Run The Director Challenge (Official, February 2021)

[Lonewolf2003]

Ever since the film critics of the Cahiers du cinéma began to look back on prior generations of filmmakers to apply the auteur theory (the idea originally pioneered by director Max Reinhardt in the 1910’s of the director as author of a film conveying a unique artistic vision throughout their filmography), a brighter spotlight has been shone on the role of the director as the nexus of the movie production, viewing the film as a conduit for the director’s vision and the actors and crew merely puppets of a master’s complex machinations.

Of course not all directors are created equal. Some like Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron truly are known to be the exacting “my way or the highway” type of filmmaker honored by the French New Wave while some directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder and John Cassavetes have much more of a collaborative relationship of empowerment with their actors and crew. Of course, many directors fall somewhere in between as well. Some are more journeymen for hire, churning out filmed spec scripts for a studio looking to make a quick buck. Some have had their original sensibilities twisted by the studio system in a more marketable product for the masses. Some just gravitate to whatever they can get made whether they’re passionate about it or not. But at the end of the day, any of the types of director mentioned above may have some interest to be gleaned from a dive into their works.

For this challenge, we’re taking a page from Cahiers du cinéma and putting that spotlight on directors throughout film history. The goal of this challenge is to explore a director’s cinematic achievements and observe and highlight the common artistic themes and recurring motifs that the director may employ throughout their career.

Now let’s pay close attention to the rules on this one. They are a little more involved than the typical challenge here!
Rules:
- You have to watch a minimum of three films from the same director for them to count.
- For anthologies and co-directed features, any director listed according to IMDB may count as an entry for a given director, but may not be used for more than one director. Example: King King (1933) could count toward either a run of Ernest B. Schoedsack or Merian C. Cooper films. But you could not use King Kong as one of the entries for both. The same would apply to an anthology such as Eros where it could count as an entry for Wong Kar-Wai, Steven Soderbergh or Michael Antonioni but not all three.
- Each feature film (over 40 minutes) counts as one entry.
- 80 minutes of short films or miniseries/TV episodes counts as one entry. (You can combine minutes from different directors to get to 80 minutes, but only if one of those directors has less than 80 minutes of shorts and episodes available. This also can't count as one of the required first three entries. The entry will count as an entry for the director with the most minutes in that entry.)
- Films must be watched one at a time and at single speed (not sped up).
- Rewatches are allowed and are good for the soul.
- Please include year of release when listing your viewings.
- Please indicate each director when listing your viewings otherwise your score will NOT be included in the leaderboard.

- When beginning a new run, please declare the director the run is for and post a minimum of three films from the director to start the run. Future consecutive posts tied to the same director can be less than three entries as long as the director does not change. If you change directors and return to a previous director, then the 3-entry initial post rule would apply again.

Examples

Correct:
Post #1
Frenzy (Hitchcock,1972)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
The Lodger (Hitchcock, 1927)

Post #2
Dial M For Murder (Hitchcock, 1954)

Post #3
Ninja Terminator (Godfrey Ho, 1985)
Robo Vampire (Godfrey Ho, 1988)
Scorpion Thunderbolt (Godfrey, 1988)

Post #4
Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945)
The Trouble With Harry (Hitchcock, 1955)
The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963)

Not Correct:
Post #1
Frenzy (Hitchcock,1972)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954)
The Lodger (Hitchcock, 1927)

Post #2
Ninja Terminator (Godfrey Ho, 1985)
Dial M For Murder (Hitchcock, 1954)
Scorpion Thunderbolt (Godfrey, 1988)
Robo Vampire (Godfrey Ho, 1988)

Post #3
Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945)

Lists to Check Out?
I’m afraid we don’t currently have any official full director filmographies. There are lots of unofficial ones on ICM for those looking for ideas. For some general guidance on directors to check out, please see the list of Top 250 Directors in Bonus Challenge #1 or our (upcoming) forum list of favorite directors for additional ideas.


BONUS CHALLENGE #1: ICM Watches the TSPDT Top 250 Directors!
A challenge for us as a group to see how many of the Top 250 Directors according to TSPDT we can hit during this challenge! I will cross out completed directors in the list below.

List of Directors 83/250

1. Alfred Hitchcock
2. Orson Welles
3. Stanley Kubrick
4. Federico Fellini
5. Jean-Luc Godard
6. Francis Ford Coppola
7. Ingmar Bergman
8. Jean Renoir
9. John Ford
10. Akira Kurosawa
11. Martin Scorsese
12. Yasujiro Ozu
13. Luis Buñuel
14. Andrei Tarkovsky
15. Charles Chaplin
16. Billy Wilder
17. Robert Bresson
18. Carl Theodor Dreyer
19. F.W. Murnau
20. Michelangelo Antonioni
21. Howard Hawks
22. Fritz Lang
23. François Truffaut
24. Steven Spielberg
25. Sergei Eisenstein
26. Kenji Mizoguchi
27. David Lynch
28. Roberto Rossellini
29. Woody Allen
30. Luchino Visconti
31. Alain Resnais
32. David Lean
33. Vittorio De Sica
34. Roman Polanski
35. Wong Kar-wai
36. John Cassavetes
37. Ernst Lubitsch
38. Sergio Leone
39. Abbas Kiarostami
40. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
41. Ridley Scott
42. Jean Vigo
43. Max Ophüls
44. Satyajit Ray
45. Terrence Malick
46. Robert Altman
47. Werner Herzog
48. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
49. Hou Hsiao-hsien
50. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
51. Buster Keaton
52. Pier Paolo Pasolini
53. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
54. John Huston
55. D.W. Griffith
56. Quentin Tarantino
57. Jacques Tati
58. Krzysztof Kieslowski
59. Dziga Vertov
60. Bernardo Bertolucci
61. Michael Curtiz
62. Chris Marker
63. Paul Thomas Anderson
64. Sam Peckinpah
65. Edward Yang
66. Frank Capra
67. Vincente Minnelli
68. Lars von Trier
69. Nicholas Ray
70. Wim Wenders
71. Leo McCarey
72. Chantal Akerman
73. Carol Reed
74. Preston Sturges
75. Victor Fleming
76. David Cronenberg
77. Michael Haneke
78. Elia Kazan
79. Marcel Carné
80. Eric Rohmer
81. Milos Forman
82. Béla Tarr
83. Douglas Sirk
84. Hayao Miyazaki
85. Erich von Stroheim
86. Clint Eastwood
87. Claire Denis
88. Jean-Pierre Melville
89. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
90. Nicolas Roeg
91. Victor Erice
92. Pedro Almodóvar
93. Agnès Varda
94. Jacques Rivette
95. Jacques Demy
96. Brian De Palma
97. Jacques Tourneur
98. Josef von Sternberg
99. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
100. George Cukor
101. Sidney Lumet
102. James Cameron
103. Claude Lanzmann
104. John Carpenter
105. Glauber Rocha
106. Theo Angelopoulos
107. Gillo Pontecorvo
108. Spike Lee
109. William Wyler
110. King Vidor
111. Jim Jarmusch
112. Jane Campion
113. Jean Eustache
114. David Fincher
115. Ken Loach
116. Richard Linklater
117. George A. Romero
118. Mike Leigh
119. William Friedkin
120. George Lucas
121. Michael Cimino
122. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet
123. Ang Lee
124. Robert Flaherty
125. Mikio Naruse
126. Jia Zhangke
127. Terry Gilliam
128. Zhang Yimou
129. Andrzej Wajda
130. Raoul Walsh
131. Jean Cocteau
132. Otto Preminger
133. Samuel Fuller
134. Maurice Pialat
135. Robert Zemeckis
136. Aleksandr Sokurov
137. Tsai Ming-liang
138. Hal Ashby
139. Robert Aldrich
140. Rob Reiner
141. Wes Anderson
142. Robert Wise
143. Michael Snow
144. Peter Weir
145. Alexander Dovzhenko
146. Gus Van Sant
147. Arthur Penn
148. Alexander Mackendrick
149. Henri-Georges Clouzot
150. Stan Brakhage
151. Nagisa Oshima
152. James Whale
153. Todd Haynes
154. Christopher Nolan
155. Michael Mann
156. Mike Nichols
157. Sergei Parajanov
158. Abel Gance
159. Manoel de Oliveira
160. Terence Davies
161. Leos Carax
162. Louis Malle
163. Frederick Wiseman
164. John Boorman
165. Elem Klimov
166. Tobe Hooper
167. Errol Morris
168. Anthony Mann
169. Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne
170. Emir Kusturica
171. Luis García Berlanga
172. Alfonso Cuarón
173. Fei Mu
174. George Miller
175. Michael Powell
176. Joseph Losey
177. Ousmane Sembene
178. Pedro Costa
179. George Stevens
180. Peter Bogdanovich
181. Kathryn Bigelow
182. Tim Burton
183. Don Siegel
184. Georges Franju
185. Shohei Imamura
186. Tod Browning
187. Paul Verhoeven
188. Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
189. Bob Fosse
190. Chen Kaige
191. Lucrecia Martel
192. Andy Warhol
193. Mikhail Kalatozov
194. Victor Sjöström
195. Fred Zinnemann
196. G.W. Pabst
197. Peter Jackson
198. Bong Joon-ho
199. Michel Gondry
200. Jonathan Demme
201. Dario Argento
202. René Clair
203. Jacques Becker
204. John Schlesinger
205. Humphrey Jennings
206. Jean Rouch
207. Robert Hamer
208. Ritwik Ghatak
209. King Hu
210. David Hand
211. Aki Kaurismäki
212. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
213. Lindsay Anderson
214. Claude Chabrol
215. Ermanno Olmi
216. Robert Wiene
217. Oliver Stone
218. Harold Ramis
219. John Woo
220. Sydney Pollack
221. Francesco Rosi
222. Blake Edwards
223. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
224. Georges Méliès
225. Charles Burnett
226. Frank Borzage
227. Mel Brooks
228. Louis Feuillade
229. Philippe Garrel
230. George Roy Hill
231. Steven Soderbergh
232. Djibril Diop Mambéty
233. John Landis
234. Lee Chang-dong
235. Sofia Coppola
236. Aleksey German
237. Raúl Ruiz
238. Ken Russell
239. Takeshi Kitano
240. Peter Watkins
241. Guillermo del Toro
242. Boris Barnet
243. Sam Raimi
244. Abel Ferrara
245. Danny Boyle
246. Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski
247. Edgar G. Ulmer
248. Wang Bing
249. Alan J. Pakula
250. Nelson Pereira dos Santos

