NEW POLL! The SSO Favorite Director

[JackFavell]

[CineMaven]

Rules schmules...

Even Miss Otis would Regret not sending an apology to Alfred Hitchcock for his omission on your list of fifteen or your list of regrets. Who is Hanns Schwarz??? I need to speak to the Manager.

[JackFavell]

Hanns Schwarz directed The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna and Hungarian Rhapsody, both of which were recommended to me by AnnHarding.

Just because Hitch wasn't on my final list doesn't mean he isn't a favorite... I just have a LOT of those.

[CineMaven]

Ohhhhkay. I gotcha.

[ChiO]

We know that there are some SSO members and lurkers who have not yet submitted their lists. Just a few more days until the ol' clapsticks really start to fly and we yell Take! Print it! for the nominating phase.

Deadline: 11:59pm + 59 seconds (CST) Sunday, September 25th

[Ann Harding]

Oh! I missed that thread. I was so busy last week, I didn't check anything.

Here are my 15 favourites:

King Vidor
Raoul Walsh
Frank Borzage
Jacques Feyder
Victor Sjöström
Mauritz Stiller
Albert Capellani
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Michael Powell
Ernst Lubitsch
Mario Monicelli
George Cukor
William S. Hart
Léonce Perret
Josef von Sternberg

[ChiO]

Dear AH,

Thanks for the post. Is it in ranked order, or unranked?

[Ann Harding]

It's a random order.

[Ann Harding]

Ann, if we should want to investigate Albert Capellani or Leonce Perret, where should we begin?

For Léonce Perret, you can get the Gaumont Treasures Vol. 1 from Kino which contains L'Enfant de Paris, a masterpiece from 1913.
As for Capellani, Germinal (1913) and Quatre-Vingt-Treize (1914-21) are available from Pathé in France only (alas!).

[Mr. Arkadin]

I see that Mr. Arkadin's fave Mario Bava directed Italian horror movies, so I'll take Mr. A's word that these are good of their kind.

Bava might not be my favorite of the Italian genre directors, but there's no denying he was the pioneer of Italian horror, Giallo, and suspense movies that would be copied by admirers from many different countries and repackaged as their own ideas (Brian de Palma comes to mind). He also had an amazing eye for cinematography and used black & white and color equally well--all on shoestring budgets that would make directors like Ulmer seem wealthy in comparison (and I love Ulmer!):


Black Sunday AKA The Mask of Satan (1960)

[youtube][/youtube]

Evil Eye AKA The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1962)

[youtube][/youtube]

What? AKA The Whip and the Body (1963)

[youtube][/youtube]

Kidnapped AKA Rabid Dogs (1974)

[youtube][/youtube]

[pvitari]

OK, here's my top 15 -- for today.

Ernest Lubitsch
John Ford
Alfred Hitchcock
Frank Borzage
D.W. Griffith
Michael Powell (and the rest of the Archers)
Billy Wilder
Buster Keaton
Robert Bresson
Michael Curtiz
Henry King
Sam Peckinpah
Hayao Miyazaki
F.W. Murnau
Preston Sturges


I have to admit, 15 isn't nearly enough! I mean, I'm leaving out Fritz Lang, Akira Kurosawa (and Ozu and a whole passel of great Japanese directors), Jackie Chan, Josef Von Sternberg, Charlie Chaplin, William Wyler, Howard Hawks, Jean Renoir, Raoul Walsh, Ingmar Bergman, Erich Von Stroheim, William Wellman, Orson Welles, Luis Bunuel, Leo McCarey, Carl Dreyer... etcera, etcera, etcera. And Michael Bay. OK, I'm kidding on that last one. :)

[ChiO]

Is that in 1-15 order, or random?

[ChiO]

Not that I'm calling anyone out (but Knitwit is taking names)...

Mongo?, Mrsl? Gary J? Dickson? Fossy? UncleStevie? and the rest (here on Gilligan's iiiiiisle....)?

[knitwit45]

Not that I'm calling anyone out (but Knitwit is taking names)...

\

Hey, sluggo, you fired me! Just cause OW is not a favorite.... is this discrimination????

If I decide to come back, I want a pay raise!!!!!!