Hello fellow AM cinephiles! Welcome to the results of Acclaimed Music Forums 2014 Director/Auteur Poll!
Firstly, before we get on with the results, I would like to thank our 24 voters, in alphabetical order, for contributing to our wonderful collective list:
BleuPanda
bonnielaurel
bootsy
Chambord
Charlie Driggs
Gillingham
Greg
Harold
Henrik
JimmyJazz
Jirin
Liveinphoenix
Maschine Man
McJagger
Michel
Miguel
pauldrach
Petri
PlasticRam
Rob
Romain
Stephan
stone37
whuntva
The format I am going to be following is as so:
Rank, Director Name
Total Points / number of votes
Portrait of said auteur
A quote that I feel sums up the merits of said director quite well
TSPDT Top 250 Directors Rank
"Essential Films" (for objectivity sake, I will choose the five highest rankings films of said director on the TSPDT database.)
The "Biggest Fans" of the director (the voters who placed said director in their Top 20s)
So, without further ado, the results!
AM Auteur Poll 2014: The Results!
Re: AM Auteur Poll 2014: The Results!
We start our countdown off with the only director to enter the Top 100 without a single Top 20 placement, fittingly ranked at the bottom of the Top 100:
100) George Cukor
97.8 points / 5 votes
[imgsize 200x284]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uaWAYZ_ydf0/U ... +Cukor.jpg[/imgsize]
"George Cukor's filmography is his most eloquent defense. When a director has provided tasteful entertainment of a high order consistently over a period of more than thirty years, it is clear that said director is much more than a mere entertainer. Mere entertainers seldom entertain for more than five years, and then only intermittently... He is a genuine artist" - Andrew Sarris, The American Cinema
TSPDT Rank: 90
Essential Films:
Sylvia Scarlett
Holiday
The Philadelphia Story
A Star is Born
My Fair Lady
Biggest Fans:
N/A
99) Henri-Georges Clouzot
103.58 points / 5 votes
[imgsize 200x250]http://www.fumeursdepipe.net/images/hen ... louzot.jpg[/imgsize]
"In a country like France where good taste is so admired, Henri-Georges Clouzot has been a shocking director. A film critic during the age of surrealism, Clouzot was always eager to assault his audience with his style and concerns." - Dudley Andrew, The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia
TSPDT Rank: 133
Essential Films:
Le Corbeau
Quai des Orfevres
Manon
The Wages of Fear
Les Diaboliques
Biggest Fans:
Michel (13)
98) Nicolas Roeg
105.5 points / 3 votes
[imgsize 350x280]http://www.theartsdesk.com/sites/defaul ... 915d60.jpg[/imgsize]
"Amid the general gloom of 1970s British cinema, Nicolas Roeg seemed to represent one of the few real chinks of light. A gifted cinematographer, he moved to directing and quickly established a reputation as a distinctly personal film-maker. With their jagged cutting and disconcerting time shifts, his films didn't look like the work of anyone else and their dark themes of destructive sexuality and confused identity made them sharply provocative." - Robert Shail, British Film Directors: A Critical Guide
TSPDT Rank: 77
Essential Films:
Performance
Walkabout
Don't Look Now
Bad Timing
Eureka
Biggest Fans:
Liveinphoenix (6)
97) Jacques Rivette
108.5 points / 3 votes
[imgsize 320x250]http://filmpressplus.com/wp-content/upl ... ivette.jpg[/imgsize]
"Jacques Rivette is one of the most highly regarded directors of the French New Wave. Throughout his career, he has offered a variety of complex experiences, from the epic Out 1 (1971) to the delicate La belle noiseuse (1991). Admittedly, such movies require a degree of intellectual commitment from spectators that is at odds with conventional viewing habits. Yet despite, or perhaps because of, the difficult nature of Rivette's work, the rewards are often all the greater... Rivette remains a key figure of the French New Wave, and the creator of some of cinema's most challenging films." - Guy Crucianelli, 501 Movie Directors
TSPDT Rank: 86
Essential Films:
L'Amour fou
Out 1
Celine and Julie Go Boating
Le Pont du Nord
La Belle noiseuse
Biggest Fans:
CharlieDriggs (10)
96) Asghar Farhadi
113.4 points / 4 votes
[imgsize 300x250]http://i.ndtvimg.com/mt/movies/2012-05/ ... arhadi.jpg[/imgsize]
“Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. … His most recent film, A Separation (2011) (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin), became a sensation. It got critical acclaim inside and outside of Iran; Roger Ebert called it "the best picture of the year," and it was awarded the Crystal Simorgh from Fajr Film Festival, Golden Bear and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury from Berlin International Film Festival, and also won Best Foreign Language Film from The Boston Society of Film Critics, Chicago and Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review, Golden Globes, César Award, Independent Spirit Award, and ultimately the Academy Award in the 'Best Foreign Language Film of the Year,' making him the first Iranian filmmaker ever to win an Oscar. His Oscar acceptance speech at the 84th Academy Awards, a message of peace in tense political times in his country, made him an instant hero amongst Iranians.” – The IMDb
