the 3-in-a-row director's poll for filmmaking supremacy

Shoulda had The Fly/Dead Ringers/Naked Lunch on there too. Sorry, Canada.

spielberg should be in contention: sugarland express/jaws/close encounters

and todd haynes for safe/velvet goldmine/far from heaven.

and i haven't seen the duellists, but it only has to be pretty good to give ridley scott a hot 1-2-3.

and i haven't seen the duellists, but it only has to be pretty good to give ridley scott a hot 1-2-3

really, it just has to be better than LEGEND

Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou

trounced by Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink

Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru, Yojimbo, Tsubaki Sanjûrô

the former 3 are more widely-agreed upon, so I went with those. AFAIC Miller's Crossing beats everything.
xpost

a fistful of dollars yadda yadda yadda

it's a little silly to compare people who made movies once every 5 years (or 20 years) with people who made movies once a year

advantage: Malick

ha, I was thinking that, but figured it's up to whoever's doing the work how often he wants to do it, I think it's fair enough

If the Coens didn't want to lose an ILX poll they should have been more concerned with quality than quantity.

Also, directors that took their time (Kubrick and Malick) are on twice, which will split the vote.

certainly in many of these other directors' cases I've at least seen the movies in question, searching out the malick oeuvre hasn't really been a priority

also wtf no kurosawa (thx roger) or godard

No Kurosawa because I haven't seen I Live In Fear or The Idiot.

just pretend Breathless/A Woman Is A Woman/My Life To Live was in the poll and it wasn't your first choice.

Out of these I gotta go for Jarmusch, especially since he followed the three films mentioned with two more great ones (Night on Earth, Dead Man), before a bit of a drop in quality (Ghost Dog). Really, I think he's the most consistently good of contemporary directors, only two of his films have been less than great (Ghost Dog, Permament Vacation), and even those two have their merits.

Also, no Miyazakì? Totoro/Kiki's Delivery Service/Porco Rosso would be pretty hard to beat, I think.

dude

I'll do a 10-year-anniversary poll, Sight & Sound style. Mark your calendars.

AFAIC Miller's Crossing beats everything

xoxoxoxoxo

ultimately agree'd that any 1/2/3 that includes Alien and Blade Runner ought to take this, but of what's up there Brad Bird gets my vote. THE IRON GIANT demolishes all in its path.

the real troika for welles shoulda been touch of evil/the trial/falstaff.

i went with chaplin, but most of those are respectable threesomes.

sleeper/love and death/annie hall?

(i haven't seen interiors, but i'm guessing for a lot of people that would screw up the AH-manhattan run)

i voted 1st malick - cassavetes was tempting

many of these movies i havent seen tho

Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink

O, what a falling-off was there...

it's a little silly to compare people who made movies once every 5 years (or 20 years) with people who made movies once a year

Or, in the case of the absent Fassbinder (and JOHN FORD), 4 or 5 a year.

No Preston Sturges, no cred.

Tempted to write in Victor Erice for his one-every-decade triptych of The Spirit of the Beehive, The South and The Dream of Light.

For Chaplin, I would drop The Great Dictator (yak yak yak), and put in The Circus.

Renoir has a lot of (presumed) non-masterworks in his oeuvre cuz he made 50 films, but

Bête humaine, Règle du jeu, Swamp Water

or

The River, Carrosse d'or, French Cancan

# California Split (1974)
... aka Jackpot!
# Thieves Like Us (1974)
# The Long Goodbye (1973)

Hmmmm...

# The Long Goodbye (1973)
# Images (1972)
# McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

No, not quite...

Fuckin' Altman.

<I>No Preston Sturges, no cred.

-- Dr Morbius, Tuesday, November 27, 2007 4:06 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Link</I>

Indeed. Although I haven't seen the ones surrounding "Unfaithfully Yours" (my favorite) a triple bill of "Lady Eve" "Sullivan's Travels" and "Palm Beach Story" is going to be a lot of laffs.

The Man Who Fell To Earth is not that great, the Roeg one should have been Performance/Walkabout/Don't Look Now

Truffaut-400 Blows, Shoot The Piano Player, and Jules & Jim

The Man Who Fell To Earth is great

Rohmer-My Night At Maude's, Claire's Knee, and Love/Chloe In The Afternoon.

As it stands I'm stuck between Peckinpah and Coppola, leaning Coppola.

