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

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.

i ranked a few directors pretty high based on 1 or 2 films out of their larger catalog

Please, there's nothing mystifying about the cult of De Palma.

― Fred Klinkenberg (Eric H.), Thursday, December 7, 2017 8:03 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

phaps, compared to Michael Mann's

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, December 7, 2017 8:04 PM (three weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They fought it out for the 50th spot on my ballot.

(Though now that I'm second-guessing myself, that spot should have gone to Todd Haynes. Oh well.)

I've whittled it down to a list of 64, pretty sure I've seen at least 5 features by all of them (save for one or two who didn't make features). Can't in good conscience vote for Kon Ichikawa or Jean Vigo even though they both made an all-time great.

Sent one in with an addendum which I hope wasn't too late

I could drop Ichikawa but Vigo is tough, he is historically important

Deadline officially extended in thread title.

I'm assembling now. The trick for me is omitting decent filmmakers (i.e. Joseph L. Mankiewicz) who made only one great film.

ie A Letter to Three Wives?

Five Fingers is pretty good too.

Good films, yes.

decent director, better writer.

24 ballots in and I'm still surprised by some of the directors just getting their first vote.

I love seeing juxtapositions on that spreadsheet as startling as "Eddie Murphy" between Murnau and Naruse.

i have at least one long-careered director who i'm probably going to give a place to on the strength of one film i love

one film i love that i've only ever seen once

24 ballots in and I'm still surprised by some of the directors just getting their first vote.

― Fred Klinkenberg (Eric H.), T

how many times did Chris Columbus make ballots?

xpost: FWIW my John Ford ranking is heavily based on The Whole Town's Talking.

26 ballots in and counted. Tomorrow's the REAL deadline, so don't delay!

:D

i am excite

There were some ballots that I didn't know whose they were, so I just wrote their name or whatever the email suggested it might be. Also, if you haven't gotten a response back from me saying that your ballot's recorded, that means I didn't get your ballot and you should re-submit.

hmm i sent my ballot on xmas eve but didn't get a response, just sent you another email