TSPDT Rank: Not Ranked
Essential Films:
A Separation
Biggest Fans:
Charlie Driggs (15)
Gillingham (20)
100) George Cukor
97.8 points / 5 votes
[imgsize 200x284]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uaWAYZ_ydf0/U ... +Cukor.jpg[/imgsize]
"George Cukor's filmography is his most eloquent defense. When a director has provided tasteful entertainment of a high order consistently over a period of more than thirty years, it is clear that said director is much more than a mere entertainer. Mere entertainers seldom entertain for more than five years, and then only intermittently... He is a genuine artist" - Andrew Sarris, The American Cinema
TSPDT Rank: 90
Essential Films:
Sylvia Scarlett
Holiday
The Philadelphia Story
A Star is Born
My Fair Lady
Biggest Fans:
N/A
99) Henri-Georges Clouzot
103.58 points / 5 votes
[imgsize 200x250]http://www.fumeursdepipe.net/images/hen ... louzot.jpg[/imgsize]
"In a country like France where good taste is so admired, Henri-Georges Clouzot has been a shocking director. A film critic during the age of surrealism, Clouzot was always eager to assault his audience with his style and concerns." - Dudley Andrew, The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia
TSPDT Rank: 133
Essential Films:
Le Corbeau
Quai des Orfevres
Manon
The Wages of Fear
Les Diaboliques
Biggest Fans:
Michel (13)
98) Nicolas Roeg
105.5 points / 3 votes
[imgsize 350x280]http://www.theartsdesk.com/sites/defaul ... 915d60.jpg[/imgsize]
"Amid the general gloom of 1970s British cinema, Nicolas Roeg seemed to represent one of the few real chinks of light. A gifted cinematographer, he moved to directing and quickly established a reputation as a distinctly personal film-maker. With their jagged cutting and disconcerting time shifts, his films didn't look like the work of anyone else and their dark themes of destructive sexuality and confused identity made them sharply provocative." - Robert Shail, British Film Directors: A Critical Guide
TSPDT Rank: 77
Essential Films:
Performance
Walkabout
Don't Look Now
Bad Timing
Eureka
Biggest Fans:
Liveinphoenix (6)
97) Jacques Rivette
108.5 points / 3 votes
[imgsize 320x250]http://filmpressplus.com/wp-content/upl ... ivette.jpg[/imgsize]
"Jacques Rivette is one of the most highly regarded directors of the French New Wave. Throughout his career, he has offered a variety of complex experiences, from the epic Out 1 (1971) to the delicate La belle noiseuse (1991). Admittedly, such movies require a degree of intellectual commitment from spectators that is at odds with conventional viewing habits. Yet despite, or perhaps because of, the difficult nature of Rivette's work, the rewards are often all the greater... Rivette remains a key figure of the French New Wave, and the creator of some of cinema's most challenging films." - Guy Crucianelli, 501 Movie Directors
TSPDT Rank: 86
Essential Films:
L'Amour fou
Out 1
Celine and Julie Go Boating
Le Pont du Nord
La Belle noiseuse
Biggest Fans:
CharlieDriggs (10)
96) Asghar Farhadi
113.4 points / 4 votes
[imgsize 300x250]http://i.ndtvimg.com/mt/movies/2012-05/ ... arhadi.jpg[/imgsize]
“Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. … His most recent film, A Separation (2011) (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin), became a sensation. It got critical acclaim inside and outside of Iran; Roger Ebert called it "the best picture of the year," and it was awarded the Crystal Simorgh from Fajr Film Festival, Golden Bear and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury from Berlin International Film Festival, and also won Best Foreign Language Film from The Boston Society of Film Critics, Chicago and Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review, Golden Globes, César Award, Independent Spirit Award, and ultimately the Academy Award in the 'Best Foreign Language Film of the Year,' making him the first Iranian filmmaker ever to win an Oscar. His Oscar acceptance speech at the 84th Academy Awards, a message of peace in tense political times in his country, made him an instant hero amongst Iranians.” – The IMDb
TSPDT Rank: Not Ranked
Essential Films:
A Separation
Biggest Fans:
Charlie Driggs (15)
Gillingham (20)
Re: AM Auteur Poll 2014: The Results!
