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backstreetsbackalright wrote:

zedz wrote:According to the rules of the game (imdb) this is a 70s film, which is why I didn't vote for it. If the two people who voted for it this time vote for it again next time, it WILL make the list (unless I'm hit by a truck).

That's good news - but how is it a 70s film? IMDb has it listed as '68.

Ulp. Has imdb changed (corrected) their listing? I'm sure I checked this title when I first compiled my list (back in March, probably) and had to remove it. Was anybody else in the same boat?

Darlings defended. (Deeep breath. . .)

Only 20 of my 50 made the top 100, so here are the rest.

2. Traveller (Abbas Kiarostami, 1974)
From the score, it looks like I was the only person to vote for this (which would make it ineligible anyway), and I can only think that it's because it's so hard to see. In post-revolution Iran, many of Kiarostami's scripts celebrated the resourcefulness of children. His debut feature, an amazing late flowering of neo-realism, views this resourcefulness as terrifying and destructive, as a very young soccer fan burns bridge after bridge in his relentless pursuit of tickets to the big game. It features one of the most emotionally devastating denouements I know. I initially had this ranked as my number one, but I thought it was a little cruel to place a film I'd only seen once ahead of Tarkovsky's Mirror, a film that's withstood an easy dozen viewings (and even a Master's thesis) without diminishment.

6. The Ossuary (Jan Svankmajer, 1970)
Another gem that makes the big list on my solitary vote. This short documentary made such an impression on me that I actually made a pilgrimage to Sedlec to see this incredible site. Svankmajer's crazed montage is just as compelling as his regular animation, and Zdenek Liska's choral score is wonderfully uncanny.

8. Family Life (Ken Loach, 1971)
Well, at least one other person voted for this. I saw this movie on television many many years ago and it made a lasting impression. Probably remains to this day one of my most emotional viewing experiences. The naturalistic acting was flawless, and the overall impression of despair and frustration was overwhelming.

12. Mes petites amoureuses (Jean Eustache, 1974)
One of the great films about childhood. I find this exquisite film considerably more satisfying than Eustache's epochal Mother and the Whore (which is nevertheless wonderful – it ended up bumped just outside my top 50).

14. American Boy (Martin Scorsese, 1978)
My top Scorsese of the 70s and, after various rearrangements, the only one that ended up on my list.

15. Cockfighter (Monte Hellman, 1974)
A much better film than the sullen Two Lane Blacktop, in my book (and I like sullen). With maybe the greatest Warren Oates performance and the greatest Nestor Almendros photography: two things that should earn any film a place on a 100 best list. Right up until the climax of the film, there's a horrible ambivalence about the filmmaker's attitude towards the subject matter, then those last five minutes throw everything that precedes it into a new focus.

16. Love (Karoly Makk, 1971)
Raced up my list on the strength of Second Run's DVD. Was nobody else so impressed?

17. Abigail's Party (Mike Leigh, 1977)
It looks like the new TV and music video ruling had pretty much no impact on the final list, but I was delighted to be able to include Leigh's funniest film. Alison Steadman is so funny she's terrifying – and vice versa. So, do you think we can hear some Demis Roussos?

18. Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders, 1976)
I'm a big fan of 70s Wenders, but I found it hard to single out one film, so this won on points and sentiment. Maybe other people had the same problem, as he's conspicuous by his absence on the big list.

20. Mathias Kneissl (Reinhard Hauff, 1970)
. . . as was much of the New German Cinema, beyond the most obvious Herzogs and Fassbinders. This dark, grubby period film is, to my mind, the best of the anti-Heimatfilms: you can smell the grime and mud, and the constriction of the characters' lives is palpable. It even narrowly pipped my preferred, similarly-slanted Herzog, Every Man for Himself. . ., at 21.

22. The Phone Box (Antonio Mercero, 1972)
I saw this half-hour hair-raiser once on TV, very late at night, about 20 years ago, and can just about remember it shot for shot. It's a model of short film construction, with perfect pacing as it slides from demotic slapstick through levels of Bunuelian and Beckettian absurdism to sheer horror. And it's practically wordless. A guy gets into a phone box, and finds he can't get out. Passersby try to help, but the door won't budge. A crowd gathers. Eventually, the phone company arrives. They can't get the door open either, so they have to remove the entire phone box, still enclosing the bemused caller. They load the box onto the back of a pick-up truck and head off. On the motorway, drivers point and laugh. Stopped at a traffic light, the trapped man sees another truck, with another phone box, with another man inside. The truck drives on. And on. They leave the city behind, driving into the desert on lonesome hairpin roads. They come to a tunnel and drive deep into a mountain. The phone box is loaded onto a conveyor belt of some kind, and our hero is carried deeper and deeper into the mountain, into the dark, past a seemingly endless warehouse of phone boxes, containing the skeletal, rotting or still living remains of countless other captives. The end.

