DIRECTORS' CUP 2011 VOTING, ROUND 4, GROUP D: Pere Portabella (The Silence Before Bach) vs Benedek Fliegauf (Womb) vs Richard Stanley (Hardware) vs João César Monteiro (Silvestre)

Yep, I believe Sir Douglas is right and Monteiro wins :)

VOTING IS OVER ON THIS MATCH AND, INDEED, ROUND 4!

Exciting! When do the semi-finals start? Let’s see if we can proverbially rock the vote.

We originally decided they’d start on November 6th, but I think it would be a good idea to delay the start until a bit later. So we’ll have the first semifinal starting on the 8th and the second semifinal starting on the 10th, unless anyone disagrees with that.

Ah this is an excellent semi-final line-up; i could hardly have picked it better or differently myself. I’m only sorry my internet go-slow/stop-start filmviewing problems have made it hard for me to take part in matches where i’ve not seen many of the films- like this one (in fact quite a lot with these 4 directors).

So we have a Russian-Polish spinning top (to my liking), a Portuguese (hourray), a famous German (i’m pretty partial to) and a top Japanese director in the semi. Yes!

Go get viewing everyone, let’s have a good turnout; i’ve got my Mizoguchi fanboy hordes assembled to invade Mubi en masse otherwise. Straits of Love and Hate v Scarlet Street. What’s the other semi? Kino-Eye v?

Kenji and everyone…………. it will be À Flor do Mar (Hovering Over Water). A beautiful mysterious tale very much in line with Rivette’s work.

Ah yes! I can vote in that match then! I’m so glad Monteiro has made it this far

Yeah, that’s the Monteiro film I’ve most been looking forward to. A good opportunity to watch it.

yay! (as long as there’s no interpretive dance scenes…) i don’t suppose monteiro is back to being that charming perv in this one is he?

@Two Dead Magpies

Hmmmm there are glimpses of what was to come Sally, but he is not in full swing perv mode!! I had toyed with Comedia de Deus or The Hips of J.W, but I really couldn’t resist choosing Hovering Over Water and I do think it has the better chance of connecting with the majority of users on the site. No interpretive dance you will be glad to hear. (referring to the Last Dive I guess). Still I have a fondeness that film too. Monteiro never made a film I never liked!

I do think it has the better chance of connecting with the majority of users on the site

i see. you mean it’s full of semi to naked women ;)

but yeah. still traumatised by the last dive and all that endless, silent arm-waggling. not to disparage monteiro though! i’m glad he got through….

Damn, I’ve left it too late. Oh well, I don’t have a clue how I would rank them anyway…

I’m very glad to see it was João César Monteiro who won. Very sad to see Portabella leave. It’s been a great ride and I wanted to show a couple more things… oh well…

Although if anyone makes a horror-musical, I’ll probably be 4th or 5th in line to see it

I did a search for movies that are both horror and musicals on IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=horror,musical) and here’s were the top 5 that came up:

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)
Dead & Breakfast (2004)

Sweeney Todd is the only one that isn’t also listed as a “comedy”

So that means Risselada crushed Portabella’s dream

It’s been rare, but we’ve had a few close ones. I’m glad my vote could mean something in this one. The Portabella film here was my favorite one so far, but I’m glad he won’t be in the finals. And I’m extra glad that Monteiro will be!

This was actually a really close one for me. I liked all of the films. I’m still thinking about it, but will potentially give each of them 4 out of 5 stars. It was difficult for me to rank them.

Silvestre gets first because the visual style and compositions are just so remarkeable. While watching the film I was waiting for the still that Kuxa had posted earlier of the man on the horse and the dead dragon. When it came on the screen I was disappointed because it was a frozen shot, and I wanted to see it moving. But then suddenly it came “unstuck” and became cinematography. Oh how wonderful.

Womb was a solid piece. A little conventional compared to what we’ve seen from Fliegauf before, but I was fairly engaged most of the time. It made me think a lot of what identity is. Would I feel like I was somehow less “me” if I knew I was a clone of someone else who had lived previously? Would I want to meet that person or know about their life? What would it be like to see pictures of video of that person who looked just like me living another life? I wonder if I’d be grateful the same way he was at the end of the film.

Hardware is a lot of fun, and I made some comments about it in the discussion thread.

The Silence before Bach is my favorite Portabella film so far. Apparently I prefer his more recent stuff to his earlier stuff, which I have so far despised. His more deliberate approach is preferrable to the sloppier feeling earlier stuff.

You know nothing about cinema.

NOTHING I SAY! hahaha

Me?