Great start Jimmy Jazz. Glad to see the turnout was so high.
I expected to see Nicolas Roeg much later (I assumed at least Jirin and Gillingham would have put him high on their lists and now I see that at least one of them even did not vote for him at all.
Asghar Farhadi would have been on my list if I had seen more movies by him (A Separation (2011) and Le passé (2013) are one of the best movies of their years but those are the only movies I've seen by him. Same happened with Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques are one of the best movies of the decade (60s)). I actually break my own rule with Clouzot. I vote for him (#91) although I've seen only two movies by him (One of my rules was: I must have seen at least three movies by director).
I expected to see Nicolas Roeg much later (I assumed at least Jirin and Gillingham would have put him high on their lists and now I see that at least one of them even did not vote for him at all.
Asghar Farhadi would have been on my list if I had seen more movies by him (A Separation (2011) and Le passé (2013) are one of the best movies of their years but those are the only movies I've seen by him. Same happened with Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques are one of the best movies of the decade (60s)). I actually break my own rule with Clouzot. I vote for him (#91) although I've seen only two movies by him (One of my rules was: I must have seen at least three movies by director).
Re: AM Auteur Poll 2014: The Results!
Sorry for the delay, folks! Back to unveiling the results:
95) Edward Yang
114.1 points / 3 votes
[imgsize 250x250]https://33.media.tumblr.com/1762a6d990d ... o1_500.jpg[/imgsize]
“Edward Yang is in the intriguing position of being one of the most gifted, and least seen, filmmakers in the world, at least for American audiences. His films express the confusion, anxiety, and sheer beauty of societal transformation. Yang also equates the macrocosmic and microcosmic, making the lives of his characters stand in for the greater, less visible processes of social change. Along with Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, Yang is one of the most visible faces of the Taiwanese New Wave, possibly the most brilliant filmmaking movement in the world today... A shared trait of all Yang’s films is a complexity resistant to quick summary or explication. Each of his films possesses a difficulty and depth that requires multiple viewings to parse. Even elements of plot and character development are not always clear on first viewing." - Saul Austerlitz, Senses of Cinema
TSPDT Rank: 60
Essential Films:
Taipei Story
The Terrorizers
A Brighter Summer Day
Mahjong
Yi Yi
Biggest Fans:
JimmyJazz (15)
Jirin (19)
94) Michel Gondry
114.3 points / 2 votes
[imgsize 220x280]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qvmXbPbFY1g/U ... Gondry.jpg[/imgsize]
“He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui. …Gondry was the drummer of the band and also directed their video clips in which it was possible to see his strange world, influenced by the 60s and by his childhood. One of his videos was shown on MTV and when Björk saw it, she asked him to make her first solo video for 'Human Behaviour'. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed five other Björk's videos, benefiting by the huge budgets. Hollywood became interested in Gondry's success and he directed his first feature movie Human Nature (2001), adapting Charlie Kaufman's scenario, which was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. Although it wasn't a big success, this film allowed him to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular independent film and he and his co-writers won an Oscar for it.” - The IMDb
TSPDT Rank: Not Ranked
Essential Films:
Björk Music Videos
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Biggest Fans:
Maschine Man (1)
93) Roberto Rossellini
118.7 points / 5 votes