23. The Parallax View (Alan J Pakula, 1974)
Which makes this the second-best paranoia movie of the 70s. The film starts out as a decent thriller, but slowly and steadily ramps up the paranoia (and the Antonioniesque deployment of ominous architecture). The climax, for me, is one of the most extraordinary sequences in Hollywood cinema: the Parallax training video. This little avant-garde starburst really makes you feel as if it's your mind that's being messed with.

24. Melody (Jean-Christophe Averty, 1971)
Possibly the most cinematic album ever recorded, Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson (imagine Ligeti and the immediately post-Syd Pink Floyd improvising the soundtrack to a porn film and you're halfway there), was actually turned into a film for French television, and one can only wonder what French audiences thought when they tuned into this in 1971. The album's storyline is perverse enough, but Averty dresses it up with every conceivable video effect of the time, and this film ends up anticipating practically every music video made up until the mid-1980s. Jane B. go-go dances (badly) in the foreground while psychedelic hearts swirl and morph behind her. The dark drama of Hotel Particulier is illustrated by Serge and Jane scurrying furtively through the erotic paintings of Paul Delvaux, and the dark, overwhelming Cargo Culte is a tour-de-force of multiple superimpositions.

25. The Bill Douglas Trilogy (Bill Douglas, 1972-78)
Technically, this should be considered three different films (given our IMDB reliance), but I couldn't differentiate between them, and since nobody else voted for them, the point was moot. Nevertheless, these are some of the greatest British films of the seventies – and indeed, ever – and any admirer of Terence Davies or Lynne Ramsay owes it to themselves to seek them out.

27. Hello Skinny (Graeme Whifler, 1979)
Snuck in just behind Eraserhead on my list after the music video ruling came through, and it's the ideal companion piece. One of the creepiest videos ever made (for a pretty creepy song by the Residents), this black-and-white collagefest represents the unholy union of David Lynch and John Heartfield.

28. Elektreia (Miklos Jancso, 1974)
Red Psalm and Agnus Dei have a higher critical standing (and sound incredible), but this is the only 70s Jansco I've seen, and as a representation of his amazing style at its most extreme it's indelible. The films consists of 13 mind-boggling sequence shots in which the foreground drama and dialogue is synchronised with dancing peasants, circling horses and helicopters, and – in a bravura shot that takes in the setting of the sun – the movement of celestial bodies. Meanwhile, the camera is in constant, obsessive motion, from indoors to out, from close-up to long shot. Makes Busby Berkeley look like Kevin Smith.

30. Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, 1971)
Indescribable but, in a good print, utterly hypnotic. Also makes a lovely trivia question partner for Beware of a Holy Whore and McCabe and Mrs Miller.

31. The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Ermanno Olmi, 1978)
I confess that I put this on my list when I was only halfway through watching it. It would now probably ascend several places (though probably not enough to get it into the top 100). Again, I can only surmise that it was unloved simply because it was unseen.

32. A Swedish Love Story (Roy Andersson, 1970)
A film that has at least one other admirer! A superb, insightful film about youth that bears practically no resemblance to chilly, scary modern Andersson.

33. La Soufriere (Werner Herzog, 1977)
Herzog goes to an island that's about to explode in order to find the other man crazy enough to be there. And, believe it or not, the film is as good as its premise.

39. The Adversary (Satyajit Ray, 1972)
Wot, no Ray? From the opening, unexpected, switch to negative, this film bristles with a bracing technical audacity to match its righteous anger. One of my favourite Ray films, but there are so many I still need to see. Getting these classics out on DVD is a no-brainer (and the industry doesn't seem to be short of the brainless, so what gives?).

40. Land of Silence and Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1971)
My memory of this film is much hazier than my memory of the effect it had on me. Hence its inclusion.

