SCFZ poll: Max Linder

[flip]

Polling the films of director Max Linder

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Linder 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, wba, greennui, umbugbene, ofrene, mesnalty, john ryan, silga, mrcarmady, evelyn, nrh, roscoe, brian d, rischka, karl, holymanm, twodeadmagpies

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 normal rules for now, but if a lot of ballots are shorter than i'm expecting, i'll switch to the extended rules

[flip]

Be My Wife
Max Speaks English

seen four

[Roscoe]

SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK -- mainly for the mirror sequence.
MAX EN CONVALESCENCE

[wba]

Linder!

Need to see more, obviously (though I've seen a few more he didn't direct):

01. Be My Wife (1921)
02. Seven Years Bad Luck (1921)
03. Vive la vie de garcon (1908)
04. Max reprend sa liberte (1912)
05. Max en convalescence (1911)

Linder seen: 9

[wba]

Be My Wife

where did you catch that one, flip?

Been wanting to see it for years, but been only able to find and watch a 13 minute excerpt so far (which was outstanding).

[flip]

oh i'm just basing my vote on the available excerpt, as far as i understand the rest of the film isn't available, and when that's true, i tend to consider the only remaining footage as its own film

[wba]

oh i'm just basing my vote on the available excerpt, as far as i understand the rest of the film isn't available, and when that's true, i tend to consider the only remaining footage as its own film

Ah, too bad, was hoping the thing finally showed up or got digitized! I don't think it's a lost film per se.
I love that excerpt, easily the best thing I've seen from Linder!!

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Unless my eyes deceive me, the full five reels survive and were released on DVD by Kino. Don't know why there isn't more hullabaloo about this, since so many sources say only an abridgment exists. Anyway, I'll put it in the place.

[flip]

oh hold on, i was just assuming based on wba's question (and a quick read on the internet) that the whole version wasn't available. i'm guessing now that i did see the whole thing, since i would have watched it on youtube, and the only version there seems to be the complete one. i don't remember what i saw; i just know from my letterboxd ratings that i liked it better than the other linder shorts i've seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq-pFnYp50E

[wba]

Unless my eyes deceive me, the full five reels survive and were released on DVD by Kino. Don't know why there isn't more hullabaloo about this, since so many sources say only an abridgment exists. Anyway, I'll put it in the place.

[wba]

oh hold on, i was just assuming based on wba's question (and a quick read on the internet) that the whole version wasn't available. i'm guessing now that i did see the whole thing, since i would have watched it on youtube, and the only version there seems to be the complete one. i don't remember what i saw; i just know from my letterboxd ratings that i liked it better than the other linder shorts i've seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq-pFnYp50E

wow, great find! Sadly the aspect ratio here is totally off, and there is a very strange digital filter all over the picture, so this version is close to unwatchable.
I saw the excerpt on some DVD release a long time ago (maybe 15 years?), and was wondering about this film ever since.

[MrCarmady]

Never seen any so gonna give Be My Wife a go, thanks Evelyn!

[Holymanm]

Who's this man

[MrCarmady]

Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle (16 December 1883 – 1 November 1925), known professionally as Max Linder (French: [maks lɛ̃.dɛʁ]), was a French actor, director, screenwriter, producer and comedian of the silent film era. His onscreen persona "Max" was one of the first recognizable recurring characters in film. He has also been cited as the "first international movie star"[1] and "the first film star anywhere".[2]

Born in Ca

[greennui]

Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle (16 December 1883 – 1 November 1925), known professionally as Max Linder (French: [maks lɛ̃.dɛʁ]), was a French actor, director, screenwriter, producer and comedian of the silent film era. His onscreen persona "Max" was one of the first recognizable recurring characters in film. He has also been cited as the "first international movie star"[1] and "the first film star anywhere".[2]

Born in Ca

Also

As a consequence of his war service, Linder suffered from continuing health problems, including bouts of severe depression. In 1923, he married eighteen-year-old Hélène "Jean" Peters, who came from a wealthy family and with whom he had a daughter, Maud (1924-2017), also known as "Josette".[6]

Linder and his wife may have made a suicide pact. In February 1924, they were both found unconscious at a hotel in Vienna, Austria, though this was explained as an accidental overdose of "sleeping powder."[7] The incident was covered up by the physician reporting it as an accidental overdose of barbiturates[citation needed]. In late October 1925, Max and Hélène reportedly attended a Paris screening of Quo Vadis (in which the main characters, as a reporter put it, "bleed themselves to death"),[8] and died on 1 November in a similar manner. They drank Veronal, injected morphine and slashed their wrists.[4][9]