# Something Wild (1986)
# Stop Making Sense (1984)
# Swing Shift (1984)

Not a winner, but Demme's looking pretty worthy right here.

Another Wilder triad-Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and One, Two, Three

The inadequacy of nearly all these trios next to Hitchcock or Fellini is mostly embarrassing. I suspect Fritz Lang has a couple contenders here, maybe 30 years apart.

Sirk:

Written on the Wind (1956)
There's Always Tomorrow (1956)
All That Heaven Allows (1955)

Honorable fuckin' mention to Reservoir Dogs; Pulp Fiction; Jackie Brown

Another Godard trio-Alphaville, Pierrot le fou, and Masculin Feminin

Hawks (just) taking it from Hitchcock for me - I have more fun with him at the moment. The Godard, Truffaut and Sturges options could have nabbed it.

I was gonna note "Airplane!/Top Secret/Ruthless People" but I haven't seen the last one in years.

"Dressed To Kill/Blow Out/Scarface" would seem meritous, even though I'm not the biggest fan of the latter (too many Stone speeches in the last half). If "Home Movies" is good "The Fury" and "Dressed To Kill" work too.

Wish I'd seen "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" cuz Mean Streets and Taxi Driver definitely make for a kickass first and third.

Some three from "Long Goodbye"/"Thieves Like Us"/"California Split"/"Nashville" should have been nominated.

I need to see some of the Cocteau films between Beauty And The Beast and Orpheus.

Based on what I've seen and I what I liked of them, going with Coppola.

and yeah Tarantino should have gotten a nod.

my Wilder choice wd be

A Foreign Affair / Sunset Blvd. / Ace in the Hole

Rossellini:

Germany Year Zero / Stromboli / The Flowers of St. Francis

Most of the major HK guys miss the cut here due only to their commendable work ethic (has Michael Caine shot with any of them yet? it seems inevitable...) , though e.g. Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ringo Lam all have some killer 1-2 punches.

Of the bunch, Wong Kar-Wai prolly has the best shot, with Days of Being Wild and Chungking Express bracketed by your choice of As Tears Go By or Ashes of Time.

Some three from "Long Goodbye"/"Thieves Like Us"/"California Split"/"Nashville" should have been nominated.

I was thinking that too. That run was pretty sterling IMHO. The golden age of Gould and Duvall.

I could almost make a case for MASH, Brewster McCloud, and McCabe & Mrs. Miller, but I won't.

and yeah Tarantino should have gotten a nod

It's not dude's fault he basically invented a genre so powerful it became cliche overnight and has to answer for really every shitty "indie" pic from 1992-2002 give or take.

Harold And Maude/Last Detail/Shampoo would seem like a potential popular favorite, though I'm not big on H&M.

The Bostonians; A Room With A View; Maurice lol

I'm not a Naked Lunch fan, but The Brood/Scanners/Videodrome/Dead Zone/The Fly/Dead Ringers allows for a LOT of opportunities.

With Mel Brooks, I think History of the World Part I/Spaceballs/Life Stinks is pretty unbeatable, but I'm probably the only one who thinks Life Stinks is his best film alongside The Producers.

thsoe films are all in descending order of quality tuomas wtf

Life Stinks is really great, it's his most humane, Chaplinesque movie.

It's fucking awful is what it is.

Yeah, there's a lot of BS on Scorsese's resume. But this is a damn good run:
Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, After Hours.

And Todd Solondz with Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness, Storytelling.

Personally, I'll take the Jarmusch trifecta.

a better hawks trio (one i might have voted for), aka his cary grant trilogy:
bringing up baby/ only angels have wings/ his girl friday

dood Morbz listed those

oops. good job morbs.

Powell and Pressburger had a pretty good run...
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
A Canterbury Tale (1944)
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Black Narcissus (1947)
The Red Shoes (1948)

..and Mike Leigh had a couple of good runs too....

Life Is Sweet (1990)
Naked (1993)
Secrets & Lies (1996)

then:

Topsy-Turvy (1999)
All or Nothing (2002)
Vera Drake (2004)

Yeah, there's a lot of BS on Scorsese's resume. But this is a damn good run:
Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, After Hours.

Right, but this isn't three-in-a-row.

Jodorowsky's first three would also be a good contender here (does he count as being from S.America? He was born there at least)

Yeah, there's a lot of BS on Scorsese's resume. But this is a damn good run:
Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, After Hours.