41. Je, Tu, Il, Elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974)
I'm pretty ambivalent about Akerman, but I found this film funny and compelling. Nice to see a fellow supporter out there. Meanwhile, the (feminist film festival) audience I saw it with dwindled from forty-something to six.

43. Alice in the Cities (Wim Wenders, 1974)
I found the omission of this a little surprising. For a long time I had this paired with Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore on my list, but late additions drove a wedge between them, and the Scorsese finished outside the top 50.

44. Junior Bonner (Sam Peckinpah, 1972)
Much as I adore Peckinpah, a lot of his films don't form satisfying wholes. This gentle, unassuming movie thus becomes his de facto masterpiece in my book. Steve McQueen has never been better, but Ida Lupino practically justifies this placing on her own.

45. Poto and Cabengo (Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1978)
Utterly compelling documentary about the eponymous twins and their invented language: far more engaging and exciting than any of the Gorin / Godard collaborations that I've seen.

46. Children (Terence Davies, 1976)
Part one of the great British filmmaker's ultra-bleak trilogy (which, according to IMDB, I can vote for in its entirety in the 80s list, even though its first part was released in 1976).

47. Ceddo (Ousmane Sembene, 1977)
Unfortunately, the absence of African cinema from the final list doesn't surprise me, and I guess my contribution could be seen as tokenism, but this is a bold stab at generating a cinema independent of Eurocentric norms and the best Sembene I've seen.

49. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
Mildly surprised to see this omitted, given its cult, but it is an extraordinarily odd genre film, after all, and not exactly in sync with the strong American slant of the list.

50. Camera Buff (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1979)
It seems nobody else had much time for this either, my favourite pre-Decalogue Kieslowski.


When I compile my list, I try to include every film that I think deserves to be in a top 50 and then roughly rank them, adding and subtracting films as they come to mind or become ineligible (4 of my 70s films have had to be bumped onto my 80s list, for example). This usually leaves me with a list of around 70 titles, and the lower reaches often end up populated by films that I figure don't need my vote. This time I seemed to be correct in my estimation, with one exception, which probably counts as THE surprise omission from the list, and which I had at number 51:

Tale of Tales (Yuri Norstein, 1979)
It's sublime (animated Tarkovsky); it's regularly singled out as one of the greatest animated films of all time (if not the greatest); and yet nobody voted for it. Why this indifference to short films?

"31. The Tree of Wooden Clogs (Ermanno Olmi, 1978)
I confess that I put this on my list when I was only halfway through watching it. It would now probably ascend several places (though probably not enough to get it into the top 100). Again, I can only surmise that it was unloved simply because it was unseen."


#30 of my list

Also, I'd like to say that Love and Death (#6 on my list) was the funniest movie of the 70's, maybe ever, and finished way down on the pecking order.

Just brilliant stuff by Woody.

Cheers

5 Travelling players /Angelopoulos
The film that put Theo's name on the world cinema, this remains his 2 or 3 best features so far (landscape in the mist, Alexander the great, eternity and a day). Using a style of heavy mixture of Fellini and Tarkovsky, and mostly long shots, Theo's 4 hour epic remains a daunting task for those who know little about ancient and modern Greek history. Available on R2 Japanese DVD only (no English sub).

6 Two English girls /Truffaut
My personal favorite Truffaut along with '400 blows'.

7 Shinobugawa /Kei Kumai
Sensing that the Japanese cinema was flooded with gross violence and sex in the early 70s, Kumai decided to fight against the trend to tell a simple love story between a waitress and a college student. The black and white cinematography is stunning and Teizo Matsumura's score is perfect. Kumai carefully unfolded his story with tenderness and sensitivity, and the audience were swept into an emotional rollercoaster. The last twenty minutes or so, about the return trip to Shino's hometown, are absolutely divine and feels like cinematic heaven. The state of poverty in Shino's village was dealt with incredible dignity and it's hard for the audience not to be moved when Shino's brother presented his wedding gift to his sister and brother in law. One of the absolute best out of the Japanese cinema in the last century.

12 The dawns here are quiet/ Rostotsky
One of the most beloved motion pictures by the Russians is virtually unknown in the US, even it garnered a best foreign language motion picture Oscar nod in 1973. The Russians know how to make gut wrenching war movies about ordinary people, partly due to the fact that the lives of 20 million people were lost in world war II. Available on Image and RUSCICO DVD with English sub.

