A great match two start round 4! Two masterpieces of neo-realist revivals, plus two canonical works of transcendental poeticism. Of the four films, I gave three of them the full 5 stars.
Going in, I was expecting to put Sansho at the very top of my list. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking wail of despair (coming straight from the aftermath of World War II), and I agree with its status as one of the essential cornerstones of world cinema.
However, it was edged out for me (just barely) by The Tree of Wooden Clogs. I loved the way it illustrated the lives of its subjects—and the practical and philosophical issues of their day—without imposing any melodrama, only a series of observations that are never less than rich or sincere. Ugetsu, my favorite Mizoguchi, would have taken this down easily, but here I have to put Olmi at the top of the list.
Twenty Days Without War is another gem, with many of the same strengths as Olmi’s film, but without quite the sweep. It’s a very well crafted slice-of-wartime-life, and it would have won many match-ups of the Cup for me.
Tabu had beautiful moments, and I love a lot of elements in it—namely, the location shooting, the use of local natives instead of professional actors, and certain sequences. However, I find myself agreeing with the critics who say that the story is the weak point: it struck me as standard silent era melodrama, with a filter of exoticization. Still, a fine film, and it’s sad that Murnau’s career was cut so short.
1. The Tree of Wooden Clogs +3
2. Sansho the Bailiff +2
3. Twenty Days Without War +1
4. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas +0
A believe the current scoreboard is…
Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) – 4
F.W. Murnau (Tabu, A Story of the South Seas) – 14
Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) – 23
Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of Wooden Clogs) – 13
In many ways this ranking of films business is a bit of a nonsense. Sadly, it can be all too easy to get sucked into it. Comparing things is a very popular pastime in the modern world.
I’m not too big a fan of it either, but I think in the context of the cup it’s ok.
I must admit that Sansho is the best movie, but due to difficult times and class struggle am going to vote for the Tree. German’s film is such a precise document of war paused in the back of front lines, and Tabu, well I think that Murnau and Flaherty spent wonderful moments at the South Seas then.
1. The Tree of Wooden Clogs +3
2. Sansho the Bailiff +2
3. Twenty Days Without War +1
4. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas +0
Ranking things is meaningless in the big picture but in the small picture can be useful shorthand to organize your thoughts.
People who don’t rank things explicitly still do it implicitly, they have their own personal shortlist of things to be taken the most seriously. I think I’m in favor of ranking because it leads to the dominance of the canon being questioned more.
Yeah, I figured Twenty Days Without War would get toasted unless there’s some kind of backlash against the popular critical darlings (and here I thought you people lived for that kind of stuff?). Hell, maybe if I hadn’t had time to appreciate the brilliant but subtle nuances of the film without the pressures of a voting calendar, I’d be inclined to rank it third or fourth as well given its competitors.
“maybe if I hadn’t had time to appreciate the brilliant but subtle nuances of the film without the pressures of a voting calendar, I’d be inclined to rank it third or fourth as well given its competitors.”
lol
Or maybe I would have voted it third or fourth even if I hadn’t the time to let it simmer…. The competition is steep. But maybe some good contrarian will place it in the top two?
When you look up the film in English online the standard write-up (on several sites) says this about the film: “In many ways a precursor to the American war films of Oliver Stone”. I don’t get what German’s film has to do with Oliver Stone. Does it make sense to anyone else?
Oh yeah because it’s totally like Born on the 4th of July. :-) sorry but I see no direct correlation between German and Stone.
Oh, in some quarters non-Anglophone films can’t exist without being compared/related to Anglophone ones.
I fancy seeing Twenty Days without War. It has a fine average rating on mubi so i’m a bit surprised it’s lagging so much here, even given the high quality opposition.
1.Sansho the Bailiff
2.Tabu, a Story of the South Seas
3.Twenty Days without War
4.The Tree of Wooden Clogs
None of these films I hold strong feelings towards – but I do admire Mizoguchi’s indelibly masterful effort.
Murnau’s ‘Tabu’ is a fascinating object, if not attributed with a lot of naive and extremely disconcerting ’’defects’’ in it’s structure and narrative construction. I haven’t really enjoyed German’s ‘Twenty Days without War’ , it simply hasn’t involved me in any way , artistically as well as emotionally. I particularly dislike Olmi and his film making method, as well as the phony ideologies he divulges in his films, so that’s why I consider ‘The Tree of Wooden Clogs’ to be the worst of the lot.
Edwin, why do you think Olmi’s ideologies are phony?
Phony ideologies?
That’s really a strange assumption. The people Olmi made his film about are his folk and very dear to him since he grew up there, so it’s obvious he cares about their concerns. This even gets clearer if you read and watch interviews Olmi gave about the film. There’s nothing phony in regard to “Tree of Wooden Clogs” as far as I’m concerned.
1. Sansho the Bailiff
2. The Tree of Wooden Clogs
3. Twenty Days without War
4. Tabu, a Story of the South Seas
I love to see World Cup managers continuing to participate and doing so well in these events. Like almost everyone else has said, I enjoyed all four movies. I saw Sansho for the first time in the World Cup, but I am glad it got a rewatch, because it had a much greater effect on me this time around. Another great entry for Olmi, though I fast forwarded through the pig part. Lucky for me I am brilliant and subtle enough to appreciate Twenty Days, and it is far and away my favorite that I’ve seen from German. Aside from the boobs, I think Tabu is a notch below the other three films, but still good.
lol at the boobs.
murnau wasn’t actually gay!
1. Sansho the Bailiff
2. The Tree of Wooden Clogs
3. Tabu, a Story of the South Seas
4. Twenty Days Without War
Or a side question, does it matter if a film’s ideologies are phony?
A communist director makes a communist film, you say it’s a great film.
Later you find out the director wasn’t really communist, he was just interested in communist filmmaking style. Does this make the film any less great? Is the quality of a film tied to the intentions of the director, or does it stand on its own?
Depends on your theory of art.
Current standings with first place votes in parentheses.
Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) – 34 (8)
Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of Wooden Clogs) – 20 (3)
F.W. Murnau (Tabu, A Story of the South Seas) – 17 (2)
Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) – 7 (0)
Let’s get some more votes! This is a great match-up, without a sub-par (or even regular-par) film in the bunch.
I should be finishing the Olmi film tonight and then I’ll have seen all of them. I was waiting to see all of them to comment.
1. Twenty Days without War
2. Sansho the Bailiff
3. The Tree of Wooden Clogs
4. Tabu, a Story of the South Seas
Third and fourth places are the hardest to choose because I feel pretty much the same about both (I mostly gave the fourth place to Tabu because it really is the least interesting Murnau I’ve ever seen).
None of these are bad films, but as always there are just some that I feel closer to and that I find more interesting.
I’m quite surprised that I’m giving Twenty Days without War its first first place, I personally thought it was German’s best film of the cup…
I’m not going to be able to vote in this match :( So much stuff has come up over the last few days…damn having a social life and a degree to study :P Still…as of now any films I watch on my own will be ones from Rounds 3 and 4. I’m determined to vote on them!
1. Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) +3
2. Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of Wooden Clogs) +2
3. Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) +1
4. F.W. Murnau (Tabu: A Story of the South Seas) +0
German’s film is excellent… I certainly wish I could rank it higher, but just can’t place it above the outstanding works of Mizoguchi and Olmi. Murnau’s film unfortunately isn’t for me… I’ve enjoyed his other work more.
It’s good to be back here voting… life caught up to me during the last round. I plan to vote in every match from now on – I’ve been watching some fantastic films to be voted on soon!
Watched the excellent German film today. Meant to watch it last night, but I was caught by surprise to find a copy of Ucho posted out there on the internets and had to stop down and watch it again.
I’ll be seeing Tabu tonight (it beckons from yon shelf) and looking forward to posting my first vote since early R3.
1. Twenty Days Without War (German)
2. Tabu, a Story of the South Seas (Murnau)
3. Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi)
4. The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Olmi)
This was my favourite German by a long shot, a pristinely melancholic little film crammed in the margins between two periods of hopeless, exhausting war; I didn’t feel that barrier that I’ve found keeping me at arm’s length from the characters in his other films, and the running commentary on patriotism and hope during wartime was just as sharp as Lapshin’s searching examination of a good man who will soon do terrible things.
And I suppose this was a good round for me, because Tabu is my favourite Murnau. Dropping the intertitles and stripping the narrative down to an almost mythological simplicity, he really won me over sheerly on the basis of the film’s poeticness and the universality of its tragedy. Maybe I’m just a depressing person; I find the ending here alone a lot more moving and beautiful than the entirety of Sunrise.
Sansho the Bailiff is a good film and all, but its austere craft and beauty didn’t really get to me, and this sort of melodramatic, emotive tragedy is rarely my thing. And The Tree of Wooden Clogs was altogether remote to me, albeit still interesting for the moment in time it captures – just traces of ripples before the great storm.
Glad I watched these four films, and sorry I missed most of last round (everything, as a matter of fact, from Hartley/Mamoulian onward). I’ll try to stay on top of the rest of the cup.
Current standings with first place votes in parentheses.
Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) – 40 (8)
Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of Wooden Clogs) – 23 (3)
F.W. Murnau (Tabu, A Story of the South Seas) – 19 (2)
Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) – 14 (2)
I did this, because 1) I felt like it and 2) I want people’s opinions. I decided not to vote in the group two match, because it would require me to watch an extra 4 1/2 hours of film, but I really liked Precursor and I would love to vote for it. Are Mabuse and Titas really that good? Should I watch them?
Tommy
This is probably the most difficult match of the four. I think giving any of these films low scores does not give them the proper appreciation that they deserve. But, this a contest and it must move on.
1. Sansho the Bailiff
2. Tabu, A Story of the South Seas
3. Twenty Days Without War
4. The Tree of Wooden Clogs
I don’t really have much of a reason to choose any one over the other so I’ll just ramble about them. I love the Mizo. It’s probably one of my favorites. I consider it probably my second or third favorite Mizo. It jumps around with Ugestu, while The Crucified Women take the cake. Tabu is a great example of how a collaboration by two great filmmakers can go really well. But from what I understand, and of course this happens, there were several instances where he and Flaherty had some differences. But in the end, it may be the only Murnau film that is entirely a Murnau film. He’s always had issues with his stories and the endings to his films being changed by the studios, so it may be the only film that was entirely his conception. Nothing to say really about the German film. It’s great. a film that deals with perception and how one person perceives an experience is not going to be entirely the same as another’s. the Olmi film was quite beautiful. I just loved watching these people live out the difficulties of their lives. there some bits toward the end where I lost interest just because it was kind of dragging on for a while and usually I don’t have a problem with that, but Here I felt it was a bit much.