BONUS CHALLLENGE #2: Deep
This bonus challenges awards the user who watches the most films from a single director.

For this bonus challenge the 80 minutes rules for short and episodes does not apply. Every short or mini-/tv-serie episode count as one entry.

DEEP

Rank	Participant	Director	Count
1.	klaus78	Stan Brakhage	39
2.	jeroeno	Johan van der Keuken	31
3.	klaus78	Hollis Frampton	15
4.	jeroeno	Frans Zwartjes	14
5.	AssonFire	Ridley Scott	14
6.	flavo5000	Edgar G. Ulmer	13
7.	Lu-Chin	Charles Chaplin	12
8.	Lu-Chin	Jean-Luc Godard	10
9.	flavo5000	David DeCoteau	9
10.	klaus78	Dziga Vertov	9
11.	AssonFire	Werner Herzog	9
12.	flavo5000	Joe D'Amato	8
13.	flavo5000	Andy Warhol	8
14.	flavo5000	Chih-Hung Kuei	7
15.	flavo5000	Herschell Gordon Lewis	7
16.	Obgeoff	Ernst Lubitsch	7
17.	Lu-Chin	Ken Jacobs	7
18.	Lu-Chin	Bruce Baillie	7
19.	jeroeno	Ishmael Bernal	7
20.	jdidaco	R. Bruce Elder	7
21.	jdidaco	Jürgen Reble	7
22.	jdidaco	Henri Storck	7
23.	Lonewolf2003	Olivier Assayas	7
24.	blocho	John Guillermin	7
25.	flavo5000	Sidney Lumet	6
26.	Lu-Chin	Chantal Akerman	6
27.	Lu-Chin	Dardenne brothers	6
28.	Lu-Chin	Paul Verhoeven	6
29.	jeroeno	Lino Brocka	6
30.	Lonewolf2003	Lucio Fulci	6
31.	maxwelldeux	Spike Lee	6
32.	flavo5000	Lamberto Bava	5
33.	flavo5000	Ken Russell	5
34.	flavo5000	Polonia Brothers	5
35.	Obgeoff	Satyajit Ray	5
36.	Obgeoff	Louis Feuillade	5
37.	Lu-Chin	Stan Brakhage	5
38.	jdidaco	Klaus Wyborny	5
39.	jdidaco	Teo Hernandez	5
40.	jdidaco	Werner Schroeter	5
41.	DudeLanez	Kenji Mizoguchi	5
42.	DudeLanez	Herbert Achternbusch	5
43.	Lonewolf2003	Abbas Kiarostami	5
44.	Lonewolf2003	Walter Hill	5
45.	Lonewolf2003	John Landis	5
46.	ChrisReynolds	Robert Siodmak	5
47.	St. Gloede	Jean-Daniel Pollet	5
48.	flavo5000	Mick Garris	4
49.	flavo5000	Rintaro	4
50.	flavo5000	Mamoru Oshii	4
51.	flavo5000	John Landis	4
52.	flavo5000	Yasujirô Ozu	4
53.	flavo5000	Takeshi Kitano	4
54.	flavo5000	John Woo	4
55.	flavo5000	Stanley Donen	4
56.	flavo5000	Spike Lee	4
57.	flavo5000	Osamu Dezaki	4
58.	flavo5000	Michael Ritchie	4
59.	flavo5000	Larry Cohen	4
60.	flavo5000	Federico Fellini	4
61.	Obgeoff	John Sayles	4
62.	Obgeoff	King Vidor	4
63.	Obgeoff	Louis Malle	4
64.	Obgeoff	Henry King	4
65.	Obgeoff	David Lean	4
66.	Obgeoff	Samuel Fuller	4
67.	Obgeoff	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	4
68.	Obgeoff	Peter Greenaway	4
69.	Obgeoff	Fred Zinnemann	4
70.	Obgeoff	Shôhei Imamura	4
71.	Obgeoff	Tim Burton	4
72.	Obgeoff	Victor Sjöström	4
73.	Obgeoff	Clarence Brown	4
74.	Lu-Chin	Matthew Barney	4
75.	jeroeno	Jacques Rivette	4
76.	jeroeno	Mike de Leon	4
77.	jeroeno	Gerardo de Leon	4
78.	DudeLanez	Kon Ichikawa	4
79.	DudeLanez	Masaki Kobayashi	4
80.	DudeLanez	Ingmar Bergman	4
81.	sol	Joe Begos	4
82.	Lonewolf2003	Arthur Penn	4
83.	Lonewolf2003	Justin Lin	4
84.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	William Castle	4
85.	frbrown	Harry Kümel	4
86.	frbrown	William Beaudine	4
87.	frbrown	Blake Edwards	4
88.	ChrisReynolds	Menahem Golan	4
89.	ChrisReynolds	Roger Corman	4
90.	ChrisReynolds	Dario Argento	4
91.	St. Gloede	Rita Azevedo Gomes	4
92.	St. Gloede	Alain Cavalier	4
93.	AB537	Eric Rohmer	4
94.	Melvelet	SABU	4
95.	Knaldskalle	Luis Bunuel	4
96.	flavo5000	Steven Soderbergh	3
97.	flavo5000	Noboru Iguchi	3
98.	flavo5000	Gina Prince-Bythewood	3
99.	flavo5000	Robert Bresson	3
100.	flavo5000	Tom Holland	3
101.	flavo5000	John Gilling	3
102.	flavo5000	Roland Emmerich	3
103.	flavo5000	Steven Spielberg	3
104.	flavo5000	Clint Eastwood	3
105.	flavo5000	H. Tjut Djalil	3
106.	flavo5000	Brad Anderson	3
107.	flavo5000	Steve James	3
108.	flavo5000	Peter Medak	3
109.	flavo5000	Godfrey Ho	3
110.	flavo5000	Kathryn Bigelow	3
111.	flavo5000	Roberta Findlay	3
112.	flavo5000	Nicholas Ray	3
113.	flavo5000	Jafar Panahi	3
114.	flavo5000	Naoko Ogigami	3
115.	flavo5000	Louis Malle	3
116.	flavo5000	Peter Sasdy	3
117.	flavo5000	Damiano Damiani	3
118.	flavo5000	Alexander Payne	3
119.	flavo5000	Gakuryu Ishii	3
120.	flavo5000	John Singleton	3
121.	flavo5000	Roy Ward Baker	3
122.	flavo5000	Ernest Dickerson	3
123.	flavo5000	Carl Theodor Dreyer	3
124.	flavo5000	Val Guest	3
125.	flavo5000	Terence Fisher	3
126.	flavo5000	Adam Green	3
127.	Obgeoff	Mike Nichols	3
128.	Obgeoff	Richard Donner	3
129.	Obgeoff	Sam Wood	3
130.	Obgeoff	Jonathan Demme	3
131.	Obgeoff	Akira Kurosawa	3
132.	Obgeoff	Phillip Noyce	3
133.	Obgeoff	Milos Forman	3
134.	Obgeoff	Yasujiro Ozu	3
135.	Obgeoff	Joe Dante	3
136.	Obgeoff	Blake Edwards	3
137.	Obgeoff	Patricio Guzmán	3
138.	Obgeoff	Abel Ferrara	3
139.	Obgeoff	Bruce Beresford	3
140.	Obgeoff	Frank Borzage	3
