SCFZ

Polling the films of director Robert Mulligan

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Mulligan 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 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, rischka, dt, silga, kanafani, brian d, greennui, ofrene, mesnalty, john ryan, roscoe, evelyn, thoxans

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

To Kill a Mockingbird

seen three (also The Nickel Ride and The Other, didn't care for either of those, will try to watch more though)

Seen 4.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. The Rat Race

Seen 2

To kill a Mockingbird

caracortada - you can pick the director we poll next if you like!

I can't say I entirely like Mulligan's style or his movies, but they usually at least have something interesting in them that I can respect. Before the cynicism and doubt of the sixties took hold, there was a period of directness attempted, and sometimes successful. Mulligan has that earnest sincerity thing down pat, which can be grating at times for coming from convictions being preached instead of a feeling of life as lived especially when those convictions are safe, but faultily derived generic liberalism that virtually contradicts its ideals by the manner of imposing them. At the same time Mulligan often has some fine moments in scenes where the actors are given opportunity to dig into the situation and their characters and find something that does ring a little more true and unexpected. The movies chosen all rate about the same to me, so they could be in any order or include some of the others I left out without much difference.

Baby the Rain Must Fall
The Spiral Road
Fear Strikes Out
The Great Imposter
Up the Down Staircase

:holymanm:

I have seen 2: the rat race was sweet and tender. Same time next year was quite lame.

The Rat Race

Seen 11 .
1. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
2. The Other (1972) (underrated horror shot not like a horror, very stylish)
3. Summer of '42 (1971)
4. The Stalking Moon (1968)-my guilty pleasure
5. The Nickel Ride (1974)

up the down staircase
the man in the moon
the nickel ride
the rat race
fear strikes out

*seen fourteen (still need to see love with the proper stranger, the other, and clara's heart)

**there's some interesting stuff about mulligan and more on his (anti)style on girish's blog and here

kanafani wrote: ↑Tue Feb 05, 2019 8:37 pmthe rat race was sweet and tender. Same time next year was quite lame.

hell yeah. the rat race is the best film billy wilder never made, and while same time, next year has a spectacular opening scene and credit sequence (a strangely common theme in even mediocre mulligan movies - perhaps a surprisingly positive carry-over from his television days - including summer of '42 and kiss me goodbye), it gets more and more laughable as it goes on (even though mulligan's sincerity is there, as always)

thoxans wrote: ↑Wed Feb 06, 2019 12:31 amnever made

and up the down staircase is the best feature film that frederick wiseman never made. it's just as claustrophobic in its approach to its subject as a wiseman film, taking place nearly entirely inside of a high school, and just like a wiseman only its opening shots and closing shot give us some reprieve from everything we've just seen. and random meaningless yet interesting stat: mulligan even beat wiseman to the punch, with up the down staircase ('67) coming out one year before wiseman's high school ('68)!

awww no one likes the mulligan man like i do. oh well...

Mulligan fits pretty well with some of the other directors of the time, Ritt, Quine, Brooks, Lumet, Kazan, and maybe early Penn and some others, at a important transitional period for Hollywood, which explains some elements of his style and the movies he made. It's kinda an undercelebrated era compared to what came before it, with the great studio directors, and what came after, the era of independent minded auteurs. Mulligan doesn't really stand out from those others, but he's certainly a notable figure in that changing time.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Seen enough to rate more. Mulligan's okay, but never for me made work as interesting as Ritt, Lumet or Kazan or Penn. I'd like MOCKINGBIRD more if it had more of the salt of the novel, but it's certainly a better film than Sorkin's recent nightmare adaptation is as a play. I might add THE OTHER later, but well.

haven't heard from caracortada yet, if caracortada posts a director nomination before midnight tonight, we'll go with that, but if not, bure can pick our next director!

Any chance we have enough Wes Anderson completists (or near-completists) for a poll? He has 9 features + 2 shorts (not counting promotional shorts for films & commercials)

bure420 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 07, 2019 9:14 pm Any chance we have enough Wes Anderson completists (or near-completists) for a poll? He has 9 features + 2 shorts (not counting promotional shorts for films & commercials)

I have 10 from anderson

I've seen 7 from Wes Anderson.

Seen 9 from Wes Anderson

i've also seen 10 from anderson, so he'll work for sure, i'll start that poll tomorrow unless caracortada makes a nomination in the next 6 hours!

I have somehow avoided Mulligan until this week. I'll try to see enough to vote for at least 3.

Seen 3:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird

Seen 5:

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Other

(Also quite liked The Nickel Ride and Summer of '42 is good enough - did not care too much for The Stalking Moon however, but also remember nothing about it)

Only seen one Mulligan - The Spiral Road - which was pretty great, and totally "Classical Hollywood", but that's not enough to vote.

I've seen 8 from Mulligan.

1. 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
2. 'Up the Down Staircase'
3. 'Summer of '42'
4. 'Same Time, Next Year'

no great surprise in the top slot... and an astounding five films all tied for sixth place:

results

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) -- 17 pts
2. Up the Down Staircase (1967) -- 9 pts
3. Summer of '42 (1971) -- 5 pts
3. Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965) -- 5 pts
3. The Other (1972) -- 5 pts
6. The Spiral Road (1962) -- 4 pts
6. The Man in the Moon (1991) -- 4 pts
6. The Rat Race (1960) -- 4 pts
6. Fear Strikes Out (1957) -- 4 pts
6. The Nickel Ride (1974) -- 4 pts
11. The Stalking Moon (1968) -- 2 pts
11. The Great Impostor (1961) -- 2 pts
13. Same Time, Next Year (1978) -- 1 pt

i'd like to take a moment to apologize to everyone for perhaps the worst dir poll that scfz has conducted thus far in its illustrious history

ha, just saw that comment - i didn't think it was bad at all. i like that we're covering a lot of directors who don't have a really high profile, but when we do that, we'll often get results like this with a lot of low point totals. that's all fine with me. this one is up at letterboxd:

https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-104/

Yeah, I agree with Flip. While it may seem like it's better to cover the most popular directors, there's really not much added value to ranking, say Welles movies as everyone already more or less knows about them, while the Mulligan's of film history actually might get a little boost by providing some ranking of their work. A small thing to be sure, but it can be an interesting one for people who want to really dig in.

Up the Down Staircase has been high on my watchlist for at least a decade, so if only to remind me to see it sometime over the next 10 years this poll was worth it.