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My director breakdown is:

(5) Bava
(4) Bergman, Imamura
(3) Leone
(2) Hitchcock, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Kobayashi, Antonioni, Oshima, Bunuel, Suzuki

Japan taking top country with 17

Hey, listers, leave those stats alone!

La 317ème section (Pierre Schoendoerffer, 1965) Schoendoerffer films his own novel of a French-Cambodian platoon’s doomed retreat in a stripped-down documentary style, praised by Tavernier and other critics as a revolution in realism. As someone who doesn’t particularly value realism in movies, since it’s a relative value and not necessarily an artistic one, I was still impressed. It actually reminded me most of Anthony Mann’s great, thoroughly artificial Men in War from last decade, with its emphasis on two soldiers who have contrasting philosophies of war—one traditional and organized, one brutal and desperate—and its depiction of a deteriorating Western empire, its soldiers lost in the jungle and left behind by the times. While in Mann’s film you get a sense of tragic emptiness, a critique that sees both heroism and barbarity as meaningless, Schoendoerffer’s film has no time for pathos or grand reflection, it’s all about immediacy and sharp prosaic detail. Schoendoerffer directs each scene evenly, from battles to downtime to deathbeds, with a disarming frankness and a sense that everything is routine, completely ordinary. One moment key to this sensibility comes when Perrin (Jacques, not the character distractingly named Perrin) discovers that the nightwatch allowed deserting villagers to take the platoon’s elephants. He blows up and briefly yells at his men before almost immediately regaining his composure with a flat “OK” and getting back to work. That same scene also has, among the film’s many wonderfully lived-in details, one of my favorites: preparing to wash, Perrin tries to gingerly place his cigarette on the leaf of a nearby tree. It falls off and he tosses it.

At the very least, this film is noteworthy for Raoul Coutard’s (presumably all on location) handheld wide-lens cinematography, prophetically ahead of its time. Unlike many contemporary fiction films that attempt a documentary style, the visuals here aren’t willfully sloppy and disorienting, but instead aim for maximum clarity with crisp, distant images. The skillful appearance of artlessness is betrayed by Coutard’s sensitive handling of rain in the film’s opening and the stunning deep shadows of its night scenes.

A board search for this film turned up nothing. I’d be curious to hear what other members think of it.

This film sounds really fascinating - where is it available to see?

Farewell, Friend (Jean Herman 1968)
Charles Bronson plays a total asshole in what I can only call successful casting in this unpleasant but undeniably offbeat heist noir. Bronson spies his old military pal Alain Delon up to something and decides to force himself into the scheme without knowing what it is. His bad luck then that the two of them are now trapped in an office building basement over the Christmas vacation with no food or water and only 3 of the 7 numbers needed to crack a safe. This movie has exhausted for life my desire to see a fistfight, but once it gets that mostly of its system, I found myself mildly entertained by Bernard Fresson and Bronson’s back and forth in the last act. I didn’t like this movie, but I can’t pretend I wasn’t entertained by its oddball antics.

La mort de Belle (Édouard Molinaro 1961)
Top billed Alexandra Stewart is killed within two minutes of the film starting in this bait and switch tracking the alleged outrage of a viewing audience as an obviously innocent man is railroaded by his community and the authorities into being made the scapegoat. This kind of plot is annoying enough, but oh ho this movie ends with one of the biggest Fuck Yous to an audience I’ve ever seen, with the whole film pivoting into nothing more than a cheap bit of provocation masquerading as Serious. Molinaro had a decent string of noirs in this era (especially Un témoin dans la ville), but this is the worst by far.

Le dimanche de la vie (Jean Herman 1967)
Raymond Queneau adaptation that reveals immediately how lucky we are that Zazie dans le metro is so good. Danielle Darrieux is a psychic who manipulates her fellow townspeople among other utterly unfunny zany antics, including some desperate crossdressing, in this tiresome wankfest. Between this and Un couple, are there any good non-Zazie Queneau films?

Les bonnes causes (Christian-Jaque 1963)
Marina Vlady frames nurse Virna Lisi for the murder of her husband and ropes Pierre Brasseur’s braggart lawyer into the scheme by seducing him to ensure the best prosecution of her victim. This is a good noir setup but the film consists of several long scenes of characters exchanging dialogue versus the quick and snappy plot progressions of the best of the genre. Still, I admired how this film ended by embracing a deeply cynical spirit, particularly in how Bourvil, as the police investigator who knows Lisi is innocent even though the frame-up’s evidence says otherwise, delivers a plea to the court that would be cliched and hoary if it wasn’t met by completely deaf ears! I’m not sure what to make of Brasseur’s final pivot, but either reading embraces a similarly acrid worldview so it doesn’t matter! [P]

the Plastic Dome of Norma Jean (Juleen Compton 1966)
Praised and name checked by the likes of Luc Moullet, Compton was an amateur who stumbled into money and self-funded a pair of independent films, of which this is the second. It is absolutely a film I can imagine Moullet loving (though his praise in Brigitte et Brigitte springs from her first film), which is to say that it is bonkers, but sadly not in a good way. The film gives us a hint at the soon to be omnipresent AIP et al indie scene with the story of a young psychic who purchases a giant plastic tent and convinces a traveling boy band to collaborate on a public show for backwood audiences. Watching any five minutes of this might convince you that you’re watching a secret masterpiece, but the fact is when watched all at once it’s repetitive, imbecilic, and above all deeply embarrassing. Buuuuttttttt Sam Waterston basically plays Peter Tork, so that’s something!

Shéhérazade (Pierre Gaspard-Huit 1962)
Anna Karina bounces back and forth between leaders in this international coproduction. Has one interesting scene wherein three women, including Karina, vie for a Sultan’s hand in marriage by executing bizarre tests, but otherwise this is unusually dull and way, way too long. Keep in mind that I like these kind of films more than 99.9% of the population and I still didn’t think this was that great, so I can’t imagine anyone here would get more out of it!


Red Screamer, the Schoendoerffer is in my unwatched folder, but it was on my radar from Cahiers

It has a new DVD from Icarus films who are also renting their restoration for streaming, purportedly in HD.

Domino, you continually amaze me with the amount of films you've seen by French directors whose names I've never even heard.

I definitely manage to see a lot of French films with low double digit or even single digit viewership numbers on Letterboxd!

List submitted- what a grueling cutting process...

Top directors:

Godard (6)
Antonioni (3)
Bergman (3)
Deville (2)
Fellini (2)
Kubrick (2)
Welles (2)

By country:

France 17
USA 17
Italy 6 (*...but 5 in my top 13...)
Sweden 4
Canada 2
Czechoslovakia 2
Japan 1
UK 1

For those who want to play the game: My top ten has five nouvelle vague films, three existential Italian films, one American dark holiday classic, and one non-narrative short. Genres include one musical, one fantasy, one experimental, a road movie, two films centered on the experiences of gendered youth, two mysteries where the mysteries remain unsolved, one romantic dramedy, and a weeklong epic of pathos. Two directors are represented twice, but they don't share the same nationality.

therewillbeblus wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:28 am For those who want to play the game: My top ten has five nouvelle vague films, three existential Italian films, one American dark holiday classic, and one non-narrative short. Genres include one musical, one fantasy, one experimental, a road movie, two films centered on the experiences of gendered youth, two mysteries where the mysteries remain unsolved, one romantic dramedy, and a weeklong epic of pathos. Two directors are represented twice, but they don't share the same nationality.

Spoiler

one American dark holiday classic = the Apartment
three existential Italian films = L'Avventura + Red Desert + One of the Fellinis (La dolce vita?)
Genres include one musical = Rochefort
two mysteries where the mysteries remain unsolved = Paris nous appartient + ???
a road movie = Pierrot le fou

One of the unsolved mysteries has to be one of the two big Antonionis, right?

By the way, swo: this snuck up on me, so I may not be able to finalize my list in time for round one, but I’ll definitely have it before round two!

Oh duh haha

domino harvey wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:55 am

therewillbeblus wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:28 am For those who want to play the game: My top ten has five nouvelle vague films, three existential Italian films, one American dark holiday classic, and one non-narrative short. Genres include one musical, one fantasy, one experimental, a road movie, two films centered on the experiences of gendered youth, two mysteries where the mysteries remain unsolved, one romantic dramedy, and a weeklong epic of pathos. Two directors are represented twice, but they don't share the same nationality.

Spoiler

one American dark holiday classic = the Apartment
three existential Italian films = L'Avventura + Red Desert + One of the Fellinis (La dolce vita?)
Genres include one musical = Rochefort
two mysteries where the mysteries remain unsolved = Paris nous appartient + ???
a road movie = Pierrot le fou

Nearly perfect marks

Spoiler

Red Desert just barely escaped my top ten... but was in there until a few days ago, so count it

Oh and I guess one of the gendered youth films is

Spoiler

Les bonnes femmes

Yep, so two of the films you’ve guessed so far respectively are directed by people who each have another film unmentioned, and then there’s something completely different

'if'
Genuinely puzzled about the apparent lack of love for Lindsay Anderson's film. I was going to write up a longer post of support but suffice to say this will be in my top ten. A pitch perfect, majestic film both of its time and timeless. And it was great to see Mrs Wilberforce (Katy Read) wielding a machine gun with as much determination as her umbrella in The Ladykillers (which was in my top ten of the 50s List) and which,ironically, I believe Anderson disliked (?). I know the competition for this decade is fierce but....

Done! Country breakdown:
BGR-1
BOL-1
BRA-1
CHL-1
CSK-1
CUB-1
DDR-1
DEU-1
ESP-3
FRA-4
GBR-1
GRE-2
HKG-1
IRN-1
ITA-9
JPN-6
KOR-1
MEX-2
PER-1
POL-1
PRT-1
SUN-2
TUR-2
USA-5

alacal2 wrote: Thu Jan 27, 2022 11:26 am 'if'
Genuinely puzzled about the apparent lack of love for Lindsay Anderson's film.

Where do you get the apparent lack of love for this film in this thread?

I don't know if it's been discussed here, but I wouldn't extrapolate that omission to a "lack of love." This thread has had pretty low participation compared to recent decades lists, and plenty of masterpieces that are sure to chart haven't been mentioned either. If... won't make my list, but it's a fine film- the 60s are just chock-full of gems

My view as well.

when is the deadline on the 30th? after missing the forum awards I really don't want to miss this. definitely got a list ready but just want to do a few more visits beforehand

You have until I wake up on the 31st

Can we extend this list by another ten years? I think I could watch the 60s until the end of time.

domino harvey wrote:Just submitted my list

Breakdowns of multiple directors
7 Godard
4 Bergman
2 Antonioni, Bunuel, Cottafavi, Fellini, Resnais

Canada 1
Czechoslovakia 1
France 19
Italy 7
Japan 1
Mexico 1
Russia 1
Sweden 6
UK 1
USA 12

My top ten is 6 parts French, 2 American, 1 Italian, and 1 Swedish (not necessarily in that order)

2x Cottafavi from the 60s? Must admit I couldn’t tell you much about anything he did in the 60s and I haven’t watched anything of his from then.

Which two should be I considering a viewing of?