Ken's "Great Directors" Avatar Win-Nothing Contest

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Ken_McAlinden, Mar 6, 2003.

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  1. -Ben

    -Ben Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC Area
    Itami's first was "The Funeral" 1985.

    BC
     
    -Ben, Apr 15, 2003
    #26
  2. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Not Itami, as BC pointed out.

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, Apr 15, 2003
    #27
  3. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    Should I be thinking Anime?

    ED:cool:
     
    Ed Bishop, Apr 15, 2003
    #28
  4. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Clues, I will do, but I only answer questions if these things drag out for days. :)

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, Apr 15, 2003
    #29
  5. -Ben

    -Ben Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC Area
    How about "Akira" Director Katsuhiro Otomo?

    BC
     
    -Ben, Apr 15, 2003
    #30
  6. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    And the only other animation director of any note I can think of is Hayao Miyazaki--at least in global terms.

    ED:cool:
     
    Ed Bishop, Apr 15, 2003
    #31
  7. -Ben

    -Ben Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC Area
    Otomo's first project was in 1979...so that fits the clues. Also Ken said he changed the avatar to akira.jpg to throw us off. Actually I think that was another clue. Plus Otomo does wear that kind of glasses.

    Ben Canas
     
    -Ben, Apr 15, 2003
    #32
  8. Michael St. Clair

    Michael St. Clair Forum Resident

    Location:
    Funkytown
    Ed,

    And you would be right.
     
    Michael St. Clair, Apr 15, 2003
    #33
  9. Gardo

    Gardo Audio Epistemologist

    Location:
    Virginia
    I was going to guess Yasujiro Ozu, but that was before I saw the clues ... and before I saw the answer.:D
     
    Gardo, Apr 15, 2003
    #34
  10. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    It is, in fact, Hayao Miyazaki. The "akira" filename was doubly misleading. ;)

    Miyazaki-san had three films released on DVD in the US and Canada yesterday ("Spirited Away", "Kiki's Delivery Service", and "Castle in the Sky"), so I have been engorging myself on his work. That's one of the reasons I was slow to respond to Ed's correct guess. I couldn't tear myself away from the TV!

    His first feature film as a director was "Castle of Cagliostro" AKA "Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro" in 1979. His latest was "Spirited Away" which won the Academy Award for best animated feature a few weeks ago.

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, Apr 16, 2003
    #35
  11. -Ben

    -Ben Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC Area
    Congratulations ED.

    :thumbsup:


    Two-time winner of Ken's "Great Directors" Avatar Win-Nothing Contest.

    I am impressed.

    BC
     
    -Ben, Apr 16, 2003
    #36
  12. thegage

    thegage Forum Currency Nerd

    Location:
    The Far, Far Western Hills of Mass.
    I was glued to the set last night watching my new copy of Spirited Away. And my wife, who's not a big anime fan, couldn't tear herself away either. Apart from the obvious similarity to Alice in Wonderland, what I found myself thinking of most as I watched it was early "immerse-yourself-in-a-strange-world" computer games such as Myst. The early scenes as they explore the theme park gave me that same sense of experiencing new and strange vistas in an engrossing, visceral way, as if I was in the film.
     
    thegage, Apr 16, 2003
    #37
  13. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    If score were being kept, Bob Campbell would be the all-time champ, but Ed's got him looking over his shoulder, now. ;)

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, Apr 16, 2003
    #38
  14. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Sayonara Miyazaki-San

    Okay, I have confused newcomers to this thread by once again changing my Avatar to yet another great director. Let the guessing begin!

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, May 5, 2003
    #39
  15. Gardo

    Gardo Audio Epistemologist

    Location:
    Virginia
    My first thought was Douglas Sirk, but the hair's not quite right. Then I thought Vincente Minnelli, but the nose isn't right. (Pick on a nose, quoth Ringo.)

    I'll keep trying.
     
    Gardo, May 5, 2003
    #40
  16. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    You are right that they are not right. :) Keep guessing!

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, May 5, 2003
    #41
  17. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    Henry Hathaway?

    ED:cool:
     
    Ed Bishop, May 5, 2003
    #42
  18. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Nope, one more educated guess and I will drop a clue.

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, May 5, 2003
    #43
  19. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    Well, these are more like 'uneducated' guesses, Ken, so what the hell....

    Anthony Mann?

    ED:cool:
     
    Ed Bishop, May 5, 2003
    #44
  20. Gardo

    Gardo Audio Epistemologist

    Location:
    Virginia
    That's it, Ed. I know this because I just found the image Ken grabbed for his avatar.:D

    http://www.prisma-online.de/express/person.html?pid=anthony_mann

    Ain't I a sneaky devil?
     
    Gardo, May 5, 2003
    #45
  21. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    OK, I lied. I should have said "one more incorrect educated guess and I will drop a clue".

    It is, indeed, Anthony Mann, director of such great films as Winchester '73, The Naked Spur, He Walked by Night, Man of the West, The Man from Laramie, Bend of the River, The Tin Star, The Glenn Miller Story, El Cid, The Far Country, Raw Deal, T-Men, The Fall of the Roman Empire, and numerous others (including the first bits of shooting on "Spartacus", before Kirk Douglas replaced him with Stanley Kubrick).

    This Tuesday (May 6) will see the DVD release of three of his image-shaking westerns with James Stewart from the 50s: Winchester '73, Bend of the River, and The Far Country.

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, May 5, 2003
    #46
  22. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    That you are, Sir! It would never have occured to me to look at a German website for a photo. I just play it by ear; I've probably seen Mann's pic in several books, including an excellent Jimmy Stewart overview by Jonathan Coe. WINCHESTER '73 and THE MAN FROM LARAMIE are remarkable revenge tales not to be missed. Yet he was, for me, an erratic director; can't say I'm much of a fan of THE GLENN MILLER STORY or even THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. It seems, at one time or another, almost all great directors wind up doing one of those sword'n'sandles spectacles; must be the challenge of staging such a pageant, yet the films rarely hold up. EL CID's not bad, though, for what it is.

    ED:cool:
     
    Ed Bishop, May 5, 2003
    #47
  23. -Ben

    -Ben Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC Area

    Congratulations ED.
    :thumbsup:

    Another win.

    BC
     
    -Ben, May 5, 2003
    #48
  24. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    Erratic perhaps, but how many directors have made ten films as good as:
    Winchester '73, The Naked Spur, He Walked by Night, Man of the West, The Man from Laramie, Bend of the River, The Tin Star, El Cid, T-Men, and Raw Deal?

    His batting average may not have been as good as Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks, but he made some great films, and his failures were usually not abysmal. Fall of the Roman Empire is pretty much killed by its script, but it is still a wonder to look at. Hmmm? Maybe a thread should be started on films that could be improved via removing the dialog. :)

    Regards,
     
    Ken_McAlinden, May 5, 2003
    #49
  25. Ed Bishop

    Ed Bishop Incredibly, I'm still here

    Thanks, Ben; unlike Bob, I'm just lucky more than anything else. Guess some of my obsessive cinema viewing and reading has stayed in the ol' noggin'.

    I hope I wasn't being too harsh on Mann, Ken; it's just that, as time went on, like so many aging directors, his choice of material went downhill. Happened to Hitchcock to some degree, and I thought by RIO BRAVO, Hawks had lost it as a director; the acting and dialogue became so static, stilted and mannered it was like watching someone MAKE a movie, rather than a piece of cinema you could get lost in. Even so, the looseness of those later Hawks films are fun in their way. My fave Hawks 'disaster,' if it can be called that, was the infamous and gloriously campy LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, best known now for having a young Joan Collins in it. How Jack Hawkins was cast as an Egyptian pharaoh is one for the ages; to call it 'inspired' casting would be faint praise!:laugh: :laugh:

    But Mann's best work holds up with anybody's from the '50s; WINCHESTER and LARAMIE are not far away from SHANE and THE SEARCHERS quality, which is high praise indeed.

    ED:cool:
     
    Ed Bishop, May 5, 2003
    #50
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