There is still some question, however, as to whether the deaths were really a result of a suicide pact, or whether Max murdered his much-younger wife or pressured her into killing herself. On 2 November 1925, The New York Times reported that Hélène Linder had told her mother by letter that, "He will kill me." The article also claims that "no one believes she herself opened her veins."[10] Critic Vincent Canby acknowledged in 1988 that "Linder died with his young wife in what has sometimes been described as a suicide pact, and sometimes as a murder-suicide."[11] In addition, Maud Linder reported in her memoir that the head of the workmen at Linder's house in Neuilly overheard Max tell a friend, probably Armand Massard, that he planned to kill his wife along with himself, as he could not bear the thought of her belonging to another after he was gone.

[MrCarmady]

yeah i left out the juicy parts

[rischka]

thx guys i used to like max linder

[karl]

The Youtube version is stretched, so if you download it and play it "academy ratio" on VLC it should look fine. I got my copy from the dearly departed Surrealmoviez, but it's my least favorite of his features. Seen four that I know of - some shorts long ago too, don't recall which ones - so:

1. Seven Years Bad Luck
2. The Three Must-Get-Theres

[rischka]

I got my copy from the dearly departed Surrealmoviez

and somehow it's still not on kg

[wba]

The Youtube version is stretched, so if you download it and play it "academy ratio" on VLC it should look fine.

Far from it, unfortunately, as there is a nasty digital filter, that's been put all over the screen. Don't know what that is, but I guess that way you might be able to bypass copyright laws, or a similarly weird thing (like those "boxed" videos, where only a third of the picture is the actual content, and the rest is like a digital wall/screen/window...)

I'm not technically proficient, so I don't know how to put it in technical terms, but it's goddamn awful.

[sally]

ooooh that youtube version IS horrible. assuming the one evelyn provided is the one with the right ratio and the varied tinting that exist

[sally]

also just watched max is convalescent after reading evelyn's review on letterboxd. can't believe it's 1911, maybe it's just the chilled out rural setting but it just seems to have more going on than some of his later 'in various apartments' shorts. also i proper LOL'd, and it looked like the girl was genuinely finding it hilarious as well. don't feed cherries to dogs tho.

why is there no dvd with his collected shorts on? there's one with...some...

[flip]

i just noticed the youtube file was uploaded just a couple of months ago, so i'm guessing it's not what i saw, i might have seen that excerpt after all! i didn't check the video quality before posting it here, sorry if it's horrible!

[karl]

If I can find my copy I'll upload it in resources, but I fear it's on the kaput external hard drive, along with so much of my other stuff.

[Curtis, baby]

haven't seen his movies but i like his chocolates around xmas time

[wba]

also just watched max is convalescent after reading evelyn's review on letterboxd. can't believe it's 1911, maybe it's just the chilled out rural setting but it just seems to have more going on than some of his later 'in various apartments' shorts. also i proper LOL'd, and it looked like the girl was genuinely finding it hilarious as well. don't feed cherries to dogs tho.

why is there no dvd with his collected shorts on? there's one with...some...

thanks for the tip!
Just found it on Youtube in decent quality and am gonna watch it, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KNBJMDi-zc

[Roscoe]

Thanks for sharing that MAX EN CONVALESCENCE -- that quality is more than decent, it's pretty damn stunning. Clips from that were part of the film that introduced me to Linder, a documentary/compilation THE MAN IN THE SILK HAT that actually ran on my local PBS station, back when PBS ran things like that.

[wba]

Thanks for sharing that MAX EN CONVALESCENCE -- that quality is more than decent, it's pretty damn stunning.

Not really, as there are many digital artefacts (what's called pixelation, I believe) fucking up the picture in every shot... must be the upload/er doing a bad job though, cause no professional digitisation would ever look this bad.
But aside from that it's still better than many old murky copies floating on Youtube, I'll give you that.

There are a few HD versions of Linder shorts on KG though that are pretty great!

[wba]

Unless my eyes deceive me, the full five reels survive and were released on DVD by Kino. Don't know why there isn't more hullabaloo about this, since so many sources say only an abridgment exists. Anyway, I'll put it in the place.

Thanks again, Evelyn!
Now I've finally been able to watch this great film after years of looking for it.
Easily my favorite Max Linder comedy, so far.