1972--The Year in Review

This one was WAY easy, even though its competitors were imposingly large. But how could it go any other direction? By the way, I see Brando’s Vito Corleone as a supporting performance, so I voted as such (and this allowed me to give Klaus Kinski his due). I feel sorry that Bergman’s resilient Cries and Whispers didn’t fare better in my ballot, though; but, really, are we to give this greatest of filmmakers the top prize each and every year? Incidentally, my tie vote for supporting actress is only my fifth tie in all of the ballots I’ve put forth. I just could not choose between Ms. Winters (who, with her physicality and voice, makes me laugh and cry every time I see The Poseidon Adventure) and Ms. Berlin (who manages to make an irritating character also undeniably lovable and, with her final scene, pitiable). And now I confess: The Poseidon Adventure is defiantly one of my favorites, as a child and as an adult; it may seem cheesy, but I love it, and I think it has a profoundly moral undercurrent to it, so I encourage you all to check it out again, because it’s terrifically entertaining, strongly crafted on all levels, but it also has a mean religious umph. I confess also to a special connection with Robert Altman's Images, a totally forgotten masterpiece of psychological horror that needs to be rediscovered by all genre fans (and I could not give the top award to Liza Minnelli--as great as she is--with Susannah York's descent into madness right there in front)! As for the short films, Chantal Ackerman's epic 360-degree pan bests the likes of Eames, Brakhage, and Anger, while Japan's Oni remains a major jawdropper in the realm of stop-motion animation. 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 GODFATHER (US, Francis Ford Coppola)
(2nd: Cabaret (US, Bob Fosse)
followed by: Cries and Whispers (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)
Deliverance (US, John Boorman)
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (West Germany, Werner Herzog)
Solaris (USSR, Andrei Tarkovsky)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (France, Luis Buñuel)
Images (Ireland/US, Robert Altman)
Last Tango in Paris (France, Bernardo Bertolucci)
What’s Up, Doc? (US, Peter Bogdanovich)
The Candidate (US, Michael Ritchie)
The Poseidon Adventure (US, Ronald Neame)
The Heartbreak Kid (US, Elaine May)
Tomorrow (US, Joseph Anthony)
Sleuth (UK, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Bad Company (US, Robert Benton)
Slaughterhouse-Five (US, George Roy Hill)
Marjoe (US, Sarah Kernochan and Howard Smith)
The Other (US, Robert Mulligan)
Frenzy (UK, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Harder They Come (Jamaica, Perry Henzell)
Fat City (US, John Huston)
The King of Marvin Gardens (US, Bob Rafelson)
Play It Again, Sam (US, Herbert Ross)
State of Siege (France, Costa-Gavras)
Chloe in the Afternoon (France, Eric Rohmer)
Prime Cut (US, Michael Ritchie)
Pink Flamingos (US, John Waters)
Sounder (US, Martin Ritt)
Malcolm X (US, Arnold Perl and Melvin Worth)
The Ruling Class (UK, Peter Medak)
Hickey and Boggs (US, Robert Culp)
Super Fly (US, Gordon Parks)
Across 110th Street (US, Barry Shear)
The New Land (Sweden, Jan Troell)
Cisco Pike (US, Bill L. Norton)
Pocket Money (US, Stuart Rosenberg)
Elvis on Tour (US, Pierre Adidge and Robert Abel)
Tales from the Crypt (UK, Freddie Francis)
The Cowboys (US, Mark Rydell)
Manson (US, Robert Henderson and Lawrence Merrick)
Lady Sings the Blues (US, Sidney J. Furie)
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (US, Paul Newman)
The New Centurions (US, Richard Fleischer)
Ulzana’s Raid (US, Robert Aldrich)
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Junior Bonner (US, Sam Peckinpah)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (US, Woody Allen)
Pete 'n' Tillie (US, Martin Ritt)
Ludwig (Italy, Luchino Visconti)
The Getaway (US, Sam Peckinpah)
The Offence (UK, Sidney Lumet)
The Seduction of Mimi (Italy, Lina Wertmuller)
Fellini Roma (Italy, Federico Fellini)
Jeremiah Johnson (US, Sydney Pollack)
Boxcar Bertha (US, Martin Scorsese)
The Hot Rock (US, Peter Yates)
Fillmore (US, Richard T. Heffron)
Young Winston (UK, Richard Attenborough)
1776 (US, Peter Hunt)
La Vallée (France, Barbet Schroeder)
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (UK, Robert Fuest)
Snoopy Come Home (US, Bill Melendez)
The Mechanic (US, Michael Winner)
The Big Bird Cage (US, Jack Hill)
Kansas City Bomber (US, Jerrold Freedman)
The War Between Men and Women (US, Melville Shavelson)
Last House on the Left (US, Wes Craven)
Deep Throat (US, Gerard Damiano))

