Welcome to ROUND THREE of the RowThree March Madness pool! We’ve got four divisions of contenders looking to advance to the next round (Note: there is a fifth set of brackets we’re calling the Consolation Division – a group of 16 directors we really wanted to see compete but weren’t quite “worthy” of the big dance). It’s up to you to decide who advances. Look through each bracket within all five divisions and make your choice. After a few days the polls will close and we’ll see who advances to the next round. There can be only one victor.
So a funny world we live in. In this round we’ve got the battle of the Stevens, the battle of the Fords and the battle of the Davids. And over in our foreign bracket, we’ve got four very different countries vying for glory. Once again not too many huge surprises in the previous round. It’s a little disheartening to see the Coen Brothers get bounced out so quickly (though only bya very narrow margin of 43-40). But I guess when you’re going up against the #1 seed in The Master of Suspense you’ve gotta count your blessings that you’re even hanging close.
Over in the NIT division things are a bit more interesting. Somehow Brian DePalma managed to take out Mike Nichols in a ridiculous display of film making. Meanwhile, Frears fought the good fight but couldn’t get out from under the death grip of Mr. George Romero. It will be interesting to see what becomes of the Ridley Scott/Michael Mann match-up. Both team have their enemies, but both have some classics under their belts as well.
We draw ever closer to the final four! Enjoy and let the voting continue…
SCHEDULE (begins – ends):
Round 1: 3/9 – 3/13
Round 2: 3/14 – 3/18
Round 3: 3/19 – 3/23
Round 4: 3/24 – 3/27
Round 5: 3/28 – 3/30
Round 6: 3/31 – 4/1
See the FULL BRACKET
See the CONSOLATION BRACKET
The same rules from round one still apply:
show
OK folks, we’ve officially hit “REALLY PAINFUL” choices. Enjoy sweating it out in the latest round. oi!
Thought this seemed easier than the last one…
Can’t believe Scorsese took down Chaplin… What’s the matter with you people :/
I want to see a movie version of this game… it will be awesome.
Kubrick, if this world has any goodness left in it at all, will be winning this.
Some tough ones, but my gut instinct got me through the choices much more quickly than in previous rounds.
As for Henrik’s comment, Scorsese’s hit and miss at times, but I prefer his hits to Chaplin’s. Plus I’ve always preferred Keaton anyway.
My picks (
) :
Kubrick (way, way better filmmaker than Hitchcock)
Spielberg (Him and Soderbergh are equally intellectually inept, but Spielberg has better action)
Billy Wilder (fantastic films, Scorsese not an option at this point)
John Ford (again, I feel there’s really no comparison)
Sergio Leone (Could care less about either of these two filmmakers, but Leone has made some cool shit)
Bergman (He is the best one)
Tarantino (again, a duel where only one guy has made good movies, but I’d gladly vote for Tarantino vs almost anybody)
Fincher (AGAIN…. Fincher made some good ones. Lynch didn’t)
Ridley Scott (slightly preferred, but could also care less about these two guys)
Brian DePalma (nowhere near anything special in my opinion, but Romero is even less of a filmmaker)
So there you go! Enjoy reading my picks!
I suspect Tarantino will beat Malick here, but it just makes me ill to think about.
My guess is Kurosawa vs Tarantino for the final match-up
They won’t be meeting up in the final, but in the semi’s if they get through. I like Tarantino a lot, but I kind of hope he doesn’t get through to the final. I don’t think he’s quite got the chops of most of the directors left on there. Not yet at least.
“I see you rolled your way into the Semis, Let me tell you something, pendejo. You pull any of your crazy shit with us, Liam and Me, We’re gonna F you up.”
Is that The New World?
Only a few hours left to vote in this round. Let everyone know.
Looks likemost of my picks from last round went through.
I hope Kubrick or Kurosawa take the whole thing. If they do, I will celebrate with a 5 movie marathon of the winner’s work to honour them further. Go directors with last names beginning with the letter K! Yeah!
Tragedy that Hitchcock is beating Kubrick by a large margin. and that Tarantino is beating Malick, actually half of my choice in this poll are in the minority. Why is FIncher beating Lynch? Why, people. You only have yourselves to blame.
Lynch is a shitty director, that’s why.
Why is FIncher beating Lynch? Why, people. You only have yourselves to blame.
David Lynch’s film are hit or miss. He had made some great films (e.g., Blue Velvet), but has also made some awful films (e.g., Wild at Heart).
Yeah, Kubrick should be beating Hitchcock.
Hitchcock should be winning. He’s a better director and has far wider appeal. The only crime is possibly in the margin, as they are two of the greatest director’s who ever lived.
And as much as I want Kurosawa to win, Hitchcock is probably the odds on favorite to win. He’s just too damn good and too damn popular, even today.
Even though I might say Kubrick’s films are more varied, visionary, and challenging than Hitchcock’s, I just simply love Hitchcock too much not to vote for him. And with as many films as he’s made, there are really only one or two that aren’t that great – he’s incredibly consistent.
