SCFZ poll: Peter Bogdanovich

[Searchlike]

He knows how good film must look like, but didn`t manage to create his own storytelling, style.

Well said, I agree, I've had a better time reading Blogdanovich than watching Bogdanovich and I can barely remember the ones I've seen.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Hmm, only seen two Boggies, one of them because Thoxans was pressuring me. I guess I wouldn't mind voting for

Targets.

Seen ten Tod Browning.

[rischka]

i got 9 browning and one to watch hooray

[Holymanm]

Paper Moon

Seen 2

[Joks Trois]

Seen 18. He peaked early and went downhill after the mid 70's before falling off a cliff. Paper Moon is his best and most rewatchable for me. The cast and look are pretty much perfect, and the balance of drama and comedy is just right.

1.Paper Moon
2.The Last Picture Show
3.What's Up Doc
4.Targets
5.They All Laughed

Surprised to see any votes for She's Funny That Way. It was a poor man's Woody Allen from memory.

[Joks Trois]

But did he really "fuck up" his career? As a director, at least, he's regularly directed films from 1968 till 1993 and since then two theatrical feature films (as well as two documentaries). And he directed over half a dozen Television movies between 1995 and 2004 after his last two theatrical releases in 1992 and 1993 were huge commercial flops.

Depends on how you measure it. What's Up Doc was one of the biggest hits of its time, and he was a critically acclaimed director whose generally films did well at the box office. He was calling the shots and in control of projects and was in the media a lot, especially while dating Cybil etc, then after he made several bombs in a row from At Long Last Love onward, everything changed, then he went broke in the 80's and was forced to be a director for hire. He was just another director at that point. I'd say that is quite a fall. Yes he was still working, but not necessarily on his own terms.

As for the comparison to Milius, he did not have anywhere near the success that Bogo did in the early to mid 70's. Not even close. The myth of Milius is better than the reality of him.

Anyway, what ultimately did Bogo in is that he was backwards looking. He got lucky with What's Up Doc and assumed that people would be interested to watch more updated throwbacks. Nope. After he stopped trying to do that, his films became increasingly mediocre and listless. e.g. The Thing Called Love. Even Texasville, for all of its merits, is a very anonymous film, stylistically speaking, and it's surprising that it even got made.

Rosenbaum actually believes his later work is superior as it's less reliant on his formative influences, but that is contrarian nonsense to me. His work after the late 70's/early 80's is just bland and/or workmanlike.

[flip]

Surprised to see any votes for She's Funny That Way. It was a poor man's Woody Allen from memory.

i could understand someone calling it a poor man's bogdanovich, but not a poor man's woody allen, but if i recall, you don't like noises off! either, so i don't think you're the audience for those kinds of throwback ingenious farcical setups.

[Joks Trois]

SFTW was pretty generic.

I'd rather watch Oscar (with Stallone) or Brain Donors over that and Noises off!

[flip]

well these controversial polls are always fun, i didn't realize so many people had negative opinions of bogdanovich... his films from the five year period from 1968 to 1973 did very well in this poll, the rest of his output not so much. a bit surprised mask didn't get a single vote, since i thought that was one of his better known films (though i hated it so i wasn't going to vote for it )

results

1. Targets (1968) — 21.5 pts
2. What’s Up, Doc? (1972) — 17 pts
3. The Last Picture Show (1971) — 15.5 pts
4. Paper Moon (1973) — 15.3 pts
5. They All Laughed (1981) — 11 pts
6. Noises Off… (1992) — 6 pts
7. Saint Jack (1979) — 5.3 pts
8. She’s Funny That Way (2014) — 5 pts
8. The Thing Called Love (1993) — 5 pts
10. At Long Last Love (1975) — 4 pts
11. Directed by John Ford (1971) — 1.5 pts
12. Daisy Miller (1974) — 1 pt

[flip]

i posted this to letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-274/