10 Most Insanely Perfectionist Film Directors

Roy Andersson is a Swedish director who has a strong cult following and his recent film ‘A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence’ (not quite as catchy as ‘Speed’, I know) has earned him even more acclaim. 

His films are fascinating and understated. His shots are almost exclusively static and haunting, his sets done up like carefully laid out paintings. Where other directors seek to thrill with dynamism and wild camera movements, Andersson excites us with long, eerie shots that have you picking out every detail in the landscape as the psyche of various characters disentangle into the still scene.

 Anderson composes each of his scenes like a Renaissance painting and prefers to work entirely with amateur actors who he feels give an authentic performance. His films are some of the most uncompromising art you can imagine, totally dictated by a strange and fascinating sensibility, with no surrender to commercialism. 

And how did this anti-consumerist artistic renegade make the money to make these films? Why a decades long career in advertising that’s how!