The Results of an Innocuous Twitter Question

Last night I asked a simple question on Twitter.

Name a director whose entire filmography is worth watching, good, bad and everything in between.

— Joanna (@cinefille) December 3, 2011

I did not expect for my feed to immediately start blowing up. It was as if Twitter suddenly realized that I’m a long lost Kardashian relation. 31 people responded with more than 65 directors whose body of work they would recommend.

Below are some of my favorite responses to the question. I also created a Storify page that has all the answers (I hope), which you can check out here.

@cinefille Malick definitely, but you could argue the case for many, many more really.

— DotStarss (@dotstarss) December 3, 2011

@cinefille has nobody said Anthony Minghella yet?! c'mon dudes, where's your HEART!?

— Lauren E. Clark (@ClarkaLark) December 3, 2011

@cinefille Kieślowski, Herzog, Haneke, Malick; all flawless bodies of work

— Alex Withrow (@shiftingPersona) December 3, 2011

@cinefille Ed Wood. There is much to glean from his films. Like what not to do. But they are also very entertaining.

— Joe (@chiaczar) December 3, 2011

@cinefille Could've named more, but didn't want to bomb your feed, hehe! Also, Atom Egoyan & David Cronenberg for some Canadian variety! :)

— Nicholas Gibson (@nixskits) December 3, 2011

@cinefille Jim Jarmusch, Michael Powell, Kathryn Bigelow, Kelly Reichardt, Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese

— Hugh Lilly (@insequential) December 3, 2011

And here are some stats:

In total, 65 directors were recommended by 31 Tweeps
Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock, and Werner Herzog were the most popular recommendations with four votes each.
Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick received three votes.
Joel and Ethan Coen, Quentin Tarantino, Fritz Lang, Sidney Lumet, Brian de Palma, Christopher Nolan and David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson all received two votes.
Only four female directors were recommended by just two Tweeps: Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Kelly Reichardt, and Kathryn Bigelow.
Directors I was glad to see mentioned: Jane Campion, Kelly Reichardt, Atom Egoyan, John Hughes, Michael Cimino, and Krzysztof Kieślowski.
Directors I was surprised not see mentioned: Pedro Almodovar, Jean Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergmann, Federico Fellini, and John Huston… to name a few.
Directors I thought would get more votes: Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg
My five recommendations: Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodovar, Werner Herzog, Jane Campion and Ramin Bahrani.