I'll admit Hithcock would probably be in my top ten (or at least twenty) whereas De Palma might not make my top 50, but I've seen a lot of films from a lot of directors, and I appreciate visual filmmakers, which is one of the reasons why I'm getting into Peter Greenaway right now. Scarface I loved when I saw it, certainly like it more than the Howard Hawks/Howard Hughes version, but it's been years and years. Dressed to Kill is a great example of a seriously flawed film that's still genius to watch. It's got problems all over, but the way it was shot (the opening shower sequence, the chase in the museum, the numerous Psycho references) its all quality filmmaking.

Speaking of Michael Caine (he was in Dressed to Kill in case you think I'm just retardedly changing the subject), he was quite extraordinary in Educating Rita, which would at least be my favorite performance of his. 

Back to De Niro, I usually do find him to be "just De Niro", but like Kinski, who inhabits very similar characters, he's great at being that. Both have a certain insanity to their craft where you never really know if and when they'll randomly go insane on camera.

As far as Brechtian acting, I would probably vote Laurence Olivier in his version of Richard III.