21. Jean-Pierre Melville
Jean-Pierre Melville bridged the gap in French cinema between Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson, and the French New Wave of the 1960's over which he had a large influence. After participating in World War Two, Melville applied for a job as an assistant director but he was refused. Instead, he simply decided to make his own movies and when they turned out really well, such as his 1956 classic Bob Le Flambeur, he became a role model for many aspiring directors in France such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut who realized that you could make a high-quality movie on a tiny budget, without famous actors, and with near total artistic independence. Even after Godard, Truffaut, and Resnais turned the film world upside down with the French New Wave, Melville continued to be a leading figure in French film, making several more classics including Le Samourai, Army of Shadows Le Cercle Rouge among others. Melville is most famous for his gangster movies which, in contrast to most of the American takes on the genre, were highly existential and uncompromising. His films were very experimental,although they were not as avant garde as many of the films of the New Wave, non-naturalistic, and stylized. Although extremely influential, Melville's films are rarely considered on the level of the many other directors of his era, although still definitely acclaimed. He is seen to be more important for his impact on the history of film than for his actual filmography. Even so, he is definitely important enough to place in the top twenty European directors of all time.