The results are in!
1st Place, 155 votes-
Sergio Leone
2nd Place, 153 votes (tie)-
John Hughes
Tarr Béla
4th Place, 39 votes-
Preston Sturges
5th Place, 35 votes-
Kathryn Bigelow
6th Place, 20 votes-
Sergei Eisenstein
Which results make me feel a bit idiotic for assuming when I posted the poll initially that it would be Bigelow and Leone down to the wire.
So, with a tight first-place victor, Sergio Leone will be given a retrospective at this very blog in August. Because I know that Tarr got to where he was by fraud, while I only suspect the same is true of Leone and Hughes, I will be giving the runner-up slot to Hughes, who will be getting a retrospective in September, contingent upon when I finish up Leone. But in thanks to whoever did so much work to blast Tarr up there, and in recognition of the fact that he got my vote in the first place, I’ll keep a Tarr retrsospective in my back pocket for the moment: The Turin Horse allegedly opens in North America first quarter 2012, and that will be the perfect time to do it, I think, especially if it truly turns out to be the director’s last film.