141.	Obgeoff	William A. Wellman	3
142.	Obgeoff	Clint Eastwood	3
143.	Obgeoff	Leo McCarey	3
144.	Obgeoff	John Milius	3
145.	Obgeoff	M. Night Shyamalan	3
146.	Obgeoff	John Huston	3
147.	Obgeoff	Peter Weir	3
148.	Obgeoff	Roger Corman	3
149.	Obgeoff	Peter Jackson	3
150.	Lu-Chin	Alain Resnais	3
151.	Lu-Chin	Roberto Gavaldón	3
152.	Lu-Chin	Emilio Fernández	3
153.	Lu-Chin	Dziga Vertov	3
154.	Lu-Chin	Sergei Parajanov	3
155.	Lu-Chin	Michael Snow	3
156.	Lu-Chin	Max Ophüls	3
157.	Lu-Chin	Deborah Stratman	3
158.	Lu-Chin	Glauber Rocha	3
159.	Lu-Chin	Peter Delpeut	3
160.	Lu-Chin	Jaime Humberto Hermosillo	3
161.	Lu-Chin	Jonas Mekas	3
162.	Lu-Chin	Alex van Warmerdam	3
163.	Lu-Chin	Alfred Hitchcock	3
164.	Lu-Chin	Juan Bustillo Oro	3
165.	Lu-Chin	James Benning	3
166.	Lu-Chin	Ismael Rodríguez	3
167.	Lu-Chin	Arturo Ripstein	3
168.	Lu-Chin	Leopoldo Torre Nilsson	3
169.	jeroeno	Yasuzô Masumura	3
170.	jeroeno	Lamberto V. Avellana	3
171.	jeroeno	Leonardo Favio	3
172.	jeroeno	Peter Delpeut	3
173.	jeroeno	Joaquim Pedro de Andrade	3
174.	jeroeno	Yvonne Rainer	3
175.	jeroeno	John Ford	3
176.	jeroeno	Sang-soo Hong	3
177.	jeroeno	Philippe Garrel	3
178.	jeroeno	Eric Rohmer	3
179.	klaus78	Jacques Rivette	3
180.	klaus78	Adam Curtis	3
181.	klaus78	Gustav Deutsch	3
182.	klaus78	Michael Snow	3
183.	jdidaco	Amit Dutta	3
184.	jdidaco	Gust Van den Berghe	3
185.	jdidaco	Richard Myers	3
186.	jdidaco	Tsai Ming-liang	3
187.	jdidaco	Werner Nekes	3
188.	jdidaco	Boris Lehman	3
189.	jdidaco	Jon Jost	3
190.	jdidaco	Khavn	3
191.	jdidaco	Johan van der Keuken	3
192.	jdidaco	Júlio Bressane	3
193.	DudeLanez	Roberto Rossellini	3
194.	DudeLanez	René Clair	3
195.	DudeLanez	Georg Wilhelm Pabst	3
196.	DudeLanez	Helmut Käutner	3
197.	DudeLanez	Francesco Rosi	3
198.	DudeLanez	Edgar Reitz	3
199.	DudeLanez	Krzysztof Zanussi	3
200.	DudeLanez	Ingmar Bergman	3
201.	DudeLanez	Nuri Bilge Ceylan	3
202.	DudeLanez	Jerzy Skolimowski	3
203.	sol	Steven Soderbergh	3
204.	sol	James Mangold	3
205.	sol	Thomas Vinterberg	3
206.	sol	Ti West	3
207.	sol	Spike Lee	3
208.	sol	Dick Maas	3
209.	sol	John McNaughton	3
210.	sol	Patrick Brice	3
211.	sol	Frank De Felitta	3
212.	sol	James Benning	3
213.	sol	Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson	3
214.	sol	Rob Zombie	3
215.	sol	Mickey Keating	3
216.	Lonewolf2003	Francis Ford Coppola	3
217.	Lonewolf2003	Sydney Pollack	3
218.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	John Baxter	3
219.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	Guy Hamilton	3
220.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	Lawrence Huntington	3
221.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	Sidney Salkow	3
222.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	Fred F. Sears	3
223.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	Radley Metzger	3
224.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	Herbert Wilcox	3
225.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	Daniel Mann	3
226.	frbrown	Riccardo Freda	3
227.	frbrown	George Cukor	3
228.	frbrown	Ernst Lubitsch	3
229.	frbrown	Dick Maas	3
230.	frbrown	Kenji Misumi	3
231.	ChrisReynolds	Sam Raimi	3
232.	ChrisReynolds	Yoshiaki Kawajiri	3
233.	ChrisReynolds	Jim Wynorski	3
234.	St. Gloede	Pere Portabella	3
235.	St. Gloede	Fons Rademakers	3
236.	St. Gloede	Chantal Akerman	3
237.	St. Gloede	Alice Rohrwacher	3
238.	hurluberlu	Jean-Luc Godard	3
239.	hurluberlu	Pablo Larraín	3
240.	hurluberlu	Guillaume Nicloux	3
241.	hurluberlu	Todd Haynes	3
242.	hurluberlu	Preston Sturges	3
243.	hurluberlu	François Truffaut	3
244.	hurluberlu	Philippe Garrel	3
245.	AB537	Akira Kurosawa	3
246.	AB537	Michael Winterbottom	3
247.	AB537	Francois Truffaut	3
248.	AB537	Billy Wilder	3
249.	AB537	Ron Howard	3
250.	Melvelet	Brian de Palma	3
251.	Melvelet	Roberto Rossellini	3
252.	Melvelet	Elia Kazan	3
253.	Melvelet	John Woo	3
254.	morrison-dylan-fan	Adam Curtis	3
255.	morrison-dylan-fan	Werner Herzog	3
256.	morrison-dylan-fan	Harald Reinl	3
257.	morrison-dylan-fan	Pierre Chenal	3
258.	morrison-dylan-fan	Sacha Guitry	3
259.	pitchorneirda	Zhang Yimou	3
260.	pitchorneirda	Claire Denis	3
261.	pitchorneirda	Satoshi Kon	3
262.	pitchorneirda	Douglas Sirk	3
263.	blocho	David Fincher	3
264.	peeptoad	Jacques Becker	3
265.	peeptoad	Joe Begos	3
266.	peeptoad	Guy Gilles	3
267.	max-scl	Dardenne brothers	3
268.	max-scl	Paul Verhoeven	3
269.	connordenney	Masaki Kobayashi	3
270.	monclivie	Woody Allen	3
271.	clemmetarey	Masaki Kobayashi	3
272.	blocho	Ava DuVernay	1

BONUS CHALLLENGE #3: Wide
This bonus challenges awards the user who completes the most different directors.

