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

#876 Post by Yojimbo » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:55 pm

Tommaso wrote:
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....
...maybe start with 'Katzelmacher'.....especially if you like 'Slacker',......
And as soon as I check out 'Effi Briest', and that long-overdue viewing of 'Ali', I'll maybe start into re-watching some of my faves from those early films.

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

#877 Post by knives » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:57 pm

zedz wrote:
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.
I've been desperate to get the set, but it disappeared for a while there. Marketplace seems to have it available though it is hard to tell if I'm being ripped off.

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colinr0380
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#878 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:06 pm

My orphans:

4. Water Wrackets (Tolkein as he should be filmed - no actors, just fifteen minutes of narration of a fantastical world running over footage of babbling brooks and streams. Who needs CGI?)
5. Dear Phone
12. THX-1138 (the original version, not the 2003 re-release with the CG shots!)
15. Radio On (talked about more here)
17. Blue Collar (who would have thought planning a robbery could be just as depressing and cause as many arguments as backbreaking factory work?)
21. H Is For House
25. Letter To Jane: An Investigation of a Still (better and more intellectually rigorous than Tout va Bien I think)
33. Tommy
36. The Andromeda Strain (I remember wanting to become a scientist for my own chance of being able to coldly speculate on the total destruction of mankind for a few years after seeing this as a kid. Unfortunately (or luckily!) my lack of scientific ability put an end to that dream!)
43. The Harder They Come
45. Beneath The Planet of the Apes (if only for the ending!)
46. Phase IV (I remember wanting to become a scientist after seeing this as a kid, for my own chance to be able to manipulate colonies of insects into doing my nefarious bidding. Unfortunately (or luckily!) my lack of scientific ability etc, etc,....)

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

#879 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:14 pm

colinr0380 wrote:My orphans:

25. Letter To Jane: An Investigation of a Still (better and more intellectually rigorous than Tout va Bien I think)
Perhaps the film I most dislike, of all films I have ever seen. ;~{

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

#880 Post by Yojimbo » Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:22 pm

colinr0380 wrote:My orphans:

4. Water Wrackets (Tolkein as he should be filmed - no actors, just fifteen minutes of narration of a fantastical world running over footage of babbling brooks and streams. Who needs CGI?)
5. Dear Phone
12. THX-1138 (the original version, not the 2003 re-release with the CG shots!)
15. Radio On (talked about more here)
17. Blue Collar (who would have thought planning a robbery could be just as depressing and cause as many arguments as backbreaking factory work?)
21. H Is For House
25. Letter To Jane: An Investigation of a Still (better and more intellectually rigorous than Tout va Bien I think)
33. Tommy
36. The Andromeda Strain (I remember wanting to become a scientist for my own chance of being able to coldly speculate on the total destruction of mankind for a few years after seeing this as a kid. Unfortunately (or luckily!) my lack of scientific ability put an end to that dream!)
43. The Harder They Come
45. Beneath The Planet of the Apes (if only for the ending!)
46. Phase IV (I remember wanting to become a scientist after seeing this as a kid, for my own chance to be able to manipulate colonies of insects into doing my nefarious bidding. Unfortunately (or luckily!) my lack of scientific ability etc, etc,....)
'Radio On' might display very obvious Wim Wenders road movie influences, but it's a movie that Wenders would have been proud of; if not flattered by.
(which reminds me: I'm still searching for 'Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty Kick')

And it was fun to see Sting when he had a sense of humour - and wasn't so concerned about inconsequential things like saving the planet.

I still have my vinyl soundtrack copies of 'Blue Collar' and 'The Harder They Come'
(they love Jimmy Cliff in West Africa)

One of these days I'll finally break open the seal on my THX-1138 DVD: it must be all of five years old.

I know I was impressed by The Andromeda Strain' when I saw it on TV, about 20 years ago, I think. My DVD doesn't have a seal, but I just need to be in the mood to sit down to it.

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

#881 Post by bamwc2 » Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:45 pm

I'll begin by echoing the thanks for Swo's hard work. It's much appreciated!

Orphans:

The Black Stallion(Carroll Ballard): Gene Siskel's pick for the best film of 1979 is also my own. I'm a bit surprised to see this one orphaned as I consider it one of the most visually masterful films of the decade. Perhaps the lack of attention stems from the fact that it's often dismissed as a mere "family film"; a category that cinephiles may be too quick to dismiss. Don't be mistaken by it's G rating. This film deals with some very heady material, but filtered through eyes of a child it does offer some distance for the youngsters. There are some scenes in here of truly epic beauty. In fact, given the lengthy meditative scenes without dialogue, I often think of this film as what it would look like if Terrence Malick made a children's film.

The Canterbury Tales (Pier Paolo Pasolini): I had gone back and forth on whether to include this or The Arabian Nights in my list. While the latter is (probably) the better of the two films, I can't help but love this one a little bit more. The film, which finds Pasolini at his most playful and earthy, offers an antidote to the sanitized look at the Middle Ages that we usually see on film. Rife with carnality and filth, the film ends in a climax of Satan shooting sinners out of his anus. How can anyone doubt its genius after that sentence?

The Confession (Costa-Gavras): Perhaps the perfect companion piece to one of my forthcoming spotlights in the 80s list thread, the film details the true story of Artur London, a Czechoslovakia politician who finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare of torture and coercion in a totalitarian state. Starring the great Yves Montand, this stands as my pick for Costa-Gavras' second best film (though I must admit having a large swath of his work left to see).

Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (Omar Amiralay): Discussed in the documentaries project thread

Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 (Kazuo Hara): Discussed in the documentaries project thread

La grande bouffe (Marco Ferreri): A group of bourgeois men who have grown weary of life, resolve to spend the next week eating themselves to death. Such is the plot of Marco Ferreri's darkly comic masterpiece featuring every indulgence that can be imagined be it wine, women, or food. Flowing with excess, the film is one of the most hilarious of the decade.

The Last Supper (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea): Discussed earlier in this thread

Pastoral: To Die In the Country (Shûji Terayama): I'm saddened by the loss of esteem that Terayama experienced in the time since the last 70s thread. In my estimation, he was one of the great directors of the decade, and his works stand as some of the most visually impressive works of surrealism ever committed to film. The film's plot--a man recounting growing up in a circus--is as threadbare as they come. Instead, the real focus here is on the rich dreamlike quality infused in every shot. It's truly a wonder to behold.

Primate (Frederick Wiseman): Discussed in the documentaries project thread

Sayonara CP (Kazuo Hara): Discussed in the documentaries project thread

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

#882 Post by zedz » Tue Jan 28, 2014 10:20 pm

Gropius wrote:Agreed, although Warsaw Bridge is dated 1990, so will have to wait.
Oh that pesky imdb.

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

#883 Post by Satori » Tue Jan 28, 2014 11:39 pm

The Confession (Costa-Gavras): Perhaps the perfect companion piece to one of my forthcoming spotlights in the 80s list thread, the film details the true story of Artur London, a Czechoslovakia politician who finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare of torture and coercion in a totalitarian state. Starring the great Yves Montand, this stands as my pick for Costa-Gavras' second best film (though I must admit having a large swath of his work left to see).
I almost voted for this, but ended up going with State of Siege as my Gavras of the decade. But it could have gone either way- The Confession really is a great representation of the absurdity of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The effect is all the greater because it is precisely a betrayal of the revolution rather than just a right wing totalitarian state from which Yves' character (and Costa-Gavras) would expect this kind of oppression.

I had 11 orphans, but I only have myself to blame because I didn't post any about them. At least my Straubb-Hulliet films didn't end up as orphans which I kind of thought they might (I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes Othon!) But here are my belated defenses of them:

13.One Sings, the Other Doesn't (Varda)- really great and underlooked Varda. Examines two women across 10 years or so as they have kids and go through different relationships, drawing parallels between their lives and feminist movements of the eras.
15.Second Awakening of Christina Klages (Von Trotta)- Ostensibly a crime film, but Von Trotta re-orients the genre materials to a focus on the relationships between people and, especially, between women. Christina's altruistic motives also help place the film's bank robbery in its proper context: as I believe Brecht put it, what is the crime of robbing a bank next to the crime of founding one? Von Trotta's images are consistently beautiful- I really have no idea why she isn't regarded alongside Fassbinder and Herzog as one of the masters of new German cinema.
16.All Around Reduced Personality (Sander)- Juxtaposes the experiences of a women's art collective and a blistering examination of the production of art under capitalism with with stunning imagery of Berlin, especially these gorgeous tracking shots of the wall.
17.Je Tu Il Elle (Akerman)- Yes, yes, Dielman is one of the greatest films of all time, but please don't limit yourself to just one Akerman. All her work is so rewarding. The questions that Je Tu Il Elle raises about the filmic representation of sexuality are still pertinent today.
19.A Bonus for Irene (Sander) If Dielman shows the alienated labor of bourgeois women in the era, then Sander's film tackles the work of the lower class factory women. The key difference is the wonderful solidarity we find in Sander's film. It really is a shame that Sander's work isn't more readily available; she really could do with a rediscovery.
27.Sisters, or the balance of happiness (Von Trotta) details the relationship between two sisters and then between one of the sisters and one of her co-workers. Von Trotta plays with Persona and 3 Women's theme of women's identities blurring, but I think more forcefully deconstructs this trope to assert each character's irreducible identity. Her images here are even more poetic than in Klages, especially her devastating coding of the film's major turning point.
28.Les Rendez-vous d'Anna (Akerman)
31.Peppermint Soda (Kurys)- Truly delightful coming of age story with a little politics thrown in for good measure. The whole thing feels life a riff on 400 blows (which is made explicit in its final image) but to my mind far exceeds the Truffaut (although I should say I'm not really a Truffaut fan).
32.Fruit of Paradise (Chytilová)- Stunning. It's like you get to spend a full 90 minutes in that part at the beginning of Daises when Marie I slaps Marie II into the grass and the film explodes into full color.
35.State of Siege (Costa-Gavras)
48.Ogro (Pontecorvo)

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

#884 Post by Yojimbo » Wed Jan 29, 2014 1:31 am

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



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.


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.

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.


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.



42. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Placed #184)
43. A New Leaf (Placed #187)
45. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Orphan)

49. Trafic (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.
I'm a huge Welles fan but 'F for Fake' is more one to admire than love; perhaps more due to its structure than anything; but the Criterion has an awesome collection of extras.

Of course 'The Muppets Show' was essential Sunday-afternoon viewing for me and my brother in the gloomy late 70s - Waldorf and Statler rules - but I'm not even sure I saw the movie.

I still have the vinyl album box-set which I bought asap after viewing The Last Waltz' on the big-screen; and now also have the CD, and DVD.
'The Band' album is one of my Desert Island Discs.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three' was one of the very first films I saw after coming to Dublin - and I also read the paperback. Its fun - especially Matthau, but I don't think I ever considered it for my 50.
The Man Who Would Be King' is a wonderful movie, which probably belongs to an earlier age. Probably Connery's best performance.

33. Foxy Brown (Orphan)
I probably saw every blaxploitation movie that screened in Dublin following my 'migration'; and the 'whitey's pseudo-blaxploitation movie - although some of them were quite good, also. Foxy was great - as was Pam Grier; but now I'm sorry I didn't even shortlist 'Truck Turner' (even though it shattered my boyhood Nichelle Nichols (Lt Uhuru) illusions).

Spot on about 'Eddie Coyle'

Grey Gardens' was on my shortlist and it's a great documentary, but it's almost pornographic in its uncomfortable intrusion into the life of a sad, deluded, woman.

Kudos for including 42,43, and 49.

With 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' I've just never included tv mini-series, but for me this is Guinness' finest hour, and its among the finest of tv drama - of any format or genre.

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

#885 Post by Gropius » Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:32 am

Satori wrote:Yes, yes, Dielman is one of the greatest films of all time, but please don't limit yourself to just one Akerman. All her work is so rewarding.
I have seen and liked all of Akerman's 70s films, but, even though I put Dielman at number 1, I didn't feel like voting for any of the others on this occasion. She was a very precocious young director who struck gold early, but while the works preceding it still feel young and tentative, Dielman has the eerie maturity of a filmmaker twice her age, which is at least as much Seyrig's achievement as Akerman's. (Last time I actually voted for Hotel Monterey as well, but revisiting it, it felt a bit too much like a cover version of North American experimentalism, although still deeply impressive from a 22-year old.)

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

#886 Post by Lowry_Sam » Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:17 am

Again, for me the 70s saw Hollywood at the peak of its creativity:

1 Apocalypse Now
2 Alien
3 Taxi Driver
4 Manhattan
5 The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie
6 Nashville
7 Fox And His Friends
8 Chinatown
9 The Conversation
10 Dog Day Afternoon

Several seem to be complaining that the list is fairly conventional.For me the biggest surprises (and not in a good way), were where the list strayed from convention: Phantom Of Paradise @ 21, while Carrie (and Rocky Horror Picture Show) don't even make the top 100? I smell a conspiracy.

The one film I've re-assessed more negatively than probably most (though the 1st is still in my top 50) is The Godfather trilogy. After The Sopranos, I'm just not as impressed with I & II as I once was.

My Phantoms (not of Paradise):

Bed & Board
Catch-22
The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis
Hoffman
Lenny
The Lost Honor Of Katarina Blum
Papillon
Scum (1977)
Slaughterhouse Five
Up The Sandbox
Welfare

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

#887 Post by Gregory » Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:35 am

There was so much more I wanted to watch, despite having watched mostly 1970s films for months now. And there were at least two bad oversights on my part:
Tale of Tales (Yuri Norstein, 1979), after giving this first place in the Animation List Project, I forgot to include it because my brain keeps telling me this is a 1980 film, probably because that's when the world outside the USSR became familiar with it.

The Traveller {Kiarostami, 1974) I finally just saw this and it's as great as zedz says it is. I would have placed it high on my list if I'd seen it in time, but when I was making a '70s stack out of the old kevyip to watch before the deadline, I glanced at Close-Up and it didn't register (and I didn't see it mentioned in the thread this time around).
Having seen a couple of the other early Kiarostamis, I was not excepting anything as accomplished and involving as this; so many great scenes in such a short feature. It's hard to think of another film I've seen recently that made me wish there were a sequel that would continue to follow the character(s).
And as a film rescued from obscurity (somewhat at least) by Criterion since the last round of '70s voting, I'm surprised it would fall 98 points (again, partly my fault on that).

I should have voted for Scum (’77) or Scum (’79) too but didn't get around to rewatching them to decide which to vote for. I thought at least one of them would make it anyway!

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

#888 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:41 am

I'll look through my also-rans/orphans later, but for now, my top ten were

1. Stalker (Tarkovsky)
2. Days and Nights in the Forest (Ray)
3. Days of Heaven (Malick)
4. Suspiria (Argento)
5. Fox and his Friends (Fassbinder)
6. The Conversation (Coppola)
7. Don't Look Now (Roeg)
8. Phantom of the Paradise (De Palma)
9. The Ear (Kachyna)
10. The Mouth Agape (Pialat)

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

#889 Post by Lemmy Caution » Wed Jan 29, 2014 8:08 am

I had a strong Top 20 and then never got around to really ranking/organizing the rest.

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
2. Annie Hall
3. In a Year of 13 Moons
4. Dog Day Afternoon
5. A Woman Under the Influence
6. The Last Picture Show
7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
8. And Justice for All
9. Cria Cuervos
10. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
11. Spirit of the Beehive
12. Amarcord
13. The Great Santini
14. Life of Brian
15. A Swedish Love Story
16. The Battle of Chile
17. The Harder They Come
18. A Walk Through H
19. Even Dwarfs Started Small
20. Sleeper


Maybe the only unusual choice is The Great Santini, which is a terrific film about growing up with a dominant ego-maniac father. Duvall is excellent in the title role, as a hard-nosed Marine pilot who psychologically abuses his family. He got an Oscar nom for the role, as did Michael O'Keefe in a supporting role as the son who has to grow up while taking incoming psychological flak. The film also went by the title The Ace, as the studio flubbed around on how to present the picture.

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

#890 Post by Yojimbo » Wed Jan 29, 2014 10:28 am

Just a general observation: I remember what was proclaimed as the great Renaissance of Australian Cinema around about the late 70s, and many of those directors later made names for themselves in Hollywood, but I didn't see too much evidence of that Renaissance among the lists - including also-rans.

'Mad Max' of course made my 50 - although I don't think that was being considered part of the movement. Peter Weir's 'The Last Wave' - which certainly was - made my shortlist, and I'm sure I saw a mention of 'Hanging Rock'.
Was it over-hyped, or were there just so many good films being produced in the 70s, that they got lost in the rush?

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

#891 Post by swo17 » Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:19 pm

Gregory wrote:Tale of Tales (Yuri Norstein, 1979), after giving this first place in the Animation List Project, I forgot to include it because my brain keeps telling me this is a 1980 film, probably because that's when the world outside the USSR became familiar with it.
Not to rub it in, but this is precisely why in the "eligibility" section of the first post of the thread, I include a list of films that might most easily be mistaken for belonging to another decade. It's always a good idea to read through these lists quickly when you're preparing your ballot so as to avoid disappointments like this. Tale of Tales has been listed there this whole time.

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

#892 Post by Gregory » Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:24 pm

I didn't mean for it to seem like I'd ignored your original post, swo17. I did read it, at the beginning of the round. It's just that I'm often forgetful and scatterbrained. In hindsight, you're totally right: it would've been a good idea to read the whole thing again before submitting my list.

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colinr0380
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Re: 1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol

#893 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jan 29, 2014 1:52 pm

Yojimbo wrote:Just a general observation: I remember what was proclaimed as the great Renaissance of Australian Cinema around about the late 70s, and many of those directors later made names for themselves in Hollywood, but I didn't see too much evidence of that Renaissance among the lists - including also-rans.
It is difficult to speculate about the Weirs but I wonder if some of the other films haven't received a boost in acclaim that would lead to them being rediscovered. I remember a few years ago searching for films by John Duigan such as The Year My Voice Broke or the early Fred Schepisi films (The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith and The Devil's Playground) and not having much luck.

Speaking of Fred Schepisi, I highly recommend the surprisingly lyrical Iceman for the 1980s discussion!

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

#894 Post by swo17 » Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:02 pm

Here is my '70s list, including write-ups and pretty pictures.

Some fascinating stats about my list:

Films I hadn't seen before the project started: 25
Films in the Criterion Collection: 12
Films not yet released on DVD: 3
Films with no diegetic dialogue: 10
Films in black & white: 7
Films under 40 minutes long: 8
Films 40-70 minutes long in my top 15: 4
Films more than 2-½ hours long: 8
Films more than 12-½ hours long: 1

My orphans:

14. The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Werner Herzog, 1974)
15. Newsprint (Guy Sherwin, 1972)
21. Mindscape (Jacques Drouin, 1976)
25. Blaise Pascal (Roberto Rossellini, 1972)
29. The Hunters (Theo Angelopoulos, 1977)
30. Berlin Horse (Malcolm Le Grice, 1970)
31. I, Pierre Rivière, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister, and My Brother... (René Allio, 1976)
34. Illumination (Krzysztof Zanussi, 1973)
40. Mutations (Lillian Schwartz, 1973)
42. News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1977)
45. The White Bird Marked with Black (Yuri Ilyenko, 1971)
44. The Scenic Route (Mark Rappaport, 1978) - I would have talked this one up before the deadline, but by the time I discovered it, 90% of you had already submitted your lists! This is the perfect film for a #50 slot, so perfect in fact that I simply had to place it a few spots higher. You can tell we're getting close to the '80s here with shots like this one, which perhaps Bergman might have come up with if he had ever been a 12-year old girl:

Image

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Yojimbo
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:06 am
Location: Ireland

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

#895 Post by Yojimbo » Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:03 pm

colinr0380 wrote:
Yojimbo wrote:Just a general observation: I remember what was proclaimed as the great Renaissance of Australian Cinema around about the late 70s, and many of those directors later made names for themselves in Hollywood, but I didn't see too much evidence of that Renaissance among the lists - including also-rans.
It is difficult to speculate about the Weirs but I wonder if some of the other films haven't received a boost in acclaim that would lead to them being rediscovered. I remember a few years ago searching for films by John Duigan such as The Year My Voice Broke or the early Fred Schepisi films (The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith and The Devil's Playground) and not having much luck.

Speaking of Fred Schepisi, I highly recommend the surprisingly lyrical Iceman for the 1980s discussion!
Ta, Col. And of course I recommend his 'Barbarosa', in case you haven't seen it.

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

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

#896 Post by zedz » Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:55 pm

Gregory wrote:I should have voted for Scum (’77) or Scum (’79) too but didn't get around to rewatching them to decide which to vote for. I thought at least one of them would make it anyway!
I thought long and hard about including Clarke this time around, but he really goes into creative overdrive in the 80s, so I'll save it for then. Elephant will surely be the highest placed title, probably top ten.

Thanks for the vote of confidence on Traveller. When I first saw it in the late 90s I was familiar with Kiarostami's later masterpieces but was nevertheless stunned, and thought that if any film could have kicked off a modern neorealist movement, this was it (if it had actually been seen by anybody, and if history hadn't intervened so drastically). And if Kiarostami had never got the chance to keep making films and eventually get the attention of international festival programmers, it's a film that I dare say none of us would ever have heard of. There must be hundreds or thousands of equivalent films around the world that are less fortunate.

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lubitsch
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:20 pm

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

#897 Post by lubitsch » Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:59 pm

swo17 wrote:Here is my '70s list

14. The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Werner Herzog, 1974)
Small correction for your list, Walter Steiner was a Swiss athlete not a Swedish one. And it's really one of those bombastic Herzog "documentaries" which is very hard to take seriously if you know a bit about ski jumping. Even though ski flying is a demanding sport, there were extremely few casualties in the last decades in ski jumping and as for the superhuman jumps to the limit of man's abilities ... well today jumpers regularily fly 40m more than Steiner did and the record is almost 70m more than Steiner ever jumped.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

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

#898 Post by knives » Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:31 pm

So? What does reality have to do with the point and beauty of the film?

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domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

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

#899 Post by domino harvey » Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:32 pm

Forget it knives, it's Lubitsch-town

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

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

#900 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:07 pm

Yojimbo wrote:One of these days I'll finally break open the seal on my THX-1138 DVD: it must be all of five years old.
The sad thing about THX-1138 is that is only available in its CGI-enhanced "George Lucas Director's Cut" version with extra wide shots of sci-fi cityscapes and the over the top cartoonish traffic dodging sequence leading into the original, celebrated, overheat-power down-speed up race against the budgetary clock ending (and the least said about the terribly fake animated worker that has been added, diving from the scaffolding during the crash scene, the better! Especially when you consider that that fake shot is immediately followed by one of the stunt motorcycle riders actually injuring themselves in a shot that Lucas kept in the film on their insistence!). The CGI is, as in the Star Wars enhancements, distracting and annoying whenever it appears and, as in that lead into the 'antithesis of a car chase' climax, actively seems to be working against the original intentions Lucas may have had decades before.

Yet the film itself outside of those moments is fantastic. I just wish there was a fanbase as large as the Star Wars one to campaign for a non-CG enhanced version of the film to also be made available one day. However that seems extremely unlikely to ever happen!

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