The 1977 Mini-List

[swo17]

Missing Anima persa by Dino Risi

Added

[swo17]

Railings (Guy Sherwin)

An experiment wherein the visual part of the frame is actually read as the audio track. Sherwin constantly alters the position and trajectory of the camera relative to the titular fence railings to explore a variety of possible results. It's not exactly music to the ears but there's a purity to the film's experimental aims that mark it as an exemplar of the genre

Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen)

Perhaps the closest the medium of film will ever come to approximating a Boards of Canada album

Bagatelles (Lillian F. Schwartz)

I said at the start of the '70s that I planned to spend much of the decade voting for a bunch of Lillian Schwartz films, and here's where that comes to an end. I suppose there's nothing here she hadn't done before, but if she were a chef would that keep you from eating at her restaurant? Watch it on her website

Analogies: Studies in the Movement of Time (Peter Rose)

More railings! Rose reminds us that time is but an abstract concept by deconstructing it and laying out all the evidence side by side. But before this gives you too much time to question your own existence, he caps it off with an infectious fractured dance number (that I believe Rose performed himself)

Colloque de chiens [Dog's Dialogue] (Raúl Ruiz)

Admittedly I'm not very well-versed in Ruiz's work before this, but as far as I know, this is where he starts running on all cylinders. Here Ruiz achieves with stills the same ominous sense of circularity as La Jetée without even having to resort to a sci-fi crutch like time travel

David Bowie: Heroes (Stanley Dorfman)

This music video's as simple as it gets but perhaps that's part of why it feels so iconic

The Third Reich 'n Roll (The Residents)

The top commenter at this YouTube link suggests watching it on ten different tabs at staggered intervals for optimal viewing pleasure. I can't say they're wrong

[knives]

Managed to get the Letterboxd cheat sheet done early. Now to find the time for some of these interesting looking three hour films.

[brundlefly]

Now to find the time for some of these interesting looking three hour films.

I could never recommend three hours of Amar Akbar Anthony; despite its beloved status, it's slapdash nonsense. (At least it leans as hard into being slapdash nonsense as it leans away from punches meant to connect.) I could, however, wholeheartedly recommend five minutes of Amar Akbar Anthony while thinking how amusing it would be if we rigged the vote and forced swo to gif this at the top of his results:

No Spoiler, Just gifShow

Thanks as always for the Letterboxd list.

[swo17]

I'll commit to using that gif if that film wins

[brundlefly]

A low-risk commitment, but appreciated.

[knives]

I just finished it actually and absolutely loved it even if I don’t think it’s as great as it’s important. The plotting may be slapdash and incoherent, but it works so well at the logic of melodrama, like a more mundane Lynch. It is so full of incident that eventually I was bewitched by it rooting for that inevitable moment of catharsis even if it didn’t actually mean anything.

It’s also such an interesting snapshot of a cultural moment for India as it’s trying define a pan-Indian culture while also engaging with and loving the cultural diversity that have become Indian through osmosis.

[brundlefly]

I agree that there are interesting things about it, and of the five Indian films I've seen from this year it certainly qualifies as the most fun -- parts struck me as better capturing the tone of movie serials than Lucas and Spielberg ever did simply through its need to plow forward at any cost. The way the titular religious inclusiveness wound up being treated both casually and irreverently may have robbed the film some deeper points but also made it chummier. The Disraeli parody in "Anthony Gonsalves" is a pretty great affirmation.

But even just having sampled a few titles for the last few years of this project --and you and others like yourself with more exposure than I can definitely set me right -- the inclusivity seems less particular to this movie than as part and parcel of the masala mix. Genres coexist, so people can as well, and if this feels more diverse it's only as a by-product of the preponderance of plot. Deewar was the first Bollywood movie I watched for this project, and I was struck by how it incorporated Islam, but after just a few months I guess I've come to accept it as much a trope as separated/reunited siblings.

[knives]

I’m certainly far from knowledgeable in Indian film and will concede to all your points. I don’t think it’s a great film, but it’s one I enjoyed to such a degree I can’t fault it.


A film I can fault though is The Domino Principle . If you ever wanted to know what Stanley Kramer think of you he really lets us know with the opening of this one. To save you any second of watching this mess he calls us all stupid idiots who watch his movies because we can’t think on our own. This is not hyperbole.

Thank goodness I’m almost out of Kramer films to see and certainly none of the remaining can be this bad.

[knives]

Better sports movie of the year: Semi-tough or Slap Shot?

[swo17]

Sorry I don't have an answer to knives' question...

