Cinema is rich with sensory delight: color gradients and aural landscapes define every film that's ever been created since the dawn of the medium. That said, relatively few movies (and by extension, their directors) verge on true brilliance when it comes to their stories and the styles in which they unfold.

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Great filmmakers have honed their craft to near-perfection. As such, their creations tend to renounce formulaic scripts and clichéd concepts. The breadth of skill they possess has helped reimagined the artform itself on multiple occasions, explaining why their movies are recognizable through their vision and visual design alone.

10 Mira Nair Utilizes Artistic Spontaneity To Separate The Truth From The Fluff

Salaam Bombay — Mira Nair

Mira Nair's movies reflect her past as a documentary maker, incorporating a wide (and saturated) palette in the impassioned defense of her beloved characters. She covers topics from immigration and poverty to cross-cultural differences, as seen in Salaam Bombay! (1988), Monsoon Wedding (2001), and Mississippi Masala (1991).

Nair is a staunch proponent of cinéma vérité, an art style that utilizes directorial and cinematographic spontaneity in order to separate the truth from the fluff. Although her adaptation of Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy received a few critical complaints, the 2020 TV miniseries maintains the power of her voice.

9 Terrence Malick's Camera Isn't Anchored To A Fixed Point In Space

The Tree of Life — Malick

Terrence Malick has garnered a horde of devoted fans over the years. However, nearly as many detractors denounce his style as nothing more than pretentiously ambiguous. Badlands (1973) is as meandering and abstract as Tree of Life (2011). They're separated by nearly forty years but are still connected through their director's unwavering poetic vision.

Malick ensures that his camera, as an extension of the viewer's eye, isn't anchored to any particular point. Instead, he allows it to freely scan each scene, making it seem like it's levitating.

8 David Lynch's Atmospheric Haziness Feels Almost Hallucinatory

Two women looking up in Mulholland Drive.

Dennis Lim writes that "the paradox of the Lynchian sensibility is that it is at once easy to recognize and hard to define" - an expression of surreal disbelief that characterizes David Lynch's oeuvre perfectly. The atmospheres of his stories are hazy at best, almost as if they take place in a hallucination or a fever dream.

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Lynch inserts his small-town experiences into his movies, adding an ethereal dash of darkness that transforms them into works of art that neither critics nor audiences can successfully describe. His Mulholland Drive (2001) has been voted the best film of the 21st century by nearly 200 critics.

7 Ava DuVernay's Movies Evoke Similar Reactions From Their Audience

A Wrinkle in Time

Ava DuVernay confronts the visualization of the African-American experience in cinema, subverting traditional expectations by inducing a sense of undisguised empathy for her characters.

Her brand of filmmaking involves several commonalities across the board: clear-cut representations of Black identity highlighted with carefully designed lighting. DuVernay's Selma (2015) is a feature film, while 13th (2016) is a documentary, but both of them evoke similar reactions from viewers.

6 Sergio Leone Juxtaposes Wide-Angle Shots With Extreme Close-Ups

Blondie in The Dollars Trilogy

The master of the Spaghetti Western, Sergio Leone's claim to fame is the Dollars Trilogy, a set of films starring Clint Eastwood as the iconic Man with No Name (also known as Blondie). His approach to the craft is incredible, stacking mood and tension with a finesse that few other directors are capable of.

Leone juxtaposes wide-angle shots of the environment with extreme close-ups of characters' faces, expanding and contracting the audience's perspective to suit the narrative flow. Further, composer Ennio Morricone's idiosyncratic genius plays an undeniably recognizable role in Leone's films.

5 Woody Allen Blends Arthouse Cinema With Abstract Comedy

Diane Keaton and Woodie Allen in Annie Hall

Woody Allen borrows elements from arthouse directors like Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, and Akira Kurosawa, blending them into a style of comedy reminiscent of the Marx Brothers'. His movies rarely follow a straight path, weaving implausibly abstract plotlines with cinematographic ingenuity.

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In fact, Allen insisted that comedy's "status as cinematographic artifact" wasn't given the attention it deserved, explaining why he chose to go down that particularly cumbersome road. Nevertheless, it paid off, making him one of the most visually intricate filmmakers in the industry.

4 Tim Burton's Disproportionate Shapes And Gothic Elements Are Instantly Recognizable

Sweeney's Razor

Tim Burton's filmography ranges from bizarre examples like Beetlejuice (1988) and Edward Scissorhands (1990) to delightfully gruesome meta-comedies like Mars Attacks! (1996). He's also made Batman (1989) and Big Fish (2003), proving himself to be a visionary director.

Burton's cinematic techniques are both versatile and experimental, and his fascination for the macabre is instantly evident to anyone who's watched at least one of his popular movies. Burton distorts his viewers' perspectives with weirdly disproportionate shapes and forms, embedding a flair for the Gothic in nearly everything he makes.

3 The Coen Brothers Are Known For Their Hands-On Approach Towards Filmmaking

Fargo kneeling in the snow next to a body

The Coen Brothers are known for their hands-on attitude towards filmmaking, which includes writing all their scripts (adapted or otherwise). The realistic ambiance used in their movies is occasionally punctuated with moments of golden-tinted nostalgia, a combination that works spectacularly in their favor.

What cannot be underestimated, however, is the impact of Roger Deakins (the Director of Photography for twelve of their films). This unbreakable alliance between cinematography and direction is why the Coens' visual architecture is so distinctive, whether in Barton Fink (1991) or Hail, Caesar! (2016).

2 Taika Waititi Incorporates New Zealand And Its Culture Into His Work

Taika Waititi - What We Do in Shadows

Director Taika Waititi is from New Zealand, and he makes sure his audience knows it. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) and What We Do in the Shadows (2014) relay completely different viewpoints about the country.

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Taika also memorializes his cultural background in his other directorial ventures, notably Jojo Rabbit (2019), where he plays Hitler with a German-New Zealand accent, and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), in which he "based Korg's voice on Polynesian bouncers." Taika's comedies are no less memorable than his blockbusters.

1 Wes Anderson's Movies Are Lush, Radiant, And Painted In Delicious Pastel

Wes Anderson The Grand Budapest Hotel Ralph Fiennes Saoirse Ronan

Wes Anderson's movies are lush, radiant, and painted in a delicious array of pastel shades that only he can envision. The director's style is consistent and inimitable, although it must be noted that his usual choice of cast (Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, and Adrien Brody) are equally responsible for maintaining the Wes Anderson aesthetic.

He implements slow-motion and stop-motion with remarkable attention to visual symmetry, making them conspicuous features of his movies. Isle of Dogs (2018) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) appear different on the surface, but they share Anderson's wildly beating heart.

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