SCFZ

Polling the films of director Louis Lumiere

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Lumiere 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: greennui

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

Lancement d'un Navire
Exiting the Factory
Passage d'un Tunnel en Chemin de Fer
Panorama de l’arrivée à Aix-les-Bains pris du train
Demolition of a Wall

seen six... edit: seen 12... edit: seen 20

Only seen Train Train Train

seen 13

"Transformation by Hats" (Louis Lumière, 1895)
"Laveuses sur la rivière" (Louis Lumière/Auguste Lumière, 1897)
"Snowball Fight" (Louis Lumière, 1897)
"La petite fille et son chat" (Louis Lumière, 1899)
"The Mechanical Butcher" (Louis Lumière, 1895)

Unholy's doesn't count as a ballot right?? So The Curtis gets to pick next??!!??!!

seen 8, feels like with most of these i'm voting more for content than for anything purely formal, but maybe i'm wrong.

demolition of a wall
the merry skeleton
ploughing
arrival of a train

82.

Lancement d’un navire
Panorama de l'arrivée à Aix-les-Bains pris du train (temps de neige)
Panorama de l'arrivée en gare de Perrache pris du train
Panorama pendant l’ascension de la Tour Eiffel
Le Déjeuner du Chat

I wish I could include 'Gros temps en mer' but no one knows who directed it, could be LL, could be Alexandre Promio.

The Sprinkler Sprinkled
Snowball Fight
Serpentine Dance
Demolition of a Wall
Boat Leaving the Port

Seen 6. Thought I had seen more, turns out I was remembering films by Auguste and Alexandre Promio instead.

*Edit. Just watched 5 more. bringing my viewing total up to 11. My original top 3 stay in but I'm adding in Demolition of a Wall, which was quite spectacular. Boat Leaving The Port makes my list too. Like a melancholy ride into the sunset, abstracted from any grander narrative.

In all sincerity, one of my favourite film directors of all time. I find his photographic staging excellent and, obviously, for someone fascinated by the historical development of cinema in its early years, his work is of endless interest. Seen 75 and love a lot of them, so it's going to take me a while to figure out my top 5, and I might see what others vote for.

SAD_SCROOGE wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 9:26 pm Unholy's doesn't count as a ballot right?? So The Curtis gets to pick next??!!??!!

yes that's all true

OK!!!!!

i am 99.99% sure we don't have the views for DENIS COTE.... but i'll throw his name out there just in case. and also so that if we're close, perhaps ppl might have motivation to get us over the top for future polls

otherwise, what sort of views do we have for TOD BROWNING and RENE CLAIR?

I've seen some by this guy but I don't care about any of them

Rohmer, Renoir and Langlois discuss Lumiere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCOnsST55F0

i've only got 3 browning, 4 clair, and 0 côté

8 browning, 7 clair, 1 cote

9 clair, 3 browning, 1 cote

I’ve seen a quite a few. Just thinking of trying to figure out a top 5 is making me tired.

L'arrivee d'un train/Ciotat
Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory
L'arroseur arrosee
Defile de voitures de bebes



10 Browning, 7 Clair.

if bure has seen ten from both, then either clair or browning would work, i'm not optimistic about côté

I've seen 5 by Cote, so a decent number but probably not enough to help

flip wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:45 am if bure has seen ten from both, then either clair or browning would work, i'm not optimistic about côté

apparently of the 9 chaps i've nominated, 4 have been yankers, but only 1 has been a frenchman. so i will go with RENE CLAIR this time!

Great filmmaker, though I've only seen 9 so far (some of them numerous times, though). Might have been more, but then that would have been some 20 years ago, so can't remember.

01. Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895)
02. Snowball Fight (1897)
03. Card Game (1896)
04. Baby's Meal (1895)

Lumiere seen: 9

Seen 16.
1)The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
2)Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory
3)The Sprinkler Sprinkled
4)Snowball Fight
5)Baby’s Meal
I have 9 by Rene Clair. 2 by Tod Browning. 2 by Cote.

Apparently I've seen 7, though it feels like more. Will go through and revisit.

One thing for sure, though, it's the season to put this one on top:

Snowball Fight
The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
Baby’s Meal

2 Browning, 16 Clair, 4 Côté

I have no idea how to rank the Lumières I've seen, so I'll abstain.

Right-o, here's my 5 favourites.

1. Panorama de l’arrivée à Aix-les-Bains pris du train (1896)
2. The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896)
3. Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895)
4. Snowball Fight (1897)
5. Passage d’un tunnel en chemin de fer (1898)

Le Déjeuner du Chat (It's got a cat, that's all the win it needs.)

Arrivée d’un train à Perrache (way more exciting than La Ciotat, better camera set up and a guy with a pith helmet!)
La pêche aux poissons rouges (Dramatic tension, Will the kid grab a fish? Will he fall? and the fourth wall breaking, Will he cooperate at all? Maybe I should put it higher...)
Boat Leaving the Port (Almost perfect, if only Lumiere had opened to the empty sea and had the boat row into frame instead.)
Demolition of a Wall (A movie can hardly go wrong with some good old fashioned destruction. Narrowly beating out Les forgerons I'm a sucker for anvils.)

can you keep this open a couple more days? i'm gonna rally a bunch

pro tip: take a single screenshot from each film, combine them into a gif with a delay between frames of 1/100 of a sec, and you could bust out all 1400 of this guy's flicks in less than 15 sec!

SAD_SCROOGE wrote: ↑Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:38 pm can you keep this open a couple more days? i'm gonna rally a bunch

sure, let me know when you're ready!