"How do images affect our hearts and minds? How do images influence our everyday lives, our techno-scientific practices, our connections and disconnections, our conscious and unconscious desires and fears? How do images show up in the clothes we wear, in the ways we walk, and the objects we want? How do images influence the foods we eat or don’t eat and the ideas and feelings we have about our selves and others? How do some images enter our flesh, captivate us, fascinate us, or arouse our senses? How is it that other images put us to sleep? How do images inform our habits and fantasies, pleasures and doubts, worries and joys, rituals and rebellions? How do images shape our personal, political, cultural, moral, and religious beliefs about nature and about justice? How do images influence what we imagine to be possible and what’s not? Visual images are today everywhere entangled within a complex and contradictory web of global electronic flows of information. Images are typically racialized, gendered, territorialized, eroticized, militarized, and class-driven. Some of the most powerful images are hooked-up to hi-tech machineries of war, surveillance, and the economic marketplace. Images also lie at the core of global corporate technologies of profit, control and advantage. How might such images be best understood? How might they be critically subverted, transformed, or remade?" -- Stephen Pfohl, "Images and Power" (2011)
Boys in the Band (USA: William Friedkin, 1970)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "Michael (Kenneth Nelson) is hosting a birthday celebration for a pal when he gets an unexpected visit from old friend Alan (Peter White). The problem is, Alan is straight -- and extremely straitlaced -- and everyone else at the party is gay. Michael hopes to conceal his sexuality from Alan, but this charade doesn't last. After being outed, Michael turns on Alan, accuses him of being a closeted gay and forces him to partake in a revealing party game that has devastating consequences." MB: This is based on a Tony Award winning Broadway play and has just been remade in 2020 - here is the trailer of the remake."]
Catch-22 (USA: Mike Nichols, 1970)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "Catch-22 takes entertainingly chaotic aim at the insanity of armed conflict, supported by a terrific cast and smart, funny work from Buck Henry and Mike Nichols. ... This scathing war satire follows Capt. John Yossarian (Alan Arkin), a pilot stationed in the Mediterranean who flies bombing missions during World War II. Attempting to cope with the madness of armed conflict, Yossarian struggles to find a way out of his wartime reality. Surrounded by eccentric military officers, such as the opportunistic 1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight), Yossarian must resort to extreme measures to escape his dire and increasingly absurd situation." MB: The successful novel made Catch-22 a common term for bureaucratic insanity. Also made into a 2019 Hulu series.]
The Conformist (Italy: Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "A commentary on fascism and beauty alike, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist is acclaimed for its sumptuous visuals and extravagant, artful cinematography. ... Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a member of the secret police in Mussolini's Fascist Italy. He and his new bride, Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli), travel to Paris for their honeymoon, where Marcello also plans to assassinate his former college professor Luca Quadri (Enzo Tarascio), an outspoken anti-Fascist living in exile. But when Marcello meets the professor's young wife, Anna (Dominique Sanda), both his romantic and his political loyalties are tested." MB: A stunningly beautiful film brilliantly and disturbingly portraying the fascist mindset.]
El Topo (Mexico: Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "By turns intoxicating and confounding, El Topo contains the creative multitudes that made writer-director Alejandro Jodorowsky such a singular talent. ... A mysterious black-clad gunfighter wanders a mystical Western landscape encountering multiple bizarre characters." MB: A cult classic that truly lives up to the genre classification of 'acid western.']
Little Big Man (USA: Arthur Penn, 1970)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "When a curious oral historian (William Hickey) turns up to hear the life story of 121-year-old Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman), he can scarcely believe his ears. Crabb tells of having been rescued and raised by the Cheyenne, of working as a snake-oil salesman, as a gunslinger, and as a mule skinner under Gen. Custer (Richard Mulligan). As if those weren't astonishing enough, he also claims to be the only white survivor of the infamous Battle of the Little Bighorn." MB: Based on Thomas Berger's novel of the same name, this is one of my all-time favorite comedy/satires and it brilliantly deconstructs the myths of the traditional western narratives. It was probably the first film I saw that provided sympathetic portrayals of Native Americans.]
M*A*S*H* (USA: Robert Altman, 1970)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "Bold, timely, subversive, and above all funny, M*A*S*H remains a high point in Robert Altman's distinguished filmography. ... Based on the novel by Richard Hooker, "M*A*S*H" follows a group of Mobile Army Surgical Hospital officers at they perform surgery and pass the time just miles from the front lines of the Korean Conflict. Led by Captains Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper John McIntyre (Elliott Gould), they add to the chaos and hilarity of the situation." MB: Essentially an anti-war comedy this celebrated film was a miracle just for making it to the cinemas, but it also inspired the creation of one of the most beloved TV sitcoms of the same name.]