18 White Bim black ears /Rostotsky
Another masterpiece from the Russian master Rostotsky. Everyone on this board is familiar with Bresson's sad story about a donkey. And here comes a story about the cruelty and selfishness of human nature through the eyes of a dog. Nominated for a best foreign language movie Oscar in 1978, the movie is sadly rarely seen in the West. Well, at least it has better fate than the poor Bim. Avaiable on RUSCICO 2D9 release with English subtitles.

22 The innocent /Visconti
Visconti goes back to familiar territory about aristocratic bigotry, class structure and sexual double standards at the turn of the century in Italy. Available on Tartan DVD with a poor, non anamorphic transfer.

27 The Mattei affair /Rossi
Italian cinema was dominated by political thrillers in the early 70s, and Rossi's masterpiece was the best out of the bunch. Palm d'Or winner in 1972.

28 Castle of sand /Yoshitaro Nomura
Yoshitaro Nomura made a name by making mysteries/thrillers in the 60s and 70s. This is his masterpiece. Masterfully weaving 3 stories together, Nomura turned an ordinary police story into a deeply moving human drama about unsuccessful attempt to escape the past. Available on both Japanese R2 DVD and Panaroma DVD with English sub.

32 Providence /Resnais
Resnais's only undisputed masterpiece in the last 30 years.

36 Julia /Zinnemann
Textbook storytelling and a trio of powerhouse performances.

41 The go between /Losey
Losey's Palm d'Or winner is a unique coming of age story as our young hero witnessed the unfolding of a tragic forbidden love affair.

45 A special day /Scola
Scola's masterpiece and Mastroianni finest performance. Available on Italian Pal R2 DVD.

47 Monsiuer Klein /Losey
Delon's top 3 performances + Losey top 3 movies. HVE DVD.

48 The green room /Truffaut
A very weird Truffaut feature that reminds me of Joyce's "The dead". A touching little masterpiece about grief, guilt, survival, and redemption.

49 Wifemistress /Marco Vicario
One of the best sex farce out of the Italian cinema in the mid 70s. Boosted by an extremely well written script and beautiful photography and sound track, this is a bitter and moving story of the battling of the sexes. Laura Antonelli has never been better (with the exception of Visconti's "the innocent").

A few words about 70s Truffaut, which I believe to be vastly misunderstood and underrated. Established opinion is that his first three features were his best and he went downhill from there. While he was formally more innovative in the 60s, he was a better filmmaker in the 70s. I think his Bed and Board/Two English Girls/Story of Adele H trifecta is at least the equal to 400 Blows/Shoot the Piano Player/Jules and Jim.

Nobody since Renoir has so thoroughly and honestly analyzed domestic space the way Truffaut does in Bed and Board, and at the risk of sounding chauvinist, I don't think you can fully appreciate the film unless you've been married or had a domestic partner. His exploring of the material confines of bourgeois lifestyle is as insightful and cutting as Bunuel's more violent takes.

I strongly suspect, zedz, that the great majority of the films you chose that nobody else did simply haven't been seen. I'd never heard of Tale of Tales until just now. I've only seen four films on your list that I deigned not to place on mine, mostly because it's been so long since I last saw them (the Ossuary, the Parallax View, Alice in the Cities and the Wicker Man). We both shared a few picks that failed to make the final cut.

The 1970's is not one of of my favorite decades for film (so far. I assume it will grow in my estimation as I explore the many unseen contributions to this thread), but here's my cream that nobody else cropped:

1. Seasons of the Year (Arthur Peleshian, 1975)
Having recently seen it for the second time I couldn't help myself but put it atop the heap. I'm not sure I understand the full importance of "distance montage" but this film is startlingly beautiful.

4. Always For Pleasure (Les Blank, 1978)
Another very recent viewing, and I'm not sure if it will remain in quite so lofty a spot in future reworkings of this list, but right now, this documentary record of New Orleans and the Mardis Gras Indians is incredibly important to me.

5. Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975)
Nobody else seems to agree with my view that this is Fassbinder's best film (granted there's plenty I've not seen yet).

6. Five Dolls for an August Moon (Mario Bava, 1970)
Bava makes a murder mystery in the style of an Antonioni movie, and in the process perhaps even exceeds the master (at least for me).

12. Atlas (Charles & Ray Eames, 1976)
A fascinating little piece that's the greatest example of educational animation I've come across.

