All Right, Mr. DeMille, I'm Ready For My Close-Up ... It's The ILXOR's Top 101 Director Poll Results Thread

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that was an xp

as i said before he didn't make my cut but fair enough, 101st feels about right

okay shd've started with a thread-appropriate display name

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100. Jonathan Demme
(366 points; 5 votes)

now there's a guy who dropped off hard

What's a *great* Demme movie? (Asked in the spirit of enquiry not necessarily disbelief that there are any... though maybe with a slight tint of the latter.)

Stop Making Sense, but not sure that really counts?

Stop Making Sense would be my answer

Some swear by everything he did in the '80s. Some say Rachel Getting Married was a latter day miracle.

I used to love Swimming to Cambodia too but no idea if that holds up

i like most of his films up until the 90s, used to think Something Wild was good but i haven't rewatched it in forever

The Silence of the Lambs is underrated these days.

But, yeah, I don't care after 1988, RGM excepted.

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99. Claire Denis
(367.5 points; 5 votes)

holy shit guys the list is 33% women! well done

Women filming beautiful men plz

I should see more Denis

NV I considered following suit & changing dn to "helmer fud"

suddenly having a horrible feeling I mightn't've put Louis Malle in my list and I'm disappointed if so

I got you covered m8

I count Married to the Mob as a great (and underappreciated) film.

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98. Robert Aldrich
(370 points; 5 votes)

Too fucking low

voted for him almost entirely for Kiss Me Deadly but there are other goodies and yeah too low

That & baby Jane for me but otherwise same

just seen the cast for Sodom and Gomorrah and wondering why the hell i haven't seen it

(just checked my list btw, i didn't forget Louis)

Nice

In a bit of thread cross pollination lift to the scaffold is one of the many namedrops in the new scott walker songs

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97. Woody Allen
(375.5 points; 5 votes)

TOO MOLESTY

lol

I think when it comes to his placing, the earlier the funnier

lol, made the end of my ballot, glad he placed low

couldn't place him in my 50 faves but i like the funny stuff plenty, have never exposed myself to the Bergman rip-offs

I understand he still wears that beard when walking around town.

Not a single one of my ballot popped up yet, no love lost w/ Allen though too molesty otm

He probably doesn't want to be recognized.

xpost

Bah, think I unfortunately left Denis off.

Watched my first Aldrich a few weeks ago.

Not looking fwd to fucking Polanski making this

101st feels about right

already the worst fucking poll ever

no one else revealed so far made a film as great as Intolerance

bye, guys

Glad we got that out of the way in the early going.

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96. Sergei Parajanov
(385 points; 5 votes)

the best Aldrich is Ulzana's Raid btw

Alright <3

xp

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You'd have been in a tizzy picking the coolest picture if you'd done diretors photos of this guy I tell ya

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95. Jim Jarmusch
(394 points; 6 votes)

Didn't think Jarmusch would crack the top 100.

I like him a fair bit and didn't consider him

I did consider him but I didn't vite for him

vite

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94. Olivier Assayas
(400.5 points; 6 votes)

Man, that ending is so good

Did I miss the spreadsheet link?

All Right, Mr. DeMille, I'm Ready For My Close-Up ... It's The ILXOR's Top 101 Director Poll Results Thread

Eric, thanks so much for doing this! Been a hoot. Ballot:

1. Kiarostami, Abbas
2. Roeg, Nicholas
3. Tarkovsky, Andrei
4. Bergman, Ingmar
5. Fellini, Federico
6. Deren, Maya
7. Lynch, David
8. Teshigahara, Hiroshi
9. Pasolini, Pier Paolo
10. Pakula, Alan J.
11. Bunuel, Luis
12. Brakhage, Stan
13. Stillman, Whit
14. Fassbinder, Rainer Werner
15. Kurosawa, Akira
16. Resnais, Alain
17. Kubrick, Stanley
18. Jodorowsky, Alejandro
19. Rohmer, Eric
20. Haneke, Michael
21. Tarr, Bela
22. Ghobadi, Bahman
23. Snow, Michael
24. Coppola, Francis Ford
25. Wertmuller, Lina
26. Godard, Jean-Luc
27. Franco, Jesus
28. Makhmalbaf, Mohsen
29. Medem, Julio
30. Cronenberg, David
31. Antonioni, Michelangelo
32. Akerman, Chantal
33. Dardenne, Jean-Luc & Pierre
34. Duras, Marguerite
35. Welles, Orson
36. Farhadi, Asghar
37. Lelouch, Claude
38. Kieslowski, Krzysztof
39. Almodovar, Pedro
40. Rollin, Jean
41. Borowczyk, Walerian
42. Sokurov, Aleksandr
43. Tati, Jacques
44. Shahid-Saless, Sohrab
45. Ōshima, Nagisa
46. Linklater, Richard
47. Metzger, Radley
48. Cassavetes, John
49. Sarno, Joe
50. Verhoeven, Paul

I haven't looked at the spreadsheet b/c it wants me to download it rather than opening in a tab.

