Actors Are Cattle ... Voting open for the next ILX film poll of the Greatest Movie Directors of All Time! (DUE: Jan. 5, 2018)

Okay, I'm done. Ended up ranking 15 slots and throwing in the rest unranked, and overall I feel like it was a bit carelessly cobbled together, but it'll do.

Didn't count up how many women were on my ballot but it'll be less than nine, I think. Mind you, two of them are in my top 5. Exclusionary practices/institutional sexism does mean that there a fewer to choose from even when you want to be more representative. I did find a few reminders of women whose work I should check out, though. I also really need to watch more films by directors who aren't white Eurodudes.

*there ARE fewer

I sent mine before Christmas. The only non-nominated director I would have voted for (had I known it was allowed) would have been Masaki Kobayashi.

You can revise your list, I did.

only voted five women

I only voted one woman, I think. I just wasn’t familiar with many of them.

apropos or something's comment above, I think Under The Skin is one of the most amazing movies I've seen from the 21st century

just sent one, Eric. You only need to respond if you don't my hotmail email with dowd in its address.

*get* my hotmail

I did find a few reminders of women whose work I should check out, though.

Everyone should watch all the Akerman, Varda, and Denis!

yes! ^

looked at my ballot again and rated akerman wayyyy too low

sent!

Thanks for the ballots thus far! I am about a half dozen or so behind in tallying, but I'll catch up over the course of the next couple days.

I should def see more Akerman bit tbh she'd have a place high on my ballot for Jeanne Dielman alone

Is the 'poll extended due to insanely cuet niece' still in place? I'll ruffle up a ballot tomorrow!

How about a formal extension, so I can spend the waning hours of the year watching Phantom Thread and not deciding whether Ernst Lubitsch is "better" than Ousmane Sembene?

Decide over a mimosa.

Eric, I should send in the next few hours.

It's 15 fucking degrees here, my lips would stick to the glass. (also i am not a Brunchie)

Nor am I, and don't understand the mimosa.

this sounds like Lubitsch 2017

Deadline OFFICIALLY extended to the end of this week.

Meaning by midnight (CST) Friday, Jan. 5.

woohoo extension!

any timeline on the rollout?

There is probably going to be a week in between as I'm on the road. Aiming for the 15th to start.

Sweet!

I drunkenly rushed my ballot last night, thinking I was going to miss the deadline. I've only done 25, so might send a pt 2 before the 5th if you don't object.

I don't mind redoing ballots or editing. Just remember two things: include your ILX username and also cite a worst director if you have one.

Here is a challenge I suspect others may be confronting too -- what to do with obviously great directors whom you have only seen one or two movies by? Like, I'm happy to stipulate Kon Ichikawa's greatness on the basis of Fires on the Plain, but not sure how to rank him vis a vis people who I've seen multiple great movies by.

I'll er, try to start doing this now before I go out for a few NY eve drinks..

i might need to redo mine as I realised I forgot to but in a definite top five contender

Here is a challenge I suspect others may be confronting too -- what to do with obviously great directors whom you have only seen one or two movies by?

A bigger problem for me was what to do with obviously great directors whose two/three/four films you love are surrounded by many you were indifferent to or flat-out disliked.

I should def see more Akerman bit tbh she'd have a place high on my ballot for Jeanne Dielman alone

― i know kore-eda (or something), Sunday, 31 December 2017 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seen loads so she's near the top for me.

What pains is ppl who have one film that I love as much as my life. Like I want to rank Pontecorvo very high rn, but I don't think I can..

shit forgot to nominate Don Levy. Maybe its for the best

To quantify my last post, of the dozen or so films I've seen by my #1 director, there was one I didn't like at all; two from my #2 I don't like (out of 13); and by the time you get to #3 and #4 (I only ranked four directors, left the rest unranked), there are many of their films I wouldn't consider seeing a second time. I make a very poor auteurist.

what to do with obviously great directors whom you have only seen one or two movies by?

I may have done this all wrong, but I'm not even close to thinking my list is "the best" directors. I made a list of the directors I admire most, some of whom I've seen everything by, some of whom just three or four. In ranking them I tried to give a little weight to history, reputation, and stuff like gender. But, mostly these are my personal favorites.

yeah i am not trying to create a list of what i think should be a canon, just a list of people whose work affects me the most

Same here, but how do you aggregate plusses and minuses into a ranking? How do you reconcile four films by somebody that literally helped shape the person you are with almost three decades of mediocrity and worse? (Big mystery as to who that might be.)

My solution was simply not to rank most of my ballot.

ranking is mostly arbitrary to me especially the lower you go down the list but it's part of the game i guess

i think on the whole if somebody's done work i love and work i'm indifferent to the love is likely to outweigh the ambivalence unless some of it's really bad

Weirdly enough, I do exactly that when it comes to music. Neil Young's career stretches from 1967 to 1975; Bob Dylan forever lives in 1965 and 1966; the Who stopped making records in 1968, the Rolling Stones packed it in in 1972. (A few stray songs sneak in.) I have a harder time doing that with films, beginning the mere fact of engaging--I won't buy the next Bob Dylan album, but I'll almost certainly see the next film by any living director on my list.

"beginning with"

Here is a challenge I suspect others may be confronting too -- what to do with obviously great directors whom you have only seen one or two movies by? Like, I'm happy to stipulate Kon Ichikawa's greatness on the basis of Fires on the Plain, but not sure how to rank him vis a vis people who I've seen multiple great movies by.

maybe ease off the spoilers guys

😳woops!😳

Couldn’t do Kaufman, even though I love BJM. Can’t forgive him for his other sins.

Go on...

I don’t want to offend!

21 ballots received, if not yet recorded.