SCFZ poll: Francesco Rosi

[flip]

Polling the films of director Francesco Rosi.

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Rosi 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 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: greg x, umbugbene, roscoe, bure, greennui, wba, brian d, mesnalty, ofrene, st gloede, john ryan, holymanm

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 use the 'new rules' for this poll:

New Rules

Because Rosi has fewer views than most directors we've polled, I'm changing some of the rules for this poll:

- if you have seen an odd number of his films, you can round up, when dividing by two, instead of down, to determine the length of your ballot. So if you have seen 7 his films, you can vote for 4 films (instead of 3). But please only vote for the additional film if you think it's deserving of a vote.

- if you have seen 11 or more of his films, your ballot can extend beyond 5 films -- if you have seen 13, say, you can vote for up to 7 films. I'll award 0.5, 0.3 and 0.1 points to 6th, 7th and 8th ranked films (and nothing to 9th or later ranked films). Those additional votes will help to get a complete top ten.

[flip]

The Mattei Affair
Hands Over the City

seen three

[Umbugbene]

Seen only 4, but would like to see more.

1. Hands Over the City
2. Salvatore Giuliano

[St. Gloede]

Seen 5, but don't like any of them enough to vote for them (mostly good films though).

[brian d]

seen 2

hands over the city

[oscarwerner]

Seen 8. My favorite pictures:
1.The Mattei Affair (1972)
2.Salvatore Giuliano (1962)
3.Hands Over the City (1963)
4.Illustrious Corpses (1976)

[Holymanm]

Seen 15:

1. Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987)
2. Three Brothers (1981)
3. Illustrious Corpses (1976)
4. Salvatore Giuliano (1962)
5. Carmen (1984)
6. Hands Over the City (1963)
7. The Mattei Affair (1972)
8. Many Wars Ago (1970)

(Ancora uno)

[Curtis, baby]

seen 6

Hands Over the City
Neopolitan Diary
The Mattei Affair

[mesnalty]

Seen 3:

1. Salvatore Giuliano
2. Hands Over the City

[rischka]

salvatore giuliano
christ stopped at eboli

[ofrene]

seen 3

Christ Stopped at Eboli
The Matteo Affair

[Lencho of the Apes]

Christ Stopped At Eboli
Salvatore Giulano

[john ryan]

Seen 9

1. Hands over the City
2. The Mattei Affair
3. Salvatore Giuliano
4. Many Wars Ago
5. Illustrious Corpses

[...]

Christ Stopped at Eboli
Three Brothers
Salvatore Giuliano

[wba]

Of the four I've seen, two were fantastic:

01. Illustrious Corpses (1976)
02. Three Brothers (1981)

Rosi seen: 4

[Holymanm]

Carmen (1984)







Gorgeous flick! I have no idea how much of this is down to changing cinematographers or something, but in the 80s Rosi's pictures suddenly just become all kinds of 'lush' - particularly in Chronicle of a Death Foretold which, unlike this one, still doesn't have a decent release to showcase its mind-blowing beauty on screen. But Carmen does, so I highly recommend leaving the subtitles off (especially if you're at all familiar with the uber famous opera) enjoying the spectacular display. Barbaric Spaniards inexplicably singing! In French! Mountains and swords and buffoonish fops en uniforme!
4/5



Kean (1957)







A matter of some obscurity, how much of this was directed by whom and how much not... but it seems like it was mostly Gassman's project, while Rosi was tasked with much of the actual, err, directing. Certainly it's easier to believe the intense gaze of the camera and the wonderful pans in this were under the care of the future powerhouse director, rather than the comedic actor with very few directing credits under his name... but Gassman is so brilliant acting in this that I'm ready to believe he could do anything else as well. Maybe even nuclear fission.

Just a delightful flick overall; bursting with colour, a delirious tavern brawl, and extremely charming performances by nearly all - excepting the obviously oily aristocracy - and by Anna Maria Ferrero, who absolutely radiates the stuff, in particular. Somewhere between a screwball comedy and a surrealist Ken Russell bio/hagiography, with a little Italian allure added in. Remarkable that this movie is seemingly completely abandoned to history, other than as a tiny footnote as an early Rosi directing credit - and it's easily the funnest movie he ever made.
3.5/5

[Holymanm]

And watched Neapolitan Diary (1992), which is about exactly what you would expect out of Rosi making a doc about Napoli (30 years after Hands Over the City). It has an old Italian director wearing sunglasses and going around talking about architectural planning corruption. Great stuff!

Done watching Rosis for now... will probably read Christ Stopped at Eboli, and maybe by the time I've read it a nice HD rip of the movie will be available; The Truce is a wonderful book, and the movie looks a little baffling, regarding its existing; and The Palermo Connection isn't even available online...

[Holymanm]

Carmen, Kean, and Neapolitan Diary all up in resources - I think I have a few more, some in HD (Salvatore Giuliano, Hands Over the City), if anyone needs them

[flip]

Seen 8.

oscarwerner, you can pick the director we poll next if you want!

[oscarwerner]

Thanks. I propose Roman Polanski. Alternative-Bertrand Tavernier.

[Umbugbene]

I have 15 Polanskis and 8 Taverniers.

[brian d]

well over 10 polanski, just 5 tavernier.

[oscarwerner]

i have 19 Polanski, 10 Tavernier

[flip]

no question polanski will work, so i'll start that soon. tavernier would be interesting to do some time too, someone i don't hear anyone ever talk about at scfz but i'm not sure why that is

[flip]

fairly sure this would not be the expected winner if the poll was done anywhere else, but the #1 film was shown in one of our cups, so it probably was competing on fairer footing with rosi's more seen films in our poll:

results

1. Hands Over the City (1963) -- 15.5 pts
2. Salvatore Giuliano (1962) -- 15 pts
3. The Mattei Affair (1972) -- 12.3 pts
4. Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) -- 8 pts
5. Illustrious Corpses (1976) -- 7 pts
5. Three Brothers (1981) -- 7 pts
7. Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987) -- 5 pts
8. Many Wars Ago (1970) -- 2.1 pts
9. Neapolitan Diary (1992) -- 2 pts
10. Carmen (1984) -- 1 pt

[wba]

fairly sure this would not be the expected winner if the poll was done anywhere else, but the #1 film was shown in one of our cups, so it probably was competing on fairer footing with rosi's more seen films in our poll:

results

1. Hands Over the City (1963) -- 15.5 pts

I always thought Hands over the City was by far the most well-known Rosi, his only canonized movie and the single title commonly associated with him.
So we have the obvious winner, I should say.

[Holymanm]

^ I thought Salvatore Giuliano was it's the only one I've ever heard anyone else talk about

[flip]

yeah, i would have said the palme d'or winner the mattei affair, salvatore giuliano, and christ stopped at eboli were the three best-known rosi films, in some order. not sure why i think that though.

[...]

Salvatore Giuliano is the only Rosi movie on the TSPDT top 1000 and it's been there for a while, Mattei Affair was once on the list but dropped off and Christ Stopped at Eboli was considered a bigger deal back before the turn of the century. Hands Over the City is more the contrarian choice of a "neglected classic" that a lot of film junkies prefer to celebrate.