[imgsize 220x280]http://hilobrow.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... ellini.jpg[/imgsize]
"Roberto Rossellini was christened "the father of modern film" by Cahiers du Cinéma. Along with Jean Renoir, he was the most important influence on the Nouvelle Vague directors - and beyond them, on Michelangelo Antonioni and anyone who thinks seriously about realism and humanism in cinema, from the Dardenne Brothers to Lars von Trier and the other members of the Dogme collection." - Tom Charity, The Rough Guide to Film
TSPDT Rank: 26
Essential Films:
Rome, Open City
Paisa
Germany, Year Zero
Stromboli
Viaggio in Italia
Biggest Fans:
JimmyJazz (9)
Greg (17)
92) Masaki Kobayashi
118.8 points / 4 votes
[imgsize 220x280]http://i2.listal.com/image/1857063/600f ... ayashi.jpg[/imgsize]
“Attended art classes at Waseda University. His work with the Shochiku film company was interrupted by becoming a POW during the Sino-Japanese war. His most famous film, the epic "The Human Condition", set in a Manchurian forced labour camp, was partly based on his experience of wartime incarceration. With films like "Hara-Kiri" and "Kwaidan", he came to be feted in the 1960's as a master of both the samurai movie and the supernatural genre.” - The IMDb
TSPDT Rank: Not Ranked
Essential Films:
The Human Condition Trilogy
Harakiri
Kwaidan
Biggest Fans:
Stephan (8)
91) Steve McQueen
119.3 points / 4 votes
[imgsize 230x280]http://www.departures.com/sites/default ... rector.jpg[/imgsize]
“With his outsider art films, culminating in 12 Years a Slave he forced viewers into a new way of seeing, and feeling, the body and soul in extreme distress. To a half-century of moviegoers and TV fans, the name Steve McQueen meant a terse cowboy with squinty blue eyes. He starred in The Magnificent Seven and Bullitt, loved racing motorcycles and fast cars and died of cancer at 50, in 1980. Then, in 2008, came Hunger, the spare, scalding film biography of IRA volunteer Bobby Sands, who starved himself to death in protest against his British captors. Festival and art-house audiences took admiring notice of the fiercely disciplined central performance by Michael Fassbender, and of the film’s director, an Englishman of Grenadian descent. Viewers had to do a little brain shift and realize he had the same name as the old movie star. Now there was a new Steve McQueen. That Steve McQueen. … With luscious, remorseless artistry, he has taught us to see things his unique way. And now our Steve McQueen is the Steve McQueen.” - Richard Corliss, TIME
TSPDT Rank: Not Ranked
Essential Films:
Hunger
Shame
12 Years a Slave
Biggest Fans:
bootsy (14)
95) Edward Yang
114.1 points / 3 votes
[imgsize 250x250]https://33.media.tumblr.com/1762a6d990d ... o1_500.jpg[/imgsize]
“Edward Yang is in the intriguing position of being one of the most gifted, and least seen, filmmakers in the world, at least for American audiences. His films express the confusion, anxiety, and sheer beauty of societal transformation. Yang also equates the macrocosmic and microcosmic, making the lives of his characters stand in for the greater, less visible processes of social change. Along with Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, Yang is one of the most visible faces of the Taiwanese New Wave, possibly the most brilliant filmmaking movement in the world today... A shared trait of all Yang’s films is a complexity resistant to quick summary or explication. Each of his films possesses a difficulty and depth that requires multiple viewings to parse. Even elements of plot and character development are not always clear on first viewing." - Saul Austerlitz, Senses of Cinema
TSPDT Rank: 60
Essential Films:
Taipei Story
The Terrorizers
A Brighter Summer Day
Mahjong
Yi Yi
Biggest Fans:
JimmyJazz (15)
Jirin (19)
94) Michel Gondry
114.3 points / 2 votes
[imgsize 220x280]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qvmXbPbFY1g/U ... Gondry.jpg[/imgsize]
