow-up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969)
La Chinoise (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1962)
Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
A Countess from Hong Kong (Charlie Chaplin, 1967)
La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)
L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962)
El Dorado (Howard Hawks, 1967)
Eyes without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)
High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
Ivan's Childhood (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)
La Jetee (Chris Marker, 1962)
Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961)
Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962)
Leon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
Pierrot Le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
PlayTime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1990)
Purple Noon (Rene Clement, 1960)
Testament of Orpheus (Jean Cocteau, 1960)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)
Vivre Sa Vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
Weekend (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
Woman in Chains (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1968)
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (Mikio Naruse, 1960)
A Woman is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961)
1970s
Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
Autumn Sonata (Ingmar Bergman, 1978)
Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)
Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972)
Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
Un Flic (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972)
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
Images (Robert Altman, 1972)
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1978)
The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)
Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
Mr. Klein (Joseph Losey, 1976)
Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977)
The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)
A Woman Under The Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
1980s
Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981)
Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer, 1986)
Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer, 1983)
Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)
Starman (John Carpenter, 1984)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
1990s
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995)
The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 1998)
Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)
Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma, 1993)
Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995)
eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997)
Oh, Woe is Me (Jean-Luc Godard, 1993)
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992)
2000s
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004)
Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch, 2005)
Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch, 2003)
Hidden (Michael Haneke, 2005)
The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006)
In The Mood For Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)
Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2006)
The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch, 2009)
Memories of Murder (Bong Joon-ho, 2003)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, 2000)
2010s
Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019)
Ash is Purest White (Jia Zhangke, 2018)
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)
The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies, 2011)
Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016)
The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)
The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard, 2018)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, 2013)
Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015)
The Lost City of Z (James Gray, 2016)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013)
The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles, 2018)
Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Rango (Gore Verbinski, 2011)
The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, 2019)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010)
Edit: I am already annoyed by how many great films I forgot, only two Coen Brothers when I love a lot more, same with Paul Thomas Anderson. I think on the older films it's pretty extensive though. Maybe one day I'll polish it up and post a full list in a thread with some more detail