Author Topic: 1SO vs. All the Directors  (Read 85436 times)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #240 on: February 02, 2018, 05:49:08 AM »
Never realised River Kwai was by Lean.

I don't hate any Aronofsky movie, so no red there, although I probably would detest The Wrestler if I saw it.
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1SO

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Jean Renoir
« Reply #241 on: February 02, 2018, 11:34:23 AM »
#63 Jean Renoir Ranked List

Here's a director who doesn't bowl me over, to borrow Martin's words, and unlike Melville, I don't see reason to do a deep exploration to find out why. I'm out of sync with a number of classics, but I can understand the love for 8˝ or Dr. Strangelove. There's a definite vision pushing cinema to new places. I don't see that with Renoir, in particular with The Rules of the Game, which is a perfectly agreeable piece of dry white toast.

I've seen 16 films by Renoir, most without connecting that they're tied to the same filmmaker. (I tend to blur Renoir with René Clair, and when I pulled up this thread I expected to find And Then There Were None.) My favorite is The Grand Illusion, until the final 20 minutes. The two I'm most likely to recommend are Swamp Water, which I think only Martin has seen even though it stars Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews. and This Land is Mine, which I don't think anyone here has seen, even though it stars Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara and George Sanders.

As for what to watch, there are a number of possibilities, none of which stand out as something that might change my opinion of Renoir. One of my side lists I'm working on is anything that appears on at least 5 ICM lists and that means Toni (1935) and The Golden Coach (1952). I might also watch Elena and Her Men (1956) because it stars Ingrid Bergman and/or The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) because it stars Paulette Goddard.

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #242 on: February 02, 2018, 05:32:41 PM »
I've seen This Land is Mine, it's quite good though far from my favourite of his.
Toni is good but it's a bit heavy handed. I did not like The Golden Coach because I hated Magnani's character, I can't fairly judge the film as a whole because the character dominates it so much. I enjoyed Elena and Her Men for Bergman and the comedy.

I'm not really sure what you mean by "definite vision pushing cinema to new places."  Because I don't know how you can watch that much Renoir and not see the class and gender issues that repeatedly dominate his work, and, especially at the time the films were made, they were clearly pushing boundaries of what stories could be told with cinema. Renoir's strengths maybe don't stand out as distinctively as Kubrick's meticulousness or Fellini's self absorbed grandiosity but they don't seem particularly hidden.

1SO

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #243 on: February 02, 2018, 07:42:05 PM »
I'm not really sure what you mean by "definite vision pushing cinema to new places."  Because I don't know how you can watch that much Renoir and not see the class and gender issues that repeatedly dominate his work, and, especially at the time the films were made, they were clearly pushing boundaries of what stories could be told with cinema. Renoir's strengths maybe don't stand out as distinctively as Kubrick's meticulousness or Fellini's self absorbed grandiosity but they don't seem particularly hidden.

I don't notice Renoir doing anything new, exciting or unique with the medium of film. I say this having read an entire article years ago about the complex long takes in Rules of the Game, and you can praise the film for my NOT noticing these shots while I was watching the film, but I prefer a less invisible style. Stories of class and gender issues is something you can find in a series of books, I'm talking about the way you can watch 5 seconds of a film and know immediately it's Wes Anderson or Spike Lee, and you don't need to know about the time these films were made in.

I'm not saying it's not there because I've read a lot about Renoir, but then I watch the films and I don't see or hear it. Even the effusive "Lubitsch touch" is easier for me to spot than Renoir's particular genius.

1SO

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Joseph L. Mankiewicz
« Reply #244 on: February 03, 2018, 03:08:08 PM »
#64 Joseph L. Mankiewicz Ranked List

Sometimes a director has one definitive Masterwork, but you can put All About Eve aside and still find plenty of greatness. I think of Mankiewicz as a favorite even though I've already dug into his catalogue seep enough to find some unimpressive titles and one outright bomb, though that's Cleopatra, so it came as no surprise.

Which means, while I've seen more than half of Mankiewicz's films, it's easy to find some interesting new titles to watch.

No one here has seen 5 Fingers ?
Seems like the place to start. I'll also look for The Honey Pot
« Last Edit: February 03, 2018, 06:35:47 PM by 1SO »

pixote

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #245 on: February 03, 2018, 06:20:07 PM »
Your Mankiewicz link goes to your Renoir list. 5 Fingers is a decent film. I had meant to watch his King film in DOCember, before things went sideways.

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1SO

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #246 on: February 03, 2018, 06:37:12 PM »
Fixed. I think half the time I post a new Director, the Subject still lists the prior one.

At least Cleopatra went to the right spot.


I'm not going to post reviews for the Renoir I watched. They're fine, I'm just not into finding something to say about them.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2018, 07:53:38 PM by 1SO »

1SO

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Ed Zwick
« Reply #247 on: February 05, 2018, 12:50:11 AM »
#65 Edward Zwick Ranked List

I know Legends of the Fall is soap-opera-ish, western melodrama, but it still gets me at a gut level.  Glory is his best film, but I have a soft spot for Legends.  The rest are pretty middling.
Couldn't have said it better, and gong through the thread there's a repeated feeling that it's difficult to believe such a mediocre filmmaker is responsible for Glory.

I've watched more Zwick than I should because he works with great actors. I was done after The Seige, but then Tom Cruise did a samurai film (that turned out to be Japanese Dances With Wolves) and Leonardo DiCaprio signed onto Blood Diamond.

I haven't seen Defiance, Love & Other Drugs or Pawn Sacrifice, and I'd be interested in all of them if they were directed by someone else. I'm actually going to try and go early and watch his 1983 TV Movie, Special Bulletin, which won 4 Emmy Awards and is on YouTube.

1SO

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Robert Bresson
« Reply #248 on: February 06, 2018, 10:35:42 AM »
#66 Robert Bresson Ranked List

Starting with Au hasard Balthazar and A Man Escaped, I thought Bresson was going to be one of my favorite directors, but the deeper I dug into his brief filmography, the more hit-and-miss he became. This may be because his stripped down style doesn't mesh with my supersonic viewing habit, and I will probably revisit Diary of a Country Priest one day.

According to IMDB and ICM, I've seen the 9 most popular titles, and I could easily watch the next three on both lists:
The Devil, Probably (1977)
A Gentle Woman (1969)
Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971)

MartinTeller's review of Une femme douce has made that a definite selection, and I'll see if I'm still in the mood from there.

MartinTeller

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #249 on: February 06, 2018, 10:47:24 AM »
Les anges du peche might appeal to you as well. I recall it as a more conventional film, and a pretty solid one.

 

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