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Masters on masters: A list of the classic films that have shaped the visions of cinema's most acclaimed directors
Villeneuve has called Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece a "formative experience." The film's ambitious themes, visual minimalism, and groundbreaking special effects deeply influenced his approach to science fiction. You can see this influence in his own films like Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and especially Dune.
This film, loosely inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, was a deeply personal and difficult project for Coppola. He has said that the film was influenced by Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, especially in its exploration of themes of madness and moral decay in a remote setting.
Spielberg has called this film "the film that set me on my journey." He was deeply inspired by its epic scale, stunning desert cinematography, and its ability to tell a vast story with an intimate, personal core. The film's influence can be seen in the sweeping scope of his own works, from Jaws to Saving Private Ryan.
Kubrick included this Federico Fellini film on his list of all-time favorites. He once said that Fellini was one of the "only three filmmakers in the world who are not just artistic opportunists." The film's exploration of post-war Italian youth and its satirical tone were deeply admired by Kubrick.
Scorsese has cited John Ford's Western masterpiece as one of the most influential films on his work. The character of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver was heavily influenced by the isolated, obsessive nature of Ethan Edwards, portrayed by John Wayne.
Hitchcock was profoundly influenced by the German Expressionist movement, and this film is its masterpiece. The film's use of bizarre, distorted sets, stark lighting, and psychological suspense had a direct impact on Hitchcock's visual style and his ability to create a sense of unease and paranoia in his early British thrillers like The Lodger.
Kurosawa once said, "I study John Ford." He was particularly inspired by the deep humanism, epic landscapes, and moral complexity found in Ford's Westerns. The classic American Western, exemplified by this film, had a direct and profound influence on Kurosawa's own samurai films, most famously Seven Samurai.
Nolan has called this film a "formative cinema experience" from when he was a child. Its visual storytelling, exploration of themes like fatherhood in space, and mind-bending journey through time are apparent influences on his film Interstellar.
The famously iconoclastic Herzog has said that an old Fu Manchu movie was the first film he ever saw and that it inspired him to become a filmmaker. He has often spoken about how seeing that film convinced him that he could create his own cinematic universe, and he went on to craft a unique, raw, and often dangerous brand of filmmaking.
Quentin Tarantino has openly acknowledged that this Hong Kong crime thriller was the primary inspiration for his debut film, Reservoir Dogs. He borrowed the core premise of a crime crew with an undercover cop in their midst, though he made the plot his own by using a non-chronological structure.
Del Toro has often cited this classic monster movie as a key inspiration. He felt a deep empathy for the Gill-man and, as a child, wanted the monster and the human character to fall in love. This desire eventually led to his Oscar-winning film, The Shape of Water.
Coppola was deeply influenced by Werner Herzog's intense film about a madman's quest down the Amazon River. The film's feverish, hallucinatory feel and its exploration of themes of madness and hubris were a key inspiration for Coppola's own chaotic and surreal war epic, Apocalypse Now.
While writing There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson watched this film by John Huston every night. He called it the key to "the way to make movies, live your life, get along, everything," and its exploration of greed and moral corruption became the central theme of his own masterpiece.
Anderson's affection for the Indian director Satyajit Ray is very clear in his film The Darjeeling Limited. He has said that "Ray's movies are what made me want to go to India in the first place." The final scene of The Darjeeling Limited directly mimics a famous train chase from this film.