SCFZ

Polling the films of the Frères Dardenne.

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Dardenne Brothers films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of their films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of their 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, bure, roscoe, kanafani, greg x, silga, oscarwerner, john ryan, mrcarmady, umbugbene, evelyn, m arkadin, jiri, brian d, nrh, rischka, aberration, searchlike, st gloede, ofrene

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

we'll use the extended rules because i'm not sure we'll easily get a top ten otherwise:

- if you have seen an odd number of films, you can round up instead of down when deciding the length of your ballot (e.g. if you have seen 5, you can vote for 3 instead of the usual 2)

- if you have seen more than 10, you can vote for more than 5 (e.g. if you have seen 13 you can vote for up to 7)

1. Rosetta
2. The Kid with a Bike
3. La Promesse

Seen 8:

1. Rosetta
2. La Promesse
3. The Kid with a Bike
4. The Unknown Girl

01. The Son (2002)
02. Rosetta (1999)

Dardenne's seen: 4

Seen 3.

Didn't enjoy them. The shaky cam made me nauseous and it kinda felt like they were created in a lab to resonate at film festivals.

greennui wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:52 am Seen 3.

Didn't enjoy them. The shaky cam made me nauseous and it kinda felt like they were created in a lab to resonate at film festivals.

I remember watching THE SON on a huge screen at the cinema back then, and this was the shakiest of shaky cams - but the film was extremely beautiful. Unlike some other, more academic and less shaky Dardennes, which left me cold (La promesse, or L'enfant). But 2002 was kinda the high-point of staccato editing and senseless camera shaking in Hollywood cinema as well (unfortunately it hasn't disappeared, yet...), so I guess this was just "state of the art" back then.

seen 8

The Son
Two Days, One Night
Rosetta
The Kid with a Bike

sorry, twins freak me out, so i don't watch these guys

wba wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 11:45 am2002 was kinda the high-point of staccato editing and senseless camera shaking in Hollywood cinema

yep. happened right around the millennium iirc. soderbergh won the academy award for best dir for traffic (where the shaky cam effect does work towards a purpose imo). and even major hollywood blockbusters with $100mil+ budgets like gladiator were doing it (where the effect has no place imo; why spend millions of dollars on these epic fight scenes, just to edit them to shit with 'jarring' cuts and 'gritty' camerawork, which only serve to dissolve all of the effort and money that was clearly put forth in creating those scenes in the first place; hell, the producers coulda just given $20 apiece to a couple randos - you wouldn't even need russell crowe, since you can't actually see him - to go out into the woods, and wield around some plastic swords that they got from the dollar store, cuz if the camerawork is gonna be so intentionally crappy no matter what, then no one will ever know the difference between the scene that cost $50~ and the scene that cost $50mil~). when it comes to the dardennes, i had to watch rosetta twice to get into their groove, but once i became aware of the raw restless energy they were achieving through static mundane repetition, i kinda dug it. more often than not, i don't like shaky cam, but with the bros it's a case where the shakiness is integral, as it signifies the tumultuous stasis of the lives of the people they're portraying

The Kid with a Bike
The Unknown Girl

First two words that come to mind when I think of these guys are "festival" and "shaky", the following two are "Dardenne" and "brothers". So I agree with greennui. I'll refrain from voting, unless we need another ballot.

La Promesse

Seen 2. The Kid with a Bike is one of the "'pires" movies I've ever seen

Seen 12.
My votes go to:
1. The Kid with a Bike (2011)
2. The Son (2002)
Shaky cam is ok here. In general those 2 films are their best for me.
---------
3. Rosetta (1999)
4. La Promesse (1996)
5. L'Enfant (2005)

seen 10

1. Two Days, One Night
2. L'enfant
3. The Kid with a Bike
4. Rosetta
5. La Promesse

Seen 9

1. The Son (2002)
2. The Kid with a Bike (2011)
3. La Promesse (1996)

Seen 8:

1. L'Enfant
2. Two Days, One Night
3. La Promesse
4. The Son

i have tallied the results so far. we have votes for only 7 different films, so right now i can't make a top ten. so i'll leave this open another day, hoping to get some new ballots that will solve that problem. that seems unlike though, so:

- if you have seen any dardenne films that have not received a vote (the films with votes are la promesse, rosetta, l'enfant, le fils, the kid with a bike, two days one night, and the unknown girl) then if you could post a ballot simply ranking all of those films (or if you've only seen one of them, giving it a rating out of five stars i guess) then i'll somehow cobble those mentions together to work out a #8, #9 and #10 film for the top ten

thanks!

wba wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:46 am seen: 4

and wba, you can pick our next director if you like!

Of the others, I've just seen Young Ahmed, which I gave 2/5 stars

flip wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 1:17 pm

wba wrote: ↑Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:46 am seen: 4

and wba, you can pick our next director if you like!

Cool!

I'd like to suggest some personal favorites:

Joe D’Amato (seen 18)
Jacques Doillon (seen 10)
Sogo Ishii (seen 10)
Duccio Tessari (seen 6)
Kaneto Shindo (seen 6)
M. Night Shyamalan (seen 7)
Ringo Lam (seen 7)
Sabu (seen 9)

PS: If none of those work, let's do Dave Fleischer (I have 20+)

Shyamalan - 8
Ringo Lam - 3

i've seen no more than four films by any of those, but hopefully one will work! if anyone has seen 6+ by any of the directors wba mentioned, please reply here!

10 Fleischer

6 doillon
10 shindo

thought you meant richard fleischer. dammit

i've got 4 shindo and i expect that's as good as it gets

yep 4 ishii, 4 shyamalan

I have 11 of Richard and Dave Fleischer combined, if that counts? Throw in Ruben and it's up to a solid 14

4 D’Amato
4 Shyamalan

I can watch 3 more by any of those in less than a week for sure if that helps.

Mb a fun poll idea sometime: all directors named Fleischer

Or Kurosawa

Or Reiner (wow two such heavyweights)

Etc

Allens Lewis and Woody might produce the weirdest such list