ACTOR:  Klaus Kinski, AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (2nd: Marlon Brando, Last Tango in Paris, followed by: Al Pacino, The Godfather; Robert Duvall, Tomorrow; Woody Allen, Play It Again, Sam; Peter O’Toole, The Ruling Class; Charles Grodin, The Heartbreak Kid; Michael Caine, Sleuth; Laurence Olivier, Sleuth; Robert Redford, The Candidate)

ACTRESS: Susannah York, IMAGES (2nd: Liza Minnelli, Cabaret, followed by: Liv Ullmann, Cries and Whispers; Diana Ross, Lady Sings the Blues; Ingrid Thulin, Cries and Whispers; Barbra Streisand, What’s Up, Doc?; Cicely Tyson, Sounder; Olga Bellin, Tomorrow; Joanne Woodward, The Effect of Gamma-Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Marlon Brando, THE GODFATHER (won as Best Actor) (2nd: Joel Grey, Cabaret, followed by: Ned Beatty, Deliverance; Robert Duvall, The Godfather; James Caan, The Godfather; Eddie Albert, The Heartbreak Kid; Burt Reynolds, Deliverance; David Lochary, Pink Flamingos; Peter Cushing, Tales From the Crypt; Bruce Dern, The Cowboys) 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: (TIE) Jeanne Berlin, THE HEARTBREAK KID and Shelley Winters, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (2nd: Harriet Andersson, Cries and Whispers, followed by: Diane Keaton, Play It Again, Sam; Madeline Kahn, What’s Up, Doc?; Susan Tyrell, Fat City; Valerie Perrine, Slaughterhouse-Five; Diane Keaton, The Godfather; Eileen Heckart, Butterflies Are Free)

DIRECTOR: Francis Ford Coppola, THE GODFATHER (2nd: Bob Fosse, Cabaret, followed by: Ingmar Bergman, Cries and Whispers; Werner Herzog, Aguirre, The Wrath of God; Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris; John Boorman, Deliverance; Bernardo Bertolucci, Last Tango in Paris; Luis Bunuel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie; Robert Altman, Images; George Roy Hill, Slaughterhouse-Five)



NON-ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM: CRIES AND WHISPERS (Sweden, Ingmar Bergman) (2nd: Aguirre, The Wrath of God (West Germany, Werner Herzog), followed by: Solaris (USSR, Andrei Tarkovsky); The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (France, Luis Buñuel); State of Siege (France, Costa-Gavras); Chloe in the Afternoon (France, Eric Rohmer); The New Land (Sweden, Jan Troell); The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder); Ludwig (Italy, Luchino Visconti); The Seduction of Mimi (Italy, Lina Wertmuller))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: MARJOE (Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan) (2nd: Malcolm X (Arnold Perl and Melvin Worth), followed by: Manson (Robert Henderson and Lawrence Merrick); Elvis on Tour (Pierre Adidge and Robert Abel); Fillmore (Richard T. Heffron))

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Ingmar Bergman, CRIES AND WHISPERS (2nd: Luis Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, followed by: Jeremy Larner, The Candidate; Werner Herzog, Aguirre, The Wrath of God; Peter Bogdanovich, Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton, What’s Up, Doc?)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:  Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, THE GODFATHER (2nd: Jay Presson Allen, Cabaret, followed by: Neil Simon, The Heartbreak Kid; James Dickey, Deliverance; Horton Foote, Tomorrow)



LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: LA CHAMBRE (Belgium, Chantal Akerman) (2nd: Design Q & A (US, Charles and Ray Eames), followed by: OffOn (US, Scott Bartlett); Lucifer Rising (US, Kenneth Anger); The Process (US, Stan Brakhage))