Xxpost bless you

Well it tells you, for one, that you and I are the only ones voting for Jesus Franco :)

xp

I will personally guarantee--backed up by the Molinari Family on the Coast--the safety of the spreadsheet.

Here's my list!

1. Kubrick, Stanley
2. Welles, Orson
3. Tarkovsky, Andrei
4. Wong Kar-wai
5. Murnau, F.W.
6. Bresson, Robert
7. Von Stroheim, Erich
8. Coen, Joel & Ethan
9. Bergman, Ingmar
10. Ozu, Yasujiro
11. Hitchcock, Alfred
12. Kiarostami, Abbas
13. Renoir, Jean
14. Powell, Michael & Emeric Pressburger
15. Herzog, Werner
16. Hawks, Howard
17. Lynch, David
18. Keaton, Buster
19. Anderson, Wes
20. Panahi, Jafar
21. Dreyer, Carl Theodor
22. Fincher, David
23. Fellini, Federico
24. Kurosawa Akira
25. Malick, Terrence
26. Anderson, Paul Thomas
27. Godard, Jean-Luc
28. Lang, Fritz
29. Van Sant, Gus
30. Chaplin, Charles
31. Bunuel, Luis
32. Wilder, Billy
33. Dardenne, Jean-Luc & Pierre
34. Ray, Satyajit
35. Antonioni, Michelangelo
36. Morris, Errol
37. Ophüls, Max
38. Mizoguchi Kenji
39. Lonergan, Kenneth
40. Lumet, Sidney
41. Scott, Ridley
42. Scorsese, Martin
43. Spielberg, Steven
44. Tarantino, Quentin
45. Linklater, Richard
46. To, Johnnie
47. Polanski, Roman
48. Coppola, Francis Ford
49. Miyazaki Hayao
50. Lean, David

Chytilova (I'd forgotten Fruits of Paradise, reasoned her out by telling myself I'd only seen Daisies) (who reminds me that I also forgot Kira Muratova) and Visconti are other regrets.

There are more than 50 great directors don't @ me.

Fruit Of Paradise and Jane Arden's Other Side Of Underneath on my to buy list now.

1. Tsukamoto Shin'ya
2. Lynch, David
3. Argento, Dario
4. De Palma, Brian
5. Quay, Stephen & Timothy
6. Russell, Ken
Burton, Tim
Garanina, Ideya
Kovasznai, Gyorgy
Jankovics, Marcell
Tanaka, Tokuzo
Sono, Sion
Shorina, Nina
Nakagawa, Nobuo
Barta, Jiri
Serebryakov, Nikolai
Murnau, F.W.
Cronenberg, David
Raimi, Sam
Hung, Sammo
Carpenter, John
Hooper, Tobe
Powell, Michael & Emeric Pressburger
Hark, Tsui
Zulawski, Andrzej
Herz, Juraj
Hitchcock, Alfred
Jodorowsky, Alejandro
Miller, George
Gilliam, Terry
Chan-wook Park
del Toro, Guillermo
Cheh, Chang
Strickland, Peter
Corman, Roger
Coppola, Francis Ford
Polanski, Roman
Wise, Robert
Jires, Jaromil
Hu, King
Imamura Shōhei
Brass, Tinto
Satoshi Kon
Romero, George A.
Friedkin, William
Christiansen, Benjamin
Cocteau, Jean
Ishii, Gakuryū
Roeg, Nicholas
Rollin, Jean

Lynch would have been first in terms of the overall power of his work but I wanted to boost Tsukamoto and I like a bigger percentage of his work and I don't care for most of Lynch's later short films (the early ones are great though). Tsukamoto has a few disappointments but they usually have something really striking about them (I've been unable to find a few of his films).

De Palma being placed so high is just my current enthusiasm after loving a few films recently.

Quay Brothers for giving you something to get lost in parts of your brain you don't visit often enough.

I'm sad to see so few voted Ken Russell because he's got these moments where everything comes together and fly beautifully.

Burton being the first director to make my brain ejaculate.

Garanina made some fucking gorgeous animations and she had a nice variety of style.
Kovasznai for his lovely layered filmed painting and a really odd romance musical.
Jankovics for the burning coloured fantasy.

Tanaka for some 60s horror films that badly need discovered outside Japan.

Nina Shorina just for the grotty Room Of Laughter.
Barta for his Pied Piper film.
Serebryakov for strange morphing grotesquerie.

Hung for some of the funnest films I've ever seen. If people love entertainment so much why aren't his films more famous?

Herz for beautiful gothic fantasies.

I don't actually love Chang Cheh but he's a game changer that probably wouldn't be voted by anyone else.

Brass for having the good sense to put a camera on Caprioglio for a whole film.

Rollin for being so indulgent and cutting the shit that other horror directors feel obliged to do. He's not amazing but I respect those things.

Forgotten Mario Bava (for his visual styling) and animator Keita Kurosaka (totally unlike most anime and beautifully textured) and maybe should have included Richard Blackburn and a few other one hit wonders.
Thought of voting for a bunch of softcore fetish stuff but who would care?

Didn't submit this due to holidays + the ILM EOY poll sucking up ballot-related will-to-live, but for posterity:

01. Jiang Wen
02. Tsai Ming-Liang
03. Akira Kurosawa
04. Yevgeni Bauer
05. Vsevolod Pudovkin
06. Stephen Chow
07. Jackie Chan
08. Alexander Dovzhenko
09. Juraj Herz
10. Buster Keaton

Abbas Kiarostami
Aleksei German
Alice Guy-Blaché
Billy Wilder
Busby Berkeley
Chen Kaige
Chuck Jones
Edward Yang
Ernst Lubitsch
F.W. Murnau
Farah Khan
Fritz Lang
Georges Méliès
Gustavo Serena
Hayao Miyazaki
Hiroshi Teshigahara
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Jacques Tati
James Bidgood
John Woo
Kenji Mizoguchi
King Hu
King Vidor
Maya Deren
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Nino Oxilia
Ousmane Sembène
Raj Kapoor
Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Sammo Hung
Satyajit Ray
Takashi Miike
Tsui Hark
Věra Chytilová
Walter Ruttmann
Wong Kar-Wai
Wu Nien-jen
Xie Jie
Yasujirō Ozu
Zhang Yimou

Clem, sorry about the Argento thing. I assure that it was probably from the ballot of the person in one of the adjacent columns.

No problem at all. Out of curiosity, you might want to check Andrea Arnold, though--she may have made the Top 101.

I could be wrong, of course, but judging by the user names on the spreadsheet I am not the only (semi-) lurker to vote in this poll...

Bresson was my #1. Rivette my #2. Went back and forth a few times between them.

Pialat was #3 - my highest-ranked director not to place. And of the ranked portion of my ballot (15 directors) he was the only one not to place.

Of the other directors I voted for, the following did not place:
Andersson, Roy
Berkeley, Busby
Browning, Tod
Dardenne, Jean-Luc & Pierre
Dumont, Bruno
Fuller, Samuel
Has, Wojciech
Klein, William
Laughton, Charles
Maysles, Albert & David, and Charlotte Zwerin
McLaren, Norman
Oliveira, Manoel de
Pakula, Alan J.

Of those, I fully expected to be the only vote for several of them, but it turns out that William Klein was the only director for whom I cast the sole vote.

Nice to see that four others voted for Laughton on the basis of that one great film.

McLaren must have been my introduction to experimental film techniques, as I first saw his films in school and on TV at a very young age, and I watched a lot of his work as a teenager/young adult as well.

I was a little surprised, but not really dismayed, to see Wiseman (my #5) place but not the Maysleses (to whom I gave an unranked vote).

Thanks to Eric H. for running the poll. Like all attempts to rank art it is ultimately meaningless, but that doesn't necessarily detract from the enjoyment of the attempt.

Thanks for the rollout, Eric. I especially enjoyed slowly revealing the images to see if I would guess from the still who the director was. Oddly I seemed to have more difficulty in the top 20 than I did much of what came earlier — maybe the choice of images got more rarefied, and I"m a bozo cinephile.

I was the #1 vote for Joe Dante. I guess he's my Joe Shlabotnik. I didn't dwell on my ranking that much, but at the top I thought in terms of "whose films would I most regret never being able to see again?" And he was the sentimental childhood favorite. His films show show such an affection for movie history — they're really smart, but they aren't really trying to improve on or be more important than what they love — and yet his best films are better than most of their genre antecedents. They're really generous.

