1967--The Year in Review

1967 is famously a watershed year for movies--ground zero for a ridiculously rich Golden Age that would swirl through American and world cinema for arguably 15 years to come. With that, here it comes down to a fierce battle between US and French film; initially, I was ready to anoint Jacques Tati's bank-breaking marvel Playtime. But then I reconsidered: Playtime is best seen on the hugest screen possible, and this really hamstrings it in terms of others being able to fully grasp its appeal (even the people who already love it find Tati's complex comedic staging lacks definition in miniature). So, in the end, I had to go with the American movie that I think had the biggest impact on the culture, as it ushered in wry takes on mature themes, innovative uses of modern source music, and the rise of the "normal" movie star--in this case, an odd-duck struggling actor named Dustin Hoffman, who overcame being rather over-the-hill to play the 22-year-old Benjamin Braddock, and in doing so, delivered the performance of the year (it's a brilliant piece of casting by director Mike Nichols, who thought Hoffman's non-WASPy countenance would perfectly place him as an outsider in this white-bread world). Its fellow US competitors were difficult to overcome, though, with the groundbreaking violence of Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (itself influenced by French film, as its subject was suggested to its screenwriters by Francois Truffaut), Richard Brooks' stunning adaptation of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, UK director John Boorman's dizzying noir film Point Blank, and Stuart Rosenberg's immensely popular, anti-establishment-flavored prison tale Cool Hand Luke. It was a terrific period for UK film, with Hammer's sci-fi thriller Quatermass and the Pit, John Schlesinger's elegant Far From the Madding Crowd, Joseph Losey's Accident and US director Stanley Donen’s twin late-period humdingers Bedazzled and Two For the Road (both of which tagged Donen as the one classic-era director who wholly embraced this new age).

As for the French, in addition to Tati, we got another superb film from Robert Bresson called Mouchette, Bunuel's sensual Belle De Jour, three films from Godard (spearheaded by the anti-car satire Weekend) and Melville's exciting Le Samourai. In a bejeweled race for the acting categories, at last I had to give Audrey Hepburn her due (she was Oscar-nominated this year for her  terrorized blind woman in Wait Until Dark, but I went instead for her luminous take as a wife struggling to make her marriage work in Two For the Road), while the Supporting Actor race was filled with delightfully venal villains--and the one I picked is easily the most becoming (and the Supporting Actress race was, for me, an easy choice). Also, this is the first year in a long while that I, like the Academy, reduced the technical categories into a combination of black-and-white and color competitors (given that black-and-white was clearly--and sadly--on its way out). The Documentary Feature category finally gets some major fire behind it, with Frederick Wiseman's debut Titicut Follies--about a scarily lax New England mental hospital--emerging as the first bonafide masterpiece from this new era of reality on film. Finally, on the short film front, experimental cinema makes a huge jump forward with Michael Snow's mystifying 42-minute zoom-in, while in the animated category, Canada's National Film Board takes hold of short-form animation and rarely lets go for a couple of decades hence. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: THE GRADUATE (US, Mike Nichols)
(2nd: Playtime (France, Jacques Tati), followed by:
Bonnie and Clyde (US, Arthur Penn)
Weekend (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
In Cold Blood (US, Richard Brooks)
Mouchette (France, Robert Bresson)
Titicut Follies (US, Frederick Wiseman)
Belle de Jour (France, Luis Buñuel)
Point Blank (US, John Boorman)
Bedazzled (UK, Stanley Donen)
Cool Hand Luke (US, Stuart Rosenberg)
Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth) (UK, Roy Ward Baker)
Don’t Look Back (US, D.A. Pennebaker)
Le Samourai (France, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Two For The Road (UK, Stanley Donen)
The Fireman’s Ball (Czechoslovakia, Milos Forman)
Far from the Madding Crowd (UK, John Schlesinger)
In the Heat of the Night (US, Norman Jewison)
The Dirty Dozen (US, Robert Aldrich)
The Jungle Book (US, Wolfgang Reitherman)
Festival (US, Murray Lerner)
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (aka Marat/Sade) (UK, Peter Brook)
The Red and the White (Hungary, Miklós Jancsó)
Accident (UK, Joseph Losey)
The Whisperers (UK, Bryan Forbes)
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
La Collectioneuse (France, Eric Rohmer)
Ulysses (UK, Joseph Strick)
David Holzman's Diary (US, Jim McBride)
Markéta Lazarová (Czechoslovakia, Frantisek Vlácil)
The Anderson Platoon (US, Pierre Schoendoerffer)
Elvira Madigan (Sweden, Bo Widerberg)
Grand Slam (Italy, Giuliano Montaldo)
The Fearless Vampire Killers, or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck (UK/US, Roman Polanski)
The Incident (US, Larry Peerce)
Hell’s Angels on Wheels (US, Richard Rush)
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (US, David Swift)
Beach Red (US, Cornel Wilde)
Our Mother’s House (UK, Jack Clayton)
Portrait of Jason (US, Shirley Clarke)
I am Curious…Yellow (Sweden, Vilgot Sjöman)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (France, Jacques Demy)
La Chinoise (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Warning Shot (US, Buzz Kulik)
Privilege (UK, Peter Watkins)
Hombre (US, Martin Ritt)
To Sir With Love (UK, James Clavell)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (US, Stanley Kramer)
Wait Until Dark (US, Terence Young)
You Only Live Twice (UK, Lewis Gilbert)
The Trip (US, Roger Corman)
I’ll Never Forget What's 'is Name (UK, Michael Winner)
In Like Flint (US, Gordon Douglas)
Mad Monster Party? (US, Jules Bass)
Poor Cow (UK, Ken Loach)
Countdown (US, Robert Altman)
The Night of the Generals (US, Anatole Litvak)
The President's Analyst (US, Theodore J. Flicker)
How I Won the War (UK, Richard Lester)
Camelot (US, Joshua Logan)
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (US, Roger Corman)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (US, John Huston)
Spider Baby (US, Jack Hill))