15. Fast Company (David Cronenberg, 1979)
I'm surprised no Cronenberg films made the top 100, though I'm not surprised nobody else voted for this piece of top-class low-brow entertainment.

16. Mongoloid (Bruce Conner, 1978)
What better way to exercise the prerogative than to pick a music video? Especially one this fun.

17. the Bead Game (Ishu Patel, 1977)
Beautifully-made animated short parable produced for the National Film Board of Canada.

18. Land of Silence and Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1971)
Zedz, this remarkably unpatronizing, lyrical documentary is at least as good as you remember it.

19. Touki Bouki (Djil Diop Mambety, 1973)
This was my sole African pick, and I don't think it's tokenism, but a top-notch politically-tinged road movie in the spirit of Pierrot le Fou. Didn't it just come out on DVD recently?

20. Taking Off (Milos Forman, 1971)
I'm glad somebody else voted for this too. Buck Henry gives one of the great comic performances of the decade.

23. Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders, 1976)
In agreement with zedz about the lack of Wenders. Again, a great film without an R1 release remains underseen.

24. Film Watchers (Herbert J. DeGrasse, 1977)
It's not even in the imdb, so maybe I shouldn't have voted for this hilariously meta short by an obscure experimental filmmaker.

26. Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins, 1976)
Unfortunately the only Watkins I've been able to see as of yet, but I loved its pseudo-documentary approach, its gorgeous cinematography, and everything about it.

27. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 1970)
A strange, beautiful film.

28. Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975)
This is the one I would have thought might get more support. I guess I should have voted for the Brood instead, but I just don't like it as well as some of the odder pieces in Cronenberg's early oeuvre. Bring on the '80s!

30. Make Me Psychic (Sally Cruikshank, 1978)
I guess few have seen the work of this totally original animator.

31. Inhabitants (Arthur Peleshian, 1970)
Another fantastic found-footage film by the master of the form. (apologies to Bruce Conner)

33. Primate (Frederick Wiseman, 1974)
Maybe not really deserving of a place here, as it's hard to think of it as a real favorite, and its disturbing enough that I doubt I'll ever want to see it again. But its a truly incredible film, funny and horrifying in turns, and often at once.

34. Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, 1971)
What's that trivia question, zedz? I've never seen Beware the Holy Whore.

35. Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975)
The reaping scene alone would justify its inclusion, but there's a lot of beauty stuffed into this gentle epic.

36. Powers of Ten (Charles and Ray Eames, 1977)
Hmmm. Nobody else voted for this? Well, as long as the 90's list doesn't include Contact...

37. the 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Lau Kar-Leung, 1978)
I was waffling for a minute between this and Master of the Flying Guillotine but I think this one's narrative structure is just a little more revolutionary, so I went with it. Plus it's freakin' Gordon Liu.

40. the Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage, 1971)
Another pick like Primate that is more admirable than lovable. I guess I shouldn't be surprised I was its only voter.

41. Flesh for Frankenstein (Paul Morrissey, 1973)
Didn't even notice those two were right next to each other on my list. If you're offended (and you probably should be) it's not intentional.

42. Lacombe, Lucien (Louis Malle, 1974)
My favorite Malle film, presumably would have gotten a lot more love if the Criterion were out already.

43. THX-1138 (George Lucas, 1971)
A flawed film but with enough moments of true greatness to deserve a slot.

46. Dodes'Ka-den (Akira Kurosawa, 1970)
Kurosawa's portrayal of poverty is 180' away from how it's usually portrayed, though with just as much sincere compassion as any neo-realist's.

49. Martin (George Romero, 1978)
Nobody else seems to like this very unusual film.

I absolutely forgot "Lacombe, Lucien" (Louis Malle, 1974). Watched it a couple of months ago and also became my favorite Malle. Should be in my top 30 list to say the least. It's available on the R2 Japanese Malle 12 movie box set(s). Is coming from Criterion in early 2006.

Brian Oblivious wrote: 37. the 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Lau Kar-Leung, 1978)
I was waffling for a minute between this and Master of the Flying Guillotine but I think this one's narrative structure is just a little more revolutionary, so I went with it. Plus it's freakin' Gordon Liu.

I went with Flying Guillotine. It was No. 47 on my list, so probably it wouldn't have made the Top 100 anyway.

