zoetrope

10. Höstsonaten (1978) or Autumn Sonata by Ingmar Bergman

Charlotte Andergast: I feel so shut out, I'm always homesick. But when I get home. I find it's something else I'm longing for.

First watch

Well Bergman is back with his somber brand of existentialism only this time he brought another Bergman. Ingrid Bergman of Casablanca fame turns in a powerhouse performance alongside the always great Liv Ullman. Ingmar explores the love and hate of a mother and daughter, speaking to how we hurt and impair those we love. As a film, this is not Ingmar at his most inventive but his creative brevity puts all the more stress on the script and the exceptional acting. Honestly, prior to this I had not really considered Ingrid Bergman an actress of excellence, though knowing that she had always been under the cage of the limits Golden Age Hollywood had put on women, I was willing to grant her uncertainty on my part. Well, she proves she has every bit of acting ability with the freedom given her in Autumn Sonata. Oft considered Ingmar’s third best film of the decade, this was the one that resonated long after my viewing experience.

Watchability: Do you like family dramas with a hint of existentialism? Are you good with subtitles? This actually may be a good starting point for some in watching Ingmar Bergman.

9. Barry Lyndon (1975) by Stanley Kubrick

Narrator: It is well to dream of glorious war in a snug armchair at home, but it is a very different thing to see it first hand. And after the death of his friend, Barry's thoughts turned from those of military glory to those of finding a way to escape the service to which he was now tied for another six years. Gentlemen may talk of the age of chivalry, but remember the ploughmen, poachers and pickpockets whom they lead. It is with these sad instruments that your great warriors and kings have been doing their murderous work in the world.

First Watch

The breadth of what Kubrick covered in his filmmaking is fairly breathtaking, all while never repeating himself. Barry Lyndon is the closest I have seen in film to capturing the spirit of the mid-19th century picaresque novel, complete with patient pace and progress. Part I is the Irishman Redmond Barry gaining wealth and Part II is the now-named Barry Lyndon losing said wealth. It would sound like I am spoiling things, but in typical fashion of the picaresque, this is all laid out before the audience prior to their happenings. The film is noted for using only natural lights (candles for interior scenes) and setting each scene like a painting. It is no wonder the film took 8 months to film principal photography and subsequently crashed in the box office. The film has just enough of a contemporary wink to convince the audience of its authentic voice. Too often these period pieces are so caught up in what they think is echoing the stodgy tone of the time that they miss the original voice of the work.

Watchability: This may be a hard task for some. I have definitely heard stories of people sleeping to Barry Lyndon’s landscapes. Also an unfortunate content advisory must be declared as it descends to some unnecessary nudity for a scene in the second half. Yet, if you want adventures through 18th century Europe with a ne’er-do-well fellow with beautiful set pieces and designs taken at a leisurely pace, here you go.

8. American Graffiti (1973) by George Lucas

Terry Fields: Let me have a Three Musketeers, and a ball point pen, and one of those combs there, a pint of Old Harper, a couple of flash light batteries and some beef jerky.

Barman: Okay, you got an I.D. for the liquor?

Terry Fields: Oh, umm, yeah. Oh, nuts, I left it in the car.

Barman: Sorry. You'll have to get it before...

Terry Fields: Well, I... I also... I forgot the car.

If news hit tomorrow that George Lucas would be writing and directing a High School coming-of-age comedy, what would your gut reaction be? And yet here we have America Graffiti. And cinema was never the same. I suspect if one were to walk into this film only knowing that it was George Lucas’s stepping stone to Star Wars, you would be floored by how entertaining this amalgam of vignettes in small town Modesto, California is. You would also be shocked to find that most post-70s teen comedies you have seen build from Lucas’s work. Challenged to write a crowd-pleaser after the non-start that was THX 1138, Lucas returned to his youth in the cruising culture of California. And while he lands the light and playful tone, there is a heart of longing for the distant impossible while the call of the comfortable known whispers fear. 

Watchability: Oh, this is a fun one. If nothing, come for the soundtrack of 50s and 60s hits. That still doesn’t sell it? How about Harrison Ford singing?

7. Paper Moon (1973) by Peter Bogdanovich 

Moses Pray: I know a woman who looks like a bullfrog but that don't mean she's the thing's mother.