ACTOR: Dustin Hoffman, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke, followed by: Robert Blake, In Cold Blood; Rod Steiger, In the Heat of the Night; Alain Delon, Le Samourai; Albert Finney, Two for the Road; Warren Beatty, Bonnie and Clyde; Lee Marvin, Point Blank; Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Spencer Tracy, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner)

ACTRESS: Audrey Hepburn, TWO FOR THE ROAD (2nd: Edith Evans, The Whisperers, followed by: Anne Bancroft, The Graduate; Catherine Deneuve, Belle Du Jour; Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde; Nadine Nortier, Mouchette; Audrey Hepburn, Wait Until Dark; Barbara Jefford, Ulysses; Julie Christie, Far From the Madding Crowd; Katharine Hepburn, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) 

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Peter Cook, BEDAZZLED (2nd: Alan Arkin, Wait Until Dark, followed by: Gene Hackman, Bonnie and Clyde; Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke; Scott Wilson, In Cold Blood; John Cassavetes, The Dirty Dozen; George Kennedy, Cool Hand Luke; Michael J. Pollard, Bonnie and Clyde; Peter Finch, Far from the Madding Crowd; Rudy Vallee, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Katherine Ross, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Jo Van Fleet, Cool Hand Luke, followed by: Estelle Parsons, Bonnie and Clyde; Lee Grant, In The Heat of the Night; Haydée Politoff, La Collectionneuse; Eleanor Bron, Bedazzled; Genevieve Page, Belle de Jour; Mildred Natwick, Barefoot in the Park; Carol Channing, Thoroughly Modern Millie)

DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Jacques Tati, Playtime, followed by: Jean-Luc Godard, Weekend; Frederick Wiseman, Titicut Follies; Arthur Penn, Bonnie and Clyde; Luis Bunuel, Belle de Jour; John Boorman, Point Blank; Robert Bresson, Mouchette; Stanley Donen, Bedazzled; Stuart Rosenberg, Cool Hand Luke)