I know twbb hated the first Primetime Panic set but I wonder if he's tried out the second one. The first film from there, The Death of Richie is eligible for this year. It's kind of just an afterschool special but I enjoyed the cast, with Ben Gazzara and Eileen Brennan as the parents, and Robbie Benson as the title character, who I just connected as being both Jeremy in the movie Jeremy and the voice of the beast in Disney's animated version of Beauty and the Beast!

[therewillbeblus]

Haven't bothered yet, but the suggestion is intriguing - I'll watch it before submitting. Addiction portrayals are always toss-ups, but hoping for an admirable discovery along the lines of The People Next Door

I haven't seen Slap Shot since I was like eight probably, when my hockey-obsessed dad introduced me to it a bit too young to really grasp much. I was old enough to appreciate it on some level though, and there's certainly a nostalgic value there. Semi-Tough is attractive solely based on Burt Reynolds being the unsung comic MVP of the 70s, but I doubt I'll prioritize it

[knives]

Both are on my list. Semi-tough is another one of of Ritchie’s great losing is the best way to win films as the very idea of success breaks these men down. The film reminds me a lot of Berkeley’s Take Me Out to the Ball Game as well with the female figure working more as a comfort zone pusher for the pair of men rather than a romantic lead.

Slap Shot is just hilarious and mean, but also with a great working class sensibility of just utter exhaustion at a job that you tie yourself to until it becomes your identity. The film at times feels like it could just be about steel workers as much as hockey players.

[therewillbeblus]

The Death of Richie is eligible for this year. It's kind of just an afterschool special but I enjoyed the cast, with Ben Gazzara and Eileen Brennan as the parents, and Robbie Benson as the title character, who I just connected as being both Jeremy in the movie Jeremy and the voice of the beast in Disney's animated version of Beauty and the Beast!

This was much better than it should've been, and I agree that it's primarily due to performances. Gazzara is particularly terrific here, giving an authentic, layered perf that appropriately stresses the labile flexibility of interventions and overall emotional exhaustion even the most old-hat parents experience when dealing with the chaos of their most loved person's active addiction. I appreciated the accurate depiction of the messy conflict between the urge for leniency and trust in alleviating restrictions and reactively imposing them, desperately grasping at straws without a playbook - and in particular how this strains a marriage when instincts diverge in co-parenting a crisis. I think the film probably gets more right about generally parenting adolescents rocketing away with id-soaked agency-run-riot than specifically succeeding as a meditation on the relationship dynamics surrounding addiction itself, but it's a focus that's just as important and affirming, and likely a lot better than so many of the other parent-child addiction pieces making the rounds lately. Again, I think this is mostly thanks to Gazzara's lived-in perf than the at-times contrived writing, really emphasizing the power of the right actor to sell the material. It didn't save the "afterschool special"-ness of it all, but it helped. Benson and Brennan were good too, the latter giving a quieter and ostensibly thankless part as the more permissive parent. However, her mostly-silent expressiveness during the support group in the first act is one of the best moments of the film - showing so much about the struggle of processing and suppressing unbearable information without overstating anything.

[swo17]

Benson and Brennan were good too, the latter giving a quieter and ostensibly thankless part

If you want to see her get thanked, watch the second film in the set.

Also, a reminder that lists are due today:

ELIGIBLE TITLES FOR 1977

VOTE THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30

Please post in this thread if you think anything needs to change about the list of eligible titles.

If you've already voted, the party is over here

[swo17]

The 1977 List



##. Film (Director) points/votes(top 5 placements, aka likely votes in decade list)/highest ranking

01. 3 Women (Robert Altman) 264/13(7)/1(x2)
02. Annie Hall (Woody Allen) 251/14(7)/1(x4)
03. Eraserhead (David Lynch) 220/12(4)/1(x2)
04. Cet obscur objet du désir [That Obscure Object of Desire] (Luis Buñuel) 214/11(6)/1(x2)
05. Der Amerikanische Freund [The American Friend] (Wim Wenders) 190/11(4)/1
06. Восхождение [Voskhozhdeniye] [The Ascent] (Larisa Shepitko) 186/9(6)/1
07. Suspiria (Dario Argento) 182/9(5)/2
08. Stroszek (Werner Herzog) 178/10(6)/3
09. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg) 172/11(3)/1
10. Opening Night (John Cassavetes) 153/9(3)/1(x2)
11. Una giornata particolare [A Special Day] (Ettore Scola) 152/9(2)/2
12. Star Wars (George Lucas) 126/8(2)/2
13. Le Diable probablement [The Devil, Probably] (Robert Bresson) 115/6(3)/2
14. New York, New York (Martin Scorsese) 114/9(2)/2
15. Sorcerer (William Friedkin) 113/9(1)/5
(tie) ハウス [Hausu] [House] (Nobuhiko Ōbayashi) 113/8(1)/5
17. L'Homme qui aimait les femmes [The Man Who Loved Women] (François Truffaut) 87/5(3)/3(x2)
18. Zítra vstanu a opařím se čajem [Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea] (Jindřich Polák) 80/7/7
19. Człowiek z marmuru [Man of Marble] (Andrzej Wajda) 79/5(2)/5(x2)
20. Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett) 77/5(1)/2
21. Slap Shot (George Roy Hill) 76/5(1)/5
22. শতরঞ্জ কে খিলাড়ি [Shatranj Ke Khilari] [The Chess Players] (Satyajit Ray) 67/5(2)/4
23. Abigail's Party (Mike Leigh) 66/5(1)/2
24. Providence (Alain Resnais) 58/5/6
25. The Last Wave (Peter Weir) 53/3/6
(tie) Bolwieser [The Stationmaster's Wife] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) 53/3(1)/5
27. Diabolo menthe [Peppermint Soda] (Diane Kurys) 50/4(1)/5
28. Padre padrone (Paolo & Vittorio Taviani) 48/3(1)/5
29. Le fond de l'air est rouge [A Grin Without a Cat] (Chris Marker) 46/3/10(x2)
30. Οι κυνηγοί [Oi kynigoi] [The Hunters] (Theo Angelopoulos) 45/2(1)/1
31. L'Apprenti salaud [The Apprentice Heel] (Michel Deville) 44/2(1)/1
(tie) 悲愁物語 [Hishū monogatari] [A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness] (Seijun Suzuki) 44/2(1)/2
33. L'une chante, l'autre pas [One Sings, the Other Doesn't] (Agnès Varda) 42/2(1)/4
34. Desperate Living (John Waters) 40/2(1)/5
35. Hitler, ein Film aus Deutschland [Hitler: A Film from Germany] (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg) 39/2(1)/3
(tie) Un borghese piccolo piccolo [An Average Little Man] (Mario Monicelli) 39/2(1)/3
37. Une sale histoire [A Dirty Story] (Jean Eustache) 38/2(1)/3
(tie) گزارش [Gozaresh] [The Report] (Abbas Kiarostami) 38/2/6
39. Soldaat van Oranje [Soldier of Orange] (Paul Verhoeven) 37/2(1)/4
40. Exorcist II: The Heretic (John Boorman) 35/2(1)/4
(tie) Jäniksen vuosi [The Year of the Hare] (Risto Jarva) 35/2/7
(tie) Colloque de chiens [Dog's Dialogue] (Raúl Ruiz) 35/3(1)/4
43. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (Wolfgang Reitherman & John Lounsbery) 34/2(1)/4
(tie) The Getting of Wisdom (Bruce Beresford) 34/2/8
(tie) Riddles of the Sphinx (Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen) 34/3/11(x2)
46. Canal Zone (Frederick Wiseman) 32/2/9
47. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (Anthony Page) 31/2(1)/1
(tie) Barwy ochronne [Camouflage] (Krzysztof Zanussi) 31/3/10
49. Semi-Tough (Michael Ritchie) 28/2/12(x2)
50. Demon Seed (Donald Cammell) 27/2(1)/2
(tie) Adéla ještě nevečeřela [Adele Has Not Had Her Dinner Yet] (Oldřich Lipský) 27/2/8
(tie) The Late Show (Robert Benton) 27/3/9
(tie) Saturday Night Fever (John Badham) 27/3/10

ALSO-RANS

Citizens Band (Jonathan Demme) 26/3/15
La Dentellière [The Lacemaker] (Claude Goretta) 25/2(1)/2
The Duellists (Ridley Scott) 25/2/9
Rabid (David Cronenberg) 25/2/11
Baxter, Vera Baxter (Marguerite Duras) 24/2/7
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks) 23/2/8
I, an Actress (George Kuchar) 22/3/13

Scum (Alan Clarke) 21/2/9
21 Up (Michael Apted) 20/2/11
Twilight's Last Gleaming (Robert Aldrich) 18/2/13
Analogies: Studies in the Movement of Time (Peter Rose) 18/2/14
Powers of Ten (Charles & Ray Eames) 17/2/12
France/tour/détour/deux enfants (1977-1978) (Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville) 14/2/14
Apaches (John Mackenzie) 12/2/17
Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah) 8/2/20

