David Lynch: Severed ears, altered states, and damn fine coffee

Charlie Kaufman: exploring existential concepts through mindfuck surrealism

Lynne Ramsay: channeling violence and suffering through the eyes of a child

Kevin Smith: welcome to the View Askewniverse, full of slackers, mallrats and stoners

Nicolas Roeg: twisting the psyche and turning rockstars into actors

Robert Eggers: mixing myth, folk tales and the occult with period perfection

John Hughes: high school cliques and 80s quiffs

Steve McQueen: unflinching violence, lessons from history and Michael Fassbender

Luis Buñuel: the master of surrealism, subversive dissent and dream sequences

Kenneth Anger: cosmology, Magick rituals and Aleister Crowley

Takeshi Kitano: existential yakuza, deadpan comedy and scenes in sand

Ken Russell: religious orgies, psychedelic gore and cinema bans

Wim Wenders: languid landscapes, political fairy-tales and Cuban musical legends