I do totally think Lynch should be beating Fincher. Fincher’s great, but Lynch is on his own plane of existence. Also, I love Wild at Heart.
For me Hitchcock has a larger number of films that I like, maybe just because he was more prolific, but Kubrick made one of my favourite movies of all time and more films that I re-watch on a regular basis.
I prefer Lynch over Fincher by a very large margin. Fincher has a couple of movies I love, but Lynch has a couple of all-timers for me. Elephant Man was one of the first real movies I saw when I was a kid and ever since then I’ve had a special spot in my heart for Lynch.
Wild at Heart is a fucking miracle of cinema. Anyone who doesn’t like this film is dead to me. Period.
It is the divide between high art and low art (or art-films and film-films). Lynch, Malick, Kubrick will probably lose this round not because they suck but because the consensus here is geared towards film culture that prefer their filmmakers to play self-conscious of cinematic form, and dote on the familiar.
I could be wrong, this is a pretty cool litmus test though.
I am hoping Kurosawa wins out.
I say Kurosawa because he seems to straddle the line between art and genre, the genesis point for a lot of what cinephiles love while at the same time attaining moments of real emotion (Red Beard, Dersu Uzala, Lower Depths)
I just realized there were no female directors even in the first round, were there? What’s up with that, Andrew? :p
“I just realized there were no female directors even in the first round, were there? What’s up with that, Andrew? :p”
Women don’t belong behind a camera; only in front.
also Foreign directors have their own ghetto section. Next time we need to break out of the Hollywood dominated perspective and even it out.
As to the whole Kubrick Hitchcock thing, I absolutely HAD to vote Kubrick since he’s easily my favorite director of the two. However, part of what made voting for him so easy was that I’ve only seen two Hitchcock films: Psycho and Rear Window.
However, part of what made voting for him so easy was that I’ve only seen two Hitchcock films: Psycho and Rear Window.
Voting for Kubrick is fine. But this statement is unacceptable.
Pardon me, but Psycho is Hitchcocks most famous movie, and Rear Window is his best one. If you’re going to try and figure out what a filmmaker is all about, those two places are where you want to start.
I think people like Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Spielberg are fundamentally different from people like Kubrick or Bergman. It’s not easy to compare these men(!). Sucks that the box apparently contains all of them.
I agree we could have had women on the form. But with a Hollywood-centric form like this, there isn’t much to choose from.
What about North By Northwest, Henrik? Where does that fall for you amidst Psycho and Rear Window? Jandy, It IS unacceptable. Aren’t you supposed to make me watch the rest of Hitchcock’s filmography or something?!
I am not a very big fan of Psycho, I definitely like North by Northwest a lot more, even if it is kind of monotone. Rear Window I think is better than any of them, loved that movie.
I don’t really understand how Hitchcock can be considered required viewing… I mean there isn’t much to his films, except math and academia. He doesn’t explore anything, nor does he seem interested in anything with his filmmaking, which of course allowed him to do a lot of different stuff just for the hell of it. But required viewing? It’s like calling Donald Duck required reading.
By the way I just noticed that Ridley Scott beat Milos Forman in round 1 of this…
WTF
Rear Window is my all-time favorite, so I agree with you there, Henrik. And yes, if you were only going to see two Hitchcock films, I think Rear Window and Psycho would be the two. I just don’t think you should stop there.
And Donald Duck is awesome.
The Lady Vanishes, Vertigo, come on, there is a lot of great stuff by the ‘Cock.
Vertigo is a fascinating exploration of how the director objectifies blondes and how The Hitch sort of maps all of his subconscious sexual frou frou onto Jimmy Stewart’s character’s obsession for Kim Novak.
Philsopher Slavoj Žižek, in The Perverts Guide to Cinema, goes into great detail about Vertigo, I remember being impressed at the time, but honestly none of it was retained, I just remember the enthusiasm.
ROUND FOUR WILL BE POSTED SOMETIME THIS EVENING.
Man, I should just move my work station out to my living room and watch a bunch of Hitchcock while I work. All this talk of the cock and now I have a hankerin’ to watch his filmography. Of course, when I actually have time to watch stuff, I’ll probably be futzing around on the internet.
Henrik, Rear Window was definitely my favorite of the two I saw, although my first viewing of Pyscho was out in a city park in Chicago at night with thousands of others. It was great to get such a cinematic viewing.
I honestly think Dial ‘M’ for Murder is still my favorite Hitchcock film.
And regarding female directors, I was obviously kidding. But Henrik is right. Coming up with directors off the top of my head I just couldn’t come up with any women that really fit the loose criteria for being in this race:
“…and seed them in some sort of reasonable order based on filmography, popularity, notoriety, critical acclaim, etc.”
“And Donald Duck is awesome.”
I’m a big fan as well. I didn’t mean to slack off the quality of Hitchcock (hence comparing him to something awesome), I just meant that wether you watch his films or not will probably not have a major impact on your life.