The Lists Project

[Ribs]

could we do a lists project of possible future lists projects

[TMDaines]

After the 24 Hours or Less Mini-List, we're going to do our first Auteur List, to run six weeks (from mid-September through the beginning of November) and with the same voting rules as the mini-lists (ten votes minimum, maximum votes to be determined) for... the film (and TV, if you want) works of Alfred Hitchcock. Details to come soon.

This'll be the first non-decade list I submit for!

[domino harvey]

could we do a lists project of possible future lists projects

No worse than award shows where award shows win awards

[matrixschmatrix]

After the 24 Hours or Less Mini-List, we're going to do our first Auteur List, to run six weeks (from mid-September through the beginning of November) and with the same voting rules as the mini-lists (ten votes minimum, maximum votes to be determined) for... the film (and TV, if you want) works of Alfred Hitchcock. Details to come soon.

Hey, I'll finally have a reason to watch Topaz

[knives]

Hey, I'll finally have a reason to watch Topaz

I actually really like Topaz even if it is terribly flawed. It's the most openly political film of his since his British days and those politics are really fascinating thanks to how well they capture modern day complexities in an upcoming global environment. Certainly I could name nearly a dozen worse than it.

[swo17]

I think a Hitchcock list is much more interesting if you throw his TV work into the mix. And unlike the genre lists, where there are hundreds or thousands of eligible films, I don't think anyone can lay claim to being that much more well-versed in these films than anyone else. So I think it would make more sense to have uniform list size across all participants, be that 10, 20, or 84.

[dustybooks]

I am all in with this. I've seen all the films but less than half of the TV shows, and I've long wanted to catch up on those. This should be great fun.

[matrixschmatrix]

Seinfeld mini-list follow-up?

It's probably the only other show that could sustain a full list treatment (besides maybe the Twilight Zone?)

TZ and other anthology shows (though Hitchcock Presents is rather having its lunch eaten) seem like ideal subjects for this, since the nature and quality of the episodes were so much more variable than most sitcoms. Though if we lumped together TZ, The Outer Limits, Thriller, and whatever other of those shows seemed germane, that might be more interesting still.

[Ribs]

But surely it'd just end up being 95% Twilight Zone? I like the others too but there's no contest.

[domino harvey]

This is getting OT for this thread.

Well...

[swo17]

Your post makes no sense. This discussion never happened in the Simpsons thread.

[domino harvey]

This is indeed a disturbing universe

[dustybooks]

But surely it'd just end up being 95% Twilight Zone? I like the others too but there's no contest.

I definitely agree with this. There are a few brilliant episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, though in my experience they're almost invariably the ones Hitchcock himself directed. Some of the others are downright embarrassing; Hitchcock seemed to agree, according to Norman Lloyd. Meanwhile, even though I know it's conventional wisdom that Twilight Zone declined during and after the stretch to an hour, it had incredible moments right up to the end. ("Night Call" is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen on TV.)

As for sitcoms, I can probably think of fifty Get Smart episodes I like enough to include in a list (the show had a huge, unhealthy effect on my sense of humor at an impressionable age) but I'm 99% sure I'm alone on that one.

[Ribs]

How about Crime dramas in a legal sense? Your 12 Angry Men or your The Verdicts. "Crime" itself might overlap with noir but legal/procedural crime dramas are abundant.

[domino harvey]

"Crime" has been suggested, but is really too similar to Noir (same with Heist movies). I think courtroom / legal dramas (well, and comedies!) like you suggest would be viable for a mini-list though. I'll add 'em to the list of possibilities

[Rayon Vert]

Suggestions for auteur projects (directors with a large body of work, 30+ or close to it, and most of it available):

Ford, Lang, Renoir (the great majority are released and English-friendly, I think - a few key ones, like Madame Bovary and Déjeuner sur l'herbe, may not be available with English subs, but I'm not sure), Altman, Ozu, Spielberg, Fassbinder, Herzog, De Palma, Bunuel. I managed to see most of Rossellini (28), who's now much more available than he used to be, but that was with the help of the internet...

Hammer films would be cool.

I don't know if anybody brought up the idea of "marriage" yet (both drama and comedy).

[domino harvey]

Ford and Lang are such no-brainers, can't believe I overlooked those. Most of the above directors sound good, but I'd like to see some numbers first, can someone run some research on the existent features for each before I add them to the possibilities? Really looking for a minimum of at least thirty available features, with more being better (Rohmer is included even though he just falls short of that number because he's one of the few auteurs with a large body of work wholly contained in one release)

[Rayon Vert]

I think Altman has 36 features (not counting Aria), and that only Health is unavailable.

[knives]

I'm curious why queer cinema is being placed as a mini-list rather than a full one? Certainly if it was kept to the queer new wave, but I assume it would tackle all films with queer themes.

[Rayon Vert]

Spielberg has 30. I recently did Cukor and saw 35 of them (all on DVD), and didn't get them all.

I've counted 29 Wyler fiction films available on DVD, if you include Barbary Coast and Come and Get It. If you add the docs The Fighting Lady and The Memphis Belle, that's 31.

Regarding Renoir. I've seen 29 (haven't yet seen On Purge Bébé), not including shorts, but from those I think Le Bled (which is a silent though), Madame Bovary and Life Belongs to Us aren't available with subs, and Le Petit Théâtre is not available at all on DVD. If you include the shorts, I think it comes out to 27 English-friendly available films.

[Rayon Vert]

I did a quick run-through and John Huston's director-credited fiction films are all available, except Phobia, so that's 35. Not including the war documentaries.

[swo17]

Keaton/Chaplin/Lloyd. Each has well over 30 films to their name. Do them separately or all together.

[Rayon Vert]

I'm counting at least 31 Fassbinders features available, plus the two shorts.

Raoul Walsh: there are at least 52 available films (sound era) on dvd.

[Rayon Vert]

Sidney Lumet: 43 fiction features, all available with the exception of one or two

[YnEoS]

I count 72 for Raúl Ruiz based on his wikipedia page not counting shorts and projects labeled unfinished or lost. I don't know how many are available on DVD.