All Right, Mr. DeMille, I'm Ready For My Close-Up ... It's The ILXOR's Top 101 Director Poll Results Thread

Get ready, cause here they come!

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YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

*parks caboose*

such a tease

gonna relentlessly complain about the results even though I didn't vote and never intended to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjB5gjTEEj8

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101. D.W. Griffith
(365.5 points; 5 votes)

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that was an xp

as i said before he didn't make my cut but fair enough, 101st feels about right

okay shd've started with a thread-appropriate display name

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100. Jonathan Demme
(366 points; 5 votes)

now there's a guy who dropped off hard

What's a *great* Demme movie? (Asked in the spirit of enquiry not necessarily disbelief that there are any... though maybe with a slight tint of the latter.)

Stop Making Sense, but not sure that really counts?

Stop Making Sense would be my answer

Some swear by everything he did in the '80s. Some say Rachel Getting Married was a latter day miracle.

I used to love Swimming to Cambodia too but no idea if that holds up

i like most of his films up until the 90s, used to think Something Wild was good but i haven't rewatched it in forever

The Silence of the Lambs is underrated these days.

But, yeah, I don't care after 1988, RGM excepted.

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99. Claire Denis
(367.5 points; 5 votes)

holy shit guys the list is 33% women! well done

Women filming beautiful men plz

I should see more Denis

NV I considered following suit & changing dn to "helmer fud"

suddenly having a horrible feeling I mightn't've put Louis Malle in my list and I'm disappointed if so

I got you covered m8

I count Married to the Mob as a great (and underappreciated) film.

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98. Robert Aldrich
(370 points; 5 votes)

Too fucking low

voted for him almost entirely for Kiss Me Deadly but there are other goodies and yeah too low

That & baby Jane for me but otherwise same

just seen the cast for Sodom and Gomorrah and wondering why the hell i haven't seen it

(just checked my list btw, i didn't forget Louis)

Nice

In a bit of thread cross pollination lift to the scaffold is one of the many namedrops in the new scott walker songs

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97. Woody Allen
(375.5 points; 5 votes)

TOO MOLESTY

lol

I think when it comes to his placing, the earlier the funnier

lol, made the end of my ballot, glad he placed low

couldn't place him in my 50 faves but i like the funny stuff plenty, have never exposed myself to the Bergman rip-offs

I understand he still wears that beard when walking around town.

Not a single one of my ballot popped up yet, no love lost w/ Allen though too molesty otm

He probably doesn't want to be recognized.

xpost

Bah, think I unfortunately left Denis off.

Watched my first Aldrich a few weeks ago.

Not looking fwd to fucking Polanski making this

101st feels about right

already the worst fucking poll ever

no one else revealed so far made a film as great as Intolerance

bye, guys

Glad we got that out of the way in the early going.

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96. Sergei Parajanov
(385 points; 5 votes)

the best Aldrich is Ulzana's Raid btw

Alright <3

xp

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You'd have been in a tizzy picking the coolest picture if you'd done diretors photos of this guy I tell ya

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95. Jim Jarmusch
(394 points; 6 votes)

Didn't think Jarmusch would crack the top 100.

I like him a fair bit and didn't consider him

I did consider him but I didn't vite for him

vite

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94. Olivier Assayas
(400.5 points; 6 votes)

Man, that ending is so good

for a while my favorite working director

Only seen Personal Shopper but nearly voted for him on that alone. Need to see Carlos

hell, even the one about the Limoges pottery factory is good

Assayas is the first director from today's results (so far) that I voted for too.

(Denis was one of the last I had to cut.)

Unfamiliar with his films. Are his other films as divisive as Personal Shopper seems to be?

if only Griffith had had K-Stew instead of Gish

old things are better, we know

Are his other films as divisive as Personal Shopper seems to be?

― call me by your name..or Finn (fionnland)

was it divisive? The only divisiveness I saw was whene Clouds of Sils-Maria was released (I didn't care for it).

xps http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4esAobnL4n8/Vqvdceig3rI/AAAAAAAAjs8/HM0QJyy9_Ts/s1600/CAROL19a.jpg

how the fuck would you know? xxp

Personal Shopper took its share of hits from people who are wrong.

In my personal experience, everyone seemed to love or hate it. Which of his films is your favourite?

I've still only seen Carlos (good!), Summer Hours (great!) and Boarding Gate (awful!)

Seeing Irma Vep pushed him up my ballot

Summer Hours is his best, and Carlos, Something in the Air, Irma Vep, Les Destinées sentimentales all solid.

been meaning to watch carlos for ~7 years now

Taking a little breather here because we have the first of the poll's three ties coming right up.

I guess Michael Curtiz tied with David Cronenberg.

Yay Parajanov! First of mine to make it.

waving my Suzuki pennant

I'm wearing my Suzuki tee.

resisting Ichiro wisecrack

<3 Irma Vep

xp

tie is obv between Rob Zombie and Roscoe Arbuckle

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92. (tie) Pedro Almodovar
92. (tie) G.W. Pabst
(401 points; 5 votes)

You were all so close!

PABST SHOULD PROBABLY BE HIGHER PERSONALLY IVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING BY HIM THO

for you Parajanov voters, what movies of his would you recommend starting with? The Color of Pomegranates?

Really? No love for that Almodovar screencap?

likely along w/ Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors xp

too gay, Eric

Love it, didn't vote for him tho.

the Pabst is a savage contrast

too gay, Eric

Oh really?

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91. Paul Verhoeven
(403 points; 6 votes)

Ha

I was gonna say too low but he was a long way down my ballot tbf

Pabst snuck onto my ballot at #50; could as easily have been King Vidor

I couldn't quite give Pabst the blue ribbon of my vote.

I will say I was genuinely shocked that Verhoeven wasn't higher, given what I thought I knew about ILX tastes. (I didn't vote for him, either.)

I couldn't quite give Pabst the blue ribbon of my vote.

I love what he does but it's mostly frivolous

that joke is sub-Cryptkeeper!

It was pretty flat.

never really loved any Verhoeven films until Elle, and that experience was mildly spoiled by seeing it with someone who insisted it was 'weak'

Almodovar grab is great, voted for him.

And Verhoeven... I had to include him, so gave him the honourable #50 slot of my list. For Starship Troopers alone.

Flesh and Blood incensed pompous British oaf Michael Parkinson and I've loved Verhoeven ever since.

Wondering who, apart from Buñuel, will be the highest placing Spanish director here. Medem?

The Fourth Man is fun too

^need to go back and watch/rewatch his pre-Robo Cop films

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90. Jean Vigo
(414 points; 6 votes)

WAY TOO LOW

Literally outraged

Probably the omission on my ballot I most regret; L'Atalante is rapturous.

L'Atalante is top 10 for me certainly, but as with the Baseball Hall of Fame, it's the question of peak vs longevity.

(I know he's not to blame for dying young)

Probably the omission on my ballot I most regret; L'Atalante is rapturous.

― one way street, Monday, January 15, 2018 5:55 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same and otm.

Some days I love ZdC even more

for you Parajanov voters, what movies of his would you recommend starting with? The Color of Pomegranates?

― Dan S

likely along w/ Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors xp

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius)

Yeah, these two are standout brilliance. Couldn't choose between them, tbh.

I totally get the argument from lack of films but 2 total gems is a good strike rate

late to the party

i voted for Demme based on Silence of the Lambs & Something Wild & Stop Making Sense

i did not vote for Assayas but omg Carlos is so good, yall need to watch it if you are already a fan

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89. Chuck Jones
(416 points; 6 votes)

Flesh and Blood incensed pompous British oaf Michael Parkinson and I've loved Verhoeven ever since.

F+B rules

xxp i also placed Demme fairly high on my list iirc based on those three movies alone.

