10 Most Influential Directors Of All Time

1. Orson Welles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQCnrPr3qIA Orson Welles has revolutionized the medium of cinema in more ways than any filmmaker who has ever lived. An obvious starting place is his very first film Citizen Kane which he directed, wrote and starred in. There is film before and after Citizen Kane. He changed cinema so much with just his debut that it has widely been considered the greatest film of all time for close to 70 years now. Every significant movie made after Kane bears resemblance to it in some way and the techniques that Welles employed have been mimicked to such a degree that they have ceased to be trademarks of Welles' directorial style. They are now just popular tools that everybody takes advantage of with their own filmmaking. The Godfather and There Will Be Blood are two films that feature heavy influence from Orson Welles. They both feature strong, charismatic leading men but also have an undercurrent of corruption and violence that is completely evident in movies like Touch of Evil and Citizen Kane. Highly Prominent directors like Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson and Francis Ford Coppola, who deal with themes of male angst and religious guilt, are directly inspired by Orson Welles. Thanks so much for reading and I'd love to hear any directors who think should have made the list.