my absolute favorite one shot: luigi fulci's "don't torture a duckling" (even with the grotesquely obvious dummy at the end)

genre subversives: david cronenberg (is it horror, or masterfully sculpted cartharsis/melodrama?) john woo (is it action, or the poetry of nostalgia?)

usual suspects: tarkovsky, godard, truffaut, lang, leigh, kurosawa, fellini (8.5 and amacord notwithstanding), and the american contingent (welles,scorsese,coppola,allen,lee)

everyone's favorite whipping boy, but i love him: roberto benigni    

special mention: nothing depresses me more than seeing what a forgotten master satyajit ray has become. his 'apu trilogy' ranks as one of the ten greatest achievements in film, and several of his other films [such as 'devi,' 'charulata,' and 'the home and the world'] were merely masterpieces that would have been peaks for other directors. although he adapted from plays, novels, and novellas, his movies were pure cinema. as i prepare to make my first movie, i watch his movies for inspiration.  
and yet, he is not mentioned in the same breath as bergman, kurosowa, et. al., directors whom i would place a notch below ray. finding ray's pictures (other than the trilogy) in the u.s. is difficult, if not impossible. oh well. 

unlikely pick: bob fosse

"flavor of the month" who will last: lars von trier