1968--The Year in Review

An incredible year…maybe my favorite of the decade. Music takes over in a new way, with Head, Oliver!, Yellow Submarine, Monterey Pop, Wild in the Streets, Sympathy for the Devil, Petulia, Funny Girl, and even The Producers. Horror comes into a new age with Targets, Rosemary's Baby, Hour of the Wolf, Night of the Living Dead, Witchfinder General, and The Devil Rides Out. The crime movie is re-imagined with Bullitt, Coogan's Bluff, The Detective, Pretty Poison, The Split, The Thomas Crown Affair, and The Boston Strangler. But one profound, gorgeous movie justifiably towers over all. There are many masterpieces surrounding it–in fact, the first 20 works I list are mandatory viewing. But, for me, this year’s victor will always be the single best film that’s ever been made. There is no question about it. 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: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (UK/US, Stanley Kubrick)
(2nd: Once Upon a Time in the West (US/Italy, Sergio Leone), followed by:
Oliver! (UK, Carol Reed)
Targets (US, Peter Bogdanovich)
Petulia (US, Richard Lester)
The Color of Pomegranates (USSR, Sergei Paradjanov)
Head (US, Bob Rafelson)
Rosemary’s Baby (US, Roman Polanski)
if… (UK, Lindsay Anderson)
Yellow Submarine (UK, George Dunning)
Monterey Pop (US, D.A. Pennebaker)
Night of the Living Dead (US, George A. Romero)
Shame (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
High School (US, Frederick Wiseman)
Faces (US, John Cassavetes)
Bullitt (US, Peter Yates)
Planet of the Apes (US, Franklin J. Schaffner)
Stolen Kisses (France, Francois Truffaut)
Hour of the Wolf (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
Romeo and Juliet (UK/Italy, Franco Zeffirelli)
Mandabi (France/Senegal, Ousmane Sembene)
The Lion in Winter (UK, Anthony Harvey)
Witchfinder General (UK, Michael Reeves)
Les Biches (France, Claude Chabrol)
In the Year of the Pig (US, Emile de Antonio)
The Milky Way (France/Spain, Luis Buñuel)
Rachel, Rachel (US, Paul Newman)
The Swimmer (US, Frank Perry)
Pretty Poison (US, Noel Black)
The Producers (US, Mel Brooks)
Dark of the Sun (UK, Jack Cardiff)
Signs of Life (West Germany, Werner Herzog)
The Odd Couple (US, Gene Saks)
Hell in the Pacific (US, John Boorman)
Wild in the Streets (US, Barry Shear)
Play Dirty (US, André de Toth)
Danger: Diabolik (Italy/France, Mario Bava)
Isadora (UK, Karel Reisz)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (US, William Greaves)
Madigan (US, Don Siegel)
Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, Tomas Gutierrez Aléa)
The Party (US, Blake Edwards)
Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime (France, Alain Resnais)
Sympathy for the Devil (France/UK, Jean-Luc Godard)
Coogan's Bluff (US, Don Siegel)
The Shooting (US, Monte Hellman)
The Split (US, Gordon Flemyng)
The Thomas Crown Affair (US, Norman Jewison)
The Subject Was Roses (US, Ulu Grosbard)
Funny Girl (US, William Wyler)
The Detective (US, Gordon Douglas)
The Devil Rides Out (UK, Terence Fisher)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (US, Robert Ellis Miller)
Greetings (US, Brian De Palma)
The Great Silence (Italy, Sergio Corbucci)
Where Eagles Dare (US, Brian G. Hutton)
Countdown (US, Robert Altman)
Thérèse and Isabelle (France, Radley Metzger)
The Killing of Sister George (UK, Robert Aldrich)
The Night They Raided Minsky’s (US, William Friedkin)
The Boston Strangler (US, Richard Fleischer)
Barbarella (France/UK, Roger Vadim)
Charly (US, Ralph Nelson)
Psych-Out (US, Richard Rush))



ACTOR: Boris Karloff, TARGETS (2nd: Henry Fonda, Once Upon a Time in the West, followed by: Steve McQueen, Bullitt; George C. Scott, Petulia; Alan Arkin, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Peter O’Toole, The Lion in Winter; Vincent Price, Witchfinder General; Zero Mostel, The Producers; Malcolm McDowell, if…; Ron Moody, Oliver!) 

 
ACTRESS: Mia Farrow, ROSEMARY'S BABY (2nd: Joanne Woodward, Rachel, Rachel, followed by: Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter; Tuesday Weld, Pretty Poison; Liv Ullmann, Shame; Vanessa Redgrave, Isadora; Julie Christie, Petulia; Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl; Stéphane Audran, Les Biches; Patricia Neal, The Subject Was Roses)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Gene Wilder, THE PRODUCERS (2nd: Douglas Rain, 2001: A Space Odyssey, followed by: Jack Wild, Oliver!; Roddy McDowall, Planet of the Apes; Harry Secombe, Oliver!; Seymour Cassel, Faces; Jack Albertson, The Subject Was Roses; Kenneth Mars, The Producers; Sidney Blackmer, Rosemary’s Baby; Tim O'Kelly, Targets)



SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Ruth Gordon, ROSEMARY'S BABY (2nd: Lynn Carlin, Faces, followed by: Kim Hunter, Planet of the Apes; Shirley Knight, Petulia; Estelle Parsons, Rachel, Rachel; Sondra Locke, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Billie Whitelaw, Charlie Bubbles; Coral Browne, The Killing of Sister George; Kay Medford, Funny Girl; Lee Remick, The Detective)



DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (2nd: Sergio Leone, Once Upon a Time in the West, followed by: Richard Lester, Petulia; Carol Reed, Oliver!; Sergei Bondarchuck, War and Peace; Sergei Paradjanov, The Color of Pomegranates; Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby; Peter Bogdanovich, Targets; Lindsay Anderson, if...; Bob Rafelson, Head)



