SCFZ poll: Marcel L'Herbier

[flip]

Polling the films of director Marcel L'Herbier

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the L'Herbier 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 Tuesday, 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: greg x, wba, greennui, umbugbene, ofrene, mesnalty, john ryan, silga, mrcarmady, evelyn, nrh, roscoe, brian d

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]

we'll use the extended rules for this:

- if you have seen an odd number of l'herbier films, you can round up instead of down when determining how many films you can vote for (so if you have seen 7, you can vote for 4 instead of the usual three)

- if you have seen more than 10 l'herbier, your ballot can extend past five films. so if you have seen 13, say, you can vote for up to 7 films. longer ballots will help ensure we can reach a top ten (6th, 7th and 8th place films get 0.5, 0.3 and 0.1 points respectively)

for this poll, i'd encourage anyone who has seen several l'herbier to vote for as many films as they're eligible to vote for, because otherwise we might not have much of a poll unless there are several l'herbier viewers who didn't reply in the thread where he was nominated

[rischka]

l'argent
feu mathias pascal
el dorado

like gance i think he's more creative in his silent period. however i enjoyed la nuit fantastique once i was able to stay awake! the somnombulance and dream logic were very effective

[brian d]

seen 10 11

el dorado
l'argent
l'inhumaine
l'homme du large
feu mathias pascal
la nuit fantastique

[Holymanm]

unconvinced that this isn't a made-up director... but seen 0

[greennui]

4.

Le Diable au cœur

[Umbugbene]

Seen 8

1. La nuit fantastique
2. L'inhumaine
3. L'argent
4. Feu Mathias Pascal

Some more beautiful stills from Nuit fantastique:

[brian d]

ok, gonna try to watch la nuit fantastique tomorrow. you sold me on it.

[liquidnature]

Just seen one, La nuit fantastique, which I liked a lot at the time. L'Herbier's L'argent has long been on my watchlist since it was the favorite film of someone on an older forum.

[wba]

01. The Fantastic Night (1942)

L'Herbier seen: 1

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Seen zero, but I'll try to watch La Nuit Fantastique and Le Bercail for this. Le Bercail looks thematically interesting and features a main character named Evelyne, so I'm sold.

[St. Gloede]

Seen 9:

Le diable au coeur / Little Devil May Care
L'argent
Eldorado
La nuit fantastique
Feu Mathias Pascal

[sally]

wow i just realised i have 4 l'herbier in my to watch pile (+6 already seen), and they're all silents! (including le bercail) so pretty good odds on watching some more before next week. (had been saving few mathias pascal for a proper ivan session, i've so few of his left to see - if it rains this weekend and i can't go bog-diving, i will do it)

[mesnalty]

Seen 2:

1. L'Inhumaine

[Lencho of the Apes]

so few of his left to see

While you were away, I turned up a copy of Surrender (1927)...

I hope you're not talking about Trainspotter-style bog-diving, I will be extremely disappointed in you. I expect better.

[Umbugbene]

Found Le vertige (L'Herbier's Vertigo) on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lifNGUrWkw0

French intertitles, Spanish subtitles, but if you turn on English autotranslate you'll understand almost everything. It doesn't alter my L'Herbier rankings, but I'm glad I watched it. Marvelous sets, and an uncanny parallel to Hitchcock's Vertigo.

[sally]

so few of his left to see

While you were away, I turned up a copy of Surrender (1927)...

I hope you're not talking about Trainspotter-style bog-diving, I will be extremely disappointed in you. I expect better.

yes? i heard it's dreadful, but yes pls?

and no, i'm not that punk any more. i meant standing in some mud on the moors. (i live in a very specific set of ted hughes poems (elmet ones) and the brontes are in the next valley, so it's romantic mud, but i still may have been a cow in a previous life) its what i do everyday instead of watching movies now. yell at sheep mostly.

okay gonna watch a l'herbier now. my experience so far has been style over. anything, but maybe i was watching the wrong movies.

[sally]

oh god. but what style.

[Lencho of the Apes]

dreadful

I think people are outraged by the content more than thinking it's ill-made. It certainly dances nimbly around questions of consensual activity and such. Anyway, it weren't nothing but a youtube thing, PM has been sent.

[sally]

oh i LOVE questions of consensual activity *face*

le diable au coeur was gorgeous. it had sea stuff in it. jaque was supercute. and yet....

[flip]

.

rischka, you can choose our next director if you like!

[flip]

and i'll leave this poll open a little longer in the hope that more ballots come in (or that someone extends an already-posted ballot). so far, only seven different films have received votes, so we aren't close to a top ten.

i've tallied the ballots so far, so if anyone wants to edit or extend their ballot above, please quote it in a new post, and then post the edited ballot separately, so i can compare old and new and adjust the tabulation easily. thanks!

[sally]

oooh soz, i totally forgot, i watched a whole one, which seeing as i've watched about 10 films in total in 3 months is a fair effort (fairly sure f m p would have made it to my list cuz ivan but that's a treat i'll save for now)

seen 7

le diable au coeur
l'homme du large

[nrh]

l'homme du large
scent of the woman in black
mystery of the yellow room

had hoped to see some more but not sure that'll work out any time soon

[rischka]

.

rischka, you can choose our next director if you like!

pass

[greennui]

.

rischka, you can choose our next director if you like!

pass

I remember you suggesting Käutner a while back. Maybe he'd work now with the extended rules?

[rischka]

let's find out. i've got 7 and several more i could watch

[greennui]

I got 8.

[MrCarmady]

I've only got a couple but they're both very good so hope we can get the numbers on this one.

[wba]

I've got 12 Käutners.