First Watch

The way I have been describing this film is a cross between the tone of Coen Brothers’ lighter comedic fare (specifically Oh Brother Where Art Thou) with the visual eye of John Ford (Peter Bogdanovich’s mentor). The film is known for Tatum O’Neal winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at the age of 10, though she deserved the lead award. She steals the show acting across from her real-life father Ryan O’Neal; the pair play a young girl who picks up with a confidence man traveling the Mid-West. Hilarity ensues as the independent rake finds himself outmatched by his diminutive counterpart. This is not the greatest cinematic achievement of the 70s but it is a sadly forgotten gem in a time of gloomy Vietnam-infused despair on the silver screen.

Watchability: Oh, yes. Watch this. If you are disappointed you can slap me.

6. Nashville (1975) by Robert Altman

Opal: I need something like this for my documentary. I need it. It's... It's America. Those cars smashing into each other... and all those mangled corpses...

First Watch

The 70s marked my first true foray into Altman’s filmography (discounting 1980’s Popeye which made my 80s list because I am now stupefied how this man made the Popeye film I saw when I was young...) and Nashville was my third go at his work. His first two were interesting and proved meritous, yet did not sink teeth into my mind or heart. Nashville though.... Wow. I am not certain I have ever witnessed a better handling of so many disparate tales, slowly twining them into a thin thread of unity. Using the Country music scene of Nashville as a satiric stage for the nation, Altman uncovers our shame alongside our heart.

Watchability: So there is definitely a content advisory on this one. There is a nude scene, though differing from M*A*S*H where it is played for laughs, this scene twists you at the nastiness of the voyeurism culture that eats our young. But even despite that, this is a fairly elaborate and intellectual satire. It won’t be to everyone’s tastes.

5. The Godfather: Part II (1974) by Francis Ford Coppola

Michael Corleone: I saw a strange thing today. Some rebels were being arrested. One of them pulled the pin on a grenade. He took himself and the captain of the command with him. Now, soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren't.

Hyman Roth: What does that tell you?

Michael Corleone: They could win.

I have long been one who did not understand the proponents for Part II of the Corleone saga being the better of the first films. Well this viewing finally changed that. I understand it now. Where the movie never felt unified before, its examination of the simultaneous rise to power and fall of the man of Michael Corleone. Yet one could argue that is all promised in the final shot of the first film. Yet, Coppola justifies the existence of Part II in a way he never does Part III. Pacino continues to captivate, displaying the treachery of control. 

Watchability: While this technically dodges more of the content advisory materials than the first more is done in suggestion than display. Basically, if you watch the first, watch the second.

4. The Godfather (1972) by Francis Ford Coppola

Michael Corleone: My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Kay Adams: What was that?

Michael Corleone: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.

Kay Adams: ...

Michael Corleone: ...That's a true story.

Michael Corleone: That's my family Kay, that's not me.

I say I now understand why people enjoy Part II more, it doesn’t mean I agree. Though this film did take a hit this watch. I had long assumed that this film was better than the Mario Puzo novel upon which it was based. I decided to put this theory to the fire before viewing... and it added a little rot to my enjoyment. And no, that isn’t because of a high quality from the book, much the opposite: the book is smut. And while the movie is not exactly a spotless bottle of innocence, the book’s taint of shallow thrill bled into the film. And yet... there is still the incredible performance of Pacino. Nearly fired for his subtlety, Pacino’s quiet power consumes the screen. This is one of my favorite performances ever, watching a good man fall. And as the king of juxtaposition, Coppola’s editing of the godfathering scene is a conflict of emotion. The music may be overplayed... but it is stinkin' Nino Rota in full force.

Watchability: Well this thing checks off all of the content advisory marks. So I will never say anyone has to watch it. But there is reason this film holds on after all these years. This obviously is not a hero’s tale. It is the doppelgänger of the mono-myth.

3. Badlands (1973) by Terrence Malick

Holly Sardis: He needed me now more than ever, but something had come between us. I'd stopped even paying attention to him. Instead I sat in the car and read a map and spelled out entire sentences with my tongue on the roof of mouth where nobody could read them.

