4. Francois Truffaut, The 400 Blows
Director Francois Truffaut's career began as a film critic in his native France. He once wrote an article about the dire straits that the French film scene was in, so in 1959, he decided to rectify the problem by making his own film. The 400 Blows, his directorial debut, is considered by many to be the best film France has ever produced and is still to this day a staple in every film school study curriculum. This semi autobiographical story about a young boy's struggles with family, school and everyday life set a high benchmark in Truffaut's career very early on. Directing in a style that was extremely naturalistic, Truffaut creates the film in simple vignettes of lead character Antoine Doinel's life. He embraced an improv style with his young star (Jean-Pierre Leaud), something that he would be successful with many more times in his career. What makes The 400 Blows such a great film is that it held no punches in depicting the sometimes difficult way for a child to grow up, if there isn't love, guidance and structure surrounding them, and it was a passionate statement from an equally passionate voice. Truffaut went on to begin the French New Wave of film-making with his debut, and created an anthology of films surrounding the Doinel character later in his film work. Truffaut continued a wonderful career as an Oscar winning film-maker until his untimely death in 1984.