Performance (UK: Donald Cammel and Nicolas Roeg, 1970)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "Performance is an exuberant and grimy ode to the sexual revolution, evoking cultural upheaval and identity crisis with rock 'n' roll verve and a beguiling turn by Mick Jagger. ... After killing a rival in self-defense, hoodlum Chas (James Fox) must flee both from the law and from his boss, Harry Flowers. He eventually moves into a house owned by Turner (Mick Jagger), a former rock star who lives with female companions Pherber (Anita Pallenberg) and Lucy (Michele Breton). Chas and Turner initially clash, but Turner becomes fascinated with Chas' life as a criminal. Through drugs and a series of psychological battles with Turner, Chas emerges a different man." MB: Notorious for many reasons this acting role derailed James Fox's successful acting career as he couldn't come to terms with the experience and retreated into religion. Mic Jagger, on the other hand, seemed to have thrived on the experience :) I have watched it many times and look forward to the next time. Features one of the first rock videos: "Memo for Turner." A cinematic marking point for the end of the naive 'flower power' mythos and the rise of more darker, hallucinatory visions.]
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia: Jaromil Jireš, 1970)
[Criterion: "A girl on the verge of womanhood finds herself in a sensual fantasyland of vampires, witchcraft, and other threats in this eerie and mystical movie daydream. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders serves up an endlessly looping, nonlinear fairy tale, set in a quasi-medieval landscape. Ravishingly shot, enchantingly scored, and spilling over with surreal fancies, this enticing phantasmagoria from director Jaromil Jireš is among the most beautiful oddities of the Czechoslovak New Wave." MB: A unique female coming-of-age fantasy-horror-erotic film unlike any other. One of those films in which I get lost in the imagery. Criterion page for the film.]
A Clockwork Orange (UK/USA: Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
[Rottent Tomatoes: "Disturbing and thought-provoking, A Clockwork Orange is a cold, dystopian nightmare with a very dark sense of humor. ... In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned." MB: Based on Aldous Huxley's notorious novel, this even more notorious film receives the Kubrick treatment and set off a cultural firestorm upon release. A masterpiece of filmmaking and a brilliant acting performing by Malcolm McDowell. You will never hear Beethoven or Singing in the Rain the same way again ;) "Fare thee well my little brothers, fare thee well."]
The Beguiled (USA: Don Siegel, 1971)
["Offbeat Civil War drama in which a wounded Yankee soldier, after finding refuge in an isolated girls' school in the South towards the end of the war, becomes the object of the young women's sexual fantasies. The soldier manipulates the situation for his own gratification, but when he refuses to completely comply with the girls' wishes, they make it very difficult for him to leave." MB: I saw this at 6 yrs old in a movie theater (the good ol' days when you could see any film no matter what age you were) and I was profoundly disturbed by its psycho-sexual themes. Interestingly remade by Sofia Coppola in 2017]
The Devils (UK/USA: Ken Russell, 1971)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "... stylish, Ken Russell's baroque opus is both provocative and persuasive in its contention that the greatest blasphemy is the leveraging of faith for power. ... In 17th-century France, Father Grandier (Oliver Reed) is a priest whose unorthodox views on sex and religion influence a passionate following of nuns, including the sexually obsessed Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). When the power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) realizes he must eliminate Grandier to gain control of France, Richelieu portrays Grandier as a satanist and spearheads a public outcry to destroy the once-loved priest's reputation." MB: Based on historical events surrounding the supposed "possession" of nuns in Loudun, France and subsequent trial of the accused Catholic Priest Urbain Grandier. It was banned in many countries, condemned by the Catholic Church, and essentially unavailable in uncut form until the 21st Century. Still today it is considered one of the most controversial films, although on my restored uncut DVD on the extras there is a prominent Catholic priest that defends the film.]
Harold and Maude (USA: Hal Ashby, 1971)
[Criterion: "With the idiosyncratic American fable Harold and Maude, countercultural director Hal Ashby fashioned what would become the cult classic of its era. Working from a script by Colin Higgins, Ashby tells the story of the emotional and romantic bond between a death-obsessed young man (Bud Cort) from a wealthy family and a devil-may-care, bohemian octogenarian (Ruth Gordon). Equal parts gallows humor and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light along with the ones that separate people by class, gender, and age, and it features indelible performances and a remarkable soundtrack by Cat Stevens." MB: One of my favorite films because of its off-beat humor, the inventive ruminations on death by the young protagonist Harold and his family's blase responses to his acting out of the them, and one of the all-time great anarchist characters the titular Maude whose approach to life is inspiring to Harold (and anyone that views the film)! Criterion page for the film]
The Last Picture Show (USA: Peter Bogdanovich, 1971)
[Criterion: "The Last Picture Show is one of the key films of the American cinema renaissance of the seventies. Set during the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a movie screen, this aching portrait of a dying West, adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, focuses on the daily shuffles of three futureless teens—the enigmatic Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), the wayward jock Duane (Jeff Bridges), and the desperate-to-be-adored rich girl Jacy (Cybil Shepherd)—and the aging lost souls who bump up against them in the night like drifting tumbleweeds, including Cloris Leachman’s lonely housewife and Ben Johnson’s grizzled movie-house proprietor. Featuring evocative black-and-white imagery and profoundly felt performances, this hushed depