1970s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 2)

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sidehacker · #176 Post by **sidehacker** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:49 pm

Even Dwarfs Started Small is my #1 with Home From the Sea, The Mother and the Whore, Trash, and The Meetings of Anna not far behind. I would say everyone should go see these immediately, but I'd think that everyone is already well-aware of them...

Hopscotch · #177 Post by **Hopscotch** » Fri May 23, 2008 7:11 pm

It's tough to see The Mother and the Whore, and also to some extent Even Dwarfs Started Small (unless you have netflix, which I don't). The other films you've cited I haven't seen.
Anyway I'll second your recs of both of those movies, though I don't know where they'd fall on my 70s list, which I'm not compiling because I just haven't seen enough movies all around!

denti alligator · #178 Post by **denti alligator** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:01 am

Jonathan Rosenbaum's favorite films of the 1970s (if anyone cares--I think it's a fascinating list):

- Out 1 (Rivette)
- La region centrale (Snow)
- Avanti! (Wilder)
- Out 1: Spectre (Rivette)
- F for Fake (Welles)
- Parade (Tati)
- Celine and Julie Go Boating (Rivette)
- Barry Lyndon (Kubrick)
- Providence (Resnais)
- Doomed Love (de Oliveira)
- Percival le gallois (Rohmer)
- Stalker (Tarkovsky)

I'll be voting for the following Abbas Kiarostami films:

- Bread and Alley
- The Experience
- The Traveller
- The Wedding Suit
- Solution No. 1

Also, let's not forget Makk's Love.

#179 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:06 am

Hopscotch wrote: I'll second your recs of both of those movies, though I don't know where they'd fall on my 70s list, which I'm not compiling because I just haven't seen enough movies all around!

Tho I don't encourage voting for Even Dwarfs..., you should still submit a list. If you feel you haven't seen enough films, just submit a top ten or top fifteen or whatever. Who says you have to go the full fifty?

Cold Bishop · #180 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:21 am

I'm curious as to what your proble with Dwarfs is. Its always been one of my favorite Herzogs, and I'm disappointed it wasn't included in a current retrospective in town.

#181 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:29 am

Cold Bishop wrote:I'm curious as to what your proble with Dwarfs is. Its always been one of my favorite Herzogs, and I'm disappointed it wasn't included in a current retrospective in town.

It's not that I dislike the film. It's that I hate, despise, and loathe the film on a base, fundamental level. But I'm not really interested in pissing all over the film in a thread where people have professed to loving it to the extent that it tops their list, so let's just say (to put it mildly) I'm not a fan.

souvenir · #182 Post by **souvenir** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:47 am

denti alligator wrote:Jonathan Rosenbaum's favorite films of the 1970s (if anyone cares--I think it's a fascinating list):

- Out 1 (Rivette)
- La region centrale (Snow)
- Avanti! (Wilder)
- Out 1: Spectre (Rivette)
- F for Fake (Welles)
- Parade (Tati)
- Celine and Julie Go Boating (Rivette)
- Barry Lyndon (Kubrick)
- Providence (Resnais)
- Doomed Love (de Oliveira)
- Percival le gallois (Rohmer)
- Stalker (Tarkovsky)

Somebody get Rosenbaum to submit a list here - that's 48 potential points for Avanti! falling by the wayside.

mattkc · #183 Post by **mattkc** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:50 am

denti alligator wrote:Jonathan Rosenbaum's favorite films of the 1970s

That's a really good list. In my eyes it especially deserves kudos for Doomed Love, and also to a lesser extant Parade (though I may be alone in preferring Trafic). I'm not sure I really have a favorite film from the '70s. Maybe Garrel's L'Enfant secret, if that counts. Or any one of Pialat's four works of that decade.

#184 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:51 am

souvenir wrote:Somebody get Rosenbaum to submit a list here - that's 48 potential points for Avanti! falling by the wayside.

I feel like I should pencil in Avanti! at number fifty just to reward your pluck.

vivahawks · #185 Post by **vivahawks** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:56 am

denti alligator wrote:I'll be voting for the following Abbas Kiarostami films:

- The Traveller

Also, let's not forget Makk's Love.

I would love to be able to see The Traveller. Are there any DVDs of this around? Also I second the recommendation for Love, which will probably be quite high on my list. I haven't seen the Second Run dvd, but have heard it's very good, and in any case the movie's a must-see.

mikeohhh · #186 Post by **mikeohhh** » Sat May 24, 2008 1:40 am

domino harvey wrote:
Hopscotch wrote: I'll second your recs of both of those movies, though I don't know where they'd fall on my 70s list, which I'm not compiling because I just haven't seen enough movies all around!
Tho I don't encourage voting for Even Dwarfs..., you should still submit a list. If you feel you haven't seen enough films, just submit a top ten or top fifteen or whatever. Who says you have to go the full fifty?

I might be wrong, but I believe in the past only lists with fifty numbered entries were counted. I mean, I suppose dude could make a top ten for th fun of it but I dunno.

The thing that always surprises me when I'm making these lists (and I;m younger and certainly not as cinematically experienced as many on this board) is how big a number 50 seems at the beginning of the project and how small it seems by the end, with established classics perceived as longtime favorites ending up on the cutting-room floor. The result is that a more intimate list emerges, a true personal canon. Granted, my ballot won't be as esoteric as many of yours' but I find this project highly educational for myself as I whittle away at my list of unseen movies (and things to rewatch).

Oh, and guys, please vote for Resnais' Providence, Albert Brooks' Real Life and Akerman's News From Home amongst others whose fate on the aggregate list I question. And don't forget Sweet Sweetback's Baaaadaaasssss Song although I think it's a foregone conclusion that that will be a darling for me to defend.

mikeohhh · #187 Post by **mikeohhh** » Sat May 24, 2008 1:43 am

(psst, anyone got a subtitles file for India Song? PM me if you do.)

#188 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat May 24, 2008 1:51 am

mikeohhh wrote:I might be wrong, but I believe in the past only lists with fifty numbered entries were counted. I mean, I suppose dude could make a top ten for th fun of it but I dunno.

I can understand not allowing lists with more than 50, but not accepting less than 50 makes no sense. Just count their 1-10 like anyone else's...

denti alligator · #189 Post by **denti alligator** » Sat May 24, 2008 12:17 pm

domino harvey wrote:
mikeohhh wrote: I might be wrong, but I believe in the past only lists with fifty numbered entries were counted. I mean, I suppose dude could make a top ten for th fun of it but I dunno.
I can understand not allowing lists with more than 50, but not accepting less than 50 makes no sense. Just count their 1-10 like anyone else's...

This limits diversity, leaving it open for lists with both Godfathers, Taxi Driver, and Star Wars, or whatever. (Not that these movies are bad.)

Here's another vote for Brooks's Real Life.

#190 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:13 pm

denti alligator wrote:
domino harvey wrote:
mikeohhh wrote: I might be wrong, but I believe in the past only lists with fifty numbered entries were counted. I mean, I suppose dude could make a top ten for th fun of it but I dunno.
I can understand not allowing lists with more than 50, but not accepting less than 50 makes no sense. Just count their 1-10 like anyone else's...
This limits diversity, leaving it open for lists with both Godfathers, Taxi Driver, and Star Wars, or whatever. (Not that these movies are bad.)

But it also forces the listmaker to list movies they might not like in order to reach fifty. Movies like Taxi Driver and Star Wars...

denti alligator · #191 Post by **denti alligator** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:15 pm

If you're struggling to find 50 films you like A LOT, you shouldn't be participating. It should be the other way around: you should be having a hard time because you've got to knock films you love off the list in order to keep it to 50.

#192 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:23 pm

Me over-reacting on the internet went here.

yoshimori · #193 Post by **yoshimori** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:30 pm

Rules are in the second post in this thread.

denti alligator · #194 Post by **denti alligator** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:47 pm

Master of lists, zedz, wrote this:

Actually, if you haven't seen 50 silent films, you're not really in any position to make a meaningful contribution to the list. (What if you'd only seen the 38 worst films made during the silent era? How would you know?)

It's not a question of being elitist; it's about making a contribution that is "meaningful," as zedz puts it.

Really, though, domino, I don't think this reasoning is at all "elitist." If you've onbly seen 50 films from the 70s, these aren't your top 50 favorite films of the decade; they're the only ones you seen. There's no process of selection involved.

#195 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:53 pm

Yeah I don't know, I see you and zedz's point but I also think that it's possible for someone to have seen three hundred films from the 70s and still only like 20 enough to list, and that person wouldn't be disqualified from making a list out of not being versed in the period, they would just have specific tastes that tell them not to list films that don't deserve to compete.

...though I don't know why I even care. I'm sure we'd all agree that this is just a fun little masturbatory exercise anyways and not worth me or anyone else really getting worked up about it. I think I'm just having a bad morning haha

HerrSchreck · #196 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Sat May 24, 2008 2:56 pm

domino harvey wrote:Okay, enjoy your lists guys.

Tho thenthitive..

Someone mentioned Sweet Sweetback Badasssss Song.

Muthufletchers better not forget one a my favorite all-location films of all time... the one... the ONLY,

ACROSS 110TH STREET.

Oh yeah. Top ten city. (can you tell I'm a Bronx boy?)

WHOOPS Edit: I saw dharvey came in and defused the seriousness just before me.

#197 Post by **domino harvey** » Sat May 24, 2008 3:12 pm

For anyone who needs a reminder and feels the need to give it up to the man upstairs (Mulvaney), you can browse the entire Criterion collection by decade on their site

Michael · #198 Post by **Michael** » Sat May 24, 2008 5:03 pm

Is anyone voting for Pink Narcissus? I'm curious. The BFI disc is astounding.

foggy eyes · #199 Post by **foggy eyes** » Sat May 24, 2008 6:56 pm

Michael wrote:Is anyone voting for Pink Narcissus? I'm curious. The BFI disc is astounding.

Not that it's much help, but I absolutely would if I could be bothered to submit a list. Never seen anything quite like it - lurid, explicit, otherworldly, and certainly as wild as anything Anger ever made. Would love to see it rank highly, but fear that you might be alone there, Michael!

A fairly representative cap:

Michael · #200 Post by **Michael** » Sat May 24, 2008 9:36 pm

davidhare wrote:Mike I have very mixed feelings about Pink Narcissus. There are moments of absolute genius, but then it just drags on and on. And on. And the classical score is overused to death - what the hell is the piece???? Is it from Mussorgsky's Night on the Bare Mountain? (Brain has snapped.)

My feelings for Pink Narcissus are not mixed at all. I loooove it. Bobby Kendall is pure cinematic, I could watch him walking naked through technicolor haze for hours. Hard to imagine this luminously dream-like film being made inside a tiny Manhattan apartment.