SCFZ poll: Fred Zinnemann

[brian d]

seen 5, i'll be a contrarian and vote for his co-directed efforts

redes
people on sunday

[nrh]

i confess to enjoying oklahoma, especially gloria grahame as ado annie. it's a much darker film than people think

oklahoma! the play had a major revival a little over a year ago at st ann's in brooklyn that caused a lot of critics to reappraise the original work. so oklahoma! is officially cool again.

i do wish they had original broadway director mamoulian do the movie though his two final musicals, silk stockings and summer holiday, are pretty good...

[...]

Oklahoma! is pretty great. It's concept is basically in picking up where so many westerns tend to end, with the "settling down" bit and reversing the dynamic over the choices made in partners, from the cowboy torn between the school marm and the saloon girl to being about the choice the woman has to make and what the "wild west" life can imply for the men in their lives. One of the recent revivals wanted to spin the ending a bit to implicate Curly more in the manner of Jud's death, but that wasn't really necessary since the implications are present even with the happy ending the movie and original show provide.

As to the directing, Zinnemann did a great job with it for being in a weirdly difficult position, acting, in a sense, as one of three "auteurs" as Hammerstein demanded a lot of control over the film, which I suppose speaks a bit to how it was originally staged, and Agnes deMille's choreography is a thing unto itself that Zinnemann had to work with. (Oh, and somehow getting Rod Steiger to fit in with everything else was impressive in its own way too.) But even with all that it works exceptionally well.

[nrh]

add to zinnemann's difficulties on oklahoma! the need to shoot the film twice, both in cinemascope and todd-ao

[MrCarmady]

Was also thinking about nominating Zinnemann. Been slacking with these lately but definitely gonna watch Act of Violence as I have been meaning to for ages.

Seen: 4.

1. The Day of the Jackal
2. A Man for All Seasons

Act of Violence was great! So sad, tense, angry, and beautifully shot with a handful of memorable performances. This dude is good. Will try to squeeze in another.

1. The Day of the Jackal
2. Act of Violence

[sally]

have only seen 2 - redes and people on sunday.

i'll go with the pretty one: redes

[mesnalty]

Seen 3:

1. High Noon

[St. Gloede]

For my nomination let's test the waters with the directors listed below. If none of them work I have a couple easy alternates. I'm assuming no one's gone on a Dearden or Bellocchio binge since my last turn when I proposed their names.

Jean-Jacques Beineix (I've seen 8)
René Clément (9)
Christian Petzold (5)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf (15)
Henri-Georges Clouzot (8)

For future note:

Jean-Jacques Beineix (1)
René Clément (8)
Christian Petzold (11)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf (8)
-Henri-Georges Clouzot (11)

[St. Gloede]

Seen 15:

High Noon
The Day of the Jackal
A Man for All Seasons
From Here to Eternity
The Sundowners

[Roscoe]

Seen some Zinnemann -- efficient at best. Apart from PEOPLE ON SUNDAY, which he's not credited on and which I refuse to believe he had any significant impact upon, he's not worth rating. The man's no Wyler.

[Umbugbene]

For future note:

Jean-Jacques Beineix (1)
René Clément (8)
Christian Petzold (11)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf (8)
-Henri-Georges Clouzot (11)

Thanks... looks like Clément, Petzold, and Makhmalbaf would all work for future polls. If anyone wants to nominate any of them, be my guest... I'm not running out of directors yet. I even watched one more Petzold (Transit) this Monday, so I'm up to 6 now.

[---]

seen 4

Oklahoma!
High Noon

[john ryan]

Seen 12

1. Act of Violence
2. From Here to Eternity
3. The Day of the Jackal
4. The Sundowners
5. A Man for All Seasons

[ororama]

1. The Nun's Story
2. From Here to Eternity
3. High Noon
4. The Member of the Wedding
5. Eyes in the Night

I've seen 15 movies directed by Zinnemann.

[flip]

an impressive 19 zinnemann films received some support in our poll, and his only post-1947 feature that didn't get a vote was a hatful of rain (unless i'm missing something, only four of his features got no votes, the other three from 1942-1947, kid glove killer, my brother talks to horses and little mister jim).

zinnemann is also one of a dozen directors who has won best picture more than once - his winning films did well in our poll, #2 and #5 on the final list. if anyone likes oscar trivia, two questions i'll reveal answers to in a couple of days:

- only one director has helmed three best picture winning films - who is it?
- only one director has won best picture twice, yet has only had two nominated films. who is it?

results

1. The Day of the Jackal (1973) -- 27 pts
2. From Here to Eternity (1953) -- 25 pts
3. Act of Violence (1949) -- 22 pts
4. High Noon (1952) -- 20 pts
5. A Man for All Seasons (1966) -- 11 pts
6. The Nun's Story (1959) -- 10 pts
7. Oklahoma! (1955) -- 8 pts
8. Behold a Pale Horse (1964) -- 5 pts
8. Five Days One Summer (1982) -- 5 pts
10. The Search (1948) -- 4 pts
10. Redes (1936) -- 4 pts
10. People on Sunday (1930) -- 4 pts
13. Teresa (1951) -- 3 pts
13. The Sundowners (1960) -- 3 pts
15. The Seventh Cross (1944) -- 2 pts
15. The Member of the Wedding (1952) -- 2 pts
15. The Men (1950) -- 2 pts
18. Julia (1977) -- 1 pt
18. Eyes in the Night (1942) -- 1 pt

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

- only one director has helmed three best picture winning films - who is it?
- only one director has won best picture twice, yet has only had two nominated films. who is it?

First would be William Wyler, I believe. Not sure, but my guess for the second would be Robert Wise.

[flip]

yes, it's wyler, he easily has the most nominations and the most wins

robert wise is a great guess for the second question, he's close, he has two wins, but three nominations (the sand pebbles was his non-winner). two other directors won twice, and lost once, but only one is 2 for 2. i wouldn't have guessed it had i not known the answer, i don't think!

[MrCarmady]

it's not coppola, is it?

[flip]

it's not, he has two wins but he was nominated twice in one year (godfather ii and the conversation) so that made it impossible for him, though he didn't win for apocalpyse now (kramer v kramer won) or godfather iii either

[MrCarmady]

Forman?

[flip]

yes! one flew over the cuckoo's nest and amadeus were his only noms, and both won. if my counts were right when i did them years ago, there are also three directors with 3 noms, 2 wins, one of whom evelyn guessed:

robert wise (won for the sound of music, west side story, didn't win for the sand pebbles)

the other two:

vincente minnelli (won for: an american in paris, gigi, didn't win for father of the bride)

and probably the hardest to guess:

frank lloyd (won for: cavalcade, mutiny on the bounty, didn't win for east lynne)

[MrCarmady]

I was thinking of Minnelli but thought he'd have more nominations than that, interesting. Never heard of Frank Lloyd.

[flip]

up at lbox

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-228/