The 1890s were the birth period of cinema. This was when Georges Melies dared to dream, and American directors began to push the medium in new directors. But it also birthed the first generation of directors who truly grew up with movies. No, they didn’t grow up with films as we know them, but they were still formative experiences for them. Experiences which led them to imagine where this medium could head.

Some of these directors worked comfortably within the studio system, Clarence Brown, Edmund Goulding, William Dieterle), but many of them failed to enjoy a rich, long career, with their best days being from the pre-war period. Other reliable studio directors like George Cukor or John Ford enjoyed longevity within these confines, arguably elevating their work in the post-war environment.

This was also the generation which really began flocking to Hollywood. Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and Ernst Lubitsch all made the boat ride across the Atlantic and ended up in Los Angeles. These directors brought their unique cultural perspectives to Hollywood, and they all enjoyed very long careers. However, Europe wasn’t abandoned by all its luminaries. The likes of Julien Duvivier, Jean Renoir and Sergei Eisenstein remained and forged new directions.

Silent to Sound

The majority of these directors got their start in the silent era, and so they generally understood how to use silence to their advantage. However, there were those like Preston Sturges, who aptly understood the chaos which words could bring. 

While most of the major 1890s-born directors were from Europe or North America, there were a few directors who began setting the stage for Asian cinema, like Zhang Shuchuan, who dominated Chinese cinema in the post-war era and Kenji Mizoguchi, who slowly went from reliable studio director to maverick master.

As with any generation, there are no easy categorisations for this one. But this was the first group of directors who really came into their own. Look through the list and compare it to that of the 1880s directors. The 1890s directors made cinema their own.

Click on the directors’ pictures to look at their profiles.