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: WAR AND PEACE (USSR, Sergei Bondarchuk) (2nd: The Color of Pomegranates (USSR, Sergei Paradjanov), followed by: Shame (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); Stolen Kisses (France, Francois Truffaut); Hour of the Wolf (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman); Mandabi (France/Senegal, Ousmane Sembene); Les Biches (France, Claude Chabrol); The Milky Way (France/Spain, Luis Buñuel); Signs of Life (West Germany, Werner Herzog); Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, Tomas Gutierrez Aléa); Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime (France, Alain Resnais))

ANIMATED FEATURE: YELLOW SUBMARINE (UK, George Dunning)



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: MONTEREY POP (US, D.A. Pennebaker) (2nd: In the Year of the Pig (US, Emile de Antonio), followed by: High School (US, Frederick Wiseman); Sympathy for the Devil (France/UK, Jean-Luc Godard))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Sergio Leone, Sergio Donati, Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (2nd: Mel Brooks, The Producers, followed by: John Cassavetes, Faces; Ousmane Sembene, Mandabi; Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt, Targets) 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (2nd: Roman Polanski, Rosemary's Baby, followed by: James Goldman, The Lion in Winter; Sergei Bondarchuk and Vasily Solovyov, War and Peace; Lawrence B. Marcus and Barbara Turner, Petulia)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: WHY MAN CREATES (US, Saul Bass) (2nd: The Dove (US, George Coe and Anthony Lover), followed by: Pas de Deux (Canada, Norman McLaren); LBJ (Cuba, Santiago Alvarez); The Big Shave (US, Martin Scorsese))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: WINDY DAY (US, John and Faith Hubley) (2nd: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (US, Wolfgang Reitherman); The Magic Pear Tree (US, Charles Swenson); Mickey Mouse in Vietnam (US, Lee Savage); The Alphabet (US, David Lynch))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Geoffrey Unsworth and John Alcott, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (2nd: Tonino Delli Colli, Once Upon a Time in the West, followed by: Yu-Lan Chan, Anatoly Petritsky, and Aleksandr Shelenkov, War and Peace; Pasquelino De Santis, Romeo and Juliet; Oswald Morris, Oliver!)

ART DIRECTION: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Oliver!, Once Upon A Time in the West, War and Peace, The Shoes of the Fisherman

COSTUME DESIGN: OLIVER!, Romeo and Juliet, War and Peace, The Lion in Winter, Petulia



FILM EDITING: BULLITT, Petulia, Oliver!, Once Upon a Time in the West, Head 

SOUND: BULLITT, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Oliver!, Monterey Pop, The Odd Couple



ORIGINAL SCORE: Ennio Morricone, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (2nd: Jerry Goldsmith, Planet of the Apes, followed by: Krzysztof Komeda, Rosemary’s Baby; Lalo Schifrin, Bullitt; Neal Hefti, The Odd Couple)



ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: John Green, OLIVER! (2nd: George Martin, Yellow Submarine, followed by: Walter Scharf, Funny Girl)



ORIGINAL SONG: "Porpoise Song" from HEAD (Music and lyrics by Gerry Goffin and Carole King) (2nd: "Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers (Music and lyrics by Mel Brooks), followed by: "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (Music by Michael Legrand, lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman); "Circle Sky" from Head (Music and lyrics by Michael Nesmith); "The Shape of Things to Come" from Wild in the Streets (Music and lyrics by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil); "Only a Northern Song" from Yellow Submarine (Music and lyrics by George Harrison); "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman); "It's All Too Much" from Yellow Submarine (Music and lyrics by George Harrison); "As We Go Along" from Head (Music and lyrics by Carole King and Toni Stern); "For the Love of Ivy" for For Love of Ivy (Music by Quincy Jones, lyrics by Bob Russell); "Wild in the Streets" from Wild in the Streets (Music and lyrics by Les Baxter and Guy Hemric); "Barbarella" from Barbarella (Music and lyrics by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox); "Daddy's Song" from Head (Music and lyrics by Harry Nilsson); "Hey Bulldog" from Yellow Submarine (Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Ice Station Zebra

MAKEUP: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Planet of the Apes, Oliver!

Can you stand it, more answers for the Good Professor

Once again, as is his tradition, the good professor--in the very real guise of Dennis Cozallio, author of the esteemed film blog Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule--poses questions for all film bloggers to ponder as the summer turns to autumn. His newest salvo, Professor Dewey Finn's Ostentaciously Odd, Scholastically Scattershot Back-to-School (of Rock?) Movie Quiz, posits 35 brain-jangling movie queries, all of which I, as a monk for the movies, am more than eager to answer:

1) Band without their own movie, from any era, you’d most like to see get the HARD DAY’S NIGHT or HEAD treatment

I first considered The Bay City Rollers, The Beach Boys, Blondie, The Doors, The Geto Boys, The Mamas and the Papas, The Police, The Pretenders, The Runaways, The Ventures and most especially Public Enemy (who really should have already had their own movie--what a bunch of characters they are; certainly my #2 choice, by a thin margin, and Spike Lee is the obvious choice to direct such a project, with Antoine Fuqua a close second). But, in the end, I had to settle on Devo. Just based on their unique videos ("Wonderful World" being my favorite of the bunch), it's evident they could have packed a feature with enough wacked-out new wave oddness to make it both an instant classic and a visual banquet (how hilarious would it have been to have each member, each nearly unrecognizable from one another, be the steward of their own individual scenes). I tried to think of a current band that could fit the mold (other than GWAR or Slipknot, both of whom need to have done a horror movie by now), but I just couldn't come up with one (I tried to envision a Radiohead vehicle directed by, say, Anton Corbjin, but it seemed like it would just be a bunch of moping around). Don't even ask about Insane Clown Posse. I should also add, on a totally up-to-date and indie note, I would easily go with The Woggles. 