WIDE

Rank	Participant	Count
1.	flavo5000	54
2.	Obgeoff	39
3.	Lu-Chin	28
4.	jeroeno	17
5.	jdidaco	14
6.	sol	15
7.	DudeLanez	16
8.	klaus78	7
9.	Lonewolf2003	9
10.	ChrisReynolds	7
11.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	6
12.	AB537	7
13.	hurluberlu	8
14.	frbrown	9
15.	morrison-dylan-fan	5
16.	Melvelet	7
17.	St. Gloede	5
18.	blocho	3
19.	pitchorneirda	4
20.	peeptoad	2
21.	AssonFire	3
22.	max-scl	1
23.	maxwelldeux	2
24.	Knaldskalle	1
25.	monclivie	1
26.	clemmetarey	1
27.	connordenney	1

BONUS CHALLLENGE #4: Directorial Debut Features
In spirit of this month Directorial Debut Features Poll, this bonus challenges awards the user who watches the most debuts features from directors. A debut feature is defined as the first feature film (a film over 40 minutes) of a director that was commercial cinematic released. See Fergenaprido's interesting topic for more information.

See this incomplete/expanding list for eligible titles. (iCM list coming soon) This list is made thanks to Fergenaprido's spreadsheet in the before mentioned topic. Contributions are welcome!

Anthologies and co-directed features which are the debut for multiple directors can only count once.

To compete in the challenge use #DDF to indicate an eligible entry.

DEBUTS

Rank	Participant	Count
1.	flavo5000	9
2.	sol	8
3.	DudeLanez	5
4.	Lonewolf2003	2
5.	Lu-Chin	1
6.	morrison-dylan-fan	1
7.	AB537	1
8.	pitchorneirda	1
9.	AssonFire	1
10.	maxwelldeux	1

Pshew...

I know these seem like curiously stringent rules for a challenge on here, but keep in mind that this challenge has quite possibly the largest pool of films of any challenge this forum has ever held (with the only criterion being that a director had to have made enough to constitute at least three entries). So basically these rules are being instituted to truly maintain the spirit of the challenge of really exploring a director’s output rather than just lumping together movies you might have happened to watch during the month. So in that spirit, I hope everyone who participates finds some new favorites as well as gain additional appreciation in previously familiar filmmakers.

Overall Leaderboard
[

Rank	Participant	Count
1.	flavo5000	205
2.	Obgeoff	138
3.	Lu-Chin	104
4.	jeroeno	72
5.	jdidaco	56
6.	DudeLanez	52
7.	sol	43
8.	Lonewolf2003	42
9.	klaus78	37
10.	RogerTheMovieManiac88	28
11.	frbrown	27
12.	ChrisReynolds	26
13.	St. Gloede	25
14.	hurluberlu	21
15.	morrison-dylan-fan	20
16.	AB537	19
17.	Melvelet	16
18.	blocho	13
19.	pitchorneirda	12
20.	AssonFire	11
21.	peeptoad	9
22.	maxwelldeux	6
23.	max-scl	6
24.	Knaldskalle	4
25.	monclivie	3
26.	clemmetarey	3
27.	connordenney	3

[Lonewolf2003]

To keep it all a bit simpler and more in the spirit of the challenge I'm of the mind to not allow returning to a director during the challenge. How do others feel about this?

[zuma]

In for a couple of runs

[flavo5000]

To keep it all a bit simpler and more in the spirit of the challenge I'm of the mind to not allow returning to a director during the challenge. How do others feel about this?

I'm fine with that. I had considered doing it that way last year but put it in as a kind of concession for some who were complaining about how strict the rules are in some ways.

[flavo5000]

Also I'm definitely in. I'm going to try to focus almost entirely on directors I didn't profile last year and also try to come up with a few repeating themes as well.

[Lonewolf2003]

I'm looking forward to your reviews again, flavo

[maxwelldeux]

To keep it all a bit simpler and more in the spirit of the challenge I'm of the mind to not allow returning to a director during the challenge. How do others feel about this?

I'm fine with that. I had considered doing it that way last year but put it in as a kind of concession for some who were complaining about how strict the rules are in some ways.

I'm in the opposite boat - I'd prefer that once you watch three from a given director, you "unlock" that director and can return to them at any point and with any number of films. But that's just me, and I'm fine with whatever decision.

[Obgeoff]

To keep it all a bit simpler and more in the spirit of the challenge I'm of the mind to not allow returning to a director during the challenge. How do others feel about this?

I’m pretty sure I returned to a least one director during the last challenge. I don’t see the issue once you have stipulated the restarting has to commence with three films like you have done. Lots of us will have planned a number of films in advance. You might find you want to explore further a particular director that you only pencilled in for 3 films and then need to research and source more films from them whilst in the meantime continuing with your schedule.

Not something that I’d fall out over but if not too administratively daunting I would keep the ability to do so - don’t get the not in the spirit of the challenge - would have thought further exploration was very much in the spirit!

[Lonewolf2003]

To keep it all a bit simpler and more in the spirit of the challenge I'm of the mind to not allow returning to a director during the challenge. How do others feel about this?

I’m pretty sure I returned to a least one director during the last challenge. I don’t see the issue once you have stipulated the restarting has to commence with three films like you have done. Lots of us will have planned a number of films in advance. You might find you want to explore further a particular director that you only pencilled in for 3 films and then need to research and source more films from them whilst in the meantime continuing with your schedule.

Not something that I’d fall out over but if not too administratively daunting I would keep the ability to do so - don’t get the not in the spirit of the challenge - would have thought further exploration was very much in the spirit!

To me the spirit of the challenge is more about watching as much as possible consecutive from one director, to keep the feel for that one director so to say. But I understand your point of view, that some people may want to dive more into a director but first have to research and get more of those films. And further explorations of a directors oeuvre is indeed in the spirit of the challenge

I will leave the rule as it is and allow returns.

[zuma]

To keep it all a bit simpler and more in the spirit of the challenge I'm of the mind to not allow returning to a director during the challenge. How do others feel about this?

I’m pretty sure I returned to a least one director during the last challenge. I don’t see the issue once you have stipulated the restarting has to commence with three films like you have done. Lots of us will have planned a number of films in advance. You might find you want to explore further a particular director that you only pencilled in for 3 films and then need to research and source more films from them whilst in the meantime continuing with your schedule.

Not something that I’d fall out over but if not too administratively daunting I would keep the ability to do so - don’t get the not in the spirit of the challenge - would have thought further exploration was very much in the spirit!

To me the spirit of the challenge is more about watching as much as possible consecutive from one director, to keep the feel for that one director so to say. But I understand your point of view, that some people may want to dive more into a director but first have to research and get more of those films. And further explorations of a directors oeuvre is indeed in the spirit of the challenge

I will leave the rule as it is and allow returns.