Man, that ending is so good

― devvvine, Monday, January 15, 2018 10:28 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gives me chills. Personal Shopper is such a beautiful movie. "or is it just me"? one knock, then fade to white. more movies should fade to white.

Really surprised Almodóvar placed so low.

Cartoon ppl? Rly?

I voted for a cartoon person but not Chuck Jones

I voted Verhoeven in my original ballot but couldn't fit him in my revised ballot. But it was mostly for Flesh + Blood. Glad to know about the Parkinson thing, any details on that?

I have no problem with "cartoon ppl" being included. Jones wouldn't have crossed my mind but I can understand why people voted for him.

xp

He was filling in for Barry Norman on Film whatever year it was and he claimed to have walked out of the movie in disgust

had Chuck midballot

his other jobs included, one of the geniuses of 20th-century American culture

i like seeing Chuck Jones get some love

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88. Jean Cocteau
(421 points; 6 votes)

One of those directors where I couldn't judge their body of work. I've only seen 4 Cocteau movies -- 2 were great and 2 weren't.

Just getting back from lunch. Orpheus is a top thirty film for me but I don't care for the rest.

i like Beauty and the Beast but don't like it enough to vote for him

Cocteau made the unranked section of my ballot based on a pretty small sampling of work, simply because that sampling blew my tiny mind. Worth it, I regret nothing.

I didn't vote for Vigo, thinking others would.

i didn't vote for McG by the same principle

The g stands for guffin

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87. Frank Capra
(431.5 points; 6 votes)

shoot me now Morbs, i didn't have it in me to vote for Capra

gotta say this seems a bit low tho

i voted for Frank <3

A ballot with just 50 slots is just too short...

;_;

I have a lot of time for the pre-Capra-corn era.

I've only seen 1.5 Capra films, what's good and why

Bitter Tea of General Yen is fluid and sexy as hell despite its racial politics.

My #48, basically for It Happened One Night

Which 1.5 wins?

It happened one night, which I like a lot but didn't remember was by him, and the first hour or so of it's a wonderful life

IHON is absolutely mint, obviously

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86. Ousmene Sembene
(435.5 points; 6 votes)

really liked Moolaadé! haven't seen anything else by him

Made my list at the last minute.

I see that Black Girl and Mandabi are available on dvd from netflix. I'll have to check them out

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85. Brian De Palma
(440 points; 5 votes)

Not going to lie, I'm surprised he made it in the way things were going there. Also, SMH at the lot of you.

SMH at the lot of you.

new ILX film thread title

I watched both The Phantom of the Paradise and Carrie in theaters full of students when I was in college, and the excitement I felt from the audience's reactions to both of them were as overwhelming to me as the films themselves.

You De Palma voters will be getting a visit from Billy Blanco from the Bronx when this poll is finished 🔫🔫🔫

the affection for The Phantom of the Paradise mystifies me. I like De Palma, didn't vote for him.

I liked it when I was a kid, but have never gone back to it.

I love Phantom of the Paradise but most other De Palma leaves me cold. And Phantom is pretty silly (I mean, that's why I love it, but personally "silly" doesn't equate to "greatest ever").

I just watched Dressed To Kill for the first time yesterday. I voted for him after also seeing The Fury and Body Double for the first time recently and those being two of the most enjoyable things I've seen in years.

For a long time he was one of those directors I assumed I wouldn't like much (and to be honest I'm still reluctant to see his gangster and war films) but I really love the bunch I saw last year and Phantom Of Paradise.

Although having said that I am still ruing my neglect of Joe Dante, I should've changed my ballot, I think.

xp to self

'Like but didn't vote for' as per Alfred applies here really well. Good films but they p much leave me cold.

Blowout was another movie of his I really loved

I'm definitely going to check out more De Palma.

Dammit I forgotten to vote Bava

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84. Peter Watkins
(441.5 points; 6 votes)

Charles Durning still looking for that sofa at the end of Sisters will never not be funny.

Yay for Watkins, wasn't sure if he'd make it. still need to get round to La Commune tho

He's so deliciously austere and angry

I came that close to using a still from La Commune, but figured with Watkins I'd better go iconic.

Still, La Commune was one of the more memorable moments of my early-days cinephilia.

For what could be a very dry polemic Punishment Park does look lovely

pretty sure I've managed to see almost exclusively the wrong De Palmas: Scarface, Untouchables, Bonfire, Carlito's Way, Mission Impossible, Mission to Mars, Femme Fatale. FF probably the best of that bunch tbh, though MI is refreshingly auteurist in our current franchise era

LOL, yeah, that would not be the basic starter kit I'd recommend for BDP, although Carlito's Way and Femme Fatale are among his best.

I can't even remember why I watched Bonfire as it was notorious by then; morbid curiosity I guess

Odder to me that you've managed to avoid Carrie and Dressed to Kill.

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83. Kelly Reichart
(446 points; 6 votes)

Can't remember if I voted for Watkins in the end, but glad to see him.

I love Old Joy but never thought about voting for her. Are her other films any good? Which one to see first?

Certain Women is her best so far imo

Night Moves is decent.

Made my ballot on Wendy & Lucy alone

Never seen femme fatale and enough time has passed from when a Rebecca romijn film is an auto-avoid so yeah sounds good

Well I've had nothing show up and then 3 in a row. Watkins' Edvard Munch is incredible. Certain Women is Reichardt's best so far but I love Wendy & Lucy too

Certain Women is her best so far imo

― calzino, Monday, January 15, 2018

otm

I voted for four of today's batch of directors (didn't vote for either of the directors still to be revealed shortly):

Brian De Palma
Ousmane Sembène
Chuck Jones
Olivier Assayas

Will def check out Certain Woman

It is weird that I haven't seen Carrie, since I really liked Stephen King as a young teen and I really like Sissy Spacek now. I'm a little worried I've seen so many refs/parodies that its impact will be diluted, like when I finally saw Casablanca and it was more a confusingly layered intertextual experience than a film

which film is the Reichardt image from?

ACW.

Lily Gladstone was outstanding that movie I thought. would really like to see more of her

*in

Alfred, does that mean Certain Women?

yep!

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82. Sergio Leone
(453 points; 6 votes)

I *forgot* about Leone... This poll has been doing my head in more than any other poll smdh

First one from my top 10, Leone is absolute comfort food to me

4 on the bounce here

idk why i didnt vote for Leone :(
noodle otm re comfort food movies

All of Kelly Reichardt's movies are fantastic. First director to show up that was in my top 10. Only one I haven't seen is Old Joy - have that sitting on my shelf, might watch tonight. Her debut Rivers of Grass is really great and under appreciated.

OK, last one for today...

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81. Jean-Pierre Melville
(459.5 points; 7 votes)

81. Jean-Pierre Melville (459.5 points; 7 votes)
82. Sergio Leone (453 points; 6 votes)
83. Kelly Reichart (446 points; 6 votes)
84. Peter Watkins (441.5 points; 6 votes)
85. Brian De Palma (440 points; 5 votes)
86. Ousmane Sembène (435.5 points; 6 votes)
87. Frank Capra (431.5 points; 6 votes)
88. Jean Cocteau (421 points; 6 votes)
89. Chuck Jones (416 points; 6 votes)
90. Jean Vigo (414 points; 6 votes)
91. Paul Verhoeven (403 points; 6 votes)
92. (tie) Pedro Almodóvar (401 points; 5 votes)
92. (tie) G.W. Pabst (401 points; 5 votes)
94. Olivier Assayas (400.5 points; 6 votes)
95. Jim Jarmusch (394 points; 6 votes)
96. Sergei Parajanov (385 points; 5 votes)
97. Woody Allen (375.5 points; 5 votes)
98. Robert Aldrich (370 points; 5 votes)
99. Claire Denis (367.5 points; 5 votes)
100. Jonathan Demme (366 points; 5 votes)
101. D.W. Griffith (365.5 points; 5 votes)

thank you this has been great already. given the mix of names that have placed i'm really looking to the upper reaches of this poll.

there is a lifetime of great film with these already. had i voted, two of them (Jarmusch and Melville) would be in my top 10.