2) Oliver Reed or Alan Bates?

Out of Oliver Reed's 45-year career, I've loved The Curse of the Werewolf, I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name, Oliver, Women in Love, The Devils, Tommy (my favorite movie as a kid, though I always thought Reed's hammy performance and bad singing were its one weak point), The Three Musketeers and. I guess, Gladiator.  With Alan Bates and a career that's ongoing on 60 years, I adore The Entertainer, Whistle Down The Wind, Zorba the Greek, Georgy Girl, King of Hearts, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Fixer (for which he got his only Oscar nomination), Women in Love, The Go-Between, The Shout (my favorite of his performances), An Unmarried Woman, The Rose, Brittania Hospital, that HBO version of Separate Tables, and Gosford Park. So, just going by the numbers, Bates would have to win, even though he seems to be less hip then Reed. Still, few actors enjoyed the strong streak Alan Bates had in the 60s and 70s. That said, when Oliver Reed showed up in a movie, you knew there was a specific sort of maniacally dangerous energy lurking there. It's too bad the drink clearly did him in; the movies he chose have largely not stood time's test. 

3) Best thing about the move from physical to streaming media in home video

The pure, nearly miraculous ease of it all. You can start one movie and, if its not fitting to your particular mood at the moment, go ahead and start another one without fear or regret. Depending on the streaming quality, you can see it in better condition than you've ever seen it before. And not having to buy or rent a movie reduces clutter, both physically and mentally, from your life. 

4) Worst thing about the move from physical to streaming media in home video

The lack of a breadth of choices, and the idea that a film's very existence depends on the whims (or legal rights) of those doing the streaming. If a film isn't available to be seen in that venue, it simply disappears. This is why I still have a DVD and even a VHS player--I need at least the impression that all of cinema is there for me to enjoy, at any time I want. VHS is particularly valuable because often when I'm shopping for tapes, I'll come across a title I haven't heard tell of in years and, upon watching it, wonder why more people do not know of it (this usually doesn't require much wondering). I should say here that I also find a certain amount of comfort in actually owning the movie in physical form. I'm not a nut about collecting things, but I am sentimental, and there is something about holding that original video box or whatever that is undeniably magnetic. I also find comfort in still being able to watch something in analog, without the notion that the image I'm taking in is composed of little tiny pixels. I can feel my brain take a little sigh of relief when it isn't requires to put all those little squares together. The sigh grows louder when I watch things projected on film. 

5) Favorite Robin Williams performance

It's difficult to get away from the love I immediately felt for him as Technical Sergeant Garp. He's just so wonderful in George Roy Hill's movie--so early in his career, he really gets to portray the arc of a life in a movie that should have never worked as well as it does. Steve Tesich's script from this complex John Irving novel, is, after his Breaking Away Oscar-winner, the best work of his cut-short output, and the entire cast--Williams chief among them--surely transmit a sense of time's passage (the film is a master class in casting). I watched The World According to Garp again the other night and it played like a trip back in time where I, like Garp, had so much hope for the future--hope for for having a loving family and for achieving as a writer. Now I'm a 47-year-old man--much older than Garp grew to be--and I am a childless pro/amateur writer, so it maybe follows that I now see such superb value in many of Williams' other performances (I was never a fan of his stand-up, which was always too wackily unstoppable for my tastes--George Roy Hill himself gruffly directed Williams to not "give me any of that comedy shit"). I love the intelligence and heart he displays in Good Will Hunting; the malice of his appearances in Dead Again, One Hour Photo, and Christopher Nolan's Insomnia; his supremely emotional desperation in What Dreams May Come and Bill Forsyth's Being Human (an unfairly maligned movie); his utter perfection in Robert Altman's Popeye (seriously...who ELSE could have played this part?); the wild comedy of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (where he really gets to let loose), The Fisher King (ditto, though tempered with lovely drama), Michael Richie's The Survivors (where he maniacally screeches my favorite line of his career: "What kind of man gives cigarettes to trees?"), and of course Mork and Mindy; the sweet realness of Moscow on the Hudson and The Best of Times; the utter darkness of Jakob the Liar and Seize the Day (the latter is maybe his most chancy role), and that unbelievably stark appearance in a 2013 episode of Louie, where he and Louie CK meet in a graveyard and later discuss death over coffee (that's a piece of work I have to take a bit of time before I watch it again, since it seems so ridiculously apropos). It's tempting for me to maybe give the edge to his emotionally crippled doctor in Penny Marshall's Awakenings--another beautifully realized movie I immediately revisited upon Mr. Williams' leave. But given that Robert De Niro also assuredly controls so much of that piece, I still have to stand with Garp. Man. It's all a treasure chest of riches. What a time Williams had, bless his soul.  

6) Second favorite Carol Reed movie

My choice, 1948's The Fallen Idol, is incredibly tense and well-made, with such assured suspense that it's hard to ignore. In these sorts of questions, I like to reveal my first favorite, and in this case, many might assume it's The Third Man. Nope. That's my third favorite (a great movie but a bit cold for me). Instead, I'm an unabashed fan of Oliver! It's a movie I find I can watch over and over, in equal parts jpyfully and soberly, soaking in its terrific splendor and pacing (it didn't deserve the 1968 Best Picture Oscar, but it deserved to come in second). Full disclosure: I just recently watched Night Train to Munich and further realized that Reed is a big blind spot in my movie knowledge. I have lots more of his work to see.  

7) Oddest moment/concept in rock music cinema

Perfect question for me, as I'm just as much of a music fan as I am a movie geek. In 1965's Ski Party, James Brown and the Famous Flames strangely dropping by, decked in oddly full winter garb, to sing "I Got You" for the whitest gathering imaginable certainly qualifies, even if you haven't yet seen the worthwhile Get On Up. Jessie Pearson portraying the Elvis stand-in of the moment in 1963's Bye Bye Birdie is a casting concept I have a very hard time swallowing, since Pearson's a big zero in the charisma department--yet that's probably an effect of square studio execs not understanding rock n' roll yet. Meanwhile, Elvis himself had a heckuva time in so many movies, it's hard to narrow his nadir down to only a few mentions; I'd say his rendition of the execrable "Song of the Shrimp" in Girls! Girls! Girls! and most definitely his dance with Albert, his own Great Dane, in Live a Little, Love a Little deserve recall. We should have Arch Hall Jr's guitaristic horrors in Eegah! as well as Ron Hayback's perfectly terrible score for Ray Dennis Steckler's Batman ripoff Rat Pfink A Boo Boo in the running. Much of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour is unbearably awful, but Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street is equal nonsense, yet it's so much more horribly boring. I've always found it unusual (though perhaps not for the director) that Jean Luc-Godard focused his cameras on the recording of a single track in the Rolling Stones doc Sympathy for the Devil, so I suppose that should be checked. In the positive concept of oddness, we should consider Peter Watkins' trippy, well-framed portrait of a rock star, 1967's Privilege, which is unlike anything ever; Timothy Carey's The World's Greatest Sinner, which is also superbly unique; Barry Shear's Wild in the Streets, with its fantastic Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil song score accompanying the ridiculous tale of a rock star president, played perfectly by Christopher Jones; and finally Animals veteran Alan Price's superbly utilized score for Lindsay Anderson's 1973 tour of all things difficult O Lucky Man!, which still remains the greatest original rock score in cinema history (only Isaac Hayes' Shaft and Stewart Copeland's Rumblefish come close). For me, though, there are only four finalists here. In fourth place, George Englund's 1971 film Zachariah, billed as the first rock n' roll western and certainly something to see (I'm tellin' ya, it's surprisingly entertaining). In third place Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from 1978, a notorious bomb with The Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and just about everyone else in the music business embarrassing themselves with such aplomb you feel sorry for 'em (the ending, with a chorus of 70s stars in full hopeful and dynamic form, is something to be seen). In second place, within a pubic hair's width of first, is Ken Russell's frankly terrible Lisztomania, his follow-up to the also weird but so much more accomplished Tommy, with The Who frontman Roger Daltrey performing works by classical composer Franz Liszt, sometime accompanied by a phalanx of giant penises. But, for me, number one has to be not Phantom of the Paradise or The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but the late Menahem Golan's The Apple. Take it from me and an impassioned cult following: set aside a night, invite all your nuttiest rock star friends, and take in this amazing, nearly unbearably insane tale of a Eurovision contest gone horribly wrong. It's got the Devil, and Adam and Eve and a big ol' oversized fruit in it, and it's unlike anything ever made. You won't have to imbibe even one drop of any substance and you'll be totally on board. The Apple it is. 




8) Favorite movie about growing up
Forgive me if I chime in with the most obvious choice of the moment, but Richard Linklater's Boyhood cannot be denied. The fact that it truthfully portrays the process, not just for boys but for girls too (Lorelei Linklater nearly steals the movie as lead Ellar Coltrane's sister), and that does it in seemingly real time, largely without the trappings of cliched plot, seals the deale for me. Before Boyhood, I would have picked Truffaut's The 400 Blows and maybe George Roy Hill's A Little Romance, Jacques Doillon's Ponette or maybe even the Paradise Lost trilogy by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. But Linklater's movie is clearly something different, and yet extremely relatable. I now am sure it's the film to beat for the 2015 Oscar race, though I do expect a backlash. 

9) Most welcomed nudity, full or partial, in a movie 
I'll never forget sitting through the difficult scenes of Brokeback Mountain, right beside my good friend Brian Matson, and feeling so uncomfortable. We were both two straight guys bravely going to see such a movie together, sans girlfriends. Then, there they were, unexpectedly, in the middle of this absolutely fine film: Anne Hathaway's so-lovely, jiggly, soft breasts (not to mention Michelle Williams' more laconic flesh). Brian and I turned to each other, as Hathaway's fineries hovered over Jake Gyllenhaal for only seconds, and we glanced at each other, without words. saying: "Oh my God! Totally worth the price of admission." I'm not one for Celebrity Skin or any sort of thing like that, but this was a moment that totally moved me. 

10) Least welcomed nudity, nude or partial, in a movie
My guess is that many will note Kathy Bates' hot tub scene in About Schmidt, and I think that's mean, because fat people get nude, too. y'know, and they're not so bad. For this query. I'm going to go for Harvey Keitel in both Bad Lieutenant and then again in the The Piano because, dude, yeah. you show yer all in one movie, but then in another? And one so soon? Gimme a break! Still, I have to say, I love both films, and both performances. 

11) Last movie watched, in a theater, on DVD/Blu-ray, via streaming
The last movie I watched in a theater, all the way through, was Raymond St. Jean's A Chair Fit for an Angel. I sat down for this movie expecting a respectful but average tour through an ancient tradition, the Shakers.What I got was a movie that so moved me with its exacting images and music that I found myself wiping away tears of joy. I have never seen anything like A Chair Fit for an Angel. The director Raymond St. Jean deftly conflates so many art forms in its short running time, it's nearly impossible to put their collective aptitude into words (I might comparethe film to Wim Wender's 3D masterpiece Pina but it moved me so much more than that wonderful work did). Yes, there are talking heads, but they are sparingly used. And yes, there is a narrator, also sparingly used. Sometimes what this film consists of is silent, radiant shots of American and European Shaker environments--often a shot of a chair and table, immaculately made, in an immaculate surrounding, with gorgeous natural light seeping in through a single perfect window pane, the camera moving ever so slowly through it all. And then sometimes the movie is a powerful look at choreographer Taro Saarinen's dichotomous and yet somehow harmonious modern dance, often dynamically filmed and yet sometimes set with a vocalist present, with the dancers out of focus in the background (how luminous is the direction here; it's so hard getting dance to play on screen and yet St. Jean and his cinematographer Jean-Francois Lord do it so brilliantly). And then, as if we needed more, it's a movie that explains the Shakers' spiritual perceptions and their worshipful, artisanal approach to building, say, a simple chair, with a worker there portraying his love for God as he carves another groove. It's a film that truly trips you into another world, all in 75 short minutes, and that is exactly what I look for in movies. On Blu-Ray, the last film I watched was David Lean's always stunning but somehow overlooked A Passage to India. Through streaming, aside from watching some very depressing yet insanely incredible documentaries from the Frontline crew (A Death in St. Augustine and the absolutely unbelievable The Confessions), I last watched Anthony Mann's still riveting Winchester '73. 

12) Second favorite Bertrand Blier movie
Beau Pere, with the late Patrick Dewaere falling for 14-year-old Ariel Besse. A movie that could not be made today. The first would be the Oscar-winning Get Out Your Hankerchiefs, also with Dewaere and with Gerard Depardieu, a movie that more deftly juggles the desire of adults and children. Though I recognize the boundaries, I hate it that children are now seen as beings who have no sexual lives. They clearly do, and it seems so incredibly taboo to admit to such these days. Stranger danger, knowwhutimean? 

13) Googie Withers or Sally Gray?
This seems like a test question, and in this test I fail: I have no opinion either way. 

14) Name a piece of advice derived from a movie or movie character that you’ve heeded in real life
Such an astonishing question.  My immediate reaction is to site Martin Sheen's Willard (and Frederic Forrest's Hicks) from Apocalypse Now: "Never get out of the boat. Goddamn right." I also love Robert De Niro's advise to the young Henry Hill in GoodFellas: "Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut." I try to heroically follow the advise from The Shawshank Redemption as best as I can: "Get busy living or get busy dying," and I suspect this is many movie lovers' favorite aphorism. But ultimately that sound too much like a bumper sticker for me. I believe the one piece of advise that has done more for me than any other comes from Larry Gelbart's screenplay for Oh, God! In it, undervalued grocery store manager Jerry Landers (John Denver) is faced with God Himself occupying his bathroom one morning. Jerry doesn't know what to do, and God (George Burns) advises that he shave. Jerry is nervous, and God is sympathetic, so He counsels: "Sometimes when you don't feel normal, doing a normal thing makes you feel normal." Having not felt so normal many a time, on many a morning, I can't express to you how often this thought has come to my aid.  

15) Favorite movie about learning
There are so many movies that wrestle with the subject, one has to separate those that deal with learning about life from learning about a particular subject. For the purposes of this question, I'm going to separate the "life" thing from more specific knowledge. My first thought goes towards James Bridges' The Paper Chase, which really gets the unrelenting yet somehow freeing pressure of law school down pat. Ramon Menendez's Stand and Deliver understands hammering down math, even under difficult circumstances, pretty correct. The French film from 2002, Nicholas Philibert's To Be and To Have is one of the most overwhelmingly emotional  films ever to be made about being both a elementary teacher and a student (a subject that is rarely touched upon). I l0ve Alan Parker's 1980 film Fame so much because it so finely and frantically gets pat the joys and frustrations of wildly unpredictable performing arts training. And Lewis Gilbert's Educating Rita, with those incredible leads from Julie Walters and Michael Caine, absolutely nails the pursuit of literary enrichment. However, ultimately, I have to settle wholly upon Ira Wohl's 1979 documentary Best Boy. Once you experience Philly, Mr. Wohl's charismatic 50-something-year-old cousin, as he finally learns to live on his own without the help of his aged but loving parents, you will get a new sense of what constitutes an education. Ira Wohl's Oscar-winning documentary is intimate and so real, it's miraculously like nothing else photographed. It's one of my favorite movies ever. 

16) Program a double bill of movies that were announced but, for one reason or another, never made. These could be projects cancelled outright, or films that were made, but at one time had different directors, stars, etc., attached--and your "version" of the film might be the one with that lost director, for example
A complex question--one for a true movie geek. Of course, the one movie that stands out--the one unproduced movie that I wish I could see--is Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon. Given that one could sit through such a double feature, I would pair it with Stanley Kubrick's Wartime Lies, his Holocaust nonstarter. I would go on to another double--just to be weird--Marilyn Monroe's Something's Got To Give with David Lynch's long-gestating Ronnie Rocket. 

17) Oddest mismatch of director and material
This is easy for me. Sidney Lumet with The Wiz. How did THAT happen???

18) Favorite performance by your favorite character actor
Without going though the entire history of character actors (which is a pretty rich bunch), I have to go with my first choice. M. Emmet Walsh is an astounding actor. When I see his jowly face, I sense an undeniable power. I remember him as the snarky coach in Ordinary People, the wild sniper in The Jerk, a desperate family man in Bound for Glory, a cop in Serpico, a court officer in What's Up Doc?, a bus driver in Micky and Nicky, a suspicious parole supervisor in Straight Time (he's so incredible in that role), Deckerd's boss in Blade Runner, a deadbeat in Cannery Row, a company man in Silkwood, a blustery politico in Reds, a doctor in Fletch, another coach in Back to School, a gum-chewing machine shop worker in Raising Arizona, a straight-talking alcoholic's sponsor in Clean and Sober (my second favorite of his performances), a detective in The Glass Shield and an elderly father in Youth in Revolt. Even with all this, my favorite performance from Mr. Walsh is from Blood Simple, where he stands sweaty and tall in a yellow suit throughout. At turns nervous, confident, suspicious, vulgar and tough, his show in the Coen Brothers' breakthrough movie is something cut out of cinema history. He should have won the Oscar that year. 

19) Favorite chase scene
No contest. There is nothing like the 40-minute climax that tops H.B. Halicki's Gone in 60 Seconds from 1974. You can name all the rest...Bullitt, The French Connection, The Seven-Ups. maybe even To Live and Die in L.A. and We Own The Night, and yes, even Return of the Jedi and The Matrix Reloaded, and more I haven't even considered. But nothing can top Halicki's remarkable, nearly homemade epic that seems like it was filmed without any pesky supervision. There's many a wicked wreck here there that seems totally unplanned, and that Halicki was the lead driver makes Gone in 60 Seconds so much more stunning. It's absolutely literally a movie that could not be made today. A note: Halicki died performing a stunt for a later movie, The Junkman. What a legend he is.

20) Movie most people might not have seen that you feel like proselytizing about right now

Quoting from my own website filmicabilty: "In Targets, Peter Bogdanovich’s sobering look at the varying distances between fantasy and modern horror, Boris Karloff portrays Byron Orlock, an embittered old screamfest idol who’s announced his retirement from Hollywood because he's sure the real world has become scarier than any of the cheapos he’s been making. While he’s in L.A. for the drive-in premiere of his last film, one of these worrisome true-life horrors is unveiling in another part of the city, as the all-American Thompson family is too busy with the daily grind to notice the breakdown going on inside the head of their Ken-doll son, Bobby (Tim O’Kelly). Byron’s and Bobby’s worlds collide, but not before Bogdanovich stages one startling act of violence after another. No movie, ever, has matched Targets for vile, matter-of-fact depictions of random gun violence (though there’s very little blood). We quiver, matching Bobby short-breath-by-short-breath at his every pull of the trigger. Adding salt to open wounds, the director shoots this berserking in an unforgettable quasi-documentary style (the scene with Bobby taking potshots at highway-bound cars while munching on a Baby Ruth will make you wince)." It's a movie about guns, made way before guns became a hot button issue. But really it's a movie that sees the drying up of personal relations--or more just a scary sort of soulessness lingering in the air--as the more serious problem. 

21) Favorite movie about high school
I'm not gonna get all John Hughes on ya. My single favorite movie about high school is Renee Daalder's Massacre at Central High, from 1976. It's surreal but yet feel so authentic. Derrel Maury plays a sallow-faced newcomer at school who finds that there's a brutal hierarchy he can barely surmount. When he bests the most popular at the school, he's left to discover that the new ruling party is worse than the old. Beautifully exploitational, surprisingly violent, and also shockingly gentle, it stands as the one high school movie that has cache way beyond its standing. It feels like a movie about life rather than one about a part of life. As that it's not readily available in America (it's a film without any adults in it, and one that concludes explosively), it also feels like a movie that has been repressed in the US. 

22) Favorite Lauren Bacall performance
An astounding output. To go from Howard Hawks to Lars Von Trier? How can that be done? She's obviously the person who taught us how to whistle (in Hawks' To Have and To Have Not), but I think her best moments came late in her career. Given her roles in Streisand's The Mirror Has Two Faces, Siegel's The Shootist, and Von Trier's Dogville, I have to go with her portrayal of Nicole Kidman's dazzled mother in Jonathan Glazer's Birth as her finest moment. Even so, you can surely put your lips together and blow... 

23) David Farrar or Roger Livesey?
Roger Livesay. I feel like I've gotten this question before.

24) Performance most likely to get overlooked during the upcoming awards season
Tilda Swinton in Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer.  What an amazing and ludicrously large performance!! Robin Wright's superior performance in The Congress would be my second choice (with Danny Huston's malevolent support in the same film coming in third).

25) Rock musician who, with the right project, could have been a movie star
Many might say Jim Morrison, whom I find indescribably boring. I would instead go with Scott Walker, who has a better voice and a more appealing look, though many wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup. On another day, I might choose Queen's Freddie Mercury or The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde. 

26) Second favorite Ted Post movie
He was mostly a TV director, but being pressed, I would have to say Magnum Force, the excellent second entry in the Dirty Harry series. My favorite of his films would have to be the now forgotten Vietnam drama Go Tell The Spartans from 1978, with hawk Burt Lancaster commanding a reluctant Craig Wasson. I fully expect many votes, however, for Chuck Norris' Good Guys Wear Black, just 'cuz that's the world we live in now. 

27) Favorite odd couple
Harry, an old man played by Art Carney, and Tonto, an orange cat. (Paul Mazursky, 1974) 

28) Flicker or Zeroville?
I've read neither.  I get my fiction from movies, and I read  mostly non-fiction. Neither have been made into movies. Thus I know nothing about either title. 

29) Favorite movie about college
From at least seven years before I actually entered college in 1984, the single best movie about the institution has been National Lampoon's Animal House. Yes, I could be all high and mighty and mention The Social Network (which is pretty dour stuff), The Paper Chase (very bright but also very serious), Horse Feathers, Harold Lloyd's The Freshman, Frederic Wiseman's At Berkeley, the little-loved A Small Circle of Friends, Love Story, Revenge of the Nerds, Breaking Away (which really looks askance at college) or Wonder Boys. But Animal House stands as exactly the same sex-laden, booze-sodden experience everyone is trying to recreate in their college years. No one's trying to study all the time, but everyone is sure as fuck trying to party all the time, and that's where the real connections occur, and you know it's true. John Landis' movie is like no other--it's the perfect distillation of the Lampoon mentality, dripped down from the steps leading up to each Harvard building that housed the greatest comedy minds of the 70s and 80s. Ask someone if they've ever been put on double secret probation and see what they say. National Lampoon's Animal House is and probably always will be the college movie to measure all others by. However, if you're a parent, you might wanna skip showing this one to your kids (although I have no viable alternative to screen for them in its place). 

30) In a specific movie full of memorable turns, your favorite underappreciated performance
It seems fair to say that, in a movie like Network, for which Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, William Holden, Ned Beatty and Beatrice Strait were all nominated for Oscars, it's a shame that Robert Duvall as the greasily aggressive UBS exec out for a "big-titted" hit was left behind. 

31) Favorite movie about parenting
It's an unpopular choice, I guess, but I have to stick with Kramer Vs. Kramer, which I think changed the nature of American parenting from top to bottom. Before Robert Benton's movie--which was the biggest hit of 1979-- no one gave a crap about how they raised their dang kid or how in what manner their adult lives were wafting onto their progeny. After Kramer Vs, Kramer, everyone was like "How does this affect my kid?" and "Am I gonna have enough time for them?" and "Am I doing the right thing?" and "I know I'm a parent, but what more can I do?" I don't necessarily think this sort of foofaraw was right for parenting as a whole (I'm not a parent so what do I know?). But I do see Kramer Vs. Kramer as being pre-Reagan-era ground zero for Parenting 101. 

32) Susannah York or Sarah Miles?
I love Sarah Miles in Ryan's Daughter; she makes me weep with her longing. But Susannah York brings so many more emotions with her performance in Robert Altman's Images (not to mention her showings in They Shoot Horses, Don't They and The Silent Partner). Her so vividly-played emotional breakdown (what screams she has!!) in Altman's movie, paired with her writing of the children's novel portrayed in the film, ensures her victory here.

33) Movie which best evokes the sense of place in a region with which you are well familiar
Eric Weston's Marvin and Tige is still the best movie that capture my hometown of Atlanta, Ga. In it, we see downtown Atlanta as it once was. We see the lighting of the Rich's Christmas tree. We see Six Flags Over Georgia, with leads John Cassavetes (only a few months before he passed away) and newcomer Gilbran Brown riding the Six Flags' Scream Machine together (apparently in the winter time). We see the Atlanta Fish Market, and we see Peachtree Center. We see the Fairlie-Poplar district, which would later be portrayed in the opening segments of The Walking Dead. We see the midtown district before it was razed for more upscale concerns. We see Piedmont Park as it still remains, and we see Central City Park before it was redesigned. We see co-star Billy Dee Williams, shortly after portraying Lando Calrissian, sharing the frame with Cassavetes both at the Omni and at Grady Hospital. This movie was nearly the last film Cassavetes shot before his death, and you can feel that ghost that over its every frame (it's the actor's finest performance). That he shared it all with newcomer Brown is something that I will always treasure as one of Atlanta's great victories. I love that Cassavetes' Shadows--one of the very first truly independent movies, made in the late 50s--was about race relations, and that one of Cassavetes' final films--shot in Atlanta--was about a old white man forging a gentle friendship with a young black boy (he must have transmitted much to his young co-star, given the fellowship seen here). Marvin and Tige is a movie I discovered as an Atlanta teen, and it's one that which I have passed on to my family and to anyone else I love, particularly those who adore this city as I do. 

34) Name a favorite actor from classic movies and the contemporary performer who most evokes their presence/stature/talent
James Stewart and Tom Hanks

35) Your favorite hot streak of any director
Leaving out any directors that I don't think have had any sort of a "cold streak" (see this article), I have settled on a streak of ten films:  
M*A*S*H* (1970) 
Brewster McCloud (1970) 
McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971) 
Images (1972) 
The Long Goodbye (1973) 
Thieves Like Us (1974) 
California Split (1974) 
Nashville (1975) 
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976) 
3 Women (1977) 
A Wedding (1978) 
Director: Robert Altman

10 Scary Possibilities for Halloween

For Halloween, 2010, I offer clips (and, thus, suggestions) of the most mortifying cinematic offerings out there. Gird your loins, and here we go (and spoilers abound so BE WARNED):


JIGOKU (Nobuo Nakagawa, 60).
It's scarier without the subtitles, this unbelievable preview for a bloody tour through Hell. Watch it only if you're brave.


QUATERMASS AND THE PIT/FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH (Roy Ward Baker, 67).
This trailer chronicles the path to an ultimate destination for the Brits' famed Professor Quatermass, finally faced with more than he can handle in this masterpiece of sci-fi/horror from the recently deceased Hammer veteran Roy Ward Baker. This is a must for any horror fan.


THEATER OF BLOOD (Douglas Hickox, 73).
A truly magnificent fan-made trailer for Vincent Price's greatest performance on screen. Michael J. Lewis' brilliant theme music takes center stage here. See this one for smarts, laffs, and scares.


HOUR OF THE WOLF (Ingmar Bergman, 68).
A brilliantly constructed trailer for Bergman's one true horror film. As you might expect, there's nothing like it out there.


RINGU (Hideo Nakata, 98).
The incredible cursed videotape, in its entirety.


THE OLD DARK HOUSE (James Whale, 32).
Houseguest Gloria Stuart is put through the ringer by nasty Eva Moore in this radical scare scene from horror master James Whale.


TARGETS (Peter Bogdanovich, 68).
Boris Karloff, as near-retirement horror star Byron Orlock, tells a frightening tale. In its last moments, director/writer Bogdanovich told Karloff to concentrate on the idea of his own death. Karloff did the scene in one take, to crew applause. His final seconds here, pondering his own upcoming time in the grave, cemented Karloff's standing as the continuing King of Horror.


AT MIDNIGHT, I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL (Jose Mojica Marins, 64).
An opening credits sequence that'll curdle the blood before the story even begins. That Coffin Joe! What a character!


PHANTASM (Don Coscarelli, 79).
While prowling the Morningside Funeral Home, Michael Baldwin tries to escape from the mysterious, evil Silver Sphere. It may look funny here, but it's horrifying in the context of this relentlessly unsettling film.