Right, but this isn't three-in-a-row.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 27 November 2007 22:45 (16 minutes ago) Link

it isn't? what's in between them?

Yeah, there's a lot of BS on Scorsese's resume. But this is a damn good run:
Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, After Hours.

Right, but this isn't three-in-a-row.

It isn't?

(x-post)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000217/

I'm onna da crack today. Carry on.

Blake Edwards had a pretty great comedy triple slam with The Pink Panther/A Shot in the Dark/The Great Race.

If I mention Bottle Rocket/Rushmore/Tenenbaums will I get shouted off of this thread?

eh not by me.

altho I don't really like Bottle Rocket. Too bad Life Aquatic is in between RT and DLtd

I'd actually throw in Stanley Tucci if fucking Joe Gould's Secret was even half as good as it looked from the cast and precis.

i have a feeling seijun suzuki belongs , but i realize i haven't seen three in a row by him.

Woody Allen had some epic runs too.

I'd actually throw in Stanley Tucci if fucking Joe Gould's Secret was even half as good as it looked from the cast and precis

Worth a look if only for Ian Holm.

I love Ian Holm, but I found the movie really disappointing and dull.

No Preston Sturges, no cred.

Should have locked the thread right there.

<i>can someone point me in the direction of a female ... who's made 3 classics in a row</I>

claire denis? i can't sleep / nenette et boni / beau travail? or nenette / beau travail / trouble everyday

maybe chantal ackerman, i have only see a few & not consecutive.

and for your list.. what, no bresson?

OK, I vote: Pink Flamingos / Female Trouble / Desperate Living

Trouble Everyday is horrible though.

The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Simple Men - Hartley - or you could even go with The Unbelievable Truth, Trust, Surviving Desire (which I suppose is a..er..featurette?

dudes, filmmaking SUPREMACY

A Shot in the Dark is the only funny Clouseau film.

That's correct, Morbius. I have good word that Edison and the Lumieres will be on hand to present the prize to the almighty winner, copies of the lady eve, sullivan's travels, and palm beach story.

How about 4 in a row?

Deliverance, Zardoz, Exorcist II, Excalibur (John Boorman)

when was the last time you saw exorcist II?

Pink Flamingos / Female Trouble / Desperate Living

YES YES AND YES

I love Exorcist II. It has Pazuzu and Linda Blair in a nightgown and that weird glowing orb that helps her shrink reach deep into her mind. Totally awesome.

Fernando Di Leo: Milano calibro 9 / La mala ordina / Il boss = the best run in eurocrime.

I'd say Oliver Assayas qualifies (Sentimental Destinies, Demonlover, Clean) but no one else will agree.

Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket ... but only because the three Antonionis feel like three parts of the same film.

Oh, and that Waters trio would've so CLEARLY gotten my vote if it were included.

Not

The Milky Way (1936)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
The Awful Truth (1937)

?

Not enough British directors so Gerald Thomas...

Carry on Doctor, Carry on Up The Khyber, Carry On Camping

Although really you could start and finish anywhere.

I'll stick up for Polyester/Hairspray/Cry-Baby too, Waters-wise.

can someone point me in the direction of a female and/or southern hemispherian who's made 3 classics in a row?

Campion: Sweetie, An Angel at My Table, The Piano.

Campion's masterpiece is The Portrait of a Lady, so The Piano fucks that up.

let's keep going til we name all directors who made 3 films.

FRANK TASHLIN

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
Hollywood or Bust
The Girl Can't Help It

Cosmo's "in over my head" auteurs:

FASSBINDER

The Third Generation
The Marriage of Maria Braun
In a Year of 13 Moons

OR

Lola
Lili Marleen
Berlin Alexanderplatz

LUBITSCH

The Shop Around the Corner
Ninotchka
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

Berlin Alexanderplatz

is this really considered a single film...?

Since it was only shown on US TV once, you bet!

morbius, i actually prefer "in the cut" to either but holy smoke fucks that trilogy up too.

depending on your tolerance for capra, you could make a case for meet john doe, arsenic and old lace, it's a wonderful life (gary cooper/cary grant/jimmy stewart, nice threefer)

I prefer earlier Capra -- not that I think he's a contender -- cuz his best 3-run to my mind would be The Bitter Tea of General Yen, It Happened One Night and Lady for a Day.

oh hay, CAROL REED:

Odd Man Out
The Fallen Idol
The Third Man

that's a helluva streak.

I am so voting for that.