I didn't vote, but I'm glad to see The Ossuary and Cockfighter getting some love. I remember first seeing The Ossuary in an art history course in high school, and the teacher described it as "stop animation applied to a building", which I thought was the coolest thing in the world at the time. I actually tried to do something similar when I took a video production course in college, but I didn't have as interesting a building for my subject matter (that and I'm no Svenkmajer).

Thanks to everybody posting such intriguing summaries. Looks like I'm going to have to overhaul my must-see list. (I'm almost tempted to propose a "Best Films You've Never Seen" thread).

Some comments on Brian's comments:

Brian Oblivious wrote:4. Always For Pleasure (Les Blank, 1978)
Another very recent viewing, and I'm not sure if it will remain in quite so lofty a spot in future reworkings of this list, but right now, this documentary record of New Orleans and the Mardis Gras Indians is incredibly important to me.

I ended up with no Blank on my list, even though there were several strong contenders. It's been quite a while since I've seen them and a whole lot of excellent 70s Blankumentaries have now formed an amiable mass that it's difficult to differentiate.

26. Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins, 1976)
Unfortunately the only Watkins I've been able to see as of yet, but I loved its pseudo-documentary approach, its gorgeous cinematography, and everything about it.

Punishment Park ended up just outside my 50. I can't wait to see Munch: at least it's on the way.

34. Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, 1971)
What's that trivia question, zedz? I've never seen Beware the Holy Whore.

Their soundtracks each contain several songs from the first Leonard Cohen album. (In fact, if you combine the three soundtracks you get all of side one and half of side two - as if all three directors nodded off while listening).

36. Powers of Ten (Charles and Ray Eames, 1977)
Hmmm. Nobody else voted for this? Well, as long as the 90's list doesn't include Contact...

Maybe I should have included Powers of Ten after all. Another bumpee, I'm afraid.

40. the Act of Seeing With One's Own Eyes (Stan Brakhage, 1971)
Another pick like Primate that is more admirable than lovable. I guess I shouldn't be surprised I was its only voter.

Number 55, for me, though I was quite attached to the idea of letting it cling to the bottom of my list. Like you, it's not a film I actively love, but it's so rare to see something that doesn't just affect the way you think about film, but the way you think about life.

Of your other films, I can certainly empathise with Fox, Lucien and Martin (which I ran hot and cold on). Sifting the Fassbinders was a particularly difficult task, as there are moments when I think that even comparatively minor films like I Only Want You To Love Me, Bremen Freedom or Fear of Fear are more vibrant and exciting than a lot of what was on my list.

On the other hand, I view those early Cronenbergs as little more than interesting curios, and the extremely intriguing Dodes'kaden as a spectacular misfire. On the other hand (he said, sprouting a mutant limb that would make Cronenberg and Nabokov proud), and as should be apparent, I'm not averse to celebrating oddity for its own sake.

John Waters' masterpiece Female Trouble failed to make the list and that hurts!

I can't think of a movie that brutally exposes the sheer ugliness of the American suburbs better than Female Trouble. Almost every line is quotable. Divine's performance as Dawn Davenport is not only simply fabulous.. it's epic at its best.

I'm also surprised that Pink Flamingos isn't on the final list. Such a cult classic with one of the most memorable, glorious, best endings ever.

Desperate Living made the list and I'm very happy about that. It's also a great film.. electrifying with the most craziest humor. What I love the most about Waters' early films is how much you end up feeling or rooting for those folks despite the deliciously perverted, sick world they live in. There's always innocence bubbling underneath that world.

What happened to Harold and Maude?! Or Paul Morrissey's films?

I guess most folks these days don't think much of the "midnight movies", the cult, the underground that gave the 1970s such a distinct flavor (and also eternally warped my view on the world).

I'm quite sure that if we'd make these kind of lists annually the results would always be changing. That said, I'm quite happy with this year's winners!

Annie Mall wrote:That said, I'm quite happy with this year's winners!

"Winners"? What exactly was won here?

I meant the films that made it into the list. Less confused now?

Annie Mall wrote:I meant the films that made it into the list. Less confused now?

No, I'm not confused by who you think the "winners" are in this scenario. Just thinking that nothing has actually been won during this exercise. Being placed on a list on an internet forum is not exactly an accomplishment.

The defense of unrecognized films in this thread is something worthy, but the act of congratulating the films that placed on the list is giving a bit more credit to the exercise than it deserves.

That of course is only your opinion.

