kingrat
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Posts posted by kingrat
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I should have included BREAKING AWAY, NORMA RAE and BEING THERE on my list. Three good films.
For the 20th Century Vole thread a couple of years ago, I came up with the title APOCALYPSE NOW, VOYAGER with this description: Robert Duvall lights two Viet Cong villages, one for himself, one for Bette Davis, who says, "Let's not ask for the moon. We'll always have the smell of napalm in the morning."
Bogie, I'm glad to see the love for Frederic Forrest, who is the best thing about that film. Frederic Forrest, Eric Roberts, Brad Davis: I thought all of these guys were going to be become big stars. At least James Woods did. I should have included WHEN THE LEGENDS DIE on my 1972 list. Forrest was very good in that, too.
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Favorites for 1979:
1. NORTH DALLAS FORTY - Absolutely one of my favorite films. The perfect antidote for all the "underdog team wins the big game" movies. Pro football is a business. Nick Nolte probably has his best role here as the cynical hero, Mac Davis is great as the Don Meredith character (why didn't Mac have a film career?), G.D. Spradlin is great as the Tom Landry character, and Dayle Hadden is perfectly fine as the girl. She might have had as big a career as Lauren Hutton. Peter Gent's novel isn't nearly as good as the movie, which made some terrific changes. Best scene: foolish reverend gives a pre-game prayer, talking about the "brave boys," and then John Matuszak says, "Let's go kill those c***s****s," and they all run out of the locker room. Perfect.
2. LIFE OF BRIAN - "Did 'e say blessed are the cheesemakers?" Hilarious, and all too shrewd about religions develop from their (in this case unwilling) founders.
3. WISE BLOOD - One of the few movies that reflects the South I grew up in. Huston's films are usually drenched in irony, so Flannery O'Connor is a good match for him. Now this is what real life looked like. Brad Dourif is perfectly cast.
4. TESS - Roman Polanski comeback, a fine adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel. A little weird not to have an English actress as Tess, but Nastassja Kinski is pretty good.
5. THE ONION FIELD - John Savage, so good in THE DEER HUNTER, gets leading roles in this film, THE AMATEUR, and HAIR, and the first two, at least, are good films. Savage is a born ensemble actor, however, and can't really carry a movie as the star. Not enough ego? For instance, I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan, but the guy can carry a film. Nonetheless, THE ONION FIELD has a fine script, based on a Joseph Wambaugh true-crime book, and many good performers, including Savage, Ted Danson, Priscilla Pointer, and Franklin Seales. James Woods steals the movie, however, as an evil criminal. Woods has the necessary star quality; you can't take your eyes off him when he's in a scene.
6. MANHATTAN - Since I don't much like Gordon Willis' cinematography in Coppola movies, it's a pleasure to say that I do like his black & white cinematography for Woody Allen. Diane Keaton is much better in a character role as a snobby intellectual than she is as a romantic heroine in other movies. In ANNIE HALL Woody clearly thinks she's Audrey Hepburn in ROMAN HOLIDAY, but to me she's more like Sandy Dennis in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? The only flaw in MANHATTAN is Mariel Hemingway, whose whiny, adenoidal voice drives me up the wall. Doesn't seem to bother Woody, though.
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1978:
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin/Shaolin Master Killer
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith**
Dawn of the Dead
Days of Heaven
The Deer Hunter
Five Deadly Venoms
Grease
Halloween
The Tree of Wooden Clogs**
Up in Smoke
**denotes films I have not seen
No COMING HOME? Too bad THE TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS is no longer available on Criterion. I'd like to check it out.