That is too bad. Personally it only works for me if you return to a director with another three films.

[Knaldskalle]

I'm sorry, but it's not going to be possible to complete the Top 250 Director's challenge with the rules being the way they are.

Jean Vigo (#42) only made 2 feature length films and two short films with a combined runtime of 34 minutes. Since the 80 minute rule is in effect, you'll need to add 46 minutes of shorts from some other director who will then be credited since 46>34. So the most you can get from Vigo is 2, so no "run" and thus no completion of the Top 250.

[sol]

I'm sorry, but it's not going to be possible to complete the Top 250 Director's challenge with the rules being the way they are.

Fortunately this is not an issue since last time we collectively only managed to watch 98 of the top 250 Directors. Even if we double that this year, that will leave us quite far off finishing the list. But of course if Lonewolf wants to make it an achievable target, we could always exclude Vigo and see how close we come to hitting 249. Honestly, I'll be impressed enough if we get over 200.

[Knaldskalle]

I'm sorry, but it's not going to be possible to complete the Top 250 Director's challenge with the rules being the way they are.

Fortunately this is not an issue since last time we collectively only managed to watch 98 of the top 250 Directors. Even if we double that this year, that will leave us quite far off finishing the list. But of course if Lonewolf wants to make it an achievable target, we could always exclude Vigo and see how close we come to hitting 249. Honestly, I'll be impressed enough if we get over 200.

Yeah, I'm fine whatever happens, I just wanted to point out that there's a built-in impossibility in the setup.

[sol]

1. The House of 1000 Corpses (2003) Rob Zombie #DDF
2. The Devil's Rejects (2005) Rob Zombie
3. 3 From Hell (2019) Rob Zombie



Rob Zombie

The 2007 remake of Halloween was the first ever Rob Zombie film that I saw after avoiding his films for years. It was a movie that really impressed me, not so much for Zombie's style but rather how ably he managed to flesh out Michael Myers as a character. It is actually one of those rare remakes that I prefer to the original. Since then, I have tried exploring more of Zombie's work, some of which is incredibly stylish (c.f. Lords of Salem) and some of which is full of great ideas (c.f. 31) but none of which has ever recaptured that magic I felt while watching his Halloween, so this Challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity to final give the trilogy that Zombie made his name with a whirl.

The good news is that I actually kind of liked House of 1000 Corpses. I don't think it is a great film, but I loved the set-up, the whole sense of mystery/WTF and the funhouse style black museum curated by Sig Haig in the craziest clown makeup imaginable. There is also a lot of torture porn type stuff, none of which really jived with me. The Devil's Rejects was a disappointment. It is more character-based a la Halloween but Zombie mostly just ups the torture porn stuff while ditching the amazing funhouse/museum, and of course he is unable to recapture the original's WTFery. And then 3 from Hell seemed to be more of the same despite a really fun early turn by Dee Wallace as a sadistic prison guard.

Stylistically, I don't think Zombie is really for me. Lots of shaky camerawork, slow-mo, inverse colours - it's all pretty bombastic. In a way this kind of suits the nihilistic edge of the Firefly trilogy, but it's so far removed from what turned Halloween into a film that made me sit up and decide that I had to give his other work a go.

[sol]

Hey, what would you know? I'm "first in" for this Challenge as well. Thank you Coronavirus Lockdown.

[Lonewolf2003]

I’m pretty sure I returned to a least one director during the last challenge. I don’t see the issue once you have stipulated the restarting has to commence with three films like you have done. Lots of us will have planned a number of films in advance. You might find you want to explore further a particular director that you only pencilled in for 3 films and then need to research and source more films from them whilst in the meantime continuing with your schedule.

Not something that I’d fall out over but if not too administratively daunting I would keep the ability to do so - don’t get the not in the spirit of the challenge - would have thought further exploration was very much in the spirit!

To me the spirit of the challenge is more about watching as much as possible consecutive from one director, to keep the feel for that one director so to say. But I understand your point of view, that some people may want to dive more into a director but first have to research and get more of those films. And further explorations of a directors oeuvre is indeed in the spirit of the challenge

I will leave the rule as it is and allow returns.

That is too bad. Personally it only works for me if you return to a director with another three films.

The rules still is that you have to return with three other films minumum.

[Lonewolf2003]

I'm sorry, but it's not going to be possible to complete the Top 250 Director's challenge with the rules being the way they are.

Fortunately this is not an issue since last time we collectively only managed to watch 98 of the top 250 Directors. Even if we double that this year, that will leave us quite far off finishing the list. But of course if Lonewolf wants to make it an achievable target, we could always exclude Vigo and see how close we come to hitting 249. Honestly, I'll be impressed enough if we get over 200.

Yeah, I'm fine whatever happens, I just wanted to point out that there's a built-in impossibility in the setup.

If we complete every other director and Vigo is the only one left I will be flex with the rules so we can finish Vigo too.

[clemmetarey]

I'm in for a few, I have a few directors lined up.

[AssonFire]

I'm in. Going to try and complete a few filmographies.

- 80 minutes of short films or miniseries/TV episodes counts as one entry. (You can combine minutes from different directors to get to 80 minutes, but only if one of those directors has less than 80 minutes of shorts and episodes available. This also can't count as one of the required first three entries. The entry will count as an entry for the director with the most minutes in that entry.)

I'm a bit unclear on this. Does it mean that directors who have only directed short films are ineligible?

[Cinepolis]

The good news is that I actually kind of liked House of 1000 Corpses. I don't think it is a great film, but I loved the set-up, the whole sense of mystery/WTF and the funhouse style black museum curated by Sig Haig in the craziest clown makeup imaginable. There is also a lot of torture porn type stuff, none of which really jived with me. The Devil's Rejects was a disappointment. It is more character-based a la Halloween but Zombie mostly just ups the torture porn stuff while ditching the amazing funhouse/museum, and of course he is unable to recapture the original's WTFery. And then 3 from Hell seemed to be more of the same despite a really fun early turn by Dee Wallace as a sadistic prison guard.

Oddly enough it's the other way around for me. I love "Devil's Rejects" and enjoyed "3 From Hell" but never got much out of his debut.

[Lonewolf2003]

I'm in. Going to try and complete a few filmographies.

- 80 minutes of short films or miniseries/TV episodes counts as one entry. (You can combine minutes from different directors to get to 80 minutes, but only if one of those directors has less than 80 minutes of shorts and episodes available. This also can't count as one of the required first three entries. The entry will count as an entry for the director with the most minutes in that entry.)

I'm a bit unclear on this. Does it mean that directors who have only directed short films are ineligible?

You have to have at least three entries per director. For shorts an entry has to constitute of 80 minutes in total. A director with 3x 80 minutes of shorts is eligible, one that doesn't meet that requirement is not.

Examples
Directors with only shorts:
Allowed:
1. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.
2. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.
3. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.

Not allowed :
1. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.
2. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.
3. Chuck Jones; total shorts 60 min + Tex Avery 20 min of shorts.

Example: Directors with enough features and more than 80 mins of short in total available. (I assume this is the case haven't checked it, this is an example)
Allowed:
1. Buster Keaton: The General
2. Buster Keaton: The Cameraman
3. Buster Keaton: shorts, total 80 mins.

Not allowed:
1. Buster Keaton: The General
2. Buster Keaton: The Cameraman
3. Buster Keaton: shorts, total 60 mins + 20 min Chaplin shorts.

Example: Directors with enough features and only 60 minutes of shorts:
Allowed:
1. Jane Doe: Feature X
2. Jane Doe: Feature Y
3. Jane Doe: Feature Z
4. Jane Doe: shorts 60 mins total + 20 min short of John Doe.