“He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui. …Gondry was the drummer of the band and also directed their video clips in which it was possible to see his strange world, influenced by the 60s and by his childhood. One of his videos was shown on MTV and when Björk saw it, she asked him to make her first solo video for 'Human Behaviour'. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed five other Björk's videos, benefiting by the huge budgets. Hollywood became interested in Gondry's success and he directed his first feature movie Human Nature (2001), adapting Charlie Kaufman's scenario, which was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. Although it wasn't a big success, this film allowed him to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular independent film and he and his co-writers won an Oscar for it.” - The IMDb
TSPDT Rank: Not Ranked
Essential Films:
Björk Music Videos
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Biggest Fans:
Maschine Man (1)
93) Roberto Rossellini
118.7 points / 5 votes
[imgsize 220x280]http://hilobrow.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... ellini.jpg[/imgsize]
"Roberto Rossellini was christened "the father of modern film" by Cahiers du Cinéma. Along with Jean Renoir, he was the most important influence on the Nouvelle Vague directors - and beyond them, on Michelangelo Antonioni and anyone who thinks seriously about realism and humanism in cinema, from the Dardenne Brothers to Lars von Trier and the other members of the Dogme collection." - Tom Charity, The Rough Guide to Film
TSPDT Rank: 26
Essential Films:
Rome, Open City
Paisa
Germany, Year Zero
Stromboli
Viaggio in Italia
Biggest Fans:
JimmyJazz (9)
Greg (17)
92) Masaki Kobayashi
118.8 points / 4 votes
[imgsize 220x280]http://i2.listal.com/image/1857063/600f ... ayashi.jpg[/imgsize]
“Attended art classes at Waseda University. His work with the Shochiku film company was interrupted by becoming a POW during the Sino-Japanese war. His most famous film, the epic "The Human Condition", set in a Manchurian forced labour camp, was partly based on his experience of wartime incarceration. With films like "Hara-Kiri" and "Kwaidan", he came to be feted in the 1960's as a master of both the samurai movie and the supernatural genre.” - The IMDb
TSPDT Rank: Not Ranked
Essential Films:
The Human Condition Trilogy
Harakiri
Kwaidan
Biggest Fans:
Stephan (8)
91) Steve McQueen
119.3 points / 4 votes
[imgsize 230x280]http://www.departures.com/sites/default ... rector.jpg[/imgsize]
“With his outsider art films, culminating in 12 Years a Slave he forced viewers into a new way of seeing, and feeling, the body and soul in extreme distress. To a half-century of moviegoers and TV fans, the name Steve McQueen meant a terse cowboy with squinty blue eyes. He starred in The Magnificent Seven and Bullitt, loved racing motorcycles and fast cars and died of cancer at 50, in 1980. Then, in 2008, came Hunger, the spare, scalding film biography of IRA volunteer Bobby Sands, who starved himself to death in protest against his British captors. Festival and art-house audiences took admiring notice of the fiercely disciplined central performance by Michael Fassbender, and of the film’s director, an Englishman of Grenadian descent. Viewers had to do a little brain shift and realize he had the same name as the old movie star. Now there was a new Steve McQueen. That Steve McQueen. … With luscious, remorseless artistry, he has taught us to see things his unique way. And now our Steve McQueen is the Steve McQueen.” - Richard Corliss, TIME
TSPDT Rank: Not Ranked
Essential Films:
Hunger
Shame
12 Years a Slave
Biggest Fans:
bootsy (14)
Re: AM Auteur Poll 2014: The Results!
Well, I made a massive mistake in the calculations folks, so I will be re-rolling the first part of the results. I am deeply sorry for this everybody, but the way the results were unveiling I was going to leave out a major auteur who received quite a lot of points.
Again, sorry everybody!
Again, sorry everybody!