ANIMATED SHORT FILM: ONI (Japan, Kihachiro Kawamoto) (2nd: Leonardo’s Diary (Czechoslovakia, Jan Svankmajer), followed by: Matrix III (US, John Whitney); Kama Sutra Rides Again (UK, Bob Godfrey); Our Lady of the Sphere (US, Larry Jordan))

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Gordon Willis, THE GODFATHER (2nd: Sven Nykvist, Cries and Whispers, followed by: Vittorio Storaro, Last Tango in Paris; Geoffrey Unsworth, Cabaret; Vilmos Zsigmond, Deliverance) 

ART DIRECTION: CABARET, The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure, Cries and Whispers, Sleuth

COSTUME DESIGN: CABARET, The Godfather, Cries and Whispers, Ludwig, Lady Sings the Blues

FILM EDITING: THE GODFATHER, Cabaret, Deliverance, The Candidate, The Poseidon Adventure 

SOUND: CABARET, The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure, Images, The Candidate



ORIGINAL SCORE: John Williams, IMAGES (2nd: Nino Rota, The Godfather, followed by: Curtis Mayfield, Super Fly; John Williams, The Poseidon Adventure; Jerry Goldsmith, The Other) 

 
ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Ralph Burns, CABARET (2nd: Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker and Toots Hibbert, The Harder They Come, followed by: Gil Askey, Lady Sings the Blues)



ORIGINAL SONG: “The Harder They Come” from THE HARDER THEY COME (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Cliff) (2nd: “Super Fly” from Super Fly (Music and lyrics by Curtis Mayfield), followed by: "Freddie's Dead" from Super Fly (Music and lyrics by Curtis Mayfield); "You Can Get It If You Really Want" from The Harder They Come (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Cliff); "Trouble Man" from Trouble Man (Music and lyrics by Marvin Gaye); "Many Rivers to Cross" from The Harder They Come (Music and lyrics by Jimmy Cliff); “Money“ from Cabaret (Music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb); “Across 110th Street“ from Across 110th Street (Music and lyrics by Bobby Womack); “The Morning After” from The Poseidon Adventure (Music and lyrics by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschorn); “Mein Herr” from Cabaret (Music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb); "Pressure Drop" from The Harder They Come (Music and lyrics by Toots Hibbert); “Ben” from Ben (Music by Walter Scharf, lyrics by Don Black)

SPECIAL EFFECTS: THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, Solaris 

MAKEUP: THE GODFATHER, Cabaret, 1776

A Cinema Gallery: 200 Images, Part 6

It took me a while to arrive at the last 30 screen caps for my CINEMA GALLERY series. I've been quite impressed with the other film bloggers that have joined in on this notion, and wish I could've lighted on as specific a set of themes as they did (their choices, linked to here at the end of MovieMan's piece, all look so swell together). However, in the end, I just had to go with "images that have moved me" as through-line. And I know I promised to tag some fellow bloggers at around this moment, but I think I'll ride with that old cop-out and wish that, if you're a reader and a writer, too, then come on and join in. This way, I save myself from being disappointed if those I tag decide they're too busy or somethin'. Anyway, after a week of deliberation, these are the 30 images that I've settled on as climax to a promised 200. I chose these frames simply because every one of them are dear to my heart. Click on the images for blow-ups, and feast away:

A mother says a special goodnight to her son in Kramer Vs. Kramer. (Robert Benton, 79; PHOTOG: Nestor Almendros)

A family and a frame is being torn apart in Bigger Than Life. (Nicolas Ray, 56; PHOTOG: Joe MacDonald)

The tribesmen dot the horizon, ready for attack in Zulu. (Cy Endfield, 64; PHOTOG: Stephen Dade)

A man fades into the landscape in Electra Glide in Blue. (James William Guercio, 73; PHOTOG: Conrad Hall)

Only one way to go for The Long Riders. (Walter Hill, 80; PHOTOG: Ric Waite) 

Recording the night in Blow Out. (Brian De Palma, 81; PHOTOG: Vilmos Zsigmond)

Try to get the title tune out of your head once you've heard it. I Love to Singa. (Tex Avery, 36)