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Favorites for 1978:
1. FOUL PLAY - I can't say that Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase are big favorites, and I'm terrified of snakes. So why would I willingly sacrifice the entire F. F. Coppola oeuvre to preserve this movie? You wouldn't think that a somewhat similar 1930s screwball comedy, THE MAD MISS MANTON, which stars Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda, would be so totally eclipsed by Hawn and Chase in a 1970s comedy. Colin Higgins' script--now we're getting somewhere--is absolutely brilliant, nailing both the mystery and comedy elements. Not many films can match FOUL PLAY for sheer comic invention: Marilyn Sokol as a paranoid feminist, the old ladies playing Scrabble, Dudley Moore's swinging bachelor pad, Dudley at a massage parlor, Goldie and the little man who claims to be a Bible salesman, the face-off between Rachel Roberts and Burgess Meredith, the visiting Japanese couple, the parody of BULLITT. To quote the Texan whose truck gets commandeered: "Far out!" Dudley Moore is sublime.
2. DAYS OF HEAVEN - A beautiful film. Would love to see it again. I don't think the voiceover works as well as in BADLANDS, but I really liked this movie. It isn't as funny as FOUL PLAY, though.
3. ANIMAL HOUSE - What could be in worse taste than the sorority float with all the girls dressed the way Jackie Kennedy was that day in Dallas? So why am I laughing so much? John Belushi wasted six years of college for this. The jokes are as much on the guys as on the evil system, and that's a definite plus.
4. UP IN SMOKE - "It was part Maui Wowie and part Labrador." "Labrador?" "The dog ate my stash, man." All this and Ajax-sniffing, too.
5. GO TELL THE SPARTANS - I'm with filmlover on this one. Less popular than COMING HOME or THE DEER HUNTER, but the story of the slaughter of one group of American soldiers may hold up better now.
6. KING OF THE GYPSIES - Eric Roberts looked like he had tremendous potential as a star. A very engaging film, even if it softens some of the elements of Peter Maas' book.
THE DEER HUNTER might belong on the list for wonderful performances by Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, but the DeNiro parts of the movie don't work for me. Not his fault at all, his performance is fine, but the seeds of HEAVEN'S GATE megalomania are clearly planted in this film. It's too long and unfocused. Streep makes me believe she's a simple, ordinary young woman who works in a dime store. The scene between Walken and Streep where he tries to express the poetic longings he has no names for and no cultural background to use is absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful.
COMING HOME is overall a more solid film, less ambitious in a way, and the performances are good. Poor old Bruce Dern does his best with the lousy material he gets. Because he wants to go to Nam, the script wants us to despise him, and then we never get to hear about what actually happened to him. His character, who could have been so interesting, just puts across the message the filmmakers want us to hear. Subtlety in the Stanley Kramer style, i.e., banging us over the head with a cast iron skillet. A conspiracy theorist would say that Bruce never got to Nam and was just holed up with the screenwriter watching James Mason in A STAR IS BORN.
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS has its preposterous moments, and gets marked down by me for eliminating the gay sex from Billy Hayes' memoir. Still, there are some good performances, and Brad Davis is so much like a forerunner of Leonardo Pitt-Damon that minus the drugs (in real life) he might have become a star. (I have a friend who cannot tell the difference between the three actors mentioned.)
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4 is AIRPLANE! I assume 1 and maybe 2 are Cheech & Chong?
4 is indeed AIRPLANE! and 2 does come from a Cheech & Chong movie. Maui Wowie makes you think of Cheech & Chong?
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1978-1980: there were five American comedies during this period that made me laugh a lot. Just a phrase can bring back some of the fun, the way Swithin's invocation of "Seymour Pippin" did. Hints :
1. "Far out!"
2. "It was part Maui Wowie and part Labrador."
3. "Six years of college down the drain!"
4. "Miss, I speak jive."
5. "He didn't tell me he was bisexual!"
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I want to start an argument about Killer of Sheep, but I won't.
I might agree with you, Lawrence. The first half is quite good, but the last half falls off badly. Good work for an indy film made over a period of time, but not comparable to better films. I didn't really care for THE LAST WAVE. There are better Australian movies, some of them directed by the same director.
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Two examples of eagerly anticipated films from the past:
A young person today can scarcely imagine how eager people were to see MY FAIR LADY on screen. It had been a Broadway hit for years. Most people already knew the songs from the cast albums and from television variety shows. Rex Harrison winning the Oscar was almost a foregone conclusion before the movie was even released. The controversy over Jack Warner casting Audrey Hepburn rather than Julie Andrews was something ordinary people talked about, even though they had never seen Julie Andrews on screen (TV, yes). MY FAIR LADY has a great score, lovely sets and costumes, and good performances. It's also a motion picture with more picture than motion.
You can scarcely imagine how excited some people were to see Barbra Streisand on film. We had seen her TV specials, and of course those in New York had had the chance to see her on Broadway. I knew two young women who went to the first show of FUNNY GIRL in our town, and when the curtains were pulled back to reveal the screen--the movie hadn't even started yet--they burst into tears. Doesn't happen much these days when people see FUNNY GIRL.
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There's no question what my favorite 1977 film was: STAR WARS. Not to be confused with STAR WARS, EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE. STAR WARS was new and fun and I adored it. In those days we had no idea that SF/fantasy would take over the movie scene.
Though I don't remember it well, I do recall liking SOLDIER OF ORANGE quite a bit.
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Seymour Pippin! I remember the name well.
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Did anyone else think of the 1976 film NETWORK in connection with the mind-boggling Sean Penn/El Chapo story? The ghost of Paddy Chayefsky must be laughing hysterically. "You thought it was satire? It was prophecy!"
Although there are 1976 films I like, and NETWORK is one of them (TAXI DRIVER is not one of them), the only one I can really call a favorite is WELCOME TO L.A. Many people do not like this film, calling it arty, pretentious, etc. It has a rating of something like 6.3 on imdb. There are some who love it, however. I prefer it to NASHVILLE, the obvious comparison, because, despite the strengths of NASHVILLE, Altman's air of smug superiority to the Nashvillians is off-putting. Alan Rudolph was, in a handful of films, a remarkable director. He had a dream cast, and I like this quirky film very much. Rudolph will make a brilliant movie in a few more years, however.
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Lorna, I'm so glad I'm not at work because I am laughing way too hard for anyone to believe I was doing the work they used to pay me for. You have made my day.
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What am I, chopped liver? I had THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR in my top ten. As for THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, I like the film fine, but it never set off any fireworks for me, and I'm not sure why. I've often heard how Huston originally wanted to make it in the 40's with Gable and Bogart. That would have been something, I think.
Oops! Definitely not chopped liver.
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Actually, I really disliked the film -- too much OTT stereotyped British working class shtick on the part of Connery and Caine. Regarding John Huston, I think he finally made his transition to greatness with Wise Blood and The Dead, two films in which he was actually channeling John Ford!
Swithin, I don't see WISE BLOOD as being like Ford at all. Pastoral and sentimental it isn't. But we can talk more when 1979 rolls around.
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1975 was a much better year than 1974, and I want to thank Bogie for the reminder that THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR belongs on my list. That is one of Ben Mankiewicz' favorite films, by the way.
Favorites for 1975:
1. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING - If you ever get the chance to see this on the big screen, don't miss it. It's glorious. Easily one of the four or five best American films of the decade. Not a big success when it first was released, closer in tone to the classic era, and with a carefully worked out screenplay. All that either doesn't matter now or makes it even more attractive. Sean Connery and Michael Caine are one of the greatest screen couples. Both are superb. The cinematography is gorgeous. On some days I think it's John Huston's best film. It's easily one of the best four or five Huston films. After a not too great patch in the 1960s, when the auteurist critics wrote him off and sneered at him, Huston confounded everyone by making the best transition to the new era of any classic director.
2. DOG DAY AFTERNOON - One of the few official classics of the 1970s that deserves its high reputation. Most of the dialogue was improvised, then written down and scripted. It puts improvisational cinema to shame. Sidney Lumet is one of the most inconsistent directors, but this is one of his best.
3. THE STORY OF ADELE H. - Fine performance by Isabelle Adjani. It's funny: some of Truffaut's later films, like this one, which is very good, and THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN, which is meh, could have been directed by any of several directors from the "tradition of quality" that he scorned when he was a firebrand young critic.
4. THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR - A fine thriller, and I think the ending works.
5. PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK - A handsome film to look at. Hm, what does it have in common with the film listed just above it?
6. DERSU UZALA - Another outstanding Kurosawa film.
7. THE STEPFORD WIVES - Not really sure if this belongs or not. It does have one unforgettable scene (hint: Paula Prentiss is in it). Not one of Bryan Forbes' best--none of the color pictures are--but thematically it couldn't fit more neatly with his concerns.
I'll second Bogie's acting awards to Isabelle Adjani and Chris Sarandon. They are both very deserving.
About BARRY LYNDON, definitely a film to divide audiences: I think it's worth seeing once for the elegant solution for candlelit interiors. Otherwise, not so much. It's based on a superb novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, and the title he gave it was THE LUCK OF BARRY LYNDON. It's a classic "unreliable narrator" story. Barry tells us his story, complaining bitterly about his luck, but the reader can clearly see that Barry's character and the choices he made have brought about his "luck."
Now individual responsibility is not what the 1970s were about; that was "blame the system" time. I suppose Ryan O'Neal was needed to finance the project. At least acceptable in some films, he's way over his head in BARRY LYNDON; Troy Donahue's Hamlet might have been more convincing. This is the only film I've ever seen where the supporting actors get more close-ups than the star. Notice how Kubrick rarely puts O'Neal in the shot with other actors. He cuts back and forth, with close-ups on the supporting players (the ones who can act) who have most of the dialogue.
The music is great, although one of the most important choices, the Schubert E Major Piano Trio, is several decades too late for the timeframe of the film. Notice that Kubrick relies on the music to provide the emotion that he has either 1) not been able to put into the film or 2) has deliberately excluded from the film.
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1974:
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul**
Blazing Saddles
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Celine and Julie Go Boating**
Chinatown
The Conversation
Dersu Uzala^
The Godfather, Part II
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The Towering Inferno
A Woman Under the Influence
Young Frankenstein
Zerkalo/The Mirror**
^I have this film listed with 1975
**denotes films I have not seen
CHINATOWN and DERSU UZALA are wonderful films. I get that a disaster movie probably should be on the list somewhere, given how popular they were, but THE TOWERING INFERNO is exactly the kind of film that most "serious" critics do not like.
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For me, 1974 is as much of a dud as 1973 is excellent. The only really noteworthy film of the ones I've seen is CHINATOWN. "BCD" - BADLANDS, CHINATOWN, and DOG DAY AFTERNOON are about the only official classics of the 70s that deserve their reputation, in my opinion.
Horror movies: I don't like horror movies, but they would be hard-pressed to match the horror of one scene in THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH. Sylvester Stallone, pre-ROCKY, has saved money to buy the car of his dreams, but his fiancee and her best friend run roughshod over him in a jewelry store and make him spend the money on the engagement ring his pregnant girlfriend wants. This is truly terrifying.
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Here are the 1001 Movie to See Before You Die entries for 1973:
Amarcord
American Graffiti
Badlands
Day for Night
Don't Look Now
Enter the Dragon
The Exorcist
F for Fake
Fantastic Planet
The Harder They Come
Mean Streets
The Mother and the Wh*re**
Papillon
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Serpico
Sleeper
The Spirit of the Beehive
The Sting
Turkish Delight**
The Wicker Man
**denotes films I have not seen
Wow, I've seen 11 of these. I understand why the puke-green color fits with the world of SERPICO, but that doesn't make it easy to look at. DON'T LOOK NOW is handsome to look at. AMERICAN GRAFFITI is an entertaining film, but it establishes the worst trend of cinematic history: pop songs on the soundtrack. I typed "poop songs," and that may be a Freudian slip.
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To me, the 1970s are the nadir of movie cinematography, with the present day ("Hey, let's have a blue-toned scene! Nobody else has done it . . . in the last five minutes") running a close second. The 1970s loved its brown/green, sometimes brown/green/yellow (THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE) palette. I sometimes refer to this as Sepia Sludge. Finding an accent of red or blue in a film requires the efforts of a search team. Of course, there are exceptions, and some of my choices this year will stand comparison with the best of any era.
1. LA MAMAN ET LE PUTAIN (THE MOTHER AND THE W****) - It's so dumb not to be able to spell out the title. Cahiers du Cinema called this the best film of the decade (which sounds like the kiss of death), but I agree, though I can't recommend it to many viewers. Not on DVD, but two VHS tapes split the three-and-a-half hour length (shouldn't have told you that) very nicely. I can't imagine seeing this without intermission in a theater. You really need to have seen THE 400 BLOWS, one of the later Antoine Doinel films like STOLEN KISSES or BED AND BOARD, and Godard's MASCULINE FEMININE to understand how Jean Eustache uses Jean-Pierre Leaud. The film is the death knell for the French New Wave. In fact, Eustache positions his film to suggest that the New Wave wasn't worth much in any event.
To most viewers, Godard and Truffaut are opposites, the political and personal poles of the New Wave. By using Leaud to play Alexandre, his insipid pseudo-intellectual hero, Eustache trashes both of them. Alexandre has all the puppy-dog charm of a Truffaut hero, as he sponges off an older woman, does no work, and goes after every woman in sight. So much for Truffaut. Everything that comes out of this guy's mouth sounds foolish, when he talks about politics or anything else. So much for Godard. Some critics find a nostalgia for the 1968 not-happenin' revolution, but they aren't paying attention. The film has the feel of improvisational cinema, but it is all perfectly scripted. I'm not sure if this is aimed at Cassavetes, but in any case, improvisational cinema is trashed as well. There are opportunities for a feminist view ("Look at these women throw themselves away on this shallow charmer"), but Eustache doesn't go there, either. The women are foolish, and this is what they get, no more, no less.
Bernadette Lafont, the good-time girl of LE BEAU SERGE and LES BONNES FEMMES, did not age well, though she is still a fine actress. She is now Marie, the "maman." The third part of the triangle is a young woman who sleeps around, not an actual w****. The only real w**** in the film, of course, is Alexandre. The story and situations come from his own life, so Eustache is also trashing himself. To me, the Zen nihilism of the film is exhilarating, but I can certainly understand other reactions. Eustache bleached the film stock, so that the look of the film is unusually white. Absolutely one of my favorite films.
2. BADLANDS - Another of my favorite films. Great cinematography, even though two different cinematographers were used. The story of the film's making is like a mini-HEAVEN'S GATE in the making, with Terence Malick's mother doing some of the financing. Miraculously, it all came together. Malick did know what he was doing. The essence of the film is the disconnect between Sissy Spacek's deadpan voiceover and the events we see on screen. Martin Sheen and Warren Oates are good, but the film is unthinkable without Spacek.
3. LOVE AND PAIN AND THE WHOLE DAMN THING - Christopher Challis films on location in the Extremadura region of Spain, where there's plenty of brown, yet his cinematography is absolutely free of Sepia Sludge. Not a bad little film, and with Maggie Smith to boot, but Challis is the real star.
4. THE DAY OF THE JACKAL - I am always happy when one of the great directors of the classic era manages to make a good movie in the Brave New World of life after the studio system. One of Fred Zinnemann's four or five films, which is to say, very good indeed.
5. SCARECROW - I don't like the use to which Robert Altman puts Vilmos Zsigmond's talent in McCABE AND MRS. MILLER, but Jerry Schatzberg works with Zsigmond much better in SCARECROW. This film got good reviews when it came out, but it came out at the same time as THE EXORCIST, and you can probably guess which movie the studio decided to back and which one it let go. This was a hit at the TCM festival a couple of years ago.
6. SLEEPER - When you're talking about Woody Allen's "early, funny films," some are earlier but I'm not sure any are funnier.
7. THE STING and THE WAY WE WERE - Golly, that Robert Redford was awful purty back then.
Best Actress of 1973: Sissy Spacek, BADLANDS.
Bogie, I'm glad to see the shout-out for Bibi Andersson in SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. I wish she were in a lot more of the movie.
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1972:
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant**
Cabaret
Cries and Whispers
Deliverance
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Fat City
Frenzy
The Godfather
The Heartbreak Kid
High Plains Drifter^
Last Tango in Paris
Pink Flamingos
Sleuth
Solaris
Superfly
^I have this listed with the 1973 films
**denotes film I have not seen
I'm a little surprised that SLEUTH is here, though it's as good as most of the other nine that I've seen. Not a film here that I feel passionately about. That will change in 1973.
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1972: not a very good year for my taste. I do like CABARET for the most part, and would certainly give thumbs up to films like THE HEARTBREAK KID and FAT CITY. THE GODFATHER is okay in a three-stars-out-of-four kind of way, interesting when someone is going to be whacked, sluggishly paced, and with a phony performance by Brando slowing things down even more. CRIES AND WHISPERS is not one of my favorite Bergmans; he goes off for me after THE PASSION OF ANNA.
UN FLIC (A COP) - Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve. Stunning direction by Jean-Pierre Melville makes this a must-see.
PULP - This quirky film, a kind of parody of thrillers, has been rescued and given an audience by TCM. My favorite scene is where Mickey Rooney, playing an egocentric star, pushes back a mirrored closet door to reveal . . . another mirror.
ULZANA'S RAID - Much too violent for my taste, but this grim western is one of Robert Aldrich's best films. Would make an instructive double feature with APACHE, where Burt Lancaster plays a sympathetic blue-eyed Apache.
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Here are the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die entries for 1971:
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
THE DEVILS
DIRTY HARRY
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
GET CARTER
HAROLD AND MAUDE
THE HEARTBREAK KID
THE HIRED HAND
KLUTE
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
MCCABE & MRS. MILLER
MURMUR OF THE HEART
RED PSALM**
SHAFT
THE SORROW AND THE PITY** (documentary)
SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG
TWO-LANE BLACKTOP
W.R.: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM**
WAKE IN FRIGHT**
WALKABOUT
WANDA
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
**denotes films I have not seen
Hm. Of the nine I've seen, only THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, quite good, and THE FRENCH CONNECTION, with its famous scenes, would make my cut. I like THE HEARTBREAK KID but am surprised to see it here. WANDA, a perfectly OK film, is here because it's directed by a woman. Maybe that's reason enough?
WALKABOUT has just about the best premise for a movie I've ever seen, with the Australian outback to boot, and Nicolas Roeg does just about as little as possible with it. I believe they started with only about twenty pages of script. It shows. The political stuff is almost as subtle as being slapped up the side of the head with a two-by-four.
KLUTE has some of the ugliest and least functional cinematography ever committed to film. Gordon Willis shoots most of it so dark that at the climax you can't even see what's happening. The editor has to chop it up to make it look like something exciting is taking place. Willis totally dominates the novice director, Alan J. Pakula, whose second film this is. Take a look at his next film, LOVE AND PAIN AND THE WHOLE DAMN THING, shot by Christopher Challis. It's beautiful. Pakula was totally dependent on his cinematographers at this phase of his career. KLUTE is well acted. Too bad Donald Sutherland's role is so underdeveloped.
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By scouring Wiki, I've located about 40 films for the 1970s that I like well enough to recommend. I need to add Chabrol's LE BOUCHER to the 1970 films. It's the best film of the year.
1971:
CARNAL KNOWLEDGE - This is a European art film by an American director, like Coppola's THE RAIN PEOPLE. The story of why Mike Nichols didn't become a major director would be very interesting. Probably because Jack Nicholson isn't yet a 500-pound gorilla, he gives perhaps his best performance here as the odious Jonathan, whose main object in life is to manipulate and corrupt his innocent friend Sandy (Art Garfunkel). Compare Nichols' control over Jack with strong directors like Kubrick (THE SHINING) and Scorsese (THE DEPARTED) who let him run wild, even if the result is as campy as Nicholson's death scene in THE DEPARTED. Some have suggested that Jonathan is attracted to Sandy, but (for once) I don't think that's true at all. Jonathan wants to control his mind, not his body, and comes too close to success in turning Garfunkel into a Mini-Me. Not really a likable film, but hard to forget.
THE NIGHT DIGGER (aka THE ROAD BUILDER) - I'll join TopBilled in praising this one. Strong performances by Patricia Neal, Coral Browne, and the handsome young Nicholas Clay count for a lot.
TWO ENGLISH GIRLS - I'm not the world's biggest Truffaut fan, and this movie could certainly have been better. The cinematography by Nestor Almendros is superb, and the music by Georges Delerue is even better, if that is possible. The performances aren't really up to the script, which is an inside-out version of JULES AND JIM, based on a novel by the same author. Jean-Pierre Leaud was so good as a child actor in THE 400 BLOWS, much less so as an adult. He's pretty, but bland and (let me put this delicately) not excessively bright and not especially gifted as an acotr. In a couple of years a director will know exactly what to do with him. He's certainly the weakest link in this film. Like CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, TWO ENGLISH GIRLS sticks in the mind, despite the shortcomings.
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I've never been able to see THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS. I don't know what TAKING OFF is.
P.S.: While I think your choice of Warren Clarke is inspired, on my ballot for BSA it would be Warren Oates from TWO-LANE BLACKTOP.
Remember when Esquire did a cover story on TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, proclaiming it the best movie of the year before it had ever opened, and then at the end of the year gave themselves a Dubious Achievement Award for doing so?
Judging from your lists, 1971 is the year I became disconnected from the contemporary movie scene. I walked out of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE after fifteen or twenty minutes. That year I formulated the "Straw Dogs Rule": when the favorable reviews of a film make the movie sound absurd, avoid it. DIRTY HARRY and especially STRAW DOGS were way more violent than any movie I wanted to see. I was eager to see TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, knowing a little something about Southern back roads, but thought the movie dull as ditchwater, with two leads almost as vacuous as the two in ZABRISKIE POINT. I didn't see McCABE AND MRS. MILLER, but saw it a couple of years ago on TCM and did not think much of it. The average 1950s western is better. None of the parts of the film went together, especially Vilmos Zsigmond's carefully worked out imitations of Rembrandt, Georges de la Tour, etc. in the darkened interiors, which went with nothing else in the film. Compare McCABE and WARLOCK--script, cinematography, acting, and directing--and you'll get my point of view. Sharing it is, of course, another matter.
Certainly I have friends who like some of these movies. (I'm more impressed by the opinions of friends than by official critics.) I remember being so excited that directors were making more personal projects, relatively free from studio interference, but from the perspective of 2016 I must say that to me the results are frequently unimpressive.
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Top Ten Films of...
in Your Favorites
Posted
Just got back from seeing THE BIG SHORT, which we both loved.
Before we get to the 80s, which I think was a much better decade for American films than the 70s, I'll list my top ten for the decade.
Top 10 for the 1970s:
THE MOTHER AND THE WH*RE
LE BOUCHER
BADLANDS
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
NORTH DALLAS FORTY
FOUL PLAY
WELCOME TO L.A.
DOG DAY AFTERNOON
LIFE OF BRIAN
STAR WARS
Alternate: CHINATOWN