Great Masters of World Cinema

Cinema, one of the most captivating medium all over the world, has an illustrious history of more than 100 years. Consequently, there are numerous directors and other film personalities that have contributed to this medium. The following section is an attempt to introduce some of masters of cinema. The list is incomplete.

Vittorio De Sica

Vittorio De Sica (1902 –1974) was a film director and actor who was a major figure in the Italian Neo-realist movement. During a prolific career that spanned 55 years, De Sica directed 35 films and acted in more than 150. The Bicycle Thief is considered to be his masterpiece and rated as one of the best film ever made.

Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa (1910 –1998) was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. In a career that spanned 50 years, Kurosawa directed 30 films. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in film history. In 1989, he was awarded the Academy Award for lifetime achievement. He was first Japanese film director to win international acclaim, with such films as Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), Kagemusha (1980), and Ran (1985), Dreams (1990)

Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman (1918 –2007) was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. He directed over sixty films and documentaries. His major themes dealt with death, illness, betrayal and insanity. Bergman first achieved worldwide success with Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), The Seventh Seal (1957) and Wild Strawberries (1957). The Seventh Seal won aspecial jury prize and was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and Wild Strawberries won numerous awards for Bergman.

Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray (1921 –1992) is regarded as one of the greatest directors of 20th century cinema. He directed thirty-seven films, including feature films, documentaries and short films. Ray’s first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Document at the Cannes film festival. Alongside Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959), the three films form The Apu Trilogy.

Ray’s other important films include Devi, Kanchenjungha , Charulata , Mahanagar, Teen Kanya , Abhijan and Kapurush - Mahapurush. An honorary Oscar was awarded to him weeks before his death, which he received in a gravely ill condition. He died on 23 April 1992. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985. He was awarded the highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna shortly before his death.

Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei Eisenstein (1898 –1948) was a revolutionary Soviet film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October, as well as historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible. But it was mostly his international critical renown which enabled Eisenstein to direct The General Line (Old and New), and then October (Ten Days That Shook The World) as part of a grand tenth anniversary celebration of the October Revolution of 1917.

Krzysztof Kieślowski

Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941 –1996) was an influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors. His early documentaries focused on the everyday lives of city dwellers, workers, and soldiers. Though he was not an overtly political filmmaker, he soon found that attempting to depict Polish life accurately brought him into conflict with the authorities. Kieślowski remains one of Europe’s most influential directors, his works are included in the study of film classes at universities throughout the world.

Roman Raymond Polanski

Roman Raymond Polanski (1933- ) is film director, producer, writer and actor. Polanski’s first feature-length film, Knife in the Water (1962), made in Poland, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His Chinatown (1974) was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, and was a critical and box-office success. The Pianist (2002), based on the real story of World War II Jewish-Polish musician is one of his best films. The film won three Academy Awards including Best Director, the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, and seven French César Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini (1920 –1993), an Italian film director, is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century. Many of his films blended realism with social satire. As a child, Fellini ran away to the circus for a few days and the experiences inspired much of his films. His first international success, La Strada (1954) won an Academy Award as best foreign film and established his wife, Julietta Masina as a star. This grimly realistic, yet poetic film describes the relationship between a brutal circus strongman and a half witted young girl.

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin (1889 –1977) stardom began in 1914. He was a figure of poverty looking undernourished and undersized. He wore a funny hat, a coat too small for him and trousers too large for him. He walked in a shuffling manner with a bamboo walking stick. With his inimitable acting style and peculiar mannerism, he brought laughter and relief to millions of film viewers. Chaplin’s early films include The Kid (1920), A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925) and The Circus (1928). After the arrival of sound films, Chaplin made The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), as well as Modern Times (1936) before he committed to sound. In The Great Dictator (1940) he played two roles, a humble Jewish barber and a tyrant based on the German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (1899 –1980) was an English filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. The Pleasure of Garden (1925) was Hitchcock’s first film. He gained his first success with The Lodger (1926) based on Jack the ripper. Later he emigrated to US and there his film probed more deeply into the psychology of the characters and were longer and complex works. His first US film Rebecca (1940) received the Academy Award for the best picture.

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg, (born 1946- ) is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Spielberg’s early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg’s films, Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Jurassic Park (1993) achieved box office record. Spielberg’s next film, Schindler’s List, was based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a man who risked his life to save 1,100 Jews from the Holocaust.

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick (1928 –1999) was an American director. He became noted for his pictures dealing with serious social themes. Kubrick aroused much controversy with his satire How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). The film is bitter but comic treatment of how the Soviet Union and the United States accidently start a nuclear war. Kubrick’s science fiction story 2001: A space Odyssey (1968) became spectacular for it visual effects. His other major film includes Lolita, Spartacus, A clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket.