Despite not being particularly popular at the moment, foreign films have always held a special place in cinema. Freed from the constraints often found in Hollywood, foreign language films tend to take more risks, deal with more complex topics, and often pay more attention to the human element than English language productions. Despite many people being wary of foreign language films because of subtitles, good movies are good movies regardless of what language they're in. The influence of some of the best foreign film directors permeates throughout Hollywood. George Lucas drew on the films of Akira Kurosawa while creating Star Wars, Woody Allen was heavily influenced by the films of Ingmar Bergman, and the examples of other directors inspired by foreign cinema are endless. The following directors not only made great films that have stood the test of time, but they are also incredibly influential on modern films in ways that aren't always acknowledged.
10. Vittorio De Sica
De Sica's legacy is mostly defined by two films that he made in the 1940's with Shoeshine, released in 1946, and Bicycle Thieves which was released in 1948. The rest of his filmography is less prestigious, although still acclaimed. However, those two films were enough to make him one of the world's most respected directors. Bicycle Thieves follows a man who obtains a desperately needed job for which he must use a bicycle, unfortunately on his first day, the bike is stolen and he and his son set out across Rome in search of it. Bicycle Thieves is often mentioned as one of the greatest films ever made and has regularly appeared in Sight and Sounds once a decade poll. Shoeshine deals with two boys who get in trouble with the law by stealing money from a fortune teller in order to buy a horse. Shoeshine was so well received that it was given an honorary award at the Academy Awards, an event that helped create the Best Foreign Language Film Award Both of the films were instrumental in developing Italian neo-realism, which depicted the murky political, moral and economic situation in post-WWII Italy. De Sica's filmography is famous for its inconsistency but his two main films earn him a place on this list.
Defining Films: Shoeshine (1946), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Miracle in Milan (1951), Umberto D. (1952)