SCFZ poll: Mrinal Sen

[flip]

Polling the films of director Mrinal Sen

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Sen 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: greennui, bure, roscoe, kanafani, greg x, silga, oscarwerner, john ryan, mrcarmady, umbugbene, evelyn, m arkadin, jiri, 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 definitely use the extended rules:

- if you have seen an odd number of Sen films, you can round up instead of down when determining the length of your ballot (e.g. if you've seen 7, you can list 4 instead of the usual 3)

- if you have seen more than 10, your ballot can extend past 5 films, subject to the restriction above

[flip]

Suddenly, One Day

seen two, should definitely see more, because Suddenly, One Day was amazing

[Lencho of the Apes]

Seen three, I'm happy voting for

The Man With The Axe

[Umbugbene]

Seen 6 and liked them all

1. Antareen (The Confined)
2. Bhuvan Shome
3. Padatik

It was a hard choice to pick Padatik instead of Suddenly, One Day because they're both so good.

Besides me it looks like only NRH has seen Antareen. Nobody watched Mohabbatein on my recommendation in the SRK poll, so I hope I can do better this time. I think Antareen will go over well here. I only discovered it last July, and I've already watched it four times... I'm kind of obsessed with it right now.

[brian d]

seen 12

baishey shrivana
calcutta 71
and quiet rolls the dawn
padatik
bhuvan shome
in search of famine

[john ryan]

Seen 6

1. The Case is Closed
2. And Quiet Rolls the Dawn
3. In Search of Famine

[thoxans]

Mohabbatein

i watchlisted it, just so you know! don't want you to feel as though your rec went ignored. just don't have time for many movies rn, esp ones that are +3.5hrs long ::headexplodes::

sadly, seen zero sen...

[flip]

Seen three

lencho you can pick our next director if you like! and i know you've passed the last couple of times, so if you'd like me just to skip your turn from now on, let me know and i'll do that.

[Umbugbene]

i watchlisted it, just so you know! don't want you to feel as though your rec went ignored. just don't have time for many movies rn, esp ones that are +3.5hrs long

Thanks Thoxans... any self pity was tongue in cheek, but I'm still happy someone else will find out whether Mohabbatein's any good. Antareen's only an hour and a half though... it's available on Mubi, and NRH loved it too.

[nrh]

and quiet rolls the dawn
the case is closed
antareen

man i hate the english translations for ek din pratidin and kharij, just totally ridiculous.

antrareen is great, for some reason a lot of people don't rank it particularly well but i think's it's a fascinating little chamber piece, tagore's haunted 19th century mansions transposed to an antiseptic modern apartment and mysterious voices over the telephone.

i wish more of his films were available in decent quality, and it's hard to tell whether the officially listed runtimes in are wrong or if we're watching all sorts of cut versions...

[rischka]

the case is closed
in search of famine

[Lencho of the Apes]

I'll pass, Flip.

[brian d]

man i hate the english translations for ek din pratidin and kharij, just totally ridiculous.

i guess they were trying to sell more tickets to english-speaking audiences, given how much we adore the novels of sholokhov?

[flip]

...

nrh you can pick our next director if you want!

[nrh]

do we have enough for jerry lewis, or otar iosseliani?

[flip]

we can find out. i've only seen 2 lewis-directed films (but would definitely watch more), and 1 iosseliani (which was great), so i can't help. if anyone has seen 6+ films directed either by lewis or by iosseliani, please post here!

[Curtis, baby]

Only 4 by Lewis but will look into watching some more, so I might be able to help next round

[brian d]

10 iosseliani, none by lewis

[thoxans]

7 lewis as director
18 lewis as actor (not that it matters)
0 iosseliani

[Umbugbene]

5 of each, but I don't remember the Iosselianis, so my ballot would be blank. The Lewises should be easy to rank.

[rischka]

i got 11 iosseliani and 0 lewis

[oscarwerner]

9 iosseliani,
0 lewis. sorry.

[flip]

do we have enough for jerry lewis, or otar iosseliani?

iosseliani clearly works, and lewis might, but we'd need at least one more reply on him. if you're happy to go ahead with iosseliani, i can start that poll right away, but if you'd prefer we find out more on lewis, i can wait for that.

[nrh]

a little disappointed by the lack of support for the total filmmaker but let's do iosseliani!

[MrCarmady]

none by lewis

jealous

[brian d]

none by lewis

jealous

i don't even feel bad. not even a little bit

[MrCarmady]

joking aside, the ladies man is a master-class in framing, maybe i should re-visit it, preferably on mute

[thoxans]

there’s some real shit to be had amidst the heightened cartoonish antics, which is something to behold, since it’s so sparingly achieved. also, helps to think that jerry was basically doing silent films, except the volume’s notched up to a 10

[flip]

we got exactly to ten films, no idea if the results are surprising in any way:

results

1. And Quiet Rolls the Dawn (1979) — 8 pts
2. The Case is Closed (1982) — 7 pts
3. Baishey Shrivana (1960) — 5 pts
4. Antareen (1994) — 4 pts
4. Calcutta 71 (1971) — 4 pts
6. Padatik (1973) — 3 pts
6. Bhuvan Shome (1969) — 3 pts
8. In Search of Famine (1981) — 2.5 pts
9. The Man With the Axe (1978) — 1 pt
9. Suddenly, One Day (1989) — 1 pt