At a Directors Guild of America (DGA) event in 2011, Spielberg explained that he studied The French Connection in preparation for Munich (2005), his morally ambiguous take on the aftermath of the 1972 Olympic Games massacre. In particular, his use of zoom lenses was informed heavily by Owen Roizman’s Oscar-nominated cinematography. More recently, the wordless, beautifully choreographed on-foot chase through New York that opens Bridge of Spies feels particularly indebted to Friedkin’s work here.

The Terminal (2004) is one of Spielberg’s least-loved efforts, a strangely inert and throwaway comedy about an eastern European man (Tom Hanks) fated to live in New York’s JFK Airport following the collapse of his fictional home country. It is however noteworthy for its incredibly elaborate purpose-built set, inspired directly by Jacques Tati’s dazzlingly inventive Play Time.

But it’s The Birds that has had perhaps the most significant impact on Spielberg’s filmography. As the tale of an idyllic seaside town terrorised in broad daylight by a natural menace, its role as precursor to Jaws hardly needs to be spelled out. But its decidedly slow-burn approach to ratcheting up the tension is also shared by Jurassic Park, which contains less than 15 minutes of dinosaur VFX, despite its reputation as the film that kickstarted the era of CGI-reliant blockbusters.

It’s no secret that, when developing Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Spielberg and George Lucas pilfered liberally from the adventure films and serials they both loved as children. Even so, it’s quite remarkable how much the Indiana Jones series owes to Jerry Hopper’s Technicolor adventure romp, Secret of the Incas. Charlton Heston stars as Harry Steele, a roguish, fedora-clad treasure hunter, determined to discover a priceless Incan artefact hidden amid the ruins of an ancient Peruvian city.

An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.

In an interview with the AFI, Spielberg explained: “I try to rent a John Ford film… before I start every movie, simply because he inspires me…. He’s like a classic painter, he celebrates the frame, not just what’s inside it.” War Horse (2011), Spielberg’s most painterly, unashamedly old-fashioned film to date, feels particularly indebted to Ford’s lavish melodrama How Green Was My Valley.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) is perhaps the most bitterly divisive film in Spielberg’s canon. Critics scoffed in particular at its unapologetically sentimental final act, which some saw as a betrayal of the legacy of Stanley Kubrick, who began developing the project in the 1970s. However, those expecting a chilly sci-fi epic in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) were destined to be disappointed – Kubrick always intended the film as a futuristic spin on the story of Pinocchio.While Carlo Collodi’s rather brutal original novel is referenced and quoted throughout A.I., tonally the film is much closer to Disney’s altogether more charming animated adaptation. This exquisitely rendered tale of a wooden puppet’s quest to become a real boy remains one of the Mouse House’s finest efforts, inspiring wonder and fear in equal measure, and delivering a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human, alongside a spot of occasionally stern moralising.