ORPHANS

Film (Director) highest ranking

Plaisir d'amour en Iran (Agnès Varda) 22
歌麿 夢と知りせば [Utamaro yume to shiriseba] [Utamaro's World] (Akio Jissōji) 4
Chuquiago (Antonio Eguino) 20
Családi tűzfészek [Family Nest] (Béla Tarr) 6
Des enfants gâtés [Spoiled Children] (Bertrand Tavernier) 13
Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (Bill Melendez & Phil Roman) 10
Valse Triste (Bruce Conner) 3
Elisa, vida mía (Carlos Saura) 9
ทองพูน โคกโพ ราษฎรเต็มขั้น [Thongpoon kokpo ratsadorn tem khan] [Taxi Driver (Citizen I)] (Chatrichalerm Yukol) 1
Alice ou la Dernière Fugue [Alice or the Last Escapade] (Claude Chabrol) 22
The Gauntlet (Clint Eastwood) 3
Io ho paura [ I Am Afraid] (Damiano Damiani) 22
Anima persa [The Forbidden Room] (Dino Risi) 10
Jesus of Nazareth (Franco Zeffirelli) 6
Julia (Fred Zinnemann) 9
Wild Night in El Reno (George Kuchar) 2
Mort d'un pourri [Death of a Corrupt Man] (Georges Lautner) 22
მიმინო [Мимино] [Mimino] (Georgi Danelia) 15
Pink Floyd: Welcome to the Machine (Gerald Scarfe) 25
ಘಟಶ್ರಾದ್ಧ [Ghatashraaddha] [The Ritual] (Girish Kasaravalli) 8
Railings (Guy Sherwin) 21
The Goodbye Girl (Herbert Ross) 22
Povestea dragostei [The Story of Love] (Ion Popescu-Gopo) 9
11 X 14 (James Benning) 2
Rollercoaster (James Goldstone) 19
Between the Lines (Joan Micklin Silver) 25
Kingdom of the Spiders (John 'Bud' Cardos) 6
Rolling Thunder (John Flynn) 16
Black Sunday (John Frankenheimer) 20
The Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis) 25
悪魔の手毬唄 [Akuma no temari-uta] [The Devil's Ballad] (Kon Ichikawa) 5
The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert) 13
Bagatelles (Lillian F. Schwartz) 18
In nome del papa re [In the Name of the Pope King] (Luigi Magni) 11
Küzdők [The Struggle] (Marcell Jankovics) 12
Mogliamante [Wifemistress] (Marco Vicario) 10
Le Camion (Marguerite Duras) 9
Schock [Shock] (Mario Bava) 23
Los días del pasado [The Days of the Past] (Mario Camus) 19
Secrets (Michael J. Murphy) 10
Kung Mangarap Ka't Magising [Moments in a Stolen Dream] (Mike De Leon) 8
The Kiss of Death (Mike Leigh) 12
Prey (Norman J. Warren) 7
Informe general sobre algunas cuestiones de interés para una proyección pública (Pere Portabella) 4
Operation Ganymed (Rainer Erler) 25
Frauen in New York [Women in New York] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) 10
Chinois, encore un effort pour être révolutionnaires [Peking Duck Soup] (René Viénet) 1
Full Circle [The Haunting of Julia] (Richard Loncraine) 7
¡Alambrista! (Robert M. Young) 23
El pez que fuma [The Smoking Fish] (Román Chalbaud) 24
भूमिका [Bhumika] [The Role] (Shyam Benegal) 20
Белый Бим Чёрное ухо [Belyy bim, chyornoe ukho] [White Bim Black Ear] (Stanislav Rostotsky) 12
David Bowie: Heroes (Stanley Dorfman) 25
Fun with Dick and Jane (Ted Kotcheff) 23
ნატვრის ხე [Natvris khe] [The Wishing Tree] (Tengiz Abuladze) 9
Jabberwocky (Terry Gilliam) 19
La Soufrière [Warten auf eine unausweichliche Katastrophe] [Waiting for an Inevitable Disaster] (Werner Herzog) 16
レイプ25時暴姦 [Reipu! Ni-jū go-ji bōkan] [Rape! 13th Hour] (Yasuharu Hasebe) 5
幸福の黄色いハンカチ [Shiawase no kiiroi hankachi] [The Yellow Handkerchief] (Yōji Yamada) 16
Cerrone: Supernature 19

20 lists submitted

[therewillbeblus]

Thanks swo!

1. L’Apprenti Salaud
2. Suspiria
3. Une Sale Histoire
4. Annie Hall
5. Desperate Living
6. Eraserhead
7. Prey
8. Looking For Mr. Goodbar
9. 3 Women
10. Secrets

Are people not opening their Norman J Warren and Michael J Murphy sets, or do I just have poor taste?

[Rayon Vert]

Not opened. (thanks swo)

[therewillbeblus]

It could very well be both

[knives]

Don’t have.

Also thanks a ton Swo.