Then my #2 was Bresson who disavowed most of cinema as such. There you go.

Confession time: I've never watched any films from these directors.

35. Satyajit Ray (834.5 points; 11 votes)
63. (tie) Hou Hsiao-hsien (554 points; 7 votes)
69. Frederick Wiseman (513.5 points; 6 votes; 1 first-place vote)
76. Aki Kaurismäki (480 points; 7 votes)
86. Ousmane Sembène (435.5 points; 6 votes)
96. Sergei Parajanov (385 points; 5 votes)

Satyajit Ray is good stuff! Apu trilogy is great but you can go to The Hero if you want something less in accordance to stereotypes of what dude's movies would be like.

I'm a Parajanov virgin too, tbh.

I considered renting Color of Pomegranates yesterday, but opted for a couple Renoirs. This poll's given me a lot to check out.

wiseman was my highest ranked american director.

true, but I'm only mentioning it to annoy morbs

Of those, I fully expected to be the only vote for several of them, but it turns out that William Klein was the only director for whom I cast the sole vote.

Another that I actually had in my ballot but left it out in the end. Have quite a bit of time for his documentaries

Contrast ...

https://www.cinematary.com/writing/2018/7/9/the-2018-shmight-shmound-poll

01. David Lynch (188 total votes)
02. Stanley Kubrick (183)
03. Alfred Hitchcock (146)
04. Abbas Kiarostami (99)
05. Chantal Akerman (96)
06. Akira Kurosawa (92) [tie]
06. Andrei Tarkovsky (92) [tie]
08. Terrence Malick (88)
09. John Ford (85)
10. Paul Thomas Anderson (82)
11. Francis Ford Coppola (80)
12. Martin Scorsese (78)
13. Edward Yang (77) [tie]
13. Ingmar Bergman (77) [tie]
13. Wong Kar-wai (77) [tie]
16. Jean-Luc Godard (75)
17. Orson Welles (74)
18. Howard Hawks (73)
19. Yasujiro Ozu (72)
20. Carl Theodor Dreyer (70)

High showings for Kiarostami, Akerman and Yang aside, our list is better.

huh guess this happened during my sabbatical. oh well.

that list is better aside from fanboys' #1, and would prefer Preston Sturges supplanting Malick

I wouldn't put Lynch ahead of Welles or Hitchcock or Kubrick either. On the whole I'd say our list was better, otoh points off for both lists putting Tarkovsky in the top 10.

yeah eric otm that list is booooring, lmfao at PTA in the top 10

xp I think Lynch was my #10... also Shakey you don't like Tarkovsky??

absolutely haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate Solaris and Stalker, I'll be fucked if I'm watching any more of that guy's tiresome nonsense

Tarkovsky's fine with me, but he's Ingmar's student

I think I've just about recovered from my early-20s attempt at watching Solaris to try him again.

Solaris is not a particularly punishing work, for him.

That's what I'm afraid of.

absolutely haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate Solaris and Stalker, I'll be fucked if I'm watching any more of that guy's tiresome nonsense

wow !

well... try Ivan's Childhood, only 95 minutes! and really great!

the only thing that makes Solaris less "punishing" is how pretty it is. it's just as languorous as Stalker. i love both but Solaris is my favorite

I watched Stalker last summer in a theater and don't need to rewatch it.

stalker is gorgeous too

i tend to be able to only watch tarkovsky films once as well though i've seen solaris 4-5 times (i intended to write about it)

punishing tarkovsky is def the sacrifice

xp it is, and i didn't find it boring, but Solaris i could watch over and over. colloidal silver oceans & pink skies vs. sepia dust world and radioactive waste

mirror is the tarkovsky for skeptics i think.

my favorite is The Mirror fwiw, but Andrei Rublev not far behind

I thought The Sacrifice was relatively accessible (for him), and is a favorite of mine along with The Mirror

Nostalghia is definitely his most 'inaccessible' for lack of a better word - but if you're on his frequency it's astonishing.

You have to look at the lists side by side. Putting aside placement, half of the two lists overlap. So it comes down these 10 from their list vs. these 10 from the ILX list:

Cinematary 10: Kiarostami, Akerman, Malick, Ford, P.T. Anderson, Coppola, Yang, Kar-wai, Hawks, Dreyer

ILX 10: Powell & Pressburger, Fassbinder, Buñuel, Altman, Renoir, Lang, Antonioni, Wilder, Murnau, Bresson