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: PLAYTIME (France, Jacques Tati) (2nd: Weekend (France, Jean-Luc Godard), followed by: Mouchette (France, Robert Bresson); Belle de Jour (France, Luis Buñuel); Le Samourai (France, Jean-Pierre Melville); The Fireman’s Ball (Czechoslovakia, Milos Forman); The Red and the White (Hungary, Miklós Jancsó); 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (France, Jean-Luc Godard); La Collectioneuse (France, Eric Rohmer); Markéta Lazarová (Czechoslovakia, Frantisek Vlácil); Elvira Madigan (Sweden, Bo Widerberg); I am Curious…Yellow (Sweden, Vilgot Sjöman); La Chinoise (France, Jean-Luc Godard))

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: TITICUT FOLLIES (US, Frederick Wiseman) (2nd: Don’t Look Back (US, D.A. Pennebaker), followed by: Festival (US, Murray Lerner); The Anderson Platoon (US, Pierre Schoendoerffer); Portrait of Jason (US, Shirley Clarke))

ANIMATED FEATURE: THE JUNGLE BOOK (US, Wolfgang Reitherman) (2nd: Mad Monster Party? (US, Jules Bass))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: David Newman and Robert Benton, BONNIE AND CLYDE (2nd: Frederic Raphael, Two for the Road, followed by: Nigel Kneale, Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth); Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Sterling Silliphant, In The Heat of the Night)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Richard Brooks, In Cold Blood, followed by: Luis Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere, Belle Du Jour; Alexander Jacobs, David Newhouse, and Rafe Newhouse, Point Blank; Donn Pierce and Frank Pierson, Cool Hand Luke)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: WAVELENGTH (Canada, Michael Snow) (2nd: Report (US, Bruce Conner), followed by: Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (US, George Lucas); A Place to Stand (Canada, Christopher Chapman); The Perfect Human (Denmark, Jorgen Leth); Rail (UK, Geoffrey Jones))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: WHAT ON EARTH! (Canada, Les Drew and Kaj Pindal) (2nd: The House That Jack Built (Canada, Ron Tunis), followed by: Samadhi (US, Jordan Belson); Historia Naturae, Suita (Czechoslovakia, Jan Svankmajer); Everything is a Number (Poland, Stefan Schabenbeck); Marvin Digs (US, Ralph Bakshi))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Surtees, THE GRADUATE (2nd: Conrad Hall, In Cold Blood, followed by: Jean Badal and Andreas Winding, Playtime; Burnett Guffey, Bonnie and Clyde; Nicolas Roeg, Far from the Madding Crowd)

ART DIRECTION: PLAYTIME, The Graduate, You Only Live Twice, Point Blank, Camelot

COSTUME DESIGN: BONNIE AND CLYDE, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Camelot, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, Far From the Madding Crowd

FILM EDITING: BONNIE AND CLYDE, The Graduate, In Cold Blood, Point Blank, In the Heat of the Night 

SOUND: THE DIRTY DOZEN, In the Heat of the Night, Point Blank, Cool Hand Luke, Don't Look Back


ORIGINAL SCORE: Lalo Schifrin, COOL HAND LUKE (2nd: Quincy Jones, In Cold Blood, followed by: Richard Rodney Bennett, Far from the Madding Crowd; Elmer Bernstein, Thoroughly Modern Millie; John Barry, You Only Live Twice)  



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Michel Legrand, THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (2nd: Richard Peaslee, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, followed by: Dudley Moore, Bedazzled; Charles Strouse, Bonnie and Clyde; Alfred Newman and Ken Darby, Camelot)

 

ORIGINAL SONG: “The Look of Love” from CASINO ROYALE (Music by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David) (2nd: “You Only Live Twice” from You Only Live Twice (Music by John Barry, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse), followed by: "To Sir With Love" from To Sir With Love (Music by Mark London, lyrics by Don Black); "In The Heat of the Night" from In the Heat of the Night (Music by Quincy Jones, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman); "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Terry Gilkyson); "Theme from Valley of the Dolls" from Valley of the Dolls (Music by Andre Previn, lyrics by Dore Previn); "I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "Trust in Me" from The Jungle Book (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "Bedazzled" from Bedazzled (Music and lyrics by Dudley Moore); "Fowl Owl on the Prowl" from In the Heat of the Night (Music by Quincy Jones, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman); "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Doolittle (Music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse); "It's The Little Things" from Good Times (Music and lyrics by Sonny Bono))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, Doctor Doolittle

MAKEUP: THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE, You Only Live Twice, Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth)