Life is a grim bowl of cherries, betrayal lurks around every corner (especially in the realm of relationships), and your worst enemy is more often than not yourself.

This is Woody Allen‘s basic view of things, as echoed in nearly every one of his films. Ditto Stanley Kubrick when it comes to Lolita, Barry Lyndon and Eyes Wide Shut; ditto the relationship-oriented films of Roman Polanski, David Fincher and Paul Thomas Anderson, but not so much Chris Nolan (who doesn’t focus all that much on relationships).

Let’s flip it around by asking which auteur-level filmmakers haven’t embraced this basic view of the human condition? In other words, which auteur-level directors and producers (excluding broadly-commercial-minded hacks and high-concept, Jerry Bruckheimer-type producers) have deliberately embraced a somewhat…well, less skeptical view of life?