IMAGES (Robert Altman, 72).
Susannah York won Best Actress at Cannes in '72 for playing this extremely unbalanced author on holiday with her husband...or...whoever it is. You'll know immediately this is a horror film: simply listen to John Williams' singular, Oscar-nominated score. This movie, and York's screams, will prevent you from sleep.

A Cinema Gallery: 200 Images, Part 4

36 color additions to my gallery of 200 screen images! This far in, I strangely feel myself getting way more personal in my choices. There might be what're considered SPOILERS here. By the way, I'll tag five more film bloggers--as is my requirement--at the end of Part 6 in a few days. Arriving at 140 images this time, here we have:

At the movies, a man seems to thank God for his true love in Breaking the Waves. (Lars Von Trier, 96; PHOTOG: Robby Muller)

Only one car remains at L.A.'s Receda Drive-In following the dire day in Targets. (Peter Bogdanovich, 68; PHOTOG: Laszlo Kovacs)

The director, as a child, acknowledges his debt to both stage and screen in the first shot of Fanny and Alexander. (Ingmar Bergman, 83; PHOTOG: Sven Nykvist)

The triptych climaxes. Napoleon. (Abel Gance, 27; PHOTOG: Leonce-Henri Burel, Nikolai Toporkoff, Jules Kruger, Jean-Paul Mundviller)

Jessica Harper can see right through you in her character’s stunning audition for the Phantom of the Paradise. (Brian De Palma, 74; PHOTOG: Larry Pizer)

Jett Rink surveys his new spread in Giant. (George Stevens, 56; PHOTOG: William C. Mellor)

Cheryl Barnes delivers one of the screen’s great one-scene performances, singing “Easy to Be Hard” in Hair. (Milos Forman, 79; PHOTOG: Miroslav Ondricek)

“Will you play me?“ Napoleon Dynamite. (Jared Hess, 2004; PHOTOG: Munn Powell)

Passing a cemetery, Harold can hardly wait to die as Cat Stevens' "Trouble" acts as score in Harold and Maude. (Hal Ashby, 71; PHOTOG: John A. Alonzo)

The new France shows only a reflection of the old in Playtime. (Jacques Tati, 67; PHOTOG: Jean Badal, Andreas Winding)

A political hit. Z. (Costa-Gavras, 69; PHOTOG: Raoul Coutard)

A romantic picnic at Lake Berryessa, now gone awry. Zodiac. (David Fincher, 2007; PHOTOG: Harris Savides)

One form of misguided, mistreated evil comes slowly into focus in Elephant. (Gus Van Sant, 2003; PHOTOG: Harris Savides)

The final train, coming ‘round the nighttime bend in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. (Andrew Dominick, 2007; PHOTOG: Roger Deakins)

Things are about to change in Cache. (Michael Haneke, 2005; PHOTOG: Christian Berger)

The princess from a newfound land joyfully cartwheels in The New World. (Terrence Malick, 2005; PHOTOG: Emmanuel Lubezki)

Eleanor does her final stunt in Gone in 60 Seconds. (H.B. Halicki, 74; PHOTOG: Scott Lloyd-Davies, Jack Vacek)

Shared dream. 3 Women. (Robert Altman, 77; PHOTOG: Charles Rosher Jr.)

A family jaunts about the dead in Oh! What A Lovely War! (Richard Attenborough, 69; PHOTOG: Gerry Turpin)

Only a flesh wound. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, 75; PHOTOG: Terry Bedford)

“How can there be any sin in sincere?“ The town council finally finds common ground in The Music Man. (Morton De Costa, 62; PHOTOG: Robert Burks)

John Glenn’s stupendous orbit of our planet. The Right Stuff. (Philip Kaufman, 83; PHOTOG: Caleb Deschanel)

Peter Ustinov's foolish Nero fiddles as you-know-what burns. Quo Vadis. (Mervyn LeRoy, 51; PHOTOG: William V. Skall, Robert Surtees)

A colorful dirge. The Masque of the Red Death. (Roger Corman, 64; PHOTOG: Nicolas Roeg)

The Tingler. (William Castle, 59; PHOTOG: Wilfred M. Cline)

The Fab Four play to Ed Sullivan’s hysterical audience, and to a historical TV viewership, in I Wanna Hold Your Hand. (Robert Zemeckis, 78; PHOTOG: Donald M. Morgan)

War and Peace. (Sergei Bondarchuk, 68; PHOTOG: Anatoli Petrisky, Aleksandr Shelenkov, Iolanda Chen)

A doomed victim sinks in Fellini Satyricon. (Federico Fellini, 69; PHOTOG: Giuseppe Rotunno)

The rules on how to live a moral life come down in The Ten Commandments. (Cecil B. DeMille, 56; PHOTOG: Loyal Griggs)

Make your choice. The Matrix. (Andy and Larry (Lara) Wachowski, 99; PHOTOG: Bill Pope)

Bright flowers on acid in Easy Rider. (Dennis Hopper, 69; PHOTOG: Laszlo Kovacs)

“Is it okay if I call you mine?“ Fame. (Alan Parker, 80; PHOTOG: Michael Seresin)

Roped for stealing salt in The Man from Laramie. (Anthony Mann; 55; PHOTOG: Charles Lang)

The Roxanne Tango in Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001; PHOTOG: Donald McAlpine)

Our last moment together for a while. Wendy and Lucy. (Kelly Reichardt, 2008; PHOTOG: Sam Levy)

“Captain, I don’t know how you feel about this shrimp, but if you’ll eat it, you’ll never have to prove your courage in any other way.“ Apocalypse Now. (Francis Ford Coppola, 79; PHOTOG: Vittorio Storaro)

If you wanna make any comments, click on the comments rundown in red. And if you want to see what's been noted so far:

Part One of this six-part series is right here,
Part Two is here,
and Part Three is here.

Next time: 30 more black-and-white images!