Michael wrote:I can't think of a movie that brutally exposes the sheer ugliness of the American suburbs better than Female Trouble. Almost every line is quotable.

I get my Waters mixed, but if Female Trouble is the one that includes "Well hip-hip-hooray for your cheap climax!" then I have to agree.

What happened to Harold and Maude?! . . .

I guess most folks these days don't think much of the "midnight movies", the cult, the underground that gave the 1970s such a distinct flavor (and also eternally warped my view on the world).

I've always found Harold and Maude way overrated, personally, but you're right about the comparative lack of cult movies. The absence of El Topo is surprising, considering how many vocal Jodorowsky supporters there seem to be on the forum (it didn't even make the also-rans list).

zedz wrote:The absence of El Topo is surprising, considering how many vocal Jodorowsky supporters there seem to be on the forum (it didn't even make the also-rans list).

Ditto The Holy Mountain. I've personally never seen either.

Here's some long-winded accounts of three films from my own list that didn't make the group list.

1. News from Home (Akerman, 1976)
News from Home collects cinema verité footage of everyday New York settings (the subway, a run-down street corner, etc.), over which Chantal Akerman read letters she received during a lengthy residence in New York from her mother in Brussels. In the letters are expressions of loneliness and distress at Akerman's abrupt (and reportedly semi-clandestine) departure for New York, but also banal details of the routine events of her day-to-day life in Brussels. This film is all about complex notions of home – the streets and subways that Akerman spends her days in, the domestic homelife in familiar Brussels that her mother speaks of/from, the bonds that make family constitute a home in itself. For my money, News from Home does an exemplary job advancing the untapped potential of the film medium, and crafts a perplexingly indirect self-portrait in the process (I'd call it the most impressive example since Roland Barthes wrote Roland Barthes). Giving this one the top spot on my list was a no-brainer, and in no way benefited from weighted placement. Akerman is one of the most conceptually rich resources in cinema or anywhere, and I couldn't possibly exaggerate the accomplishments of this work. (For the record, my top-rated non-Akerman film was Spirit of the Beehive.)

3. Les Rendez-Vous D'Anna (Meetings with Anna) (Akerman, 1978)
Film director Anna (Clément) travels by train with her latest film from Germany to Belgium to France. Consisting predominately of encounters en route with friends, family, lovers, and strangers, Les Redez-Vous d'Anna is a series not of conversations but of bland, flat, unnatural (but hardly unfelt) monologues recited at our awkwardly withdrawn protagonist. It's quite amazing how little exchange or reciprocity these interactions contain, but I maintain that the film never overplays this card. Serial in structure, the progression of Anna's companions defies succinct narrative utility. Instead what you have is best described as accumulation – a huge element in almost all of Akerman's work. The film is basically a series of stylized contexts for Anna to drift into and out of. She does so with little interest or involvement, with the exception of her visit with her mother, which results in Anna's own monologue. Akerman takes on a campaign of rigorous defamiliarization, holding fixed medium-long perspectives, avoiding point-of-view shots, and favoring stagy blocking. The hyperrealist mise-en-scene is sanitized of photogenic allure until numb. Coupled with this is a systematic denial of character interiority (the absence of interior monologue is at times deafening). Akerman describes it as "language itself, without parasites, without the possibility of identification." If such a cinema is as rich, complex, and effective as this, I'm all for it. (Number 4 was Solaris.)

5. WR: Mysteries of the Organism (Makavejev, 1971)
Unable to satisfactorily complete two very different film projects, Dusan Makavejev somehow successfully combined them into a single cohesive film. A campy and sexed-up movie about two idealistic socialist women (which seems like it would've been pretty lame on its own) gains tremendous value from interwoven documentary portions concerning controversial psychologist/sexologist Wilhelm Reich. Disparate threads of fact and fiction combine for an extremely loose piece on revolution, physical needs, socialism, Yugoslavia, sexuality, and seemingly everything in between. Never steering a straight course, WR casts unresolved loose ends this way and that, but by the same token maintains a constant freshness. Not a perfect film, WR's truly exciting model of cinema makes comparison to more polished films kind of pointless.

I get my Waters mixed, but if Female Trouble is the one that includes "Well hip-hip-hooray for your cheap climax!" then I have to agree.

Yes that's Female Trouble.

The absence of El Topo is surprising, considering how many vocal Jodorowsky supporters there seem to be on the forum (it didn't even make the also-rans list).

I'm very fond of Santa Sangre.. my favorite Jodorowsky. Can't wait to land it on my 90s list.

The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
Mildly surprised to see this omitted, given its cult, but it is an extraordinarily odd genre film, after all, and not exactly in sync with the strong American slant of the list.

I also voted for this amazing, extremely well made and powerful film. What shame that it failed to make the list.

Michael wrote:I'm very fond of Santa Sangre.. my favorite Jodorowsky. Can't wait to land it on my 90s list.

1989 according to IMDB, so your wait is shortened.

Great! Thanks, zedz. Will start composing my 80s list this weekend.

Anyway, many thanks to the Lists Project. Because of this, I rented and watched the VHS of Bertolucci's The Spider's Strategem last night. Alida Valli never looked this beautiful. Storaro's exquisite, vibrant cinematography made me cry. The use of opera (was that Verdi?) was breathtaking. The dance scene.. stunning, stunning! I'm now thinking how The Conformist (very overrated!) could rank so much higher than The Spider's Strategm which in my opinion, is the finest Bertolucci film I've seen. I will make sure to place this film way at the top of my 70s list in the next round.

Michael wrote:Great! Thanks, zedz. Will start composing my 80s list this weekend.

Anyway, many thanks to the Lists Project. Because of this, I rented and watched the VHS of Bertolucci's The Spider's Strategem last night. Alida Valli never looked this beautiful. Storaro's exquisite, vibrant cinematography made me cry. The use of opera (was that Verdi?) was breathtaking. The dance scene.. stunning, stunning! I'm now thinking how The Conformist (very overrated!) could rank so much higher than The Spider's Strategm which in my opinion, is the finest Bertolucci film I've seen. I will make sure to place this film way at the top of my 70s list in the next round.

"The conformist" is hardly overrated. Storaro's fantastic DP work alone can easily push the movie to the top 15 of the 70s. Both "before the revolution" and "spider's strategem" are masterworks, but they are not up to the standard set by the "the conformist". This is one of those few movies that you can only thoroughly enjoy in a theatre.

I respect your opinion, kieslowski_67. Most of us agree that Storaros work is inspiring and magnificent.. his contribution to the recent Exorcist is the films only redeeming quality. Of course thanks to Storaro, The Conformist is stunning to look at. Other than that, the film is pretty dull. The Spiders Strategem is meatier and much more resonating... I love its intimacy and how it explores the broken connections of the generations.. very fascinating to me maybe it's because I was brought up in an Italian family. Keeping the bridges of the generations is among the most important values of the Italian culture. Like The Godfather's "mafioso", The Conformist's "Fascism" gets old fast. Don't get me wrong, The Conformist is a striking film in numerous departments..its closing shot of Marcello with that soul-piercing music playing is astonishing.

I'll never understand those who think "The Conformist" is all style and nothing else (just like I'll never understand those who don't think Woody Allen is funny). True Vittorio Storaro's work is probably the greatest color cinematography I've seen in all of cinema and true, the breathtaking style may overpower certain scenes during one's initial viewing, but the story itself is really quite brilliant, especially considering that in Moravia's novel everything is linear and the events are attributed to ‘fate', and in Bertolucci's script the scenes are fragmented and everything stems from the subconscious of the character. Pretty much every single scene stays with me, such as Clerici and the Professor's dialogue about Plato's cave, with Bertolucci and Storaro lovingly illustrating it for us with the shadows and light in that scene, and the philosophy itself, of course, becoming a blueprint for the film's underlining themes. Plus it has that exceptional period costume design with the bourgeoise decadence that I love, and I think having Georges Delerue score it was a stroke of brilliance. At the time, nobody had seen a film command such a beautiful cinematic style with fragmented structure, and its effect on technical filmmaking is still apparent today.

"The Spider's Stratagem" is a beautiful little film and it looks great, though it seems much simpler to me than "The Conformist" (which is a lot more ambiguous, open to interpretation, and more free to express itself with its style and structure), but "Stratagem" is still a beautiful little story and the Italian country side, the villas, and the dining rooms are treated with that impeccable Bertoluccian passion. It's been a while since I've seen it, so I'll have to pull it out in the next week; it really needs a DVD release. According to Bertolucci, when it aired on Italian television, it had nearly 20 million viewers.

Dylan