I made a list of noteworthy films to recommend to a friend, basing it off the previous one (in the older posts), and adding a lot more.
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Here's a list of notable directors and some great starting points for getting into their films. The latter half of the list consists of notable genre films and just some unstored goodness.

Directors

Brian De Palma
- Carlito's Way
- Blow Out

Steven Soderbergh
-Out Of Sight
-The Limey

Danny Boyle
- Shallow Grave
- Trainspotting

Steven Shainberg
- Hit Me
- Secretary

Todd Solondz
- Welcome to the Dollhouse
- Happiness

Gus Van Sant
- Drugstore Cowboy

Coen Brothers
- The Big Lebowski
- Everything else they've done, basically.

Spike Lee
- Do The Right Thing
- Mo' Better Blues

Martin Scorsese
- Raging Bull
- Taxi Driver
- Bringing Out The Dead
- The Departed

Steven Spielberg
- Schindler's List
- Jaws
- Duel
- The Indiana Jones Trilogy

Jim Jarmusch
- Dead Man
- Stranger Than Paradise
- Night On Earth

David Cronenberg
- Crash
- Videodrome

Orson Welles
- Touch of Evil

John Waters:
- Cecil B. Demented
- Crybaby

Peter Jackson:
- Dead Alive

Terry Gilliam:
- Brazil
- 12 Monkeys (and the Behind the Scenes documentary on the bonus features)

David Lynch:
- Elephant Man
- Mullholland Drive

Oliver Stone
- Platoon

Woody Allen:
- Annie Hall
- Shadows and Fog

Alfred Hitchcock:
- Strangers on a Train
- Rear Window

Wes Anderson
- Rushmore
- The Royal Tennenbaums

Sofia Coppola
- The Virgin Suicides
- Lost in Translation

Mel Brooks
- Anything.

P.T. Anderson:
- Boogie Nights
- Punch Drunk Love
- Magnolia
- There Will Be Blood
- Everything else. This guy is amazing.

Stanley Kubrick
- Paths of Glory
- 2001
- Full Metal Jacket
- The Killers
- Dr. Strangelove

Terrence Malick
- Badlands
- The Thin Red Line

Francis Ford Coppola
- The Godfather I, II and III
- The Conversation
- Apocalypse Now

Tim Burton
- Ed Wood

Quentin Tarantino
- Pulp Fiction
- Death Proof

Kathryn Bigelow
- The Hurt Locker
- Near Dark
- Strange Days

Jonathan Demme
- Stop Making Sense
- The Silence of the Lambs

Darren Aronofsky
- Requiem for a Dream
- The Fountain
- The Wrestler
Christopher Nolan
- Following

Michael Mann
- Heat
- Collateral
- Manhunter

Charlie Chaplin
- City Lights
- Modern Times

John Carpenter
- The Thing
- Halloween
- Escape From New York
- They Live

Michel Gondry
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Martin McDonagh
- In Bruges

Sam Raimi
- The Evil Dead series
- A Simple Plan
- The Gift

David Fincher
- Zodiac
- Se7en


International Film

Jean-Luc Godard
- Breathless
- Band of Outsiders

Akira Kurosawa
- Rashomon
- Seven Samurai
- Ran

Wong Kar-Wai
- In The Mood For Love
- Chungking Express
- 2046

Pedro Almodovar
- All About My Mother
- Talk To Her

Ingmar Bergman
- Persona
- Wild Strawberries

Tom Tykwer
- Wings of Desire

Lars Von Trier
- Dancer in the Dark
- Element of Crime
- Europa
- The Boss of it All

Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Accatone

Werner Herzog
- Stroszek

Federico Fellini
- 8 1/2
- La Dolce Vita

Michael Haneke
- Funny Games
- The White Ribbon
- Benny's Video

Jean Pierre Jeunet
- Amelie
- Delicatessen
- The City of Lost Children

Jean-Pierre Melville
- Le Samourai
- Le Cercle Rouge
- Un Flic

Fatih Akin
- Head-On
- The Edge of Heaven

Guillermo del Toro
- Pan's Labyrinth
- The Devil's Backbone
- Cronos

Krysztof Kieslowski
- Blue
- White
- Red (in that order)

Genres

Modern Day Film Noir:
- L.A. Confidential
- Chinatown (Polanski)

Documentaries:
- Rize
- Dogtown and Z-Boys
- The Endless Summer
- Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog)
- The Fog of War (Errol Morris)
- Man on Wire

Horror:
- Halloween (John Carpenter)
- The Thing ("" "")
- Alien

Italian Horror:
- Lucio Fulci's Zombie
- The Beyond
- Susprira (Dario Argento)

Italian Giallo:
- The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (Sergio Martino)

Action/Adventure:
- The Rock (Michael Bay - I am totally serious.)
- Gladiator

Sci-Fi:
- Donnie Darko
- Primer
- Blade Runner

Classic:
- On The Waterfront
- The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
- The Apartment
- Peeping Tom

Asian Cinema:
- Tetsuo The Iron Man
- Sympathy for Mr. Vengance
- Mother
- Oldboy
- Lady Vengeance
- Memories of Murder

Asian Horror:
- Audition
- A Tale of Two Sisters

Cult Classics:
Blaxploitation - The Mack
Evil Dead 2

Western
- Once Upon A Time In The West

Film Noir:
- Double Indemnity
- Maltese Falcon
- Casablanca
- The Set-Up
- Murder, My Sweet
- Sunset Blvd.
- M. (Fritz Lang)

Biopics:
- Basquiat
- Before The Night Falls
- Capote
- JFK
- American Splendor

LGBT:
- Mysterious Skin
- C.R.A.Z.Y.

Unsorted stuff:
Silent - Nosferatu
Frankenstein (1930's)
Bride of Frankenstein
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Musicals)
Billy Wilder movies
The Graduate (70's)
Chopper
Bronson
Adrift In Tokyo
Waltz with Bashir
Hunger (2009)
Red Road (Andrea Arnold)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly