The essential directors : the art and impact of cinema's most influential filmmakers / Sloan De Forest ; forewords by Peter Bogdanovich and Jacqueline Najuma Stewart.

At head of title: TCM, Turner Classic Movies

Includes bibliographical references (pages 310-314) and index

1. Artists of shadow and light : Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, D. W. Griffith, Fritz Lang, Oscar Micheaux, King Vidor, Erich von Stroheim, Lois Weber
2. The studio as auteur : Dorothy Arzner, Clarence Brown, Frank Capra, Victor Fleming, Howard Hawks, Mervyn LeRoy, Ernst Lubitsch, Rouben Mamoulian, Leo McCarey, W. S. Van Dyke, Josef von Sternberg
3. A threat to the system : George Cukor, Michael Curtiz, John Ford, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli, George Stevens, Preston Sturges, Orson Welles, William Wyler
4. The director as star : Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, Ida Lupino, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Otto Preminger, Nicholas Ray, Douglas Sirk, Billy Wilder, Robert Wise, Fred Zinnemann
5. The revolution begins : Blake Edwards, Stanley Kramer, Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, Mike Nichols, Roman Polanski
6. A whole new Hollywood : Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Hal Ashby, Peter Bogdanovich, Mel Brooks, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Sidney Lumet, Elaine May, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg

For well over a century, those who create motion pictures have touched our hearts and souls; they have transported and transformed our minds, intoxicated and entranced our senses. One artist's vision is the single most prominent force behind the scenes: the director. The Essential Directors illuminates the unseen forces behind some of the most notable screen triumphs from the aesthetic peak of silent cinema through the New Hollywood of the 1970s. Considering each artist's influence on the medium, cultural impact, and degree of achievement, Turner Classic Movies presents a compendium of Hollywood's most influential filmmakers, with profiles offering history and insight on the filmmaker's narrative style, unique touches, contributions to the medium, key films, and distinctive movie moments to watch for. The work of these game-changing artists is illustrated throughout by more than 200 full-color and black-and-white photographs.