Not allowed:
1. Jane Doe: Feature X
2. Jane Doe: Feature Y
3. Jane Doe: shorts 60 mins total + 20 min short of John Doe.

[sol]

The good news is that I actually kind of liked House of 1000 Corpses. I don't think it is a great film, but I loved the set-up, the whole sense of mystery/WTF and the funhouse style black museum curated by Sig Haig in the craziest clown makeup imaginable. There is also a lot of torture porn type stuff, none of which really jived with me. The Devil's Rejects was a disappointment. It is more character-based a la Halloween but Zombie mostly just ups the torture porn stuff while ditching the amazing funhouse/museum, and of course he is unable to recapture the original's WTFery. And then 3 from Hell seemed to be more of the same despite a really fun early turn by Dee Wallace as a sadistic prison guard.

Oddly enough it's the other way around for me. I love "Devil's Rejects" and enjoyed "3 From Hell" but never got much out of his debut.

You're in the majority there. Well at least on Devil's Rejects. Higher ratings on IMDb, Letterboxd and from genre critics such as Richard Scheib. I guess it depends what you're looking for in a horror movie. I prefer my horror movies with neon visuals, plenty of WTF moments and a minimal amount of torture porn. I think it was only inevitable that I would prefer Corpses.

[Cinepolis]

You're in the majority there. Well at least on Devil's Rejects. Higher ratings on IMDb, Letterboxd and from genre critics such as Richard Scheib. I guess it depends what you're looking for in a horror movie. I prefer my horror movies with neon visuals, plenty of WTF moments and a minimal amount of torture porn. I think it was only inevitable that I would prefer Corpses.

Normally I would like movies like "House of 1000 Corpses", however, I found everything in it to be overly annoying. It got one of the coolest openings to a horror movie tho.

[flavo5000]

You're in the majority there. Well at least on Devil's Rejects. Higher ratings on IMDb, Letterboxd and from genre critics such as Richard Scheib. I guess it depends what you're looking for in a horror movie. I prefer my horror movies with neon visuals, plenty of WTF moments and a minimal amount of torture porn. I think it was only inevitable that I would prefer Corpses.

Normally I would like movies like "House of 1000 Corpses", however, I found everything in it to be overly annoying. It got one of the coolest openings to a horror movie tho.

The main thing I find annoying in most Rob Zombie movies is his obnoxious wife Sherri Moon. Really wish he'd stop casting her in lead roles...

[psychotronicbeatnik]

I wish I could say I was "in" for this challenge but I know I do not have the time to really challenge myself (or to be competitive). It was hard for me not to sign up for the sci/fi challenge last month but it's even harder not to do this one as it was a very rewarding and fun one last year. Good luck to all who do participate. I'll stop by when I can to see what's going on.

[jeroeno]

1. Diva Dolorosa (Peter Delpeut, 1999)
2. Lyrisch nitraat (Peter Delpeut, 1991)
3. The Forbidden Quest (Peter Delpeut, 1991)

A fine Dutch director for those who want to be competitive in all three official challenges this month.

[flavo5000]

Steven Spielberg

It seemed only appropriate to kick off this challenge with a director who both bridges from the Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge nicely as well as who has possibly had more of an impact and influence on modern mainstream culture than maybe any other director in history. Starting his career primarily in TV like many directors back in the late '60s/early '70s, Spielberg quickly showed his firm grip of suspense and mounting tension with films like Duel and The Sugarland Express before changing the entirely landscape of Hollywood and single-handedly giving birth to the summer blockbuster with megahit Jaws. Contrary to many of the big Hollywood films of the time that were either massive, bloated disaster flicks like The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure or more dialogue heavy prestige dramas like The Godfather Part II and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Jaws offered what probably felt like a breath of fresh air to many with its streamlined narrative and easy-to-understand character motivations mixed with that practiced tension-and-release energy that Spielberg brought to the table. It's no surprise it grossed more than twice as much as any other film in 1975. Of course, Spielberg would follow it up with hit after hit with only the occasional misstep (Hello 1941!) building up an oeuvre that took Jaws' commercial potential and suspense and combined it with a sentimentality that would've made Frank Capra proud. He stands as quite possibly the most successful director in film history, if not the most famous as well.


1. Hook (1991)
Hook has historically been considered one of Spielberg's less successful endeavors, and it's easy to see why. With an overly complicated premise, an incredibly bloated runtime and some very silly costume and acting decisions, Spielberg almost gets swallowed up in his own spectacle, forgetting to pare down his narrative into a more easily consumable format while also adding real stakes. The tone just feels too variable with Hoffman chewing mad scenery and smashing clocks one minute while cold-heartedly murdering a boy the next. Or you have Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell who seems to exist solely for cutaway reaction shots of her giggling at something and the out of nowhere kiss scene. Having said all that, Robin Williams is probably the best thing here, portraying both the very uptight, stodgy Peter Panning and the carefree fun-loving Peter Pan with equal aplomb.

2. Something Evil (1972)
Going all the way back to one of Spielberg's first TV films, Something Evil tells the story of a family who moves into a house that happens to already have a live-in tenant not referenced in the lease: THE DEVIL! With Sandy Dennis as the mother who's skeptical but at least tries to understand what's happening after hearing mysterious baby crying and other phenomena she can't explain and Darren McGavin playing almost the total opposite kind of person as his famous Kolchak character, a father who stolidly refuses to believe anything supernatural is going on despite evidence to the contrary, it has a good cast and for a TV movie is actually quite well-shot and well-paced. Understandably it pales in comparison to what Spielberg would deliver in the years to come, but for very low budget Movie-of-the-Week fare, the spark of talent can definitely be seen.

3. The BFG (2016)
The BFG is one of Spielberg's most recent stabs at children's entertainment, telling the well-known Roald Dahl story of the Big Friendly Giant and his efforts to protect a little girl he captures from an orphanage one night. The technical achievement of animating the giant with such tenderness and emotion is certainly what this film will be remembered for more than anything else. Mark Rylance's word jumbling, bumfuzzled portrayal of the giant gives the animated character an emotional core often lacking with these kinds of roles and his garbled wordplay, retained from the book, is fun as well. Plus Spielberg includes some of his trademark bravura set pieces. Two in particular involving the little girl hiding from the other giants feature what seems to be single take camera shots, swooping around, over and through everything, creating a real sense of chaotic energy. The main problem with this one is that the plot itself is just somewhat lacking. The third act main thrust in particular wherein the girl and BFG pleads to the Queen of England herself to put a stop to the other giants feels very anti-climactic. Still, the movie isn't lacking in charm and enjoyment.

The Nexus of Power Compels Thee

Run #1: Steven Spielberg
1. Hook (1991)
2. Something Evil (1972)
3. The BFG (2016)

[Obgeoff]

Kicking off with David Lean.

Prior experience:
6 features - 3 @ 9, 2 @ 8, 1 @ 7

1. Oliver Twist (1948, Lean) 8
2. Summertime (1955, Lean) 8
3. Ryan's Daughter (1970, Lean) 7
4. A Passage to India (1984, Lean) 7

Landscapes, visual storytelling, female desire encountering social conventions and unleashing unintending consequences, healthy suspicion of colonialism ultimately undercut by the nobleness of the pure gentleman.

[AB537]

Question for clarification: the rule that miniseries "can't count as one of the required first three entries" only applies if a miniseries is split between/among multiple directors? In other words, in the absence of stand-alone films, a miniseries with a total run time over 240 minutes would be sufficient to qualify for this challenge, as long as it's entirely directed by the same person, e.g. Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz, Kieslowski's Dekalog, Assayas' Carlos, Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor etc.?

[frbrown]

Related to AB537's question, there was a rule last year that seems to be missing this year, the rule being:

-Any television series or mini-series can only count toward one entry for a given director. This means that whether you watch two episodes or two seasons of The Knick for Soderbergh, it will still only count as one entry.

