MoFo Director's Cup Interest Thread

Great idea Bluedeed. I'm going to sit the first one out, but I'll definitely keep my eye out and join later ones.

bluedeed since this is your idea and you very clearly had something in mind for these five guys, which of their films did you have in mind to be the selected ones for these directors?


For von Sternberg, the five I'd like to see with this:

Underworld
The Last Command
The Docks of New York
The Blue Angel (German)
Shanghai Express

I really dig this idea. I may sit the first one out, but I might change my mind.

As I said, these directors were chosen very much off the cuff. The only thing I knew is that I didn't want to do Hitchcock first because everyone on this forum has seen a lot of Hitch basically. Him and Billy Wilder are very popular here and if we did them people would barely be seeing something new.

This isn't an arthouse project, Roberto Rossellini can be considered arthouse, same with Ford's late period films like 7 Women but besides that the rest I don't consider arthouse. Demy is like an update of Ophuls and Hollywood musicals, he's considered part of the FNW but sticks much closer to genre manipulation than the rest, he's very accessible. Sternberg and Tourneur made mostly Hollywood films (though if Sternberg is nominated, I'd like to have Anatahan be one of the movies). Jean-Marie Straub calls Stagecoach the most experimental film ever made, but I think most people (myself included) wouldn't think the same and find Ford to be a great, entertaining Hollywood filmmaker.

I hope this idea will take off and that we can cover a number of directors, so the idea wasn't to choose the best directors for this one, but choose a good sampling and don't choose any that would be a shoo-in to be chosen

__________________
Mubi

My main thing with each director is that I wanted people (including myself in some cases) to see something characteristic and uncharacteristic (or at least unexpected from each director). So for each director I had a couple of films in mind:

Demy: Lola, A Room in Town
Tourneur: I Walked with a Zombie and something (I don't know Tourneur well)
Ford: Steamboat Round the Bend or Judge Priest, Stagecoach
Sternberg: Underworld, Anatahan
Rossellini: Rome, Open City; India Matri Bhumi

But I don't want to make the decisions on all of the films being watched, that wouldn't be fun, so suggestions and nominations for which films to be watched will be heavily considered.

You can't go wrong with Stars in My Crown for Tourneur.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

But it seems very unlikely that he'll be chosen I'm the only one who voted for him so far

Once you chose a director for the Director's Cup, you might consider having a separate nomination/discussion thread where everyone throws out movies and discusses why or why not they should be included in the 5 Movies to watch. That would be a lot of fun in itself.

I voted to soon, I just realized I have seen Stars in My Crown and it's a strong film!

There's always round two.

You should just take the votes from the people who are participating. I didn't vote because I won't be doing the first one. Also an idea for the future ones, maybe all of the participants could pick a director that can't be nominated. When i join one I hope it's a director I haven't explored much or at all, rather than the usual Kubrtick, Scorcese, Tarantino, etc.

I think that will probably complicate things to an unnecessary degree. When it becomes work, it loses the fun. No reason to start an argument over these things. bluedeed can act as the moderator, and as the moderator I think he should have the final say over what goes in. However he chooses to handle that should be up to him.

I voted Demy because he looks cool, and that picture from Lola always makes me want to watch it. I wouldn't mind if any of them got in, but I kind of hoped it wouldn't be Ford as I've seen his films the most and will probably be watching more soon anyway, I guess it gives me more motivation to check out some of his lesser celebrated works though.

__________________

You should watch Lola, it's great! I think Demy (or someone else) described Lola as a musical without music, and it's his tribute to the great Max Ophuls. Don't worry though, if Ford gets picked, I'll make sure we see some dark horses in his filmography. Ford's filmography is the most extensive of these guys by far.

Yeah I plan to anyway for the Sixties list, and especially after how much I enjoyed The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Musicals in general, when done right, are something I'm quite a fan of. You also remind me of my need to watch Max Ophuls films, I have only seen Caught although have The Earrings of Madame De... ready which I am hoping will be a masterpiece, he would be another good future suggestion for this thread actually.

And yeah I trust you to pick some interesting and varied films from these directors bodies of work, because of the amount of films Ford has made there's always lots to explore.

John Ford

__________________
Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Alright guys, I'm going to allow people to continue to vote until Friday, though the winner looks pretty clear at this point. After that we can start! I've chosen 4 of Ford's films and I have several others in mind. Let me know if you think I should put the last one to a vote or not. Everyone else can keep in mind that they're free to join at any time providing they watch and share their opinions about the movies. Happy watching and keep in mind that Tag Gallagher's essential book on Ford is available for free at a number of sites online

I like the idea of voting on the fifth bluedeed.

Either way you need The Quiet Man.

The Quiet Man wants everyone to join

The Quiet Man features one of the better fist fight scenes in the history cinema, for anybody out of the know.