Directors best movie grid (1 Viewer)

I realize that we've had lots of lists and polls and tourneys, etc. in the past, but I thought it might be interesting to come up with a grid of genre*decade and try to fill in the best film, director, actor for each cell, and then fill in the marginals. Not only do I think it would be interesting in it's own right, but I'd also be interested if there was more or less agreement in certain cells, etc.

This could be done different ways.

1 - Get a group of willing participants and have everyone fill out the grid all at once, and then stagger out the results.

2 - Collect the data piecemeal (ask for people to vote for one cell per day).

The second approach would be easier in the sense of not having to make a bunch of decisions at once, but it has the drawback of not having a common group of voters (making it very difficult to do any comparisons of agreement) and interest petering out over time (as these things inevitably do).

If we went with the first approach, I'd give everyone who was interested at least a week to fill out their grid and get it to me. This would actually be my preferred method. Anyway I'm asking people to provide me feedback on whether they'd be interested in participating in such a poll.

Let me know.

Good idea. I vote for the second approach.

I would love to participate, but I fear I wouldn't be much of a contributor before 1960.

If I were participating, I would always suggest the latter approach. Much better to get everyone talking about why they thought Kung-Pow:Enter the Fist is the best comedy of the new millenium rather than be blitzed by everyone's entire grid.

I don't know how to help you with the waning attention that this will undoubtedly lead to. Perhaps shuffle the grids up so people don't get bored until their favorite decade comes up. Do something like 1970's crime and 1990's horror and 1930s drama if it suits you.

George,

should you decide to do a "porn" grid, I'm in! As it is, I do not think I could contribute much. My knowledge of film beyond Steve Guttenberg, "fart" movies, and 80's T&A movies is quite limited. However, would you like to put up with the brian, I'll give it a go. I like both approaches, but feel that perhaps the first scenario could be a breath of fresh air. I'll try anything once.

Brian, if you'd like to expand your horizons just a smidge, I recommend Yasujiro Ozu's "Good Morning", a pioneering Japanese entry in the "fart" genre. I think it is also notable for being the only Criterion disc of a fart flick.

I could go for either approach as long as I get to bitch constantly about all my obscure movies that don't get picked.

Brook,

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look that one up. If for no other reason than just to see if farts sound the same in Japanese.

George, sorry for hi-jacking the thread into the fart territory.

Everyone else is talking about genres, but I'm curious about the other axis of your grid.

Is it meaningful to break it evenly into decades, or would it prompt discussion more to ask what the first great film in a particularly genre was? Then what film topped it, changed the genre significantly, or stands as a particularly impressive film in that genre. Many genres have some of their key films lumped together within a single decade, and it would seem awkward to have to choose between them to meet the somewhat arbitrary division of film history into decades. This leans towards approach #2. Or if you use approach #1, maybe you limit every person to 10 films in each genre to keep the lists equally manageable.

You could also trace character types and the key actors of each genre (Roy Rogers -> Gary Cooper -> John Wayne -> Clint Eastwood -> Robert Duvall/Tommy Lee Jones) without having to worry if their career path in that genre easily fits within a complete decade.

Just a thought. I'd be happy to participate in some genres, but only an ignorant supporter in others, whichever way you implement the thread.

Brad

Well, I'm thinking of doing something of a mixture. Lay out the whole thing and let people pm me if they want to give me a bunch of votes, and then also open up cells to voting on a daily basis. I'd really like to maximize participation, although like you guys, there are some areas where I'm going to be particularly weak (I don't think I've ever seen a 20's western, although I know they exist )

As far as the grid, there's already going to be a lot of cells just using decades and my chosen genres. While it might be more accurate to break certain genres up into different periods, that is something I think would be better suited to a follow-up if this generates enough interest. And I'm sure my selections of genres is going to be controversial. I've chosen 9, which I think cover things pretty well, but obviously there's going to be disagreement. And I'm not going to try to police people's interpretations of genres. No doubt different people will put the same film into different genres, and a single film might fit into two genres for the same person.

I'm going to ask people to select up to three films, directors and movie stars, in order, for each cell. You can certainly contribute only a subset of those if you'd like.

I'll probably start this on Monday morning, and fill in the rest of the details, including the genres (if I list them now, people will just start bitching about them over the weekend, so by delaying the list, I'll get at least some peace until Monday ).

Nine genres? Obviously you left out blackssploitation, how dare you!

Oh sorry, just bitching beforehand.

Look forward to seeing the categories.

Upon further reflection, I'll be more hindrance than helpful. I gracefully bow out.

I've decided to limit this to films only for now, perhaps doing a director or stars version later.

The decades will be 20s through 90s (I know there are films made before 1920, but it's going to be tough enough filling the grid for the 20s, and the current decade is just too short and too recent to get a good feel for yet).

The genres will be:

action/adventure
animated
comedy
drama
horror
musical
mystery
science fiction
western

I realize that this could easily be further subdivided, but we've got to draw lines somewhere. Obviously these are broad categories in most cases (e.g., mystery would include thrillers, film noir, etc., action/adventure would include war), and everyone gets to decide for themselves which category a film fits into. I considered a foreign category, but that's not really a genre (all of those films have a genre, and these are open to all films regardless of country). These categories aren't all-inclusive (e.g., documentaries), but good enough for this grid.

I'm going to list 6 cells at a time and post a new list every three days. However, the voting won't close until the very end. I also encourage people to send me complete grids via private message (no email please), and already have one person who has indicated he will be doing that. Again, I want to maximize participation, to make this a more representative list.

For each category, list up to 3 films (in order).

Up first,

50s action/adventure

90s animated

30s comedy

40s drama

60s musicals

80s science fiction

George this is already proving to be very hard.


50s action/adventure

Seven Samurai
North by Northwest
The Searchers


90s animated

Akira


30s comedy

Bringing Up Baby
Duck Soup
Trouble in Paradise


40s drama

The Bicycle Thief
Black Narcissus
Children of Paradise


60s musicals

My Fair Lady
West Side Story
The Producers


80s science fiction

Aliens
Blade Runner
Robocop

After just noticing that there is a separate category for Westerns, here is a correction to the 50s action/adventure category:

Seven Samurai
North by Northwest
Bridge on the River Kwai

The more you can do the better, but if you can only come up with one film in only one of the categories, that would still be worthwhile.

Lew,

I just realized that you and I have very similar comedy taste (at least so far), but amazingly different taste in dramas.

I'm working on my list and will have it posted later today.