If that rule no longer applies, could I watch 12 Star Trek episodes by Joseph Pevney (and I might!), and count that as 6 points?

[AssonFire]

You have to have at least three entries per director. For shorts an entry has to constitute of 80 minutes in total. A director with 3x 80 minutes of shorts is eligible, one that doesn't meet that requirement is not.

Examples
Directors with only shorts:
Allowed:
1. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.
2. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.
3. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.

Not allowed :
1. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.
2. Chuck Jones; total shorts 80 min.
3. Chuck Jones; total shorts 60 min + Tex Avery 20 min of shorts.

Example: Directors with enough features and more than 80 mins of short in total available. (I assume this is the case haven't checked it, this is an example)
Allowed:
1. Buster Keaton: The General
2. Buster Keaton: The Cameraman
3. Buster Keaton: shorts, total 80 mins.

Not allowed:
1. Buster Keaton: The General
2. Buster Keaton: The Cameraman
3. Buster Keaton: shorts, total 60 mins + 20 min Chaplin shorts.

Example: Directors with enough features and only 60 minutes of shorts:
Allowed:
1. Jane Doe: Feature X
2. Jane Doe: Feature Y
3. Jane Doe: Feature Z
4. Jane Doe: shorts 60 mins total + 20 min short of John Doe.

Not allowed:
1. Jane Doe: Feature X
2. Jane Doe: Feature Y
3. Jane Doe: shorts 60 mins total + 20 min short of John Doe.

Thanks, I'm with you now.

[flavo5000]

Related to AB537's question, there was a rule last year that seems to be missing this year, the rule being:

-Any television series or mini-series can only count toward one entry for a given director. This means that whether you watch two episodes or two seasons of The Knick for Soderbergh, it will still only count as one entry.

If that rule no longer applies, could I watch 12 Star Trek episodes by Joseph Pevney (and I might!), and count that as 6 points?

Uh...hm... Not sure I like removing that rule. I had intentionally put it in there so people wouldn't just spam TV since often episodes of TV are reflective of the vision of the showrunner and not the director of a given episode (with exceptions, particularly with anthology series and with series that does have a single director for the whole thing).

[sol]

Running on Directors

1. The House of 1000 Corpses (2003) Rob Zombie #DDF
2. The Devil's Rejects (2005) Rob Zombie
3. 3 From Hell (2019) Rob Zombie

4. Cop Land (1997) James Mangold
5. Logan (2017) James Mangold
6. Heavy (1995) James Mangold #DDF



James Mangold

What can one say about James Mangold? With this trio of films under my belt, I have now seen every single feature that Mangold has directed to date and I still cannot detect any noticeable style or themes or motifs. He has only done one comedy, but otherwise he has tackled everything from coming-of-age dramas to action movies to biographical dramas to westerns. The performances in his films are certainly often top-notch, but beyond that there does not seem like a lot more to say.

Identity was my first experience with Mangold, seen theatrically way back in the day. I liked the film a lot and while his subsequent two films did not interest me, I soon found Girl, Interrupted which I loved and have seen a couple of times over the years. I have actually seen Knight & Day twice too (once theatrically; once on disc) and I generally hold that up as a better-than-average action comedy because it is one that emphasises how old the stars are and the fact that they should be too over-the-hill for an action film.

Logan, which was easily the standout of this trio of films, seems cut from a similar cloth, focusing on both the Professor and Wolverine in the twilight years of their lives. I suppose if one wanted parallels, there also a similar facing up to corruption element in both Logan and Cop Land with both protagonists very jaded and bloodied by the end of the movie. Heavy though is really unlike either of those films or much of Mangold's filmography. It is probably closest to Girl, Interrupted, focusing on an overweight guy with self-esteem problems, but it is a much quieter film, and not always the better for it.

[Lonewolf2003]

Question for clarification: the rule that miniseries "can't count as one of the required first three entries" only applies if a miniseries is split between/among multiple directors? In other words, in the absence of stand-alone films, a miniseries with a total run time over 240 minutes would be sufficient to qualify for this challenge, as long as it's entirely directed by the same person, e.g. Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz, Kieslowski's Dekalog, Assayas' Carlos, Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor etc.?

The rules for mini- and tv-series episodes are the same as for shorts. As explained above. In those example for shorts read mini-/tv-series episode instead. The series doesn't have to be completely directed by one director, but episodes of a series directed by some else of course don't count for that director.

[Lonewolf2003]

Related to AB537's question, there was a rule last year that seems to be missing this year, the rule being:

-Any television series or mini-series can only count toward one entry for a given director. This means that whether you watch two episodes or two seasons of The Knick for Soderbergh, it will still only count as one entry.

If that rule no longer applies, could I watch 12 Star Trek episodes by Joseph Pevney (and I might!), and count that as 6 points?

That rule indeed no longer applies, because we made uniformal rules about amount of episode and short run time needed for a point for every challenge. When you watch 6x 80mins total of episodes by a director without switching directors meanwhile, that indeed counts as 6 entries.

@flavo: I don't like removing this rule myself either. But we decided to have the same rule for tv in every challenge. So don't hink it would be right to make an exception for this challenge.

[flavo5000]

Related to AB537's question, there was a rule last year that seems to be missing this year, the rule being:

-Any television series or mini-series can only count toward one entry for a given director. This means that whether you watch two episodes or two seasons of The Knick for Soderbergh, it will still only count as one entry.

If that rule no longer applies, could I watch 12 Star Trek episodes by Joseph Pevney (and I might!), and count that as 6 points?

That rule indeed no longer applies, because we made uniformal rules about amount of episode and short run time needed for a point for every challenge. When you watch 6x 80mins total of episodes by a director without switching directors meanwhile, that indeed counts as 6 entries.

@flavo: I don't like removing this rule myself either. But we decided to have the same rule for tv in every challenge. So don't hink it would be right to make an exception for this challenge.

Well, the change in the rule was on the timing of the rule from 60 to 80 minutes. This challenge had very unique rules in general, and I don't think it was sol's or anyone else's intent when the rule change was made to affect this particular rule. But oh well. All I can hope is that people have enough integrity to not watch a bunch of TV just to rack up points.

[flavo5000]

Lamberto Bava

Being the son of a famous director and wanting to be a director yourself can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, if your father is supportive of your aspirations like Lamberto's father, the great master of gothic horror Mario Bava, was then you may be given chances in the industry due to nepotism that many wouldn't get otherwise. Years before getting a shot at his first solo directing work Macabro (1980), Lamberto worked on several of his father's pictures as an assistant director and eventually co-directed a TV film with his father called La Venere d'ille shortly before his feature debut. So what could possibly be the downside? Well, ask Joe Hill or Colin Hanks. When you have a famous parent, getting out from under their shadow and getting people to appreciate your talent apart from them can be difficult. Joe Hill used the Hill pseudonym to distance himself from his famous father Stephen King to prove he could make it without him, and Colin Hanks, despite critically acclaimed roles like his stint on the first season of Fargo, is still known as Colin "son of Tom" Hanks to most people. Whether conscious or not, Lamberto's films tend to go in bold, sometimes strange directions that sets him apart from his father in many ways. While they both deal in horror, Lamberto tends to not rely on the thick atmosphere and overtly stylish sequences his father was known for. Instead, he leans more into perverse acts, over-the-top set pieces and disorienting or off-kilter deaths. While I don't feel like his films ever truly rose to the heights of his father's best, films like Demons and A Blade in the Dark hold their own as solid, entertaining films in their own right.


4. Body Puzzle (1992)
Body Puzzle involves a pretty standard setup for a giallo. A detective is trying to track down a killer who murders people and steals their body parts. The film reveals the killer early on, so the mystery lies in the motive rather than who the killer is. And what a weird motive it is indeed... Like many other mid-tier giallo, especially from the '90s, the film is at its best during the kill sequences, particularly one in a school for the blind. The ending reveal is also delightfully loopy. Unfortunately, the procedural elements between the kills are about as dull as dishwater and filmed about as energetically.

