My Pantheon

On the final day of my first graduate course in film, my professor was trying to tie up some loose ends, relaying information about the upcoming final exam, when he was dragged into a discussion of his favorite directors. What started as a simple question soon blossomed into a spirited debate. Initially, the professor refused to list any names so a guessing game ensued. When a correct name entered the air, he would simply nod his head, confirming their place among the greats. Of course, a few were givens but as the list grew, the dissenting voices increased:

“Him…really?”

“Wait, no Hitchcock…Are you telling me Hitchcock isn’t on your list. That’s insane.”

As our guesses became more infrequent, my professor eventually filled in the missing names in what he entitled his “Pantheon” of great directors. This list of 15 directors weren’t necessarily the directors he considered to be the best, but they represented his personal favorites. For my initial post, I could think of nothing more appropriate than presenting my own Pantheon. I’ve stuck with the fifteen slots, but I decided to divide the list into two sections. The first section includes the directors who are firmly enshrined in my Pantheon. In the second section, I have allocated five spots for directors I consider to be “Pantheon” material, but whose careers are still in their infancy.

MY PANTHEON

Perennial Members

1. Alfred Hitchcock
2. Ingmar Bergman
3. Francois Truffaut
4. Woody Allen
5. The Coen Brothers
6. Martin Scorsese
7. Stanley Kubrick
8. Jean-Luc Godard
9. David Lynch
10. David Fincher

Up-and-Comers

1. Wes Anderson
2. Sam Mendes
3. P.T. Anderson
4. Alexander Payne
5. Todd Field


(revision 7-11-09)

Interested parties can check out an article written by the professor mentioned above here.

And here is his Pantheon list:

David Lynch
Martin Scorsese
Alain Resnais
Luchino Visconti
Orson Welles
Robert Altman
Richard Meyers
F.W. Murnau
Ingmar Bergman
Atom Egoyan
Federico Fellini
Sergei Eisenstein
Stanley Kubrick
Terrence Malick
Luis Bunuel