The miraculous Claire. (Milford Thomas, 2001; PHOTOG: Jonathan Mellinger)

"And I was saved..." Men Don’t Leave. (Paul Brickman, 90; PHOTOG: Bruce Surtees)

"My cat can eat a whooolle watermelon!" Rubin and Ed. (Trent Harris, 91; PHOTOG: Bryan Duggan)

An impossible fall over Chicago. The Blues Brothers. (John Landis, 80; PHOTOG: Stephen M. Katz)

A big stunt, done in one take. The Poseidon Adventure (Ronald Neame, 72; PHOTOG: Harold E. Stine)

Christopher Walken misbehaves in Pennies From Heaven. (Herbert Ross, 81; PHOTOG: Gordon Willis) 

Cary Grant at his most incredulous in Arsenic and Old Lace. (Frank Capra, 44; PHOTOG: Sol Polito)

A charming Cyclops from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (Nathan Juran, 58; PHOTOG: Wilkie Cooper; SFX: Ray Harryhausen)

The director wastes some time in Schitzopolis. (Steven Soderburgh, 96; PHOTOG: Steven Soderburgh)

I could watch this shot a thousand times and still chuckle: Aubrey shows off his restaurant's decor in Life is Sweet. (Mike Leigh, 90; PHOTOG: Dick Pope)

8mm home movies recount a family odyssey. Disneyland Dream. (Robbins Barstow, 56)

I laughed so hard I thought my head would explode: John Candy in a Devil suit. Planes, Trains & Automobiles. (John Hughes, 87; PHOTOG: Donald Peterman) 

Visions from another species' apocalypse in Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years To Earth. (Roy Ward Baker, 67; PHOTOG: Arthur Grant)

An overachieving student's voice invades a teacher's obsessed mind in Election. (Alexander Payne, 99; PHOTOG: James Glennon)

Love amongst the junk. Sid and Nancy. (Alex Cox, 86; PHOTOG: Roger Deakins)

Rose wonders what horrors Birdlace has seen in Dogfight. (Nancy Savoca, 91; PHOTOG: Bobby Bukowski) 

Barnett Newman's studio walls. Painters Painting. (Emile De Antonio, 73; PHOTOG: Ed Emschwiller)

Confession. The Thin Blue Line. (Errol Morris, 88; PHOTOG: Robert Chappell, Stefan Czapsky)

My favorite bit player of all time: Karen Montgomery as a dreamy Vegas hooker, tempting Art Carney with her gorgeous eyes and smile alone in Going in Style. (Martin Brest, 79; PHOTOG: Billy Williams)

A girl is bathed in nature while reading John Keats' first love letter to her in Bright Star. (Jane Campion, 2009; PHOTOG: Grieg Fraser)

A dancer's open skull is used to make a milkshake in Why Man Creates. (Saul Bass, 68)

Come and see what's inside. Sunrise (F.W. Murnau, 27; PHOTOG: Charles Rosher and Karl Strauss)

The joy of seeing. The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 59; PHOTOG: Henri Dacae)

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,
Part Three is here.
Part Four is here.
And Part Five is here.

Whew. Okay, now back to writing for a while...

SIDE ORDERS #7

This month, SIDE ORDERS begins with a vintage 1980 TBS late movie opening which stars my favorite theater in the United States, Atlanta's Plaza Theater (open since 1939 and still going strong). This is pure nostalgia for me, and a suitable sort of policy trailer / theater intro for the superlative movie scenes you're about to see!