5. A cena con il vampiro a.k.a. Dinner with a Vampire (1989)
This TV movie may be the closest I've seen Lamberto Bava come to the sort of gothic horror his father often dealt in (at least until Lamberto actually remade his father's famous film Black Sunday in the late '90s). Unfortunately, instead of playing it straight with an atmospheric castle horror film along the lines of Antonio Margheriti, Bava adds a healthy dose of comedy that really doesn't work all that well in this film about a vampire cum horror director who invites the cast of his new film to his spooky old castle for the evening with the intent of asking them to kill him before dawn because he's grown weary of living. It's an odd setup with some promise that doesn't quite stick the landing, but it still has enough campiness and oddness to it to keep me engaged.

6. La casa dell'orco a.k.a. Demons III: The Ogre (1989)
This is another of several TV movies Lamberto Bava made in the ‘80s and is maybe a little better overall than Dinner with a Vampire despite its incredibly anti-climactic ending. The Demons III tag this film got on its video release is purely a marketing stunt though, having nothing to do with the previous two Demons films. The only connection I could make, and it’s a VERY big stretch, is that the flashback sequences did remind me a little of the fairy tale horror of Dario Argento’s Susperia, and Argento had co-written and produced Demons 1 & 2. Eh, I’m probably reaching...

7. Blasterfighter (1984)
For a long time based solely on the cover of Michael Sopkiw holding a big gun with lightning behind him, I had assumed this was a post-nuke movie. Imagine my surprise to discover that it’s a backwoods redneck revenge movie instead! I actually thought this one was pretty good. The pacing is a little slow in the first half, but once Sopkiw and his daughter begin fleeing from the rednecks, it picks up considerably, leading to a delightfully explosive finale. It’s not a perfect movie, but it definitely has a different feel than many of Bava’s other films and has some very fun sequences.

8.Le foto di Gioia a.k.a. Delirium (1987)
Delirium is one of the more strange gialli I’ve seen in quite some time. The setup of a fashion model being stalked by an obsessive killer isn’t the most original, but the execution (no pun intended) is what sets this one apart. The murders are diverse and offbeat in and of themselves, from pitchfork stabbing to killer bees (!?), this isn’t your typical “black-gloved killer with a big knife” kind of giallo. Additionally during the kill scenes, when the movie switches to the killer’s point of view, the women take on grotesque visages like giant eyeballs for faces or insect heads. It’s pretty damned unsettling, weird and unexplainable. The movie does drag at times in between kills like many gialli, but it does have a really good, very suspenseful sequence in a mall department store strewn with mannequins shot in a very stylish way. Overall, this is definitely the better of the two Bava gialli seen for this challenge.

The Nexus of Power Compels Thee

Run #1: Steven Spielberg
1. Hook (1991)
2. Something Evil (1972)
3. The BFG (2016)

Run #2: Lamberto Bava
4. Body Puzzle (1992)
5. A cena con il vampiro a.k.a. Dinner with a Vampire (1989)
6. La casa dell'orco a.k.a. Demons III: The Ogre (1989)
7. Blasterfighter (1984)
8.Le foto di Gioia a.k.a. Delirium (1987)

[Obgeoff]

Next up is Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Previous experience:
5 features - 1 @ 9, 1 @ 8, 2 @ 7, 1 @ 6

5. A Letter to Three Wives (1949, Mankiewicz) 8
6. Julius Caesar (1953, Mankiewicz) 8
7. Cleopatra (1963, Mankiewicz) 7
8. Sleuth (1972, Mankiewicz) 7

Dialogue, language, actor showcases, plot driven.

Spoiler

1. Oliver Twist (1948, Lean) 8
2. Summertime (1955, Lean) 8
3. Ryan's Daughter (1970, Lean) 7
4. A Passage to India (1984, Lean) 7

5. A Letter to Three Wives (1949, Mankiewicz) 8
6. Julius Caesar (1953, Mankiewicz) 8
7. Cleopatra (1963, Mankiewicz) 7
8. Sleuth (1972, Mankiewicz) 7

[DudeLanez]

Kenji Mizoguchi
1. Genroku Chûshingura [The 47 Ronin] (1941) 7/10
2. Miyamoto Musashi (1944) 5/10
3. Uwasa no onna [The Woman of Rumour] (1954) 7/10

[flavo5000]

Hammer's House of Directors Presents:
Terence Fisher

In this first of one of my sub-themes of the month, I’ll be profiling directors who have worked regularly with Hammer Productions, the British B-picture studio that reinvigorated the classic monster film in the ‘50s through ‘70s and brought to prominence great actors like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
Terence Fisher is associated with Hammer perhaps more than any other director, directing a series of hard-nosed crime pictures for them throughout the ‘50s, but really rising to prominence when he directed Curse of Frankenstein for Hammer which set the tone for nearly every Hammer horror film that was to come: the gothic atmosphere, the overt violence, the emphasis on internal character struggle. He would proceed to direct some of Hammer’s most well-regarded and popular horror films including The Horror of Dracula, Curse of the Werewolf, The Mummy and many others. He may be gone but Fisher leaves a legacy as one of the kings of British horror.


9. Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)
I was looking forward to this one. Terence Fisher, who had previously directed the quite good Sherlock Holmes film Hound of the Baskervilles is at the helm here with the great Christopher Lee as Holmes himself and one of the best B-picture screenwriters of the era Curt Siodmak on writing duties. Unfortunately this is a dull, unshapely dud of a film. The plot never comes together and Christopher Lee is dubbed over with someone else’s voice. Why would you dub over one of the most unique, commanding voices in film history? Apparently the film was butchered in post-production by the German producers and was deemed a disappointment by pretty much everyone involved.

10. Night of the Big Heat (1967)
Night of the Big Heat tells the story of a small British town that grows increasingly unseasonably hot for some inexplicable reason. No one seems to know why except a shut-in scientist who seems to have a working theory. This one is the very definition of a slow burn. The movie spends a large chunk of its runtime on building its characters, mostly the denizens of a local pub. As the heat rises, emotions start running rampant leading to escalating tensions, both of a suspicious and sexual nature. In general theme, it has a little of the same vibe as Do the Right Thing although obviously more of a cold war paranoia metaphor than a representation of racial tension. This one does require a lot of patience, but I think if you hang in there, you might end up getting pulled into its swirling stew of agitation.

11. Murder By Proxy a.k.a. Blackout (1954)
Blackout is one of Fisher’s earlier film noir he did for Hammer and is a solid and engaging little potboiler about a US ex-pat who’s broke, looking for a way to make a quick buck when a young woman approaches him offering a lot of money to marry her, no questions asked, which he desperately agrees to. Cut to next morning. He wakes up in an unfamiliar place. Her father is found dead in the room with him and he’s got blood on him. It seems like somebody is being played for a patsy. This was a pretty solid if predictable crime flick. The acting from several of the cast, particularly a couple of the supporting players has a more naturalistic quality to it that makes it feel like a more modern film than it is at times. Not bad at all.

The Nexus of Power Compels Thee

Run #1: Steven Spielberg
1. Hook (1991)
2. Something Evil (1972)
3. The BFG (2016)

Run #2: Lamberto Bava
4. Body Puzzle (1992)
5. A cena con il vampiro a.k.a. Dinner with a Vampire (1989)
6. La casa dell'orco a.k.a. Demons III: The Ogre (1989)
7. Blasterfighter (1984)
8. Le foto di Gioia a.k.a. Delirium (1987)

Run #3: Terence Fisher
9. Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)
10. Night of the Big Heat (1967)
11. Murder By Proxy a.k.a. Blackout (1954)