I enjoyed Le Deuxieme Souffle a lot, but I'm not particularly into much else Melville. It might be my loss.

xxp *really looking forward

Almodóvar WAY too low, IMO. In what universe is Paul Verhoeven a better director than Almodóvar? Also too low Woody Allen, but I guess that one's understandable.

I wish I could've voted. I only found out about this poll after voting had closed.

wtf@ De Palma above Sembene and Parajanov - he only made half a great film and then many could've made that.

Watkins also on my list. Also pissy I couldn't find room for Vigo because stupid.

I love Army of Shadows but he's not a fave otherwise, didn't vote for him

Le Samourai is 10/10 but that's all I've seen so I didn't vote for Melville

he really was involved in the resistance as well, should probably watch AoS some time. Bresson spent some time as a Nazi POW as well, some of these French directors back then lived dangerously.

Clouzot making Le Corbeau in 1943 is probably the ballsiest of them all.

wtf@ De Palma above Sembene and Parajanov - he only made half a great film

I loved your ballot and was grateful for some of the directors it pushed up in the standings but ... I gotta know, which half of which film?

We're at 7 votes already for Melville, wonder how many complete curveballs there can be

Second half of carrie

Predict akerman for highest ranking lady

Re. Pabst: He was one of several names on my ballot whom I expected no one else to vote for. Westfront 1918 and Kameradschaft are coming from Criterion later this month. I don't exactly recommend A Modern Hero, but it pushes some of my buttons.

And 87 is WAY too low for Capra. The Miracle Woman alone is top-ten stuff.

Capra films are all super annoying. I guess he is a "great" director in the way people are good at sports

all of them, every one?

Yes

I can't speak to Capra's screwball (I loathe the genre) or human interest comedies, but all of the pre-codes and silents I've seen are prime material.

I'm not sure how The Miracle Woman is "annoying" (esp with the kind of performance Barbra Stanwyck's giving) but whatev

I can't really put myself into the mindset of loathing screwball so this is probably a lost cause, but, fwiw, IHON isn't nearly as madcap as something like Bringing Up Baby

I knew I’d find some other kindred soul who has a very limited amount of time for screwball

IHON and Twentieth Century leave me cold. And if Capra-hatas are going to deny themselves American Madness, that's their loss.

The Battle of Russia was almost screwball in its depiction of the absolute USSR beneficence towards its neighbours, pre-Barbarossa, but awesome propaganda movie. I almost felt like getting into a feight with Hitler myself after watching it quite drunk one night.

Looked for Miracle Woman on amazon and according to them, the bluray version of the film is It Could Happen To You with Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda.

I missed today's results (I was out seeing a movie) -- Chuck Jones was the only name that made it from my ballot. Though I wish I'd voted for Leone.

I've got four so far. I'm guessing about 2/3 of my 30 make the big list; I think my #1 will place, but I'm not sure. Considered Assayas, but too much of that vote would be concentrated in one film, Carlos.

Capra is screwball [sic] for people who don't like screwball; hence nowhere near my ballot.

I assume Sembene will be the only African filmmaker. *tsk tsk* And his stuff is not that hard to see.

Been busy and didn't encounter the ballot. I hope Tarr places. I suppose Tarkovsky is a given.

I would think quite high from Tarkovsky-related posts around here--somewhere between 5-10?

yeah and for sure in the top 20

I doubt Tarr will place

really? I hope he does

I think tarr has a shot

Not to be a tease, but some of the directors who landed in slots 102 thru 150 or so were shocking for ILX.

I suppose with only 30-something voters anything is possible and I shouldn't be disappointed, but Sátántangó, Werckmeister Harmonies, and The Turin Horse are three of the most amazing movies I've ever seen

I would call at least two of those amazing, sure -- but not nec great.

Eric - Scarface, 1st half. Probably seen it over 10 times easy. Used to be screened on TV quite a bit.

I will regret not voting if Tarkovsky doesn't make it. Top 5 for me.

I had drafted a shortlist but when I was under-familiar with ~ 2/3 of the nominations list I didn't feel well placed to vote. Maybe in a couple of years if I keep up my current film consumption.

there's no way Tarkovsky doesn't place but lately I've been pondering his ratedness - I think there's a big variation in how good his films are but nobody agrees on which are the great ones

long-winded way of saying last time I watched Stalker I felt a big agnostic also he's probably not best-suited to TV viewing

I very much agree here. The number of re-screenings that are happening actually lead to worship, v little critical engagement.

(a couple of cinemas in London have bored me with constant re-screenings of Stalker stop already)

calling HackPalma one of the 85 best is exceedingly generous, esp if John Frankenheimer doesn't appear.

Fair warning ... today's batch ends with the last two ties of the rundown.

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80. Spike Lee
(466 points; 6 votes)

I've meant to subject myself to a Spike joint retrospective, but I don't know if I'm up to sussing out what I dislike about his work.

Capra is screwball sic] for people who don't like screwball; hence nowhere near my ballot.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius)

This rings true. If you hate screwball comedy based on Capra, try Leo McCarey or some other director who made that genre sing. I love screwball, but It Happened One Night is not near any list of mine even if I limit it to top 100 30s Hollywood films. There's something conservative about Capra that shines through in all his movies even if it isn' made explicit. Stanwyck is my favorite actress so I'm conflicted - he have her some big roles that maybe made her a star, but I don't care much for those movies. Certainly not Meet John Doe. Pre-code he did some interesting stuff, 'Forbidden' is great, I probably need to rewatch others.

Spike's genius is in self-promotion. I still need to see the Katrina docs, which interest me more than the scripted films I've missed.

betcha Melvin van Peebles aint making it

Michael Gebert once wrote that by 1933 Barbara Stanwyck had already given three or four of the best sound performanes to date.

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79. Jan Švankmajer
(466.5 points; 7 votes)

his Alice was incredible. Although I haven't seen it since I was very young.

there's my cartoon guy

not well-versed enough in cinema to have any idea what will place, which makes this fun. the only svankmajer i've seen is lunacy which was ridiculous and fun and i'm somewhat surprised to see him here

Voted for him based on Alice (such a huge influence on me) and the box set of his short films which I went through last year and is almost all up to the same sort of standard.

if anything the more abstract shorts are my favourites

he's great; didn't vote for him

Ha, when we were talking about "cartoon ppl" upthread I completely forgot that Švankmajer could be considered a cartoon person. On my ballot, can't remember if he made the ranked section or not, complete genius obv.

everybody should see Conspirators of Pleasure, that's the long one where he really lets himself go the most

Everyone knows about Alice but my tip is to check out his Faust (and yes, the shorts are amazing). I haven't seen Conspirators of Pleasure, actually!

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78. John Cassavetes
(477.5 points; 6 votes)

oof too low, made my top 5 in the end

What's your take on Cassavetes?

Cassavetes this low also shocked me, acquired taste though he is.

Hit me with your best shot man
I can take it, I'm a Cassavetes man

I voted for Švankmajer, although I don't care for Alice that much. It's hard to out-weird Alice in Wonderland.

I probably shd've placed him somewhere, I dunno, he seems like an actors' director and I'm more of a "treat them like cattle" person

Cassavetes I mean

he's Important, etc, but I don't get pleasure from his films.

