SCFZ

Polling the films of director Louis Feuillade

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Feuillade 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: oscarwerner, greennui, mesnalty, bure, ofrene, arkheia

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

Bout de Zan Steals an Elephant
Le Recit du Colonel

seen five

seen 27

tih minh
fantômas
les vampires
barrabas

i got 8

tih minh
les vampires
le récit du colonel
le cœur et l'argent

les vampires
tih minh
fantômas
judex
barrabas

Only seen 5 shorts by Feuillade. I have Blu-Rays of Fantomas and Les Vampires, though, and I'm super eager to watch them; saving them for winter break when i'll hopefully have time to luxuriously dig in.

1. The Pumpkin Race (1907)
2. A Four-Year-Old Heroine (1907)

So we’re counting both Les Vampires and Fantomas as one film each and not dividing them episodically?

Anyways my vote:
LES VAMPIRES

Seen 10, but mostly shorts.

1. Les vampyres
2. Judex

grabmymask wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2019 1:37 am So we’re counting both Les Vampires and Fantomas as one film each and not dividing them episodically?

weirdly i always think of the fantomas films as separate, and les vampires/judex/tih min/barabbas as single films...maybe that's just dumb though.

looks like i'm picking next. i'd still love to see polls for:

marcel l'herbier
jean grémillon
marguerite duras
miklós jancsó
vera chytilová
jean rollin

if those don't work, i'm open to:

jesús franco

if still no, i'm wondering when we make the drop down to directors who didn't make many films, like:

ritwik ghatak
djibril diop mambéty

if that doesn't work either, i'm going to pick someone really shitty like david fincher or peter jackson and then i'll be tempted to not vote for any films from the director i've chosen (or just pass to someone else).

Tih Minh
Erreur Tragique
Judex
La Tare
Le Trust, Ou Les Batailles De L'Argent

I've seen 10+ for Franco , but not for anyone else that Brian named.

i have:
jean grémillon: 8
marguerite duras: 13
miklós jancsó: 8

also forgot i've seen fantomas. why's it split into 5 on letterboxd but les vampires has one collective option plus individ episodes

Back in the '90s some of the Fantomas episodes were marketed on VHS as individual movies. That probably explains why Letterboxd and others treat them individually.

ah that makes sense.

i watched the heart & the money and shed a tear at an 18 min film, think that's a record for me. damn you feuillade, and your succinctly sublime film poetry.

there's this: https://letterboxd.com/film/fantomas-the-complete-saga/

Les vampires and Judex both also have the individual parts and the collective options. I'm sure Feuillade would want the film to be judged as a whole and not just by its individual parts, but I could be wrong.

edit: I've changed the name on tmdb to Fantômas, which should show up on letterboxd within 24 hours. Not sure who created the title "The Complete Saga" but I think that is a bit superfluous; every reference including the source literature refer to the entire serial/saga simply after its titular character - Fantômas.

Also, I've seen 2 Feuillade, Judex and Fantomas, vote goes to:

1. Fantomas

jean grémillon: 0 (have 3 on my drive, need to watch)
marguerite duras: 0 (same)
miklós jancsó: 4 (love him dearly)

Tih Minh and Judex are one unified narrative, Fantomas isn't.

would love some more feedback on the names brian d suggested - it sounds like we're close on some of them, so hopefully at least one will work.

i suppose fairly soon i'll need to work out how to poll directors like ghatak, mambety, and parajanov who didn't make enough films (or at least not enough that people can see) for a top ten. i think we'd need to change the rules a bit, but i have to think about how.

i've seen some of fantomas but i don't remember which ones so i can't include it. i think like lencho says it's much more episodic

gremillon: 7
l'herbier: 6
jancso: 5
duras: 4

Can't help with any, all less than 8 seen. Well, other than the two he said he wouldn't vote for...

Seen only Fantomas by Louis Feuillade. Very long ago and can`t vote.
Other directors on vote:
Jean Grémillon- 0
Marcel l'Herbier - 1
Marguerite Duras-3
Miklós Jancsó - 7
Vera Chytilová-8
Jean Rollin-3
Jesús Franco -5

I'd love to help with the top three because they're all great directors, but I've seen only 7 L'Herbiers, 6 Grémillons, and 6 by Duras. If any more were available I'd put down everything to watch them.

Feuillade seen: 16

1. Les Vampires (1915)
2. Fantomas (1913)
3. Judex (1916)
4. Tragic Error (1913)
5. The Trust, or The Battles for Money (1911)

marcel l'herbier - 4
jean grémillon - 4
marguerite duras - 8
miklós jancsó - 0
vera chytilová - 1
jean rollin - 0
jesús franco - 2

i'm at 6 gremillon but i've been DYING to watch more gremillon for ages. no time like the present i guess. will update if/when i get to 8/10

i don't want it to be the case that some scfzers can't nominate directors they like, so we'll go with marguerite duras for our next poll, since she seemed closest to meeting the thresholds. i'll modify the rules slightly to increase the chances the poll works well.

Seen 5.

Le cœur et l'argent
Les Vampires

our final list of thirteen films includes less than 2% of feuillade's total output, according to imdb (which says he directed 692 films!). very close race for the top spot, tih minh almost won, which i assume would have been a surprise since les vampires has ten times more views on imdb. i was expecting more ballots for this poll, and a longer final list considering how prolific feuillade was, so will still accept ballots posted today.

results

1. Les Vampires (1915) -- 21 pts
2. Tih Minh (1918) -- 17 pts
3. Erreur Tragique (1913) -- 11 pts
3. Fantomas (1913) -- 11 pts
5. Judex (1916) -- 9 pts
6. Le Coeur et l'Argent (1912) -- 7 pts
7. Le Recit du Colonel (1907) -- 3 pts
7. Vendemiaire (1918) -- 3 pts
9. Le Trust, ou Les Batailles de l'Argent (1911) -- 2 pts
9. Barrabas (1919) -- 2 pts
9. Bout-de-Zan Steals an Elephant (1913) -- 2 pts
9. La Tare (1911) -- 2 pts
9. The Pumpkin Race (1907) -- 2 pts
14. A Four-Year-Old Heroine (1907) -- 1 pt
14. A Roman Orgy (1911) -- 1 pt

A great many of his films are lost.

lencho, i never understand your signatures, but they never fail to bring a smile to my face

sorry flip, i've been thinking it's thursday all day. if it's not too late, i like the pretty feuillade:

1. Erreur Tragique (1913)
2. Le Coeur et l'Argent (1912)
3. Vendémiaire (1918)
4. Les Vampires (1915)
5. A Roman Orgy (1911)

if anyone has a watchable copy of tih minh, please share...