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The easy answer is Teshigahara or Tarkovsky, 2 master auteurs whose 7 or so films are a complete set of art in a series.

But when I think about filmographies, the long history of film, I can't help but think of 2 best friends: Ishiro Honda and Akira Kurosawa. https://twitter.com/georgendebele22/status/1313244427083755521

Maybe you didn't know this but they were workers at the photo lab that would eventually become Toho, roommates, and best friends.

The war came, Honda was drafted; Kurosawa's father was able to get him deferred. This was when they were separated and Kurosawa's career shot ahead.

Honda saw Sanshiro Sugata (1943), his best friend's first film as director, on the front lines in China, arranging "comfort stations" (basically sex slave houses established by the Japanese military).

Honda later said that this was what taught him the true evils of war.

He would serve 3 terms, missing his children, watching Kurosawa's career take off.

When he reentered film, he made small war dramas for Toho. Then BOTH best friends revolutionized Japanese cinema for the world in 1954, when Kurosawa made Seven Samurai and Honda made GOJIRA.

Though both had growing careers, Honda struggled for creative control against localizers while Kurosawa, an honored art director, did not.

This led to 2 careers defined by their artists but also by the industry. Kurosawa flourished. Honda retired in '70 w/o even getting a bonus.

That would be the end of the story, if Kurosawa hadn't gone to Honda in '78 and said, "Let's work together again."

Kurosawa was having trouble funding his next film ... until a young director by the name of George Lucas, hot off his own success, agreed to finance it.

This led to 5 films, including Kagemusha, Ran, and Dreams, made by Honda and Kurosawa, conceived and even co-directed - films that evoke not only Japan but the absolute freedom of industry giants at the end of hard lives, finally able to dream together unrestrained.

Anyway, that's why I think of them when asked what the best filmographies are. They experienced world and film history together, separately, and then together - I can't think of any films that are more informative about their creators' worldviews than these.

Honda died soon after Madadayo, the 5th film they made together. But he remains one of the least appreciated auteurs in film.

Check out the book, Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film from Godzilla to Kurosawa, to learn more. That's where all this rambling is coming from anyway