SCFZ poll: Jean-Pierre Melville

[flip]

Polling the films of director Jean-Pierre Melville

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Melville films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: wba, greg x, ofrene, greennui, evelyn, bure, mesnalty, umbugbene, roscoe, st gloede, brian d, kanafani, silga, oscarwerner, dt., nrh, arkheia, grabmymask, thoxans, john ryan

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[flip]

Bob le Flambeur

seen two

[brian d]

seen 11

le cercle rouge
le samouraï
le silence de la mer
léon morin, priest
les enfants terribles

[ofrene]

seen 8

Army of Shadows
Le Silence de la Mer
Leon Morin, Priest
Le Cercle Rouge

[liquidnature]

Seen 5, all years ago, but I loved them all, will vote for:

L'armée des ombres / Army of Shadows (1969)
Le deuxième souffle (1966)

[flip]

Seen 5

liquidnature, you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

[liquidnature]

Seen 5

liquidnature, you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

ooh, sweet. let me do some digging!

[wba]

Love this guy!

all his films I've seen were outstanding, but these 2 masterpieces are out of this world!!

01. Le doulos "The Finger Man" (1962)
02. Bob le flambeur "Bob the Gambler" (1956)

Melville seen: 4

[liquidnature]

Seen 5

liquidnature, you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

So many choices. I'll nominate Carol Reed, if he doesn't work then Joseph H. Lewis, and if he doesn't work then Henry Hathaway, and if he doesn't work then Miklós Jancsó.

[...]

Le Cercle Rouge
Army of Shadows
Bob le Flambeur
Le Silence de la Mer

Seen 8 Melvilles and have some mixed feelings about them. As craft I'm drawn to them, as there is some excellent work in all I've seen, but as subjects I'm much less enthused as "cool" and gangsters are not at all my thing, and, for a variety of reasons I won't bore people with, I have something of an active dislike for how deeply the shade that branch of filmmaking has cast over popular cinema. Le Samourai, for example, is great filmmaking, but the type of praise it gets around its attitude really bugs me. Don't know what to do with that exactly and I'm not even quite to the root of the issue in my own thinking, but it colors my view of Melville, as well as many other directors, pretty strongly.

[liquidnature]

Something I've always been curious about but never explored an answer to: anyone know why most of Melville's film titles are kept in French and not translated into English, even for international audiences and releases? Is this a preference from Melville or?

[flip]

So many choices. I'll nominate Carol Reed, if he doesn't work then Joseph H. Lewis, and if he doesn't work then Henry Hathaway, and if he doesn't work then Miklós Jancsó.

i'm betting those choices would all work, but since reed is rarely discussed here, to be safe we should check. and as a fallback, we should check on joseph h lewis, though he's probably safe. hathaway will work without question (i've seen 15), so we'll go with him if reed and lewis don't meet the thresholds. so please post here if you've seen 8+ films by carol reed or joseph h lewis! for me:

reed; 3 seen
lewis: 8 seen

[thoxans]

magnet of doom

*seen two

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Seen no Melville - apprehensive to check his stuff out largely for the reasons greg mentions, something around his critical appreciation that, at least in what i've encountered, gets linked up with the alleged attractiveness of emotional and moral detachment, which I can't get behind. But I'll still watch his stuff one day, and perhaps I'll be surprised - Army of Shadows in particular sounds promising.

Carol Reed - seen only 2 (hope he'll work, as i'm eager to see more)
Joseph H. Lewis - seen 11

[Umbugbene]

Seen 13

1. Les enfants terribles
2. Le silence de la mer
3. Le doulos
4. Le cercle rouge
5. Deux hommes dans Manhattan

Seen 11 Carol Reeds and 4 Joseph H. Lewises.

[...]

11 Reeds for me as well. Scads of Hathaways, but only 4 Lewis' though, that's kinda weird. Hard to figure why his movies didn't get more play as compared to so many other directors from Hollywood back in the day.

I do want to see Melville's priest movie someday to see how that fits with his other movies.

[mesnalty]

Seen 5:

1. The Silence of the Sea
2. Army of Shadows

[oscarwerner]

Seen 12.
1. Le Samourai (1967)
2. Army of Shadows (1969)
3. The Red Circle (1970)
4. Bob le flambeur (1955)
5. Second Breath (1966)
-------------
Seen:
12 films by Carol Reed
and 5 by Lewis

[sally]

seen 4.

bob le flambeur

[flip]

Carol Reed will work, so he'll be our next poll! no further need for reports on reed/lewis views.

i might postpone the start of the next poll, depending on how quickly i get settled in to my new home, we'll see...

[kanafani]

Le Cercle Rouge
Army of Shadows
Le Silence de la Mer
Le Samourai
Bob le flambeur

[nrh]

le cercle rouge
bob le flambeur

actually seen a lot less melville than i thought i had, but the ones i've seen i've seen a number of times...

le samourai is an interesting movie, somewhat irritating as a cultural object, and it's fame above his other movies (at least i think this is the case) kind of warps how he's perceived overall. oddly reading the first 2 volumes of piglia's diaries and literary kids in argentina seemed to go out to see melville movies in the theaters an awful lot through the course of the '60s and early '70s.

[rischka]

melville i have 7. many years since i've watched some of them

le silence de la mer
le doulos
le dieuxieme souffle

[---]

seen 10

le samourai
two men in manhattan
un flic
le cercle rouge
le doulos

[Caracortada]

Seen 7.

1. Le Cercle rouge
2. L'Armée des ombres
3. Bob le Flambeur

[Roscoe]

ARMY OF SHADOWS

[john ryan]

Seen 12

1. le samourai
2. army of shadows
3. bob le flambeur
4. le silence de la mer
5. le cercle rouge

[St. Gloede]

Somehow I completely missed this ...

Seen all 13:

Army of Shadows
Le Samourai
Les enfants terribles (Where is the love?)
Bob le flambeur
Le Cercle Rouge

[thoxans]

(Where is the love?)

my thought exactly on magnet of doom. i'm all like 'champs ain't seen it!? or champs seen it and ain't votin for it!?!? and if champs seen it and ain't votin for it then wtf!?!?!?'

[wba]

(Where is the love?)

my thought exactly on magnet of doom. i'm all like 'champs ain't seen it!? or champs seen it and ain't votin for it!?!? and if champs seen it and ain't votin for it then wtf!?!?!?'

Yeah, my thoughts on The Finger Man! How come it isn't up there in the Top 2 or 3, if people have seen it!?!