Author Topic: 1SO vs. All the Directors  (Read 85500 times)

1SO

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #580 on: August 07, 2019, 12:29:07 AM »
I didn't think of Ladykillers, which I can see making the case for it being Mackendrick's best work. Me being a lover of great dialogue, Sweet Smell would be the superior picture, but perhaps Ladykillers is better directed.


Can't even bring myself to write about the two Pabst films in his thread. Good ideas, but I found the pacing of both films choppy and nothing wowed me in a visual, filmmaking sense.

1SO

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Parajanov and Rocha
« Reply #581 on: August 07, 2019, 12:46:19 AM »
#218 Sergei Parajanov Ranked List
I've seen the two, along with the short Kivski Freski. I see nothing that suggests I should watch another one.



#219 Glauber Rocha
One of the least known directors with a thread, his posters have a strong El Topo vibe, but it was a bad night when I watched Black God, White Devil and Antonio das Mortes. ICM has Entranced Earth (1967) on 7 Official Lists, which pretty much commits me to giving it a try. I'm interested in doing some research first and learning what positive things are written about Rocha, leading into my viewing.

MartinTeller

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #582 on: August 07, 2019, 09:27:57 AM »
Good luck with that. Few directors have been so consistently unappealing to me while also being so critically revered.

1SO

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Volker Schlöndorff
« Reply #583 on: August 07, 2019, 03:02:27 PM »
#220 Volker Schlöndorff Ranked List
In film school, I got into "modern" German cinema with Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum and he became to me what Rainer Werner Fassbinder was to many film students, the benchmark for this era. Might be why I'm not heavy into Fassbinder. (Side note, my #2 modern German director was Uli Edel. I discovered Herzog and Wenders later on.)

Schlöndorff movies were not easy to find, though I owned Tin Drum on laserdisc and would rewatch it frequently. So, there are a number of titles I remember looking for and not finding. Let's see how I do now.

LIKELY:
Young Torless (1966)

POSSIBLE:
Degree of Murder (1967)
Coup de Grâce (1976)
Circle of Deceit (1981)
The Ogre (1996)
The Legend of Rita (2000)

1SO

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #584 on: August 18, 2019, 10:56:51 PM »
I'm going to be uncharacteristically whiny about my own Marathon. It seems Volker Schlöndorff films are still hard to find, and what I did find - Coup de Grâce - was uninteresting immediately. If I wait until I want to watch The Ogre, this Marathon could be stalled for quite a while.  I don't think this is an early warning of my wanting to abandon this Marathon, though I have spent the last week stalling with ICM blind spots. I'm going to move on, but I want to post this review of Coup de Grâce by MartinTeller because it shares my feelings and I have a soft spot for cranky Martin.

Quote from: MartinTeller
Nicely done black & white cinematography, and the actors were all pretty good.  But oh my lord, this movie was dull.  I think there were maybe 4 minutes total where I wasn’t bored to tears.  I didn’t care about the emotional content (which felt rather inauthentic to me).  I didn’t care about the historical context.  I didn’t care about the political subtext.  I didn’t care about any of it, and in a way I kind of hate myself for sitting through the whole thing.

1SO

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Ousmane Sembene
« Reply #585 on: August 18, 2019, 11:11:47 PM »
#221 Ousmane Sembene Ranked List

If he's not the great filmmaker of African cinema, I'd be curious to know who is. (If you think I didn't do my research, I considered Djibril Diop Mambéty (Touki Bouki, Hyenas.)) While ICM has a list of African Cinema Essentials, I think only Sembene has four titles on that list. I've seen three and will look for Camp de Thiaroye (1988) as well as Moolaadé (2004), which has been on my radar since I first saw it reviewed by Siskel & Ebert.

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Kaneto Shindô
« Reply #586 on: August 19, 2019, 01:58:59 PM »
#222 Kaneto Shindô Ranked List

In 2011, I watched Onibaba, which dances in and out of my Top 100. (I just reposted my review in the Director's thread.) So, Shindô has my respect and admiration. I've since seen Kuroneko, kind of a more mainstream, pulpy variation on Onibaba and the super-minimalist Naked Island.

Those are Shindô's three most famous films by far, but I hope to find at least one new title. Children of Hiroshima is the next most popular title, but I'm more interested in Tree Without Leaves (1986) and/or Edo Porn (1981). Reading through his 46 features, there are a number of intriguing titles, but the number of people who have seen these films have me thinking availability will be a major issue.

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Aleksandr Sokurov
« Reply #587 on: August 19, 2019, 11:31:06 PM »
#223 Aleksandr Sokurov Ranked List

No matter how people feel about Russian Ark - and I agree with Martin in his first post - the film is a technical achievement and it draws attention and interest to his other work. The thread for Sokurov is a roller coaster, going from initial indifference to a major slam by zarodinu to high praise by valmz.

I'm going to look for Faust (2011). If I don't find it, I will find something else.

1SO

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Hiroshi Teshigahara
« Reply #588 on: August 23, 2019, 12:12:35 AM »
#224 Hiroshi Teshigahara Ranked List

Never heard of HT until I joined the forum and read zarodinu's passion for Woman in the Dunes. The film seems like a singular achievement, but Criterion released a trilogy in 2007. He doesn't have a deep filmography, but Dunes is the clear masterpiece. (Would love to know who voted for The Face of Another in the poll.)

Rikyu (1989) looks to be the easy title to find, but first I'm going to look for Zatôichi monogatari (1979), which is a combination of two episodes of a TV series.

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Edgar G. Ulmer
« Reply #589 on: August 25, 2019, 12:30:49 AM »
#225 Edgar G. Ulmer Ranked List

I always breathe relief when I return from my international travels to a domestic, genre director. I don't even have a high opinion of Ulmer, except he made Detour, which speaks for itself, and even it has a suitcase of problems.

3 Ulmer titles have been long on my Watchlist.
The Strange Woman (1946)
The Naked Dawn (1955)
Murder is My Beat (1955)