First watch

An interesting trend of American cinema during the turn of this decade was a reflection on its own love for the criminal. Why would we turn the criminals into our heroes? Why were Bonnie and Clyde romanticized celebrities? (Of course they were years behind Godard who had already reflected on Europe’s love for American film’s love for the hardboiled criminal in Breathless.) Malick’s first major feature film took another stab, and while he didn’t launch a new movement in cinema like Godard, he did begin his journey of exploring the language of film. Herein, Malick speaks to the danger of the romantic: what does a child raised on the image live for? We see two youths attempting to write their stories like those they have seen and read. It is haunting and beautiful. Badlands is a work of poetry, if at times a dark song.

Watchability: I will say moderate. The film has moments of violence, but generally is a contemplative act of poetry in both image and voice. It is not a thrill ride, nor heroic, but an interesting character study that starts pointing the finger back at the audience as the story unfolds.

2. Сталкер (1979) or Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky 

Stalker: May everything come true. May they believe. And may they laugh at their passions. For what they call passion is not really the energy of the soul, but merely friction between the soul and the outside world. But, above all, may they believe in themselves and become as helpless as children. For softness is great and strength is worthless. When a man is born, he is soft and pliable. When he dies, he is strong and hard. When a tree grows, it is soft and pliable. But when it's dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death's companions. Flexibility and softness are the embodiment of life. That which has become hard shall not triumph.

First watch

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but a writer, a professor, and a stalker all walk into a room... So Stalker is a science fiction masterpiece for which I cannot prepare you. Interpretations will vary. I feel like I have ten floating around in my head upon the first watch. And that is Tarkovsky’s aim, to excite the mind. No film in this past year of watching 70s movies excited my mind more either in terms of imagining worlds and settings or as regards ideas and theories. The writer, professor, and stalker, the last of which I will rename believer, each bring to bare varying hopes and fears and ideas upon a room that fulfills true desire. The film will excite your mind... or you won’t care a lick. At least there are pretty pictures. This film is more visually unified than Tarkovsky’s other sci fi epic, Solaris, and seems grander in ideological reach.

Watchability: Do you like to know what is going on in your movies? If yes, then feel free to pass this up. Though truly, I would tell people this is probably the best entry point for Tarkovsky’s work. But it is long and quiet and Russian. But if you like your movies to struggle with philosophical and theological quandaries, this right here is your film.

1. Star Wars (1977) by George Lucas

[Luke Skywalker stares at the binary sunset]

No film has affected my concept of storytelling more than this film. Obviously the biggest factor to that merit is the age at which I partook of cinema's great space opera, but there is more here. I am reminded of Umberto Eco’s concluding notes in The Name of the Rose wherein he states that Post-modernism had done so much work at deconstructing the novel that the most original thing the Post-mod could do now was to write a straightforward narrative of yesteryear. This feels akin to the timing and impact of Star Wars on film. The 70s had been all about disassembling the things of film and yet it may have lost itself far down the road. And the most original thing that Lucas could do was tell the same old story we have been ever telling. Actually his initial pass was a beast of a thing, yet using Joseph Campbell’s writings on the monomyth as a guide, Lucas melted out the dross and isolated The Story. A little touch of Kurosawa for some guidelines and perspective here a little Flash Gordon there and Lucas told a story that hit people in their heart. As Luke stares off into the sunset, all of his hopes and dreams, despairs and fears are ours. As he longs for life’s vibrancy, so then do we. Where the 70s had removed the romance from our vision, Lucas fluted his little pipe and the child in us danced through space. Very few are more aware of the film’s flaws than myself, but that may just lend more charm to it for me. Lucas was working with a crew that mostly did not believe in or understand the project. He had to fire the first editor and then employ three more. He fought with the Director of Photography. The studio was certain their money was lost and they fought Lucas to get back whatever they could. Actors and cameramen constantly shook their head at the silliness of the project and its inevitable flop. Lucas himself struggles with the countless compromises he had to make to get this film out. And yet, that all just adds to how impossible a success this film was. It had no right to change cinema. And thus it becomes an echo of its own hero’s journey.

Watchability: It is funny to hear how this film has passed out of many people’s viewing pleasures given the uniqueness of the rapid editing for its time. Really, if you already have seen it, you know where you stand. If you have not, you probably already know it is not for you.