1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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Black Hat
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#851 Post by Black Hat » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:33 pm

As one who only made a list as opposed to actively participating it comes as no surprise how many films I love that I totally forgot about, I'm looking at you Alfredo Garcia, but in any case here's mine.

Top 10
1 Zerkalo
2 Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
3 The Godfather
4 Cries and Whispers
5 Celine and Julie Go Boating
6 Chinatown
7 Carnal Knowledge
8 The Mother and the Whore
9 The Godfather Part 2
10 French Connection

Also Rans
F for Fake
The Devil, Probably
Out 1
India Song
Interiors
Dirty Harry
In the Realm of the Senses
The American Friend

Orphan
Turkish Delight

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#852 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:34 pm

Goodness, I should have fought harder for my babies- it always seems to have a noticeable effect on how they place when I do.

My top ten:

1. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973)
2. F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973)
3. The Godfather, Part 2 (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
4. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
5. The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
6. The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
7. Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
8. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
9. Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975)
10. Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)

Also-Rans and Orphans

2. F for Fake (Placed #167)

This is the one that hurts the most. This movie is high in the running for my favorite Welles, and my favorite films overall- and not only did it not make the list, but it dropped precipitously from the last list. Is it a matter of timing, since it was a relatively recent release then, and has had no updates since?

At any rate, this is a brilliant movie, cleverly playing with form without ever being tiresomely metafictional, and raising philosophical questions about the meaning of realness and authenticity as forcefully (and with rather more humor, to my eyes) as any Kiarostami film. I was assuming everyone was familiar with it, but if you're not, seriously go seek it out- I've never met anyone to whom I recommended this that didn't enjoy it.

12. The Muppet Movie (Orphan)

I suppose that I have only myself to blame for this one, though- I imagine it's one a lot of people have watched, but few have thought of as potentially great. It's a film I'd have a soft spot for regardless, but (not unlike F for Fake) it is also a movie where the fake real and the real fake collide in really interesting ways, plus also it's got a really funny Steve Martin cameo.

19. The Last Waltz (Placed #206)

I suppose concert movies are always going to be a hard bet- even if people have seen it, they have to like both the moviemaking and the actual music, which is sort of a bonus layer of contention. Nonetheless, this is pretty well the gold standard of concert movies (along with Stop Making Sense, which had damned well better not be an also ran) and Scorsese makes something larger than life about a bunch of coked up dadrockers (I love them so) and shapes the material make it feel like a Scorsese movie, a movie wherein desperate and perhaps unlikable people find a certain measure of grace. And I love the music, so what the hell.

21. Cabaret (Placed #214)

I can see where this one isn't necessarily everyone's favorite- outside of the scenes set in the cabaret, it's good, but not convincingly amazing. For me, though (along with practically every theater kid I've ever met) the in-cabaret scenes are an endless delight- Fosse does us the favor of shooting dance scenes where you can see the dancers' feet, along with everything else that's going on, rather than endlessly cutting in, and the routines are marvelous, minimalist things that feel like they could have been performed at the time (though stylistically nothing like what there would have been, mostly) and convey the expressiveness of the human body as well as the most explosive Berkeley routine. It's a movie that lives in a dark time and doesn't shy away from it, but which also doesn't overly fetishize fascism or fear.

26. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Placed #277)
27. The Man Who Would Be King (Placed #108)

I think I may value movies that are wonderful entertainment and not necessarily a lot beyond that more than some of the other members of the board, which is fine, I think. Pelham is one of the innumerable super New York-y movies this decade- Taxi Driver, Manhattan, Dog Day Afternoon and so on- but it makes a joke of that quality, out of racial tension, bad cops, good cops, and terrorism, without ever being flip about any of them, or losing any of its tightness as a thriller. The Man Who Would Be King is a movie that takes two really entertaining actors and a situation that inherently has some super regressive political implications and just sort of has them go for it- and because the performances are from a couple of very silly (though loveable) people, and doesn't try any special pleading, the result feels far less racist than some movies that try their best to be progressive. And it's fun as hell.

28. Silent Running (Orphan)

Yeesh, I have to stop assuming that anything released by Criterion or MoC doesn't need defending. This is a movie with a sort of silly, dated premise that nonetheless treats everything about it with utmost seriousness, and winds up being as moving a portrait of a man who's lost in himself trying to do the right thing as any of the detective movie portraits of despair that wound up placing much higher (and I love those too, obviously.) It's also a wonderful looking movie, with little fiddly bits all over the place and charming little robots and greenery that convinces you that maybe trees could be more important than people, who knows.

33. Foxy Brown (Orphan)

Here, I thought the Arrow blu would give it some notability. Arrgh. Well, anyone who hasn't seen this, it's a real delight, and my favorite of its subgenre. It's hard to describe the pleasures of blaxploitation without being repetitive, but at any rate, this one moves really well, and doesn't have a lot of elements that stick out as problematic (aside from some unpleasant sexual menacing towards Grier, but she does at least come out of the situation well.) Again, though, I also just seem to value terrific entertainment that doesn't necessarily do much more than that more than others, which is still fine.

35. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Placed #288)

A hard, quiet movie about a hard, quiet man. It's worth watching.

37. Gimme Shelter (Orphan)

Concert movie syndrome again? This is a powerful movie and I hope it fares better on the docs list (though I was negligent in voting for docs myself.)

39. New York, New York (Placed #266)

It's a flawed movie, but a very alive one, and I really love Liza Minelli in it. I guess I can't argue with people who didn't care for this one too hard, but what the hell, I like it.

40. Grey Gardens (Placed #123)

Huh, this one's definitely a surprise. I assume people know about this one, but I can see where it's not to everyone's taste. If you're not familiar with it- it's one of the Maysles best, and they do a wonderful job of allowing us to see the humanity of people that might otherwise seem like campy old cat lady types, without necessarily pressing us to like them.

41. Enter the Dragon (Placed #293)

I'm guessing this one is due to my lack of depth in this genre, rather than nobody knowing about this one, which is fine. This is still an incredibly fun movie, though I wish John Saxon had gone out early and Jim Kelly had made it out- Saxon's not, uh, the most convincing fighter. It was funny to notice to what degree this is almost a Dr. No remake when last I watched it, though.

42. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Placed #184)
43. A New Leaf (Placed #187)
44. The AristoCats (Orphan)
45. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Orphan)
47. Life on Earth (Orphan)
48. What's Up, Doc? (Placed #191)
49. Trafic (Orphan)
50. Rolling Thunder (Orphan)

I'm going to try and edit in some writeups for these later, but good Lord I did not do well in my lower reaches.

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Dylan
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#853 Post by Dylan » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:38 pm

I'm absolutely amazed that a few regular contributors here voted for Obsession, which I've loved (especially the score) for more than half of my life, but most De Palma fans consider it their least favorite (or one of). It made my top five. I imagine it will be like Seconds and really garner a lot of love once (if?) a new R1 release becomes a reality (given the recent 2k restoration I'll assume something of the ilk is in the works).

Who else voted for Veruschka?! Given its availability outside of screenings (a terrible-looking bootleg) I was expecting that to be an orphan but it was also-rans. It's an amazing movie that I had the chance to see a decent version of, and maybe someday a decent release (be it a broadcast or DVD/blu) will surface.

My Top Ten:

1. Manhattan
2. The Landlord
3. Carnal Knowledge
4. The Last Picture Show
5. Obsession
6. Annie Hall
7. Picnic at Hanging Rock
8. Interiors
9. Sybil (also Orphan)
10. Deep End

Orphans:

9. Sybil (there was some discussion about this so I know I'm not the only one who has seen it.)
11. The Strawberry Statement (had I not completely lost track of time in relation to the 70s list deadline I would've absolutely prepared a spotlight post on this, so I blame myself for it being an orphan. If you get the chance to see it via the Warner Archive release, be sure to watch the theatrical cut & not the longer, full screen version, which adds in unnecessary material)
24. Rider on the Rain (a rare Rene Clement film, but a blast if you ever get the chance to see it. Try to find a good-looking widescreen version as there are terrible prints floating around in the public domain)
26. The Exorcist (I guess this is "classic" enough to not need any more fans, but... really? I'd say it's about as good as The Godfather.)
34. The Duelists (my favorite Ridley Scott)
36. La Luna (Bertolucci's final masterpiece - opera, incest, melodrama - he goes all out and makes an absolutely beautiful film on top of it. He hasn't come close since.)
37. The Last Woman (extremely fascinating and creepy - Depardieu and Ornella Muti are both great. Sadly there isn't a decent version out there to watch, and what I watched combined some foreign broadcast with a VHS French dub, so I can see how nobody has seen it [or seen it recently].)
38. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea (I know Domino saw this and hated it. I saw it a few years ago, was intensely creeped out by it, and haven't forgotten it. It also looks beautiful.)
41. A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Alan Bates is forever my guy crush and this is his very greatest work)
47. Two English Girls (I think the lack of a decent R1 doesn't help)
49. Spoiled Children (My favorite Tavernier, and one of the best Piccioli performances)

My "crazy" #50 spot was The Beguiled, which I adore, and also find to be extremely creepy (I would use "creepy" to describe a lot of great 70s films, actually).
Last edited by Dylan on Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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swo17
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#854 Post by swo17 » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:39 pm

A few responses to zedz:

The Man Who Left His Will on Film is available on Criterion's Hulu channel.

Traveler and New Book were regrettably the last two films that got edged off of my list.

The vote splitting for Frampton was interesting, with votes for three different parts of Hapax Legomena as well as one for the whole thing (by someone who had seen all of it). If that had been more readily available, I wonder if some might have switched out their votes. If all the votes for individual parts of Hapax were combined into a single film, it would have placed 49th in the top 100.

Duvidha actually did very well, appearing on five lists. In fact, it was in the top 100 until the very last list submitted pushed it off. And note that another Kaul film (which you now own if you bought the Duvidha DVD) placed as an also-ran.

Finally, The Stone Wedding is most certainly not a stoner comedy. More of a Wedding Crashers type thing.
Last edited by swo17 on Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Cold Bishop
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#855 Post by Cold Bishop » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:42 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:It's hard to describe the pleasures of blaxploitation without being repetitive, but at any rate, this one moves really well, and doesn't have a lot of elements that stick out as problematic
Dammit... now I remembered Black Caesar. Which made me remember Larry Cohen. Which makes me regret that I didn't put either that or The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover on my list.

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domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#856 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:44 pm

Swo, maybe I missed it, but how many submitted lists?

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swo17
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#857 Post by swo17 » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:46 pm

I've only said it three times now, but 34. ;)

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domino harvey
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#858 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:50 pm

Swo, when is Criterion releasing Bottle Rocket?

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zedz
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#859 Post by zedz » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:59 pm

swo17 wrote:Duvidha actually did very well, appearing on five lists.
Mexican wave!

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Yojimbo
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#860 Post by Yojimbo » Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:17 pm

zedz wrote:
TOP TWENTY

1. Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1975)

12. Effi Briest (Fassbinder, 1974) ALSO-RAN: The traditional problem with Fassbinder used to be vote-splitting, but it looks a little like his profile as a whole might be on the wane. I would love to see this visually stunning film in a crisp new HD transfer.


OTHER ALSO-RANS


30. La Gueule ouverte (Pialat, 1974) Is it just a coincidence that the grimmest films on my list are the ones that struggled hardest for support?

33. Cockfighter (Hellman, 1974)
37. Kings of the Road (Wenders, 1976) So, does this mean that Criterion’s strategy with Wenders’ great 70s films is to let them lapse into such complete obscurity that they can then be credited with their rediscovery?

OTHER ORPHANS

23. A Walk through H (Greenaway, 1978) I actually watched this again just before the close of voting to check that it still had the weird magic I found on first seeing it so long ago, and. . . yep. If Greenaway had stayed as smart and funny and imaginative as this, I’d still be a fan.

31. Oh! I Can’t Stop! (Rybczynski, 1975) Well, let me revise my earlier sentiment. Not only were the grimmest films on my list out on their own, but so were the funniest. Do you think I need to seek psychiatric help?
34. Abigail’s Party (Leigh, 1977) Case in point. Angela likes Demis Roussos. Tony likes Demis Roussos, and Sue would like to hear Demis Roussos. What’s your fucking problem?
Mirror used to be my second-favourite Tarkovsky - and was even pushing for a place in my All-Time Top 10 - now it's been leap-frogged by Stalker': I just love the insidiously seductive storytelling in the latter; and the way that he can say so much with so little

I must dig out Effi Briest: I can't think why I haven't already watched it - and 'Ali'.
For years I'd been somewhat indifferent to Fassbinder - largely based on his early 80s successes - but then I started trawling through the box-sets of his early films, and I became a fan.
Anybody else think 'Katzelmacher' was a direct ancestor/inspiration for 'Slacker'?


See above for La Gueule ouverte

33. Cockfighter (Hellman, 1974)
37. Kings of the Road (Wenders, 1976)
Makes for one helluva double-bill


Agreed about Greenaway; although I'm not sure I've seen that one.

I remember when I saw the first (tv) screening of Abigail’s Party, when it was a major national event
Actually there was an old childhood buddy of mine who looked a lot like Demis Roussos; and wore a similar hat and poncho.
I still love - and occasionally sing in the shower - 'My Friend The wind'

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Yojimbo
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#861 Post by Yojimbo » Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:23 pm

Dylan wrote:I'm absolutely amazed that a few regular contributors here voted for Obsession, which I've loved (especially the score) for more than half of my life, but most De Palma fans consider it their least favorite (or one of). It made my top five. I imagine it will be like Seconds and really garner a lot of love once (if?) a new R1 release becomes a reality (given the recent 2k restoration I'll assume something of the ilk is in the works).


My "crazy" #50 spot was The Beguiled, which I adore, and also find to be extremely creepy (I would use "creepy" to describe a lot of great 70s films, actually).
I love The Beguiled, also - and it almost made it - but I'll always love 'The Gauntlet', which I had to squeeze in; Clint's 'Josey Wales is among my 'aristocracy', but being a long-time Western fan from my boyhood, it was always going to be.

Obsession's ending hit me like a sucker punch; but it still almost made the 50

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the preacher
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#862 Post by the preacher » Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:25 pm

Thanks for the hard work.

My apologies to the voters of the following orphans, they were all last minute discards:
Adelheid (František Vláčil, 1970)
Farewell, My Lovely (Dick Richards, 1975)
Milano calibro 9 (Fernando Di Leo, 1972)
A River Called Titas (Ritwik Ghatak, 1973)
The Wind and the Lion (John Milius, 1975)

The 70s is the weakest decade for me, so I was expecting the emergence of some exotic titles (the top 100 was just a dream, as swo explained earlier about the safe choices):
Xala (Ousmane Sembene, 1974) 89/4/20/New
The Dupes (Tewfik Saleh, 1973) 80/2/11(x2)/New
Still Life (Sohrab Saless, 1974) 70/3/14/New or The Cycle (Dariush Mehrjui, 1978) 69/2(1)/2/New
Manila in the Claws of Light (Lino Brocka, 1975) 58/3(1)/9/New (even if I voted for Insiang :oops: )

Casualties:
Love (Károly Makk, 1971) 77/4/18/-97 #-o

My Orphans: ](*,)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
The Yakuza (1974)
Insiang (1976)
La muralla verde [The Green Wall] (1970)
The Railway Children (1970)
The Last Valley (1971)
La Patagonia rebelde [Rebellion in Patagonia] (1974)
Iko shashvi mgalobeli [There Once Was a Singing Blackbird] (1970)
Soldaat van Oranje [Soldier of Orange] (1977)
Joe Hill (1971)
A Intrusa (1979)
Tatlong taong walang Diyos [Three Years Without God] (1976)
A zori zdes tikhie [The Dawns Here Are Quiet] (1972)
Les choses de la vie [The Things of Life] (1970)
Ankur [The Seedling] (1974)
Osenniy marafon [Autumn Marathon] (1979)
Superman (1978) :P
Osânda [The Punishment] (1976)
Selvi boylum, al yazmalim [The Girl with the Red Scarf] (1978)
Reipu 25-ji: Bôkan [Rape! 13th Hour] (1977)

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Yojimbo
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#863 Post by Yojimbo » Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:45 pm

The remainder of my list

21 Night Moves (1975) Arthur Penn
22 Days and Nights in the Forest(1970) Satyajit Ray
23 Frenzy (1972) Alfred Hitchcock
24 Salo Pier Paolo Pasolini
25 Mean Streets (1973) Martin Scorsese
26 Tristana (1970) Luis Bunuel
27 Fat City (1972) John Huston
28 Fox and His Friends Rainer Werner Fassbinder
29 Profondo rosso (1975) Dario Argento
30 New York, New York Martin Scorsese
31 Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) John Carpenter
32 Kings of the Road (1976) Wim Wenders
33 Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance Kenji Misumi
34 Suspiria (1977) Dario Argento
35 Mad Max (1979) George Miller
36 Klute (1971) Alan J. Pakula
37 Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) Shunya Ito
38 The Promised Land Andrzej Wajda
39 Supervixens (1975) Russ Meyer
40 Le boucher (1970) Claude Chabrol
41 That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) Luis Bunuel
42 The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) Sam Peckinpah
43 Farewell, My Lovely (1975) Dick Richards
44 Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) Werner Herzog
45 Phantom of the Paradise (1974) Brian De Palma
46 A New Leaf (1971) Elaine May
47 Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972) Werner Herzog
48 Rabid Dogs (1974) Mario Bava
49 Les valseuses (1974) Bertrand Blier
50 The Gauntlet (1977) Clint Eastwood

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tojoed
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#864 Post by tojoed » Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:06 pm

My number 1 was California Split, which I've talked about in the Altman thread.
A wonderful comedy about gambling in particular, and addiction in general, mainly because the people involved (Walsh, Altman and Gould) knew it well. Very funny and ultimately sad, if not tragic.

I had 13 orphans, some of which I expected, and some that were quite surprising :

Big Wednesday (Milius. 1978)
Breaking Away (Yates, 1979)
Calmos (Blier, 1976)
The Fury (De Palma, 1978)
GoYH (Blier, 1978)
Green Room (Truffaut, 1978)
Late Show (Benton, 1977)
Made (McKenzie, 1972) - Ah, shame.
Next Stop, Greenwich Village (Mazursky, 1976)
Richard Pryor, Live in Concert (1979)
Shampoo (Ashby, 1975).
Spider's Stratagem (Bertolucci, 1970)
The Warriors (Hill, 1979).

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Yojimbo
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#865 Post by Yojimbo » Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:19 pm

and here's those on my shortlist, that didn't make my 50
(listed alphabetically, by director first name)

The Parallax View (1974) Alan J. Pakula
Remember My Name (1978) Alan Rudolph
Family Plot (1976) Alfred Hitchcock
Mirror (1975) Andrei Tarkovsky
Solyaris (1972) Andrei Tarkovsky
Wanda (1970) Barbara Loden
Maîtresse (1976) Barbet Schroeder
Il conformista (1970) Bernardo Bertolucci
Strategia del ragno (1970) Bernardo Bertolucci
Bill Douglas Trilogy (1972) Bill Douglas
Cabaret (1972) Bob Fosse
Lenny (1974) Bob Fosse
Sisters Brian De Palma
Cría cuervos (1976) Carlos Saura
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) Chantal Akerman
Juste avant la nuit (1971) Claude Chabrol
High Plains Drifter (1973) Clint Eastwood
The Silent Partner (1978) Daryl Duke
The Brood (1979) David Cronenberg
Shivers (1975) David Cronenberg
Charley Varrick (1973) Don Siegel
The Shootist (1976) Don Siegel
The Beguiled (1971) Don Siegel
The Heartbreak Kid (1972) Elaine May
Grey Gardens (1976) Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles and Muffie Meyer
Le genou de Claire (1970) Eric Rohmer
L'amour l'après-midi (1972) Eric Rohmer
Gates of Heaven (1978) Errol Morris
Amarcord (1973) Federico Fellini
Fellini Roma (1972) Federico Fellini
The Italian Connection Fernando Di Leo
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1979) Francesco Rosi
The Conversation (1974) Francis Ford Coppola
The Godfather: Part II (1974) Francis Ford Coppola
Day for Night (1973) Francois Truffaut
Une belle fille comme moi (1972) Francois Truffaut
L'homme qui aimait les femmes (1977) Francois Truffaut
Martin (1977) George A. Romero
The Crazies (1973) George A. Romero
American Graffiti (1973) George Lucas
Nuits rouges (1974) Georges Franju
Korol Lir (1971) Grigori Kozintsev
Harold and Maude (1971) Hal Ashby
Cries and Whispers (1972) Ingmar Bergman
Race with the Devil (1975) Jack Starrett
Trafic (1971) Jacques Tati
Fingers (1978) James Toback
Un flic (1972) Jean-Pierre Melville
Zardoz (1974) John Boorman
Wise Blood (1979) John Huston
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) John Huston
Big Wednesday (1978) John Milius
Caged Heat (1974) Jonathan Demme
Confessions Among Actresses (1971) Kiju Yoshida
Heroic Purgatory (1970) Kiju Yoshida
Seven Beauties (1975) Lina Wertmuller
Executioners from Shaolin (1977) Liu JiLiang
La gueule ouverte (1974) Maurice Pialat
Passe ton bac d'abord (1979) Maurice Pialat
Smile (1975) Michael Ritchie
Woodstock (1970) Michael Wadleigh
Professione: reporter (1975) Michelangelo Antonioni
Get Carter (1971) Mike Hodges
Taking Off (1971) Milos Forman
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) Monte Hellman
Ai no corrida (1976) Nagisa Oshima
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) Nicolas Roeg
F for Fake (1974) Orson Welles
Pastorale (1975) Otar Iosseliani
Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird (1970) Otar Iosseliani
Battle Of Chile (1975-9) Patricio Guzmán
Death Race 2000 (1975) Paul Bartel
Trash (1970) Paul Morrissey
Blue Collar (1978) Paul Schrader
The Harder They Come (1972) Perry Henzel
The Last Picture Show (1971) Peter Bogdanovich
The Last Wave (1977) Peter Weir
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) Peter Yates
Il Decameron (1971) Pier Paolo Pasolini
Il fiore delle mille e una notte (1974) Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Beware of a Holy Whore Rainer Werner Fassbinder
La planète sauvage (1973) René Laloux
Vanishing Point (1971) Richard Sarafin
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) Robert Altman
Thieves Like Us (1974) Robert Altman
The Late Show (1977) Robert Benton
Lancelot du Lac (1974) Robert Bresson
Hickey & Boggs Robert Culp
The Tenant (1976) Roman Polanski
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) Russ Meyer
Straw Dogs (1971) Sam Peckinpah
Cross of Iron (1977) Sam Peckinpah
Giù la testa (1971) Sergio Leone
Vengeance Is Mine (1979) Shohei Imamura
Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41 (1972) Shunya Ito
Barry Lyndon (1975) Stanley Kubrick
A Clockwork Orange (1971) Stanley Kubrick
Duel (1971) Steven Spielberg
The Sugarland Express (1974) Steven Spielberg
Jaws (1975) Steven Spielberg
San Michele aveva un gallo (1972) Taviani Bros
Badlands (1973) Terrence Malick
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Tobe Hooper
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) Víctor Erice
The Driver (1978) Walter Hill
Alice in den Städten (1974) Wim Wenders
The Wrong Move (1975) Wim Wenders
Der amerikanische Freund (1977) Wim Wenders
Manhattan (1979) Woody Allen
Bananas (1971) Woody Allen

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knives
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#866 Post by knives » Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:40 pm

tojoed wrote: Next Stop, Greenwich Village (Mazursky, 1976)
Damn, knew I forgot something.

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Gropius
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#867 Post by Gropius » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:10 pm

I had quite a few experimental orphans, not that I’d made an effort to advocate for them. The 70s (I suppose it was more like 1967-77) was the golden age of structuralism: to some viewers these films are simply boring, but to converts they have the formal elegance to rival the greatest art of the 20th century.

Top 10:

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975) – For me, this is the iconic film of the decade, and perhaps the greatest synthesis of experimental and traditional narrative methods.
2. Serene Velocity (Ernie Gehr, 1970) – On paper it’s a zooming-in-and-out shot of a corridor, but it’s in the great tradition of film as a kind of visual music, and a candidate for the ‘purest’ structural film.
3. La Région centrale (Michael Snow, 1971) – Snow attached a camera to a gyroscope apparatus and set it to rotate for hours on a Canadian mountain top. The result is a floating immersion in a disembodied, pre-human world of sky and rock.
4. Picture and Sound Rushes (Morgan Fisher, 1973) – Fisher had a day job as an editor in Hollywood. His own films are wry meta-analyses of the technological conventions of filmmaking. In this one, he gives a mini-lecture on how image and sound are combined, while systematically switching them off and on in various permutations. Again, that might not sound terribly exciting, but it’s a waggish conceptual masterpiece.
5. The Passenger (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975) – Down 52 places?
6. O Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson, 1973) – How can this be an orphan? One of the most interesting, eccentric British features ever made. McDowell's advocacy of Anderson clearly still has some way to go.
7. Le Camion (Marguerite Duras, 1977) – Duras is the only director with three titles on my list. This one is the most austerely conceptual, although India Song is really as good, and Nathalie Granger not far off. If you like her novels, the films are essential: they need more Anglophone exposure. (Last time I voted for something by fellow Resnais collaborator Robbe-Grillet as well, but his sleazier stylings have lost some of their appeal.)
8. Musical Stairs (Guy Sherwin, 1977) – Looks like I split the Sherwin vote with Zedz. His experiments with optical sound (on a good DVD from Lux) are fascinating.
9. Vertical Features Remake (Peter Greenaway, 1978) – Great to see this chart, even if it was at the expense of Walk Through H.
10. Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Jacques Rivette, 1974) – Watching the sprawling Out 1, intriguing as it is, just makes this one seem even better. (I also included Duelle further down; still haven’t seen Noroît.)

Also-rans with one other voter:

11. Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, 1972)
12. Salomé (Carmelo Bene, 1972) – Hat-tip to Bamwc2 for recommending this one. Deranged, lurid aestheticism: can’t beat the Harvard Film Archive’s description of ‘Pasolini meets Jack Smith’ (but, to my taste, preferable to anything Pasolini did in the 70s). Wonder if Matthew Barney ever saw this.
17. Madame X – An Absolute Ruler (Ulrike Ottinger, 1978) – Still looking forward to Bildnis einer Trinkerin.
29. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1972) – How the mighty have fallen.
38. From the Clouds to the Resistance (Jean-Marie Straub/Danièle Huillet, 1979) – I might vote this higher with another viewing, but, like so many of the Straubs’ films, it’s as dry and dense as it impressive. Moses and Aaron was the other contender.

Other orphans (shorts):

14. La Femme qui se poudre (Patrick Bokanowski, 1972)
15. Critical Mass (Hollis Frampton, 1971) – I have seen the Hapax Legomena sequence, but they’re too distinct to think of as a single unit. This one stands out for its humour.
19. S:TREAM:S:S:ECTION:S:ECTION:S:S:ECTIONED (Paul Sharits, 1971) – Sharits’s best-known films come from the late 60s, but he kept on going.
21. White Dust (Jeff Keen, 1972) – Keen’s chaotic films can blur together in the mind, but this one is substantial.
25. Eureka (Ernie Gehr, 1974) – Early horse and cart footage, slowed down.
28. Ruskin (Robert Beavers, 1975) – Borderline eligible, as he re-edited it in 1997. Beavers is a rather precious latter-day aesthete, but an engaging one.
31. Whitchurch Downs (Duration) (Malcolm Le Grice, 1972) – Le Grice was, along with the puritanical Peter Gidal, the major theorist of structural film in Britain.
33. Reflections (Jerzy Kucia, 1979) – One of the darker Polish animations, tracking the fleeting struggle of an insect.

Other orphans (features):

16. Un homme qui dort (Georges Perec/Bernard Queysanne, 1974) – Experimental French novelists had a good screen run in this decade. Perec’s existential slacker tale rivals the best of Resnais.
26. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 1970) – His three 70s horror features are all fun, but this early experiment about insane paedophile scientists on a dystopian Toronto campus is like nothing else.
27. Nathalie Granger (Marguerite Duras, 1972)
35. King Lear (Peter Brook, 1970) – Brook delivers a Lear fit for a post-Beckett age.
37. The Little Mermaid (Karel Kachyňa, 1976) – I have a weakness for fairy tale films, and this one by Kachyňa (of Ear fame) is one of the most charming. (Demy’s Peau d’âne might have made the grade if I’d got round to it.)
42. Vampir–Cuadecuc (Pere Portabella, 1970) – Filmed on the set of Jesús Franco’s Count Dracula with Christopher Lee, but it’s very far from a making-of doc. (At points, the relationship between the two films is more like that between Peter Tscherkassky's Outer Space and The Entity - looking at this trailer again, I think I'd have placed it much higher with a more recent viewing.)
Last edited by Gropius on Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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swo17
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#868 Post by swo17 » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:18 pm

For the record, I voted for a third Sherwin (and that DVD is a fair bit more than merely "good"), as well as a second Le Grice.

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Tommaso
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#869 Post by Tommaso » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:28 pm

Yeah, one of the pleasant surprises of this round for me was that Vertical Features Remake made the list. In a way, it's the quintessential Greenaway film with its obsessive structuralism, its conspiracy, and its commenting on itself all the time. Thanks for voting for Syberberg and Ottinger, Gropius; well, we'll have to combine forces for "Dorian" in the next round. And I share the sadness for "Petra von Kant", even if I did not vote for it, because Fassbinder is someone I rather admire than love in many cases. But it's one of Fassbinder's major (early) films, along with Martha and Welt am Draht ( I actually voted for the latter). And do watch Noroit!

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life_boy
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#870 Post by life_boy » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:37 pm

life_boy wrote:I'm guessing I will have around 16 also-rans and 7 orphans.
Pretty close: I had 17 Also-Rans and 9 Orphans, having seen 67/100 films in the final list.

1. Nashville (Altman, 1975)
2. Stroszek (Herzog, 1977) – ALSO-RAN This has been a favorite for years. I consider Herzog the equal of Altman this decade (and I voted for plenty of both), it's just that my favorite Herzog films are not Aguirre and Kaspar Hauser, though I like them both. I was surprised Stroszek failed to chart since it charted last time but I guess if this iteration of the project has taught us anything besides the law of large numbers, it is that those lower echelons of the list are not safe for assumed classics.
3. The Merchant of Four Seasons (Fassbinder, 1971) -- ORPHAN - I was genuinely shocked that I was the only one who voted for this as I assumed Fassbinder support was broad and deep. I guess it plays very strangely for many (and there is so much Fassbinder to choose from in the 70's) but I found this delicate little melodrama completely moving. You can read my defense of it further up this thread.
4. The Long Goodbye (Altman, 1973)
5. Two-Lane Blacktop (Hellman, 1971)
6. All the President’s Men (Pakula, 1976)
7. Chinatown (Polanski, 1974)

8. 1900 (Bertolucci, 1976) – ALSO-RAN I decided I preferred this to the formal rigor of The Conformist. It is a huge film and takes some effort to get through but in the end I found myself deeply affected by it continuing to think on it for days. I gave it a small write-up earlier.
9. Paper Moon (Bogdanovich, 1973)
10. At Long Last Love (Bogdanovich, 1975)
-- The power of the Member Spotlight.
11. The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich, 1971)
12. Don’t Look Now (Roeg, 1973)
13. The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)
14. Alien (Scott, 1979)

15. Alex in Wonderland (Mazursky, 1970) -- ORPHAN -- My spotlight that either no one saw or no one liked (looks like the Mazursky vote -- such as it was -- was split between several films). I knew it was an uphill battle arguing for this film because I know that of the few people who've ever seen it, most don't care for it. Since no one mentioned it in the thread I was starting to suspect its orphan status coming. I wrote some about it earlier but perhaps it is a film in which more effort is necessary to pique interest.

Coming to audiences near the beginning of the New Hollywood era (1970), Alex in Wonderland is both an appreciation of the artistic freedom afforded to directors by producers/studios during that time and a unique representation of the paradoxes and paralysis facing the New Hollywood filmmaker in light of that freedom. It is bold and audacious and brilliant, written and directed by Paul Mazursky, one of the forgotten dual talents of that era.

Alex is a film director who has just finished cutting his first feature for MGM. Premiered but not yet released, Alex’s film is already garnering him attention as an up-and-coming auteur. Beginning to believe the hype of the preview screenings, Alex and his wife begin to look for a new house where their family of four can live a little more luxuriously. But Alex isn't happy. He is troubled by his own political interests, by his own cinematic influences, by his own desire to be appreciated, and by his own fear of making the wrong next step. He cannot decide what he will make next, where he will put his creative focus.

The most obvious correlation is with 8 ½ (Federico Fellini, 1963), but this is not a Hollywood riff on the Italian classic. It is a co-opting of the imaginative framework of that film to express the reductive tendencies of Alex. Does he truly love Fellini's films or love the acclaim Fellini's films have garnered? Beyond the question of influence is the real tension between liberal guilt and the obligations of artistic freedom. Alex wants to be respected, he wants to be innovative but he can’t move beyond shallow notions of politics and cinema. He feels an obligation now he had not felt previously to create a film that shocks its audience out of political complacency. The problem is, Alex is politically complacent. He can talk a good talk about the oppression of African-Americans and about the tragedy of war, but that doesn’t motivate him in any way beyond feeling guilty not to miss his chance to speak to these platitudes.

Artistry and commerce are two things that, according to the conventional narrative of American film history, came together beautifully in the New Hollywood era. Paul Mazursky isn't so sure. There is an overwhelming paralysis of choice. The countercultural artist must position himself against commerce but he is using the most commercial of mediums. He believe that movies must be important, not trivial. They must deal with important social issues and offer critique of the culture at large. They must motivate political action. These are the manifold tensions facing the New Hollywood, according to Mazursky, and they have not been alleviated in our day. Can a film simply be for entertainment or is that too light an aim? Critics have set up their camps and it is part of why the New Hollywood is revered. It put important social concerns in films during a time when there was a broad audience acceptance of those themes so they easily found the financial backing of the studios because the studios were out of touch with the youth market. Does that make the New Hollywood films more honest or more subtly exploitative?

A large part of the film takes place in Alex’s home, charting the slowly straining relationships with his wife (Ellen Burstyn) and two daughters. There is a life and charisma in these scenes, the emotional cues and some of the dialogue feeling very spontaneous. Mazursky has put the responsibility for the strain fully on the shoulders of Alex, whose coldness towards his wife and his passive acceptance of her conventional role in the home proves the shallowness of his political convictions. Alex is the one who really wants a new house but he carefully couches it in something close to the subtly sexist rhetoric of a 1950’s advertisement for home ownership. He wants the bigger house. He wants the more spacious yard. He wants the pool out back. But he pretends as if these are her desires given to him through her nagging.

Because of his calm and unassuming demeanor, it is easy to forget just how good Donald Sutherland is as an actor and how many unconventional roles he took on (particularly in the 70's). This is one of his finest performances, finding the intensely focused director bordering on obsessive who ostensibly breaks down in front of his idols and bristles with contempt when his wife only half listens to his story ideas. It is complex and dynamic, connecting the audience to a character who is essentially a passive wanderer, but still daring us to judge him as an object of satire. It is available through the Warner Archive or to rent/download on iTunes.
16. American Graffiti (Lucas, 1973) -- ALSO-RAN
There were probably boomer nostalgia movies before American Graffiti, but there were definitely boomer nostalgia movies after it, helping give birth to a whole niche genre. But the thing that makes American Graffiti stand out from the imitators and wannabes is the characters it plants within that time and place. Paul Le Mat’s “little too old for high school” hot rodder who gets tricked into driving around town with a flirtatious 12-year old, Richard Dreyfuss’ confused, wandering attempt to contextualize purpose for his life and thereby figure out what he is supposed to do about college (and along the way stumbling into the craziest antics that anyone in the film engages in), Candy Clark’s dim-witted beauty, who is strangely impressed by the exaggerations of a dork. All the characters seem so perfect, subverting the archetypes and finding some honesty underneath. There is enough doubt and confusion and uncertainty in everything the kids say and do to keep it from being simply a deification of 1950’s Americana, and Lucas ends the film with one of the more shocking mainstream subversions, a brief description of what happens to the four main males after that night. But, American Graffiti also captures a feeling better than many imitators do, probably because it eschews a conventional narrative storyline in favor of a vignetted portrait of one crazy night, yet having the intelligence not to pretend that the one crazy could be every night. It only happened once and after that nothing felt the same. Perhaps it is a metaphor for America's economic post-war prosperity.
17. The Stone Wedding (Pita & Veroiu, 1973) - Great rec, swo! Another Spotlight success story.
18. The Deer Hunter (Cimino, 1978)
19. Even Dwarfs Started Small (Herzog, 1970) -- ALSO-RAN
20. Fata Morgana (Herzog, 1971) -- ORPHAN
What to say about these two strange films? Not much because they are films very hard to describe. The first is an intoxicating nightmare of destruction and the latter is a fever dream of creation. I love them both. I knew Fata Morgana was in trouble when zedz listed his #51-60 picks.
21. The Parallax View (Pakula, 1974)
22. Network (Lumet, 1976)
23. Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
24. Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci, 1972)

25. Electra Glide in Blue (Guercio, 1973) -- ORPHAN One of the great one-hit wonders of cinema. Everything that I dislike about Easy Rider gets corrected here.
26. M*A*S*H (Altman, 1970) -- ALSO-RAN I've seen this film at least 5 times and it makes me laugh every time. I grew up on the show and was slow warming to the film but now my affections have flipped. The film gets a bad rap nowadays for how poorly Sally Kellerman gets treated but it is also one of the most ripping satires on the military, bureaucratic incompetence and American imperialism. And not that it matters in terms of personal taste, but simply in historical terms, we should all kiss the feet of M*A*S*H for allowing Altman to do every other crazy thing he would do this decade.
27. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Roeg, 1976)
28. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
29. Phantom of the Paradise (De Palma, 1974)
-- De Palma's weirdo rock opera picked up a groundswell of support.
30. Harlan County U.S.A. (Kopple, 1976) -- ALSO-RAN The only journalistic thriller this decade that was better was directed by Pakula.
31. La Soufriére (Herzog, 1977) -- ORPHAN Herzog goes to an island to wait for its volcano to erupt. Instead, he comes back with a fascinating film about failure and mortality.
32. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Meyer, 1970) -- ALSO-RAN One of the funniest movies of the decade, mostly because the comedy is often Meyer's aesthetic choices as much as it the characters, dialogue or situation.
33. The Man Who Left His Will on Film (Oshima, 1970)
34. Wanda Gosciminska – A Textile Worker (Wiszniewski, 1975) -- ALSO-RAN "Such a startling formal experience": words not usually used to describe documentaries (though this skates that line). Whatever the case, seek out the fantastic Wiszniewski set (is it still in print??) if you're participating in the Documentary genre project.
35. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes, 1976)
36. Catch-22 (Nichols, 1970) -- ORPHAN I haven't seen it in years so I'm not sure how it still holds up for me but such an utterly strange film. It kind of fails as an adaptation of the book but is still able to pull out some amazing moments.
37. Across 110th Street (Shear, 1972) -- ORPHAN If only Schreck still came around, he would get onto everyone for letting this be orphaned and then get onto me for not placing it higher.
38. Wrong Move (Wenders, 1975) -- ALSO-RAN Wim Wenders rips out the barely beating heart of the German post-war existential crisis and eats it for breakfast by breaking the golden eggs of despair, suicide, meaninglessness and absurdity on top of the aimless wanderings of would-be poets, lovers and carinvalé and seeing what sticks. The fact that he's able to do this with a great degree of cynicism and dry humor while keeping the whole thing light and engaging is testament to his strengths as a filmmaker.
39. Sounder (Ritt, 1972) -- ALSO-RAN Sorry my vote didn't get this charting higher, bamwc2. I never wrote anything about it because it was one of the last films I squeezed in before submitting but I found this to be a film of quiet power and grace. In such a simple way it is able to not just tug the heartstrings through overt melodrama but paint an honest and tender portrait of a black family of sharecroppers trying to eek out an existence during the Great Depression. There is social injustice and systematic indifference along with other slightly more subtle forms of prejudice, but the heart and soul of the film is the positive focus upon this family as they try and hold themselves together through every trial that befalls them. Martin Ritt keeps things from becoming too complicated and avoids overt commentary on the situation, while Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield and the young Kevin Hooks give such life and empathy to their characters it is hard not to love them and wish for the best.
40. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 1977) -- ALSO-RAN
41. Tale of Tales (Norshteyn, 1979) -- ALSO-RAN
42. Smile (Ritchie, 1975) -- ALSO-RAN Hilarious character comedy and social satire. This might be my favorite Bruce Dern performance.
43. Cockfighter (Hellman, 1974) -- ALSO-RAN Warren Oates plays a man who fights chickens. That should be enough said. Hopefully there's a Criterion Blu-ray in the future.
44. The French Connection (Friedkin, 1971)
45. Bone (Cohen, 1972) -- ALSO-RAN Write-up earlier in thread.
46. Thieves Like Us (Altman, 1974) -- ALSO-RAN Write-up earlier in thread.
47. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Sargent, 1974) -- ALSO-RAN
48. The Day of the Locust (Schlesinger, 1975) -- ORPHAN I didn't get to revisit this for the list but it holds a warm spot in my heart. This was an early important marker in my cinema-going, one of the first non-cannon American 70's films I "discovered" that astonished me that I had never read anything about it. It is beautifully shot and is a slow boil of sexual angst and repressed rage against Hollywood's perfections.
49. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Fassbinder, 1978)
50. If You Spot a Cat Flying Through the Air (Szczechura, 1971) -- ORPHAN A weird and hilarious little oddity that's available on the Anthology of Polish Children's Animation. A one joke movie that makes me laugh every time.

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Yojimbo
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#871 Post by Yojimbo » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:39 pm

Tommaso wrote:Yeah, one of the pleasant surprises of this round for me was that Vertical Features Remake made the list. In a way, it's the quintessential Greenaway film with its obsessive structuralism, its conspiracy, and its commenting on itself all the time. Thanks for voting for Syberberg and Ottinger, Gropius; well, we'll have to combine forces for "Dorian" in the next round. And I share the sadness for "Petra von Kant", even if I did not vote for it, because Fassbinder is someone I rather admire than love in many cases. But it's one of Fassbinder's major (early) films, along with Martha and Welt am Draht ( I actually voted for the latter). And do watch Noroit!
Tommo, if you haven't already done so, I recommend that you begin at the beginning with Fassbinder: some of those early films may be rough and ready - and a long way from the Sirk-ian lushness of his late films, if that's your bag - but they're chockful of ideas.
And he had a wonderful, impish, sense of humour

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zedz
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#872 Post by zedz » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:41 pm

Gropius wrote:6. O Lucky Man! (Lindsay Anderson, 1973) – How can this be an orphan? One of the most interesting, eccentric British features ever made. McDowell's advocacy of Anderson clearly still has some way to go.
This got edged off my list this time around, but I suspect it would have made it if I'd got around to watching it again in the run-up to compiling my list. I think I also assumed it would have plenty of support without my vote!
7. Le Camion (Marguerite Duras, 1977) – Duras is the only director with three titles on my list. This one is the most austerely conceptual, although India Song is really as good, and Nathalie Granger not far off. If you like her novels, the films are essential: they need more Anglophone exposure.

I would have loved to have voted for this, since it's one of the most perverse films I've ever seen, but I really need to see this again to jog my memory enough for an honest vote.
8. Musical Stairs (Guy Sherwin, 1977) – Looks like I split the Sherwin vote with Zedz. His experiments with optical sound (on a good DVD from Lux) are fascinating.
For the record, Cycles, Newsprint and Intervals from that disc were all on my "must include" short list, but ultimately there was only room for one, so I chose the one that was the most fun (and maybe the trippiest.)
31. Whitchurch Downs (Duration) (Malcolm Le Grice, 1972) – Le Grice was, along with the puritanical Peter Gidal, the major theorist of structural film in Britain.
I'd jotted down Threshold on my "must include" shortlist, but when I watched it again I couldn't figure out why. I might have noted down the wrong film from that LeGrice disc.
16. Un homme qui dort (Georges Perec/Bernard Queysanne, 1974) – Experimental French novelists had a good screen run in this decade. Perec’s existential slacker tale rivals the best of Resnais.
Also among my also-rans. It's definitely one of the most distinctive French films of the decade, and one of the best films of the immediate post-New Wave, more radical generation of French filmmakers.
42. Vampir–Cuadecuc (Pere Portabella, 1970) – Filmed on the set of Jesús Franco’s Count Dracula with Christopher Lee, but it’s very far from a making-of doc. (At points, the relationship between the two films is more like that between Peter Tscherkassky's Outer Space and The Entity - looking at this trailer again, I think I'd have placed it much higher with a more recent viewing.)
This too was a reluctant omission, and I highly recommend the film as one of the most brilliantly original adaptations of Dracula ever shot (and frankly, it's far more a free-standing adaptation of the same source than it is a making-of). I'm determined to find space for Warsaw Bridge on my 80s list, and that entire Portabella box set is essential viewing.

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Tommaso
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#873 Post by Tommaso » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:49 pm

Yojimbo wrote: Tommo, if you haven't already done so, I recommend that you begin at the beginning with Fassbinder: some of those early films may be rough and ready - and a long way from the Sirk-ian lushness of his late films, if that's your bag - but they're chockful of ideas.
And he had a wonderful, impish, sense of humour
You're quite right, the Sirkian (or Ophulsian? or even Forstian?) lushness is my thing when it comes to Fassbinder, and I can already say that "Veronika Voss" will be in my Top 10 of the 80s list, and "Lili Marleen" (much maligned, especially in Germany it seems) will not range far behind. But I still take your recommendation, and it's one of the reasons why my ideal for this listmaking would be nine months of viewing, plus three months of intermission which might give everyone some time to watch the films they missed... Well, I have to squeeze in those early Fassbinders somehow in between, I guess, but it might take some time....

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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#874 Post by swo17 » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:51 pm

zedz wrote:I'd jotted down Threshold on my "must include" shortlist, but when I watched it again I couldn't figure out why. I might have noted down the wrong film from that LeGrice disc.
I did and thought the exact same thing. Threshold does take a while to get going but then sort of explodes into sublime weirdness in the end. Meanwhile, Berlin Horse is just a joy to watch from start to finish. Plus, its soundtrack is the first music Brian Eno ever made or something.

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Gropius
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#875 Post by Gropius » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:53 pm

swo17 wrote:For the record, I voted for a third Sherwin (and that DVD is a fair bit more than merely "good"), as well as a second Le Grice.
Ah, nice. It's good that some of the underground filmmakers of that generation have finally started to relent on their anti-digital purism. Personally I've always felt that claims about the magic of celluloid are vastly inflated, and, whether they like it or not, the future legacy of this stuff will depend on successful digitisation.
Tommaso wrote:Thanks for voting for Syberberg and Ottinger, Gropius; well, we'll have to combine forces for "Dorian" in the next round.
Indeed. Not sure if I'd rate it higher or lower than Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia. (Saw both of these, along with Madame X, in an Ottinger mini-retro at a LGBT festival a few years ago - it seems only ropey VHS bootlegs circulate for most of them.)

The other 'weird German thing' I watched for this round was Werner Schroeter's Der Tod der Maria Malibran, which had hints of Syberberg, but was too deliberately sloppy and aimless to be really enjoyable. Will have to check out his later work, though.
Zedz wrote:I'd jotted down Threshold on my "must include" shortlist, but when I watched it again I couldn't figure out why. I might have noted down the wrong film from that LeGrice disc.
It's colourful? I agree that choosing among avant-garde shorts often feels a bit arbitrary. There's often a kind of rush (a bit like listening to a favourite record) that can't always be recaptured.
Zedz wrote:I'm determined to find space for Warsaw Bridge on my 80s list, and that entire Portabella box set is essential viewing.
Agreed, although Warsaw Bridge is dated 1990, so will have to wait.
Last edited by Gropius on Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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