While working at the Plaza, I met Patrick Flynn. An accomplished moviemaker (his color and then B&W super films are superb) and photographer (you can see some his stuff on West End ATL's Blue Tower Gallery site), Patrick worked at the Plaza for a record-breaking 15 years, also while toiling away as a bartender and waiter at other Atlanta establishments. Along with all the other idiosyncratic Plaza employees and satellites of the 1990s, Patrick and I would have incisive, insightful conversations about a whole host of bizarre, quite taboo subject matters--usually of a darker bent--while we waited for the next movies to be let in. All of us had a wonderful time working at that theater. I don't see its truly one-of-a-kind quality being repeated in our lives, but at least we were lucky to once have treasured the Plaza as our homebase. Anyway, over the years there, I found that Patrick and I shared the same passion for a key movie blockbuster from our childhoods: Ronald Neame's 1972 epic The Poseidon Adventure. I've discovered, through the years, that The Poseidon Adventure has a very rich cult following that can quote the film by heart. This doesn't surprise me a bit. If you were a kid in the early 1970s, The Poseidon Adventure was the shit! It's got a terrific cast--Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowell, Arthur O' Connnell, Leslie Nielsen (whose scenes are now pure folly after his precise self-spoofery in Airplane and Police Squad!/The Naked Gun). It's got Red Buttons protecting cute Carol Lynley, and bratty kid Eric Shea running around with his little chickie sister Pamela Sue Martin. Producer Irwin Allen's runaway moneymaker was nominated for Oscars for its well-crafted photography, sound, costumes, art direction, score (by John Williams), and for Shelley Winters' iconic supporting performance as the movie's lovable, heroic fat lady. And it won two awards: one for its song ("The Morning After," which my elementary school class sang on stage as part of our graduation ceremony) and for its beautiful special effects. Lemme tell ya, the movie was a bonafide phenom.

If you're a lover of The Poseidon Adventure, you naturally count the capsizing of the huge boat as one of your favorite movie moments. In his excellent DVD commentary on the movie--the only one I've heard in which a director admits his mistakes as well as his successes--Ronald Neame (at one time a close collaborator with fellow Brit David Lean) details the tremendous amount of work that went into making this sequence operate as well as it does. Neame and his editors took detailed care in making sure, camera-wise, the sequence makes sense. If you notice, the angle of the camera is always kept fully in synch with the supposed position of the boat. This make this sequence take hold of us, along with the performances of the stars as well as the brave extras (including the guy who falls at the end, which was done on the first take). Wolfgang Petersen, director of the stinky 2006 remake Poseidon failed to heed Neame's example in his doofus multi-million dollar recreation of this scene; Petersen did a supremely messy job convincing the viewer of the disaster's reality, while Neame--at a fraction of the cost--achieves brilliance. I can't count how many times Patrick Flynn and I have marveled at this scene--seriously, it must be in the 50-time range. And, still, we're positive this is one of the most exciting and significant moments in movie history.


For the tuneful portion of SIDE ORDERS, I include this scene from Herbert Ross's neglected 1981 musical Pennies From Heaven. The best scene in screenwriter Dennis Potter's incredibly downbeat Great Depression fable has Christopher Walken playing a barroom pimp who approaches the shy Bernadette Peters after she's been jilted by failing sheet-music salesman Steve Martin. Walken is slimily attempting to recruit her as a prostitute, and as a result, she joins the fantasy-obsessed Steve Martin in imagining her enemies as a singing, dancing player in a 1930s musical. This scene is sheer magnificence, with Walken delivering one of the most notable one-scene performances ever. He's an accomplished dancer, with training from the vaudeville greats; if you didn't know that by now, what with his appearance in that Fatboy Slim video, then his scene in Pennies From Heaven will clue you in. Do yourself a favor and watch the whole movie: it's filled with marvels like this.


This gear-jamming car chase from Peter Yates's 1968 film Bullitt helped the movie win Oscars for its sound and editing. Even then, moviegoers had never seen anything like it; seen now, it's still a model of the artform. Just watch the rhythm of the cuts and listen to the battling car engines and you'll realize it's immeasurably influential. It's been long noted that more hubcaps are lost in this scene than there are available on the cars in action. See if you can count 'em!


In Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View, Warren Beatty plays a small-time journalist investigating a possibly CIA-run program designed to train assassins to kill prominent political figures. Beatty sets himself up as an entrant into this program, and he's invited to the Parallax Corporation's headquarters to test for the program. He sits down, hands in the proper place, and they show him this movie, all the while recording his internal responses. The movie that they project--that we see--is unlike anything ever witnessed in mainstream cinema. It is disturbing to the nth degree. Composed of famous photographs from movies, journalism, advertising, and pop culture, and coupled with dissonant music from David Shire, this spoiler-free montage from The Parallax View will instantly make you want to see the whole movie.


Finally, a trailer from one of my favorite movies. This time: Woody Allen's first foray into dramatic filmmaking, 1978's Interiors (with a couple of scenes that weren't in the final film).