Some directors are famous for a single picture; these ten are famous for a way of working. Match the name to the films.
Film is a collaborative medium in which one job title carries most of the public credit. The director does not usually write the script, operate the camera or cut the picture, but the choices that make a film feel like itself — where the camera sits, how long a shot is held, what the actors are encouraged to do — mostly run through that one role. The directors here span seven decades and several continents, and each is attached to films you are likely to have seen or heard argued about. The explanations note what each is actually known for, which is often narrower than their reputation suggests.
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
Play it insteadAnswer: D. Alfred Hitchcock
Why: Hitchcock directed all three within six years in the 1950s. He was nominated five times for Best Director and never won.
Answer: C. Orson Welles
Why: Welles co-wrote, directed and starred in it at 25. It topped the Sight and Sound critics poll for fifty years.
Answer: B. Akira Kurosawa
Why: Seven Samurai was remade in Hollywood as The Magnificent Seven. Rashomon gave English the phrase "the Rashomon effect".
Answer: A. Francis Ford Coppola
Why: Coppola was 32 and nearly replaced during filming. He adapted the novel with its author, Mario Puzo.
Answer: D. Quentin Tarantino
Why: Pulp Fiction won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1994. Tarantino shares its story credit with Roger Avary.
Answer: C. Ridley Scott
Why: Scott made both within three years. James Cameron directed the sequel, Aliens, in a markedly different style.
Answer: B. Sergio Leone
Why: Leone shot most of them in southern Spain rather than Italy or America. Ennio Morricone scored them.
Answer: A. Bong Joon-ho
Why: It won four Academy Awards in 2020, including Best Director. It had already taken the Palme d'Or.
Answer: D. Spike Lee
Why: Lee has centred most of his work on Black American life, much of it in Brooklyn. He received an honorary Oscar in 2016.
Answer: C. Peter Jackson
Why: Jackson shot all three films in New Zealand back to back. The Return of the King won all eleven awards it was nominated for.
Harmony is not a matter of taste alone. Simple ratios, overtones, and the compromise hiding inside every piano.
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