Opening Night ftw

The biggest thing I took from Alice was just the way he used the rooms in the building, how they moved between them.

xp

nothing particularly original to say but no other filmmaker i've seen has been better at capturing the sense of losing, or having lost, control

I do love Gazzara tbf

or the realization that you never had control

he's Important, etc, but I don't get pleasure from his films.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, January 16, 2018 8:41 AM (eight minutes ago)

same

I run warm and cool on Cassavetes, but Love Streams is really a masterpiece.

I can't get into him at all.

genius

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77. Sidney Lumet
(479.5 points; 6 votes)

You're welcome for not screencapping The Wiz.

love a bunch of Lumet movies, didn't vote for him, not sure he's got a "voice" other than shouting "DO YOU SEE?"

Ha, devvvine, I was actually just quoting the Le Tigre song.

Dunno about "voice" - one thing I like about Lumet is how different his films are from each-other. 12 Angry Men, The Pawnbroker, Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Serpico - even those five alone are quite a body of work.

I'd go with Fail Safe, The Hill and The Offence ahead of those I think, or alongside them at least. used to think Q&A was enjoyably grimy too

I say this as somebody who loves certain kind of melodrama but Lumet isn't one for reining his actors in

Phew, glad I decided to hold my votes until I've collected all the pertinent sordid details about each filmmaker's personal life

jesus christ

https://i.imgur.com/aocaktm.gif

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead was one of the worst final films of a supposedly great director I've ever seen.

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76. Aki Kaurismäki
(480 points; 7 votes)

oh wow I didn't think he'd make the top 100, nice work

watching the Eclipse series of his '80s films was one of my pleasures during the holidays

Hamlet Goes Business is the best Hamlet movie easy

NV i am referring to Woody at 97 and the hand-wringing upthread about impending Polanski placement

Gotta second Love Streams, didn't vote for Cassavettes but could've easily done so on that one film. Bit of a Vigo situation there.

I will be voting for LT in the 2017 poll, one of the best nights at the cinema last yr.

LS, I mean..

I thought I knew what you were referring to but they were a couple of low quality jokes in passing about Woody Allen tbf and hardly the focus of the thread. I totally understand why people might not want to vote for somebody they dislike tho beyond the work itself. Woody especially doesn't exactly keep his life out of his work.

Trust me if you think that was hand-wringing, oy

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead was one of the worst final films of a supposedly great director I've ever seen.

― Fred Klinkenberg (Eric H.),

otm

if Lumet has a great film, it's Dog Day Afternoon, also a candidate for the best '70s NYC film.

At least Kaurismaki finished higher than his Amerindie analogue, Jarmusch.

I didn't care for Le Havre but I finally caught Other Side of Hope a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it

Dog Day is fantastic and I'm glad to see Lumet make it. He was one of the last to be left off my ballot.

given the 2 leads you'd have to have tried really hard to mess up DDA

I probably feel about Cassavetes the way many of you do about Griffith; I prefer his descendants to him. (save for Killing of a Chinese Bookie) Elaine May made 'his' best film.

I really liked Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. My fave PSH performance

poor John Cazale always looked a bit pallid and unwell, and he only lasted a few more years.

I forgot that Chinese Bookie was a Cassavetes joint, fucking excellent movie is that.

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead was one of the worst final films of a supposedly great director I've ever seen.

― Fred Klinkenberg (Eric H.), Tuesday, January 16, 2018 3:29 PM (twenty-three minutes ago)

Agreed, OTM. I wonder how much of my disappointment was that it didn't stack up to how good I thought it ought to have been (given the stellar director and cast).

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75. Krzysztof Kieślowski
(487.5 points; 7 votes)

i didn’t vote obviously but: too low

I think I placed him too low because I wasn't thinking about some of his earlier movies. Camera Buff is killer

Kieslowski was my 38. Camera Buff is so great.

I forgot about him! I only really love RED.

Double Life of Veronique is a masterpiece iirc

all I can say is that his take on life in communist Poland chimes with a lot of my own take on life in the UK

Don't if there's much beneath those Kielowski films but I love to watch them with friends.

the texture of urban working and living spaces, the slow tedious spirit-crushing of bosses and dependents

Kieslowski was in my top (ranked) echelon, so TOO LOW.

Phew, glad I decided to hold my votes until I've collected all the pertinent sordid details about each filmmaker's personal life

jesus christ

― Hadrian VIII, Tuesday, January 16, 2018 3:27 PM (fifty-one minutes ago)

Yeah, I had to dig reaaaaaaal deep to find out that Allen and Polanski are creeps.

"Well, I haven't checked the sexual history of all my party guests so it's only fair I invite this convicted rapist."

Double Life of Veronique is a masterpiece iirc

― Simon H., Tuesday, January 16, 2018 9:14 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. idk red and blue and double life and the dekalog would be enough to get him in my top five. i also saw no end recently and while it's sort of a first draft for blue it's still great

I need to rewatch the dekalog

I did rewatch the Dekalog last year and it's brilliant; nothing else KK did has bowled me over, yet.

Chaplin and Fassbinder were creeps too, so as a rule I don't give a shit (in matters of making aesthetic judgments).

Polanski was in my top ten and I reserve the right to be as hand-wringing about it as I fucking well please.

wring away!

add Hitchcock & Bresson to the creep list...

given his thing for having his protags frequently being beautiful women I guess we should be thankful KK wasn't a creep (that I've heard, knock on wood...)

I guess Schrader's probably not gonna place which is too bad cause it would be a golden opportunity to repost the Kinski quote

Wouldn't be sure about Schrader, I tried quite hard

Schrader has done too much garbage as a writer and director in the last 20 years to count imo.

otoh First Reformed was pretty decent!

Kieslowski specifically said he began making fiction films because he couldn't ask documentary subjects to take off their clothes...

See, this is why I don't go digging lol

I'm a bit wary of the God bothering theme of First Reformed, and that it got rave reviews in the type of publications Tim Farron would read.

it takes some....turns in the second half I'm still not completely sold on but some of the early scenes are among the very best he's written and directed

Late to the party but Verhoeven is _too low_, he made The Great American Movie in Robocop

I agree, and he's not among the best 250 filmmakers. xp

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74. Sergei Eisenstein
(489 points; 7 votes)

There was no way I wasn't going to use Ivan the Terrible as my screencap for him. Easily in my top 10 best-looking B&W films.

Didn't Parajanov rape someone? I've never been able to find out much about it.

all the folks who invented filmmaking grammar consigned to 70-101

tbf basically all polls relegate the most interesting stuff to the back stretch

Looked at more screens for Ivan The Terrible. I think I'll have some of that eventually.

Just getting caught up. Of the placers so far I voted for Assayas, Vigo, Cocteau (my #12), Sembene, Leone and Spike Lee. I probably would have omitted Lee except recently watching the "Dear White People" TV series reminded me how electric and engaged his whole first run of movies felt. I think everything through "Malcolm X" is important even though it's not all great. After that he's a mess, obv. Cocteau is just one of those filmmakers I feel an affinity for, like he's on my wavelength or vice versa. My kind of cinematic poesie (as opposed to the kind that is not my kind, eg Malick). Others I considered voting for but couldn't fit in: Jarmusch, De Palma, Svankmajer. I feel like Claire Denis should be on my list, but I just haven't seen enough to judge.

25th Hour is far from a mess and is a decade after Malcolm X

Right, I guess I should say spotty -- some good things, a lot of not.

Hooray for Kaurismäki! Only four of mine have made it so far. My ballot swings between incredibly obvious and ridiculous outliers.

all the folks who invented filmmaking grammar consigned to 70-101

Alfred and I are starting to quote Michael Gebert too often here, but I can't help but thing of how he once said that some early filmmaking innovations were instructive in that they showed future generations what NOT to do.

Of course, he was saying this in reference to The Passion of Joan of Arc, so fuck him.

and then there's the likes of Clyde Bruckman, whose genius moves have fallen into disuse.

dreyer, murnau...

i think there's reasonable things to look forward to

Also, Crooklyn is great, and came after Malcolm. Way xp.

I rep for Crooklyn, Summer of Sam and 25th Hour.

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73. Richard Linklater
(495.5 points; 7 votes)

best screencap, bless u eric

Linklater was a conundrum for me because I really love a bunch of his movies but I don't think he's a great filmmaker. Which gets into what distinguishes a great writer from a great filmmaker or if it even matters. Anyway, didn't vote for him but I don't mind seeing him on the list.

i dunno, i think the Before trilogy and Boyhood make Linklater worthy of inclusion - for me it’s not just the actual filmmaking itself but the commitment to an idea that makes a great filmmaker. i really think those movies were kinda special for the ~idea~ that they sprang from

yeah, he doesn't belong in this class, if for perpetrating that Before tripe alone. lol Eisenstein's lack of drippy romance.

top 50 nipple bumps on Blake Jenner tho

all the folks who invented filmmaking grammar consigned to 70-101

The conversations you have are more important than the grammar you use, tho'. I say this as someone who voted for Eisenstein and a lot of other early filmmakers, I just think that scolding people for not appreciating grammar is awful kneejerk retrogressiveness. And yes, I know it's ilx's fave curmudgeon Morbs I'm talking to here, but still...

all the folks who invented filmmaking grammar consigned to 70-101

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 16, 2018 11:10 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago)

I don't have any problem with that whatsoever.

emil.y otm

Eric, as an aside, how many points were awarded? I thought the #1 would get 50 points, and the #50 1 point, but that can't be true obv. Just curious.

Emily otm indeed

Linklater was on my list (i think...), but he's so inconsistent. Still, he's so prolific & one of the better examples of "one for them, one for me" directors.

I make a motion to create special sub-poll on Best Directors of Man-Flesh.

I just think that scolding people for not appreciating grammar is awful kneejerk retrogressiveness

Also, their films are vastly better than some of the talented hacks listed above.

i mean, Spike Lee, yeah right

I'm not sure how I'd make the case that Dovzhenko is better than Spike Lee; it's like arguing that Cervantes is better than Ralph Ellison or something. Who'd want to?

morbs morbsing

i agree with emil.y

huh, I did my ranking as quickly as possible with no revisions but I had Kieslowski, Eisenstein, Linklater at 25, 26, 27

making my last-minute ballot was a revealing exercise in determining how auteurist (broadly speaking) I am, and in a few cases, like Linklater's, if someone was the director of enough movies I think are good, they got on the list. I didn't vote for Lumet but I can see a similar logic despite lack of "voice". Thinking of great direction as substantially having the ability to assemble other talented people and together produce something great

that said, I am a little shocked how low Eisenstein was--I assumed his stature was much greater than that! are people just not encountering his work as easily now?

yes Alfred, which is why "all-time" polls are so fucking pointless

His work is actually easier to find than ever, thanks to libraries.

Good or bad they don't really seem like hacks to me. Aren't most of them lucky enough to make films they care about?

anyway, let's get on to George Kuchar!

who def appreciated manflesh

many xxp's but last year Stalker screened at 3 different theaters where I live over a course of 6 months, around the Criterion reissue. Great film but doesn't compare to Solaris imo

Stalker and Solaris on the big screen were among last year's cinematic highlights for me.

I missed Stalker screenings, watched the glorious blu-ray at home a few months ago. will jump at the chance to see Solaris in a theater.

oh yeah and back to Reichardt: I watched Old Joy last night. I gotta say it's my least favorite film of hers- some good moments, loved the talk radio bits, but I found both Oldham and London's characters to be pretty unlikable, but more importantly, profoundly uninteresting.

Love Reichardt but for me she's in the category of, let's see what she does in the next 10-20 years.

It was misrerabilist in a dully miniaturist manner

*miserabilist

Leaving the pregnant wife at home really sealed the deal for me early on. Obviously Oldham's character was an obnoxious layabout, but London's character... just such a weenie, they're both so pathetic, and the film is so dated in its 'earnest liberals struggling to Live in George W. Bush's America.'

@ tipsy mothra - I totally get that, but for me she's been golden since River of Grass, which I'd rank above Night Moves, Meek's Cutoff, and obviously Old Joy. Wendy and Lucy & Certain Women are her masterpieces to date.

Will have to catch up at home...I agree that Lumet doesn't, in the conventional auteurist sense, have a strong voice, although most of his films fall into the Stanley Kramer "social concern" category, or whatever you want to call it. Don't agree that he's always shouting at you; at his worst, yes. I voted for him, simply because he's made a number of films I really like: The Verdict, Long Day's Journey Into Night, 12 Angry Men, most of Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico and Prince of the City, a little of Network.

i dunno, i think the Before trilogy and Boyhood make Linklater worthy of inclusion - for me it’s not just the actual filmmaking itself but the commitment to an idea that makes a great filmmaker. i really think those movies were kinda special for the ~idea~ that they sprang from

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 16 January 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

er, what was the idea? You mean following groups of people over a period of time? Boyhood is surely a rip of the Up Series, which was fine. The Before series was grand. Its committed (and he filmed the only adaptation of a PKD novel that had a feeling for PKD as a writer) but I never felt the results were anymore than good, solid filmmaking at best.

My one hugely unexplored area as a film watcher is silent cinema. Although I've watched Potemkin and can appreciate it but I don't love it. Do want to explore more of Eisenstein's work (and read him too).

apropos of nothing, Letterboxd informs me my most watched director of 2017 was Lubitsch. Actor, Jerry Lewis.

i think it was a bold choice to make before midnight the most miserable of the three

well, all Ethan has to do is look in the mirror.

ethan hawke reliably has the worst haircut possible for
each installment, i’m gonna call that comittment to a vision too

When this poll has been completely posted, we'll have to draw up recommendations lists for people who want to further investigate certain periods/genres/filmmakers (e.g., who are the African directors besides Sembene worth watching?).

And per Letterboxd, my most watched director for 2017 was Leo McCarey. (Actor, Charley Chase; the two are definitely related.)

Am I ilx's only Ethan Hawke stan?

I like Hawke pretty reliably, even in schlock like Predestination

I love Before Sunrise, think Before Sunset a mild disappointment, hated Before Midnight, think Ethan Hawke smells like a litter box.

i love ethan hawke tbh but he’s fun to make fun of. he’s extremely good as a Shitty Dad in boyhood

He's always up for it, no matter what he smells like. The Before movies were pitch perfect for him: acting quasi-intellectually, smirking a lot, talking a lot. I hold them dear to my heart, as I do him.

think Ethan Hawke smells like a litter box.

In the heyday of alt.gossip.celebrities, the term was "hygienically challenged."

Hawke's a solid actor.

I love Before Sunrise, think Before Sunset a mild disappointment, hated Before Midnight, think Ethan Hawke smells like a litter box.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, January 16, 2018 12:22 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is nonsense to me. before sunset >>> before sunrise. i only saw before midnight in the theater but i imagine i’d love it upon revisit as opposed to just feeling bad for all the couples who were in the theater

Fuck washing a Hawke

lol had no idea Hawke was known for smelling bad?????? ilx has taught me so much

(e.g., who are the African directors besides Sembene worth watching?).

Off the top of my head this is what comes to mind besides Mambéty (Badou Boy, Touki Bouki, Hyenes -- ranked him higher than Sembene but I don't think that will get in now):

Cisse (Yeelen)
Sissoko (Bamako, Timbuktu)
Chahine (Cairo Station)

this is nonsense to me. before sunset >>> before sunrise. i only saw before midnight in the theater but i imagine i’d love it upon revisit as opposed to just feeling bad for all the couples who were in the theater

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, January 16, 2018

eh Linklater's incompetence with the camera shocked me in that first scene at the airport, and the dialogue at the dinner party was an undergrad's idea of what Eric Rohmer films sound like

hope that's not a dig at Rohmer... :-/

Rohmer Criterion box still out of print :(

Eric, as an aside, how many points were awarded? I thought the #1 would get 50 points, and the #50 1 point, but that can't be true obv. Just curious.

Because there's so many directors, so few slots, I thought it important to weight up. #1 is 75 points, and #50 is 25 points. Also, I included an extra minor weighting for the number of votes being given, since it's such a broad topic.

Ah I see, thanks. Good on you for including the weighting, that sounds completely logical.

Esp when it comes to ballots where someone only listed 20 or 25 directors, I wanted to make sure that those who listed a full 50 were rewarded with more than, like, one single point for their 50th ranking choice.

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72. Alejandro Jodorowsky
(500 points; 7 votes)

illustration of Morbs after seeing how high Linklater and De Palma scored.

TOO LOW

xp lol

Of course he's better than Eisenstein

Bunch of hippies

agreed, lol, alfred

I have all the time in the world for Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.

I loved Sunrise a lot more when I was younger. Now I think Sunset is the peak of the trio. Though maybe that's more due to changes in me than the films being appreciated in a different way, if that makes sense? For that reason I really hope I don't evolve to liking Before Midnight the most ha.

Hawke seems to excel in roles that give him freedom.

i've never seen a Jodorowsky film

too popular with the w33d crowd

(Linklater's made at least 6-8 good films, which is about triple De Palma)

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71. Charles Chaplin
(502.5 points; 7 votes)

damn

great screencap tho

Chaplin's reputation is overdue for an upswing, I think.

he's no Keaton

he's no T*r*ntino, apparently

if you're HIGH

If watching movies while high (and then WRITING about it) is good enough for Rosenbaum, it's good enough for the rest of us.

I wonder how many voters have seen *any* Chaplin shorts...

I like Monsieur Verdoux, wish he did more in that vein

More of a Laurel & Hardy guy tho

xxp I wonder how many more creative ways you're going to come up with to insinuate that no one here is as qualified to participate as you, hunnybuns

he is rude, crude and improvisational in those Essanay films. Like Adam Sandler, only funny!

talks too much in Monsieur Verdoux (and it got worse after that)

come on, you can't deny silent films are a hard sell to the average ILXor, sugartitz. Even a gourmand like xyzzzz says so!

I was going to do an Adam Sandler comparison, beat me to the punch

I have set myself a project of showing my kids Chaplin and Keaton shorts this year. It makes me sad to think of people growing up not seeing them. (They'll probably like Laurel and Hardy better tbh.)

love silent comedy and would've had chaplin in my top 10 at least, but like a fool i forgot to vote in this. here's hoping vera chytilová somehow manages to place anyway.

Chaplin #37 on my ballot fwiw -- one slot behind Murnau.

As a Keaton partisan, I put Chaplin 25th, and thought that was as low as I could rationally go.

I bought my 11-yo niece the boxed set of L&H sound films at Hal Roach Studios.

(I would rank Chaplin much higher than that on a poll of screen comedians. Tried to limit myself to weighting him as a director.)

talks too much in Monsieur Verdoux (and it got worse after that)

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 16, 2018 3:10 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ITYM The Great Dictator. But then I always discount Chaplin by 10% for rampant sentimentality (side-by-side with the rudeness and crudeness).

xxp I wonder how many more creative ways you're going to come up with to insinuate that no one here is as qualified to participate as you, hunnybuns

― SKOL is other people (Eric H.), Tuesday, January 16, 2018 2:10 PM (one minute ago)

I will keep count.

The line separating sentimentality and humanism seems perilously narrow with Chaplin.

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70. Jacques Rivette
(504 points; 6 votes)

wow, feels like my whole list is placing

before #50, i mean. I feel like rivette would be higher if his work had better availability earlier

for home viewing obviously

Aaaaargh on CC's 'damnable' sentimentality! As long as Rosenbaum came up....

Even less useful than the Chaplin versus Keaton debate is the kind of contemporary dismissal of Chaplin that writes him off as a sentimentalist, a relic of the 19th century, an insufferable egotist, or a technical or intellectual primitive. Not because one can’t go back to certain facets of his life and work and find some evidence to support any or all of these charges, but because doing so ultimately entails a reductive reading that excludes too many other things that matter at least as much. I’m far more sympathetic to the hyperbole of Jean-Marie Straub’s provocative defense of Chaplin as the greatest of all film editors — made most recently and most cogently in Pedro Costa’s beautiful 2001 documentary Où gît votre sourire enfoui?, which documents the activity and conversation of Straub and Danièle Huillet while editing one of the versions of their Sicilia! Straub’s justification for this extravagant claim is ingenious: because Chaplin knew precisely when a gesture begins and when it ends, he knew precisely when to cut. As an observation this is far more indicative of a close and prolonged engagement with the work than any of the curt and cavalier dismissals. And maybe because Straub is himself a lot more (radically) traditional and conservative than he’s generally cracked up to be, part of what he’s saying is that in spite of everything, Chaplin remains our contemporary — someone we can still learn from and converse with without condescension or apology....

To take another approach, consider just the realm of raw experience imparted by Chaplin’s films. Has there ever been another artist — not just in the history of cinema, but maybe in the history of art — who has had more to say, and in such vivid detail, about what it means to be poor? Conceivably Dickens, another artist often reproached for sentimentality, might be a contender in these sweepstakes, but surely no other figure in the 20th century. And because there is arguably no other figure in the world during Chaplin’s heyday who was more widely known and loved — not even a politician like his arch-enemy Hitler, much less another artist — discussing him as if he were just another writer-director or actor ultimately means short-changing that world and that history.

https://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/2017/06/rediscovering-charlie-chaplin/

Hell yes. Sadly had to part w/ Rivette on my list just before sending my ballot

I need to give Celine and Julie Go Boating a shot one day. Watched La Belle Noiseuse when I was younger (too young?) and it literally felt like 3 hours of watching paint dry.

"Well, I haven't checked the sexual history of all my party guests so it's only fair I invite this convicted rapist."
― emil.y, Tuesday, January 16, 2018 11:23 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

solid analogy

love that rosenbaum quote, made me rethink, then revisit and love chaplin after i read that piece

Chaplin was a helluva director, which becomes apparent if you see his films amid his contemporaries'.

Also, I didn't vote in this, but I'll be using it as a means of filling some gaps in my viewing. Directors listed so far whom I've seen nothing by: Claire Denis, Sergei Parajanov, G.W. Pabst, Jean Vigo, Jean Cocteau, Peter Watkins, Jean-Pierre Melville (I'm probably most embarrassed by this blindspot), Jan Švankmajer, Aki Kaurismäki, Krzysztof Kieślowski(pretty embarrassed about this as well).

So far, Chuck Jones is the director whose appearance on the list has made me the happiest.

i personally like the sentimental stuff in chaplin, find the endings of city lights and modern times genuinely moving, and iirc there's not much sentimentality in the shorts. i think his reputation has suffered a bit from the easy glibness of saying you prefer the (once underrated) keaton, whose work seems more in tune with modern sensibilities. but there's value in work that isn't like that! seeing one of his films with an audience is still a joy, they're really designed to be seen that way.

I actually meant sentimentality and humanism being one and the same with Chaplin as a compliment, but I understand that that wouldn’t have been clear

re: Denis and Kieślowski, I'd start with, respectively, Beau Travail and either Double Life or Blue.

really it's tough to go wrong with Denis from what I've seen, though L'intrus defeated me

Same. Her one major miss for me, but I want to try it again someday.

Thanks. I'd already intended to start with Double Life for KK (less imposing than The Decalog or the Three Colours Trilogy), and for Denis, I've been meaning to see 35 Shots of Rum for a while. If I come across Beau Travail first, though, I won't pass it up. I know some fans of Trouble Every Day, but it looks like its a bit less representative.

L'intrus baffled me, but I consider that a triumph. Bastards, eg, is much worse. 35 Rhums is one of the best, but I'd start with Chocolat.

just realized I never actually saw Bastards.

re: Kieślowski... I didn’t put him on my ballot, I’ve only seen the Colors trilogy and only Blue really moved me, but even there, I thought the first 5-10 minutes were completely astonishing, so much so that it made the rest of the film & the trilogy feel disappointing. I was expecting so much more of the impressionistic/abstract imagery & sound design that never came. Still, those 3 films are great and I should check out the rest of his work obviously.

I didn't have him on my ballot, but Decalog is really great.

I remember seeing Bastards, I remember how it affected my mood, and I can't seem to recall a single plot detail that didn't involve corn.

(head's up: don't know if anyone else is on it, but just as this poll rolled out k4r4g4rg4 started a week long freeleech, fyi)

The only bleh Denis I've seen is White Material or her vampire thing.

sadly, Bastards is the only Denis I've seen. Netflix is turning me into a bad cinephile

Trouble Every Day is great, slotting in surprisingly well with the New French/Belgian Horror wave. plus it has a great theme song

re: Kieślowski... I didn’t put him on my ballot, I’ve only seen the Colors trilogy and only Blue really moved me, but even there, I thought the first 5-10 minutes were completely astonishing, so much so that it made the rest of the film & the trilogy feel disappointing. I was expecting so much more of the impressionistic/abstract imagery & sound design that never came. Still, those 3 films are great and I should check out the rest of his work obviously.

― flappy bird, Tuesday, January 16, 2018 1:46 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk, blue is my favorite but red has such depth, i see new things in it every time i watch it. blue is obv the stylistic achievement but i think red is the emotional achievement (this is also too reductive a binary, as both films are extremely stylistic and emotional, but you get what i mean)

white is very fun to watch and i'd like to have a conversation someday with someone who prefers it

Red's ending is also one of the only good "network narrative" moments in cinema tbh

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69. Frederick Wiseman
(513.5 points; 6 votes)

nice

lmao I didn't even mean it like that

white is very fun to watch and i'd like to have a conversation someday with someone who prefers it

― flamenco drop (BradNelson),

my boy difficult listening hour is the man – he and I've argued about it

xxxxp @ Simon on the ending of the trilogy: Agreed on that. But again, there's such a disparity imo between the moments when the characters converge- the shot of Julie accidentally walking into the courtroom in the background in White is so much more subtle and understated and effective than the moment at the end of Red when Valentine accidentally sees Karol & Dominique having sex thru the window. Although the grotesque absurdity of that shot juxtaposed with how that moment is depicted in White is of a piece with the dark humor of that film. I should rewatch them though, as I'm sure there are other details that I surely missed first time around.

I need to rewatch pretty much all of his movies

I put Wiseman 40th... ranking him among mostly fictional narrative filmmakers is a fool's errand.

White was the first one I saw, I've always liked it. It seems almost black comedy to me, if you take it as straightforward revenge story

like this thread for you, right?

xpost

White is totally a black comedy, reminded me of Todd Solondz (which, oh fuck, did i forget to put him on my ballot?...)

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68. John Waters
(514 points; 7 votes)

oh ma gawd naaaooh

too low

Never in doubt

taking this opportunity to post one of my favorite movie theme songs ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5xziMBpf0Q

white is totally a black comedy

well, two documentarians in a row.

Was gonna say exactly that! Lol

I dare some programmer to program those two screencapped movies on a double bill.

Chaplin still funnier

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67. François Truffaut
(526.5 points; 7 votes)

Hopefully Pialat will be higher

wot

come on now

shade low maybe, feel like Truffaut might be the least loved of the big nouvelle vague directors nowadays tho and I can get that

I voted for eight French(ish) directors, and neither Truffaut nor Pialat were among them.

Antoine Doinel's what you'd really call commitment to an idea tho

before #50, i mean. I feel like rivette would be higher if his work had better availability earlier

― intheblanks, Tuesday, 16 January 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for home viewing obviously

― intheblanks, Tuesday, 16 January 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well his work has been pretty much available for the last few years. Out One had a release a couple of years ago, too. Hopefully he'll go past Truffaut in a few years - this is one director who is very overrated (1/2 great films at most).

Back in the '70s, at least, Truffaut was likely the most popular 'vaguer, certainly at the US box office.

I have much less use for Rivette. I'm very fond of The Green Room, The Wild Child and the first two Doinel features.

I like Truffaut's non "great" films better than the feted ones tbh

and Two English Girls, in fact xp

Anticipating Bresson somewhere in the 20's

Agree about the 70s, I just think his rep has relatively declined since then

I wonder if Rivette's standing has derived some benefit from availability for home viewing (as maybe a lot of slow cinema)..

Truffaut was clearly less interested in experimentalism than nearly all his peers, especially after his first decade.

xps - I dunno, the Lumiere in London just love screening those 70s Truffaut films and like they are nice. Linklater nice.

I think maybe Pialat is what Truffaut could've been? So much sharper.

Seeing most of Rivette's work over the last couple of years has been a revelation; I can't think of another New Wave director whose work feels more exciting to me at the moment. Truffaut is probably poorly served by formal comparisons to Godard's radical experiments, but I agree with NV: many of Truffaut's "minor" films are extremely rewarding, especially The Green Room and Story of Adele H. I still need to see Pialat's work.

The Truffaut I can watch over and over is The Story of Adele H.

I put him on my ballot mainly cos of the later Doinel movies but yes to those 70s films too

Too low :(

I've loads of Frenchies on my ballot (depsite my user name, I'm not French iirc) but they'll probably all place too low or not at all.

now those late '70s French box office smashes starring Fanny Ardant are stiff as hell

At least 5 other French directors on my list that I guarantee will place

Truffaut not on my list, at any rate.

Pialat is brutal, especially early on, and I got to see A Nos Amours and Police when he was a big thing at the '80s NYFFs, but "great" might just be L'Enfance nue, maybe Loulou.

Marguerite Duras is one that won't :-( xxp

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66. Ernst Lubitsch
(539 points; 6 votes)

Tati, Godard, Rohmer, Resnais... Duras? Rollin? xxxxxxxxxp to NV

Great Pialat -- L'Enfance Nue, A Nos Amours, We Won't Grow Old Together (the good brutal stuff). Actually haven't seen Loulou yet. xp

Bresson must be a lock for high place.

I meant to vote for Lubitsch and...forgot.

I can't think of another film that approximates what Lubitsch gets out of his leads in Trouble in Paradise; it's like Restoration comedy or a Go-Betweens song.

Not gonna talk spoilers yet LBI but there's a v obvious one missing from your list

Never seen anything Duras directed as far as I remember but this poll is going to prompt a lot of filling in gaps for me

Had Lubitsch 13th. ILX hates comedy almost as much as AMPAS.

(Billy Wilder will be upset when he slots higher)

Renoir

xp

ugh Tati

Dan gets it

Comedy always gets mistreated in these kinds of list I think Morbs

morbs and ows otm. I don't really rate truffaut among the greats, but imo he has two all-time great films plus a lot of other good work. i feel like if you go into his films with reasonable expectations, there's usually a fair amount to enjoy in his work

jesus. looking forward to seeing which 65 directors are better than Lubitsch

Blake Edwards rubbing his hamds

again, it appears some of our voters are unacquainted with his oeuvre xp

Renoir obv, gotcha

Renoir is unacquainted with Lubitsch's oeuvre?

a little disturbed you guys haven't mentioned Ophuls

't was an xp :)

xp

My own favorite Lubitsch is an enchanting little thing called Cluny Brown. He is the master of populating a snow globe world.

Ophuls certainly is my French-Hollywood guy

Cluny Brown is cute but second tier

I'm only familiar with Marcel Ophuls rather than Max, probably need to sort that out.

Cluny Brown is cute but second tier

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius),

nuts to the squirrels

haven't seen that one myself! hard to pick among Trouble, Shop, Ninotchka, and To Be.
the silents that Dr M mentioned on the Lubitsch thread the other day looked so tempting

They show the extant Lubitsch silents fairly often in NY; I'm up to 24 of his films.

I had Lubitsch 10th, probably too high but I'm under the influence of a recent rewatch of Ninotchka.

"It is most embarrassing, but the lady you brought with you tonight is spreading communist propaganda in the powder room."

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65. Douglas Sirk
(553.5 points; 7 votes)

This guy's movies never surrender their strangeness.

Or their liquor.

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I didn't quite have room on my ballot for Sirk (I prefer Minnelli for melodrama, although Sirk's satire is considerably sharper), but I'm pleased to see him show up.

Sirk was, I think, my #3 or #4.

Having refrained from including, oh, Verhoeven, my impulse was to push Sirk's perversity higher on my ballot.

I don't really get sirk, though it's been quite a while, so perhaps should give him another go.

OK, here come the last two ties of the rollout to close out today's picks.

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63. (tie) Hou Hsiao-hsien
63. (tie) Buster Keaton
(554 points; 7 votes)

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61. (tie) Pier Paolo Pasolini
61. (tie) Roberto Rossellini
(555 points; 7 votes)

(Think I'm a tad glum about posting ties?)

i def did my ballot in too much of a hurry!
i left off Sirk & Lubitsch altogether noooooo ;_;

Both 61's made my ballot in the thirties.

Never seen any Sirk, which would people recommend?

All That Heaven Allows

wow, all of the last 5 directors within a range of 1.5 points!

too many worthy choices, not enough slots

All that Heaven Allows is probably his masterpiece, but Written on the Wind and Imitation of Life are also wonderful.

I'm imagining a conversation between Hou and Buster Keaton, or, rather, a sequence of amused silence.

From Sirk I'd also recommend Lured, starring Lucille Ball and George Sanders and The Tarnished Angels, where Rock Hudson survives a ridiculous drunk scene.

xp
I certainly wouldn't start with it but I watched Sirk's The Tarnished Angels the other day and it was mesmerizing

Eric, how many ballots were there? Keaton with only 7 votes is surprising

Eric, how many ballots were there? Keaton with only 7 votes is surprising

― rob, Tuesday, January 16, 2018 6:54 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not as strange as only 6 votes for Lubitsch. I thought ILX was more open to comedy than average.

Magnificent Obsession is so completely over the top and ridiculous, it blows my mind that Sirk made All That Heaven Allows a year later. Yes, that is his masterpiece, and probably the greatest Technicolor film of all time. It's a moving painting, Norman Rockwell brought to life. And an incredible love story. Can't say enough about it.

The Blu-ray is particularly good rendering those violent aquas.

There were 36 ballots.

61. (tie) Pier Paolo Pasolini (555 points; 7 votes)
61. (tie) Roberto Rossellini (555 points; 7 votes)
63. (tie) Hou Hsiao-hsien (554 points; 7 votes)
63. (tie) Buster Keaton (554 points; 7 votes)
65. Douglas Sirk (553.5 points; 7 votes)
66. Ernst Lubitsch (539 points; 6 votes)
67. François Truffaut (526.5 points; 7 votes)
68. John Waters (514 points; 7 votes)
69. Frederick Wiseman (513.5 points; 6 votes)
70. Jacques Rivette (504 points; 6 votes)
71. Charles Chaplin (502.5 points; 7 votes)
72. Alejandro Jodorowsky (500 points; 7 votes)
73. Richard Linklater (495.5 points; 7 votes)
74. Sergei Eisenstein (489 points; 7 votes)
75. Krzysztof Kieślowski (487.5 points; 7 votes)
76. Aki Kaurismäki (480 points; 7 votes)
77. Sidney Lumet (479.5 points; 6 votes)
78. John Cassavetes (477.5 points; 6 votes)
79. Jan Švankmajer (466.5 points; 7 votes)
80. Spike Lee (466 points; 6 votes)
81. Jean-Pierre Melville (459.5 points; 7 votes)
82. Sergio Leone (453 points; 6 votes)
83. Kelly Reichart (446 points; 6 votes)
84. Peter Watkins (441.5 points; 6 votes)
85. Brian De Palma (440 points; 5 votes)
86. Ousmane Sembène (435.5 points; 6 votes)
87. Frank Capra (431.5 points; 6 votes)
88. Jean Cocteau (421 points; 6 votes)
89. Chuck Jones (416 points; 6 votes)
90. Jean Vigo (414 points; 6 votes)
91. Paul Verhoeven (403 points; 6 votes)
92. (tie) Pedro Almodóvar (401 points; 5 votes)
92. (tie) G.W. Pabst (401 points; 5 votes)
94. Olivier Assayas (400.5 points; 6 votes)
95. Jim Jarmusch (394 points; 6 votes)
96. Sergei Parajanov (385 points; 5 votes)
97. Woody Allen (375.5 points; 5 votes)
98. Robert Aldrich (370 points; 5 votes)
99. Claire Denis (367.5 points; 5 votes)
100. Jonathan Demme (366 points; 5 votes)
101. D.W. Griffith (365.5 points; 5 votes)

Thanks for the Sirk recs all!

Pasolini is the first out of my top 10 to show up. Can understand why he's not top 20, but a mere 7 votes? Ostia.

so many of the obvious great directors I still haven't seen. I slacked for too many years. by Pasolini, I've only seen Saló- not that into screwball either

I'm regretting not voting now. Buster would have been a #1 contender for me.

Flappy, you must seek out Teorema by Pasolini, you simply must. I'll leave the trilogy that followed unmentioned for now, it's fantastic but one at a time - so much Pasolini to discover man.

i need a drink

We all do.

I'm having one!

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/pmw.gif

I thought ILX was more open to comedy than average.

i suspect at least ONE voter has no affinity for intentional comedy at all.

I know you're not suspecting me, but I too have no affinity with intentional comedy, at all.

I voted for John Waters.

And Chuck Jones, so yes, I have an affinity for intentional comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ocaZb-bGg

Eh, unintentional comedy is far more entertaining.

John Waters' films don't have comedy, they have lowlifes blurting out the truth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aem69eSsIus

Haha Alfred you really know all Naked Gun films by heart don't you

i'm not playing a clip of Robert Goulet

Oh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jzTRnqdp5k

Chaplin 15th on the last TSPDT list btw

shoulda gotten ghost rider & KJB to take 10 mins to vote for Buster

In the meantime, drinks all around.
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John Waters' films don't have comedy, they have lowlifes blurting out the truth

Seems to me then that it's you who has an issue determining intentionality.

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*seltzer spray*

xppppppppppppppppp

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I saw Guy Maddin's film-clip riff on Vertigo yesterday, must viewing for De Palma!

https://goo.gl/images/eqxdAX

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Love the Welfare and 400 Blows stills (even better than the obvious freeze-frame).

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Nature, Mr. Morbius, is what we were placed on Earth to rise above.

goddamn spinster

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https://media3.giphy.com/media/13D3lhtb9hkuZO/giphy.gif

https://media3.giphy.com/media/13D3lhtb9hkuZO/giphy.gif

oh well.

http://78.media.tumblr.com/d9764b6aad9d16d77a9bf60ab9aef118/tumblr_n2jl4ik44L1sv7laoo1_500.gif

https://i.imgur.com/lDrVNi7.gif

So, everyone's drunk then.