DIRECTORS' CUP 2011 VOTING, ROUND 4, MATCH 1: Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) vs F.W. Murnau (Tabu, A Story of the South Seas) vs Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) vs Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of Wooden Clogs)
Thanks. I do love the hats in Sansho the Bailiff. For fashion elegance alone, it should win.
I’m not just copying House here. But his vote was convenient since I just had to copy and paste it.
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
^ Whoah, that’s a major comeback for mister German!!!
What a match! I will be just as excited to vote for Sansho as I will be if I find that I like one of the other films more!
EDIT: This post makes me sound like a teenage girl :(
You can’t imagine how impressed I would be if teenage girls started talking about Mizoguchi with the same dreamy intonation and language that they used to talk about Justin Bieber
1. Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) +3
2. Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of Wooden Clogs) +2
3. F.W. Murnau (Tabu: A Story of the South Seas) +1
4. Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) +0
hahaha, riss
lol at most hott girls 18-22 even knowing who mizoguchi is =)
Very close call between the first three all really excellent films! Tabu well unfortunately I didn’t like its exotic charms at all. Not one for me I am afraid!
1. Ermano Olmi – Tree of Wooden Clogs +3
2. Kenji Mizoguchi – Sansho the Baliff +2
3. Aleksei German – Twenty Days Without War +1
4. F.W Muranau – Tabu 0
i want to cry. why these ones ???? :((((
Why?
because it’s unfair to make a top out of these, Riss
1. Aleksei German – Twenty Days Without War +3
2. Ermano Olmi – Tree of Wooden Clogs +2
3. Kenji Mizoguchi – Sansho the Baliff +1
4. F.W Muranau – Tabu 0
1. Because social issues are good, but individual are even better. and because i think that German’s films are miracles, given the hostile context of the ussr, their manner of treating the subject, their audacity of detaching a human atom and giving it contour without rolling it into the muck of alienation, etc.
2. Because i think this is the aristocratic version of bertolucci’s novecento, more graceful, more skilful.
3. it’s wonderful, but liking it is so predictable.
4. because it’s a standard unhappy love story with an exotic scenography, but enjoyable nonetheless.
It was the slaughtering, actually. Although the film really didn’t have much to say, it was the pig. Earlier, a goose was slaughtered, but the goose was beheaded and died somewhat quickly. However, chasing a pig and stabbing it multiple times isn’t humane nor artistic, any more than a bull fight.
Even though I didn’t have time to rewatch Sansho for this match, as I recall there are some pretty inhumane acts committed in that film as well. How is that different? Is it because the act is fictionalized? Did you really want Olmi to totally fake the whole slaughtering of a pig? Do you think the effects he had at the time the film were made would have really looked that great?
==
The scene in which the farmer attends a reformistic speach that adresses his concerns and suggests to fight against them he discovers a coin and is overjoyed enough to simply walk away, a telling moment that bears witness of the weakness of the human mind which in most cases prefers a small but quick fortune to something permanent which requires effort. It actually reminded me of the marshmallow expirement which scientists at Stanford conducted in the 60s to survey people’s capacity of self-regulation. Another important aspect is that the coin would give the farmer an opportunity to legally acquire wooden clogs, but he hesitates and parsimony becomes predominant. Despite being aware of possible sanctions he risks the well-being of his family in order to keep a small fortune he later won’t even be able to relocate. I think those scenes tell us a lot about the way the human mind works and offers some explanations as to way those farmers remain unable to escape their misery and must endure the better calculating landlords treating them badly.
That’s a good point and really redeems this whole plot thread in light of what a dumbass he was for thinking the mud in a horse’s hoof was a stable hiding place.
Ha! A philistine friend of mine is chiding me on Twitter: “really….The freaking Tree of Wooden Clogs….really” LOL
What did you say about it on Twitter that prompted that response?
1. Ermano Olmi (Tree of Wooden Clogs) +3
2. Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) +2
3. Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) +1
4. F.W. Murnau (Tabu: A Story of the South Seas) + 0
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.
Nothing can be discussed in a vacuum. Things must ineviably be compared or there can be no real evaluation.
The score, by my count…
Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) – 54
Ermanno Olmi (The Tree of Wooden Clogs) – 37
Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) – 21
F.W. Murnau (Tabu, A Story of the South Seas) – 20
Yeah, but there’s more to film than evaluation and ranking. In this sense I agree with Peter. Granted, though, I’ve never gotten the impression that this was the primary purpose of these competitions. It’s quite possible to discuss a film on its own terms, though, and there’s a bit too little of that here.
“It’s quite possible to discuss a film on its own terms, though, and there’s a bit too little of that here.”
Channeling Risselada here—why didn’t you discuss any of the films then?
In this particular thread, you mean? (by “here” I meant the forum as a whole). The 4 film battle royale format isn’t really conducive to discussion.
i’d be really curious to know why people disliked 20 days. we could start the discussion from there.
olmi’s pig turned into a major topic, that stirred some dust before being aborted altogether, so what about german? what’s its main fault?
praise is usually few worded, perhaps condemnation could be livelier.
We’ve had at least one thread elsewhere with lengthy discussion of cruelty to animals in films. Andrei Rublev and Rules of the Game are among my favourite films, featuring animal cruelty, which should have made me reconsider my feelings more. There’s a difference i think between fictional depiction of cruelty to humans and actual cruelty to/slaughter of an animal in a film, the more so if that cruelty occurs for the sake of the film and would not have happened anyway. But if it would have happened anyway and turns some people off eating meat, would that not be morally preferable to a film that glorifies violence, bigotry, warfare, nationalism etc? Anyway, i also admire Tree of the Wooden Clogs.
When does this match end, by the way? Ah, in an hour?
Matter of what’s being compared for me. Tabu and Sansho and Tree are masterpieces. 20 Days is a very good film, but it’s maybe German’s third best after My Friend Ivan Lapshin and Khrustalyov, My Car!
Agree with Matt about German, Lapshin and Khrustalyov are better.
About cruelty on animals we could discuss in the topic about ie. Turin Horse, but not before more people have an opportunity to see this Tarr’s masterpiece.
1. Ermano Olmi (Tree of Wooden Clogs) +3
2. Kenji Mizoguchi (Sansho the Bailiff) +2
3. Aleksei German (Twenty Days Without War) +1
4. F.W. Murnau (Tabu: A Story of the South Seas) + 0
I loved 20 Days. …I just liked the other three more.
I’ll hold to the position that the act of ranking helps you organize your thoughts more clearly. You assign a number or a position to a film: That’s the beginning of a discussion, not the end. You see somebody give a very high position to a film you watched once and dismissed, it makes you intellectually revisit that film.
I believe this match has technically been over for 2 hours now…I don’t think that should nullify Weaving Wave’s vote, since the outcome will be the same either way, but I believe this means that Mizoguchi takes it!
There seemed to be some discrpency between the OP about the time this ends. It states “9:00 pm BST (6:00 pm GMT)” However 9 pm BST is actually 8 pm GMT, which is also exactly the time it is right now. So I guess we’ll close it now since people have still been voting.
VOTING IS CLOSED
Congrats to Kenji and Mizoguchi!
Riss—my MUBI ratings are auto posted to twitter. That’s basically all I ever tweet.
And thanks for closing the match.
House of Leaves
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
This one was so close, yet so far. Olmi’s film is fantastic and would have won over many other opponents for me. Yes, I was disturbed by the pig slaughter, simply because I don’t know why they didn’t kill the beast before the slaughter—I’ve never seen that done before and it seemed unnecessary. There must be a cultural reason for it, though, as the film was nothing if not a document of the village and how it sustained itself. A beautiful document in which I was wholly engrossed and took much from. Especially prescient given the current struggles we face against the wealthy and the ruling class in my country.
The other two films couldn’t compete for me. I really liked the German film, but it was my least favorite of his so far. I love the faces he shoots, and the story was compelling throughout, with many standout sequences (among them the soliloquy on the train in the early part), but I wasn’t as affected by it as I was by the other choices in the Cup.
Tabu is a beautiful film, and I hope my placement of it in this vote isn’t taken as a token that I didn’t appreciate it. It’s one of the most endearing and dynamic silent films I’ve seen, and I’m happy to have made it this far into Murnau’s filmography. Kudos to the manager.
Kudos to all these managers, but my hat’s off to Kenji.
Sansho the Bailiff is one of the most excellent depictions of humanity I have ever seen, and a tough one to beat no matter the competition. This was my second viewing—the first being at the suggestion of Kenji over a year ago—and its impact has not lessened. I don’t think it ever will. Is there a more anguished image than that of the ripples? For me there may not be. Beautiful and terrible. Sublime.
What a match! If this is any indication of how R4 will proceed, then I am renewed with enthusiasm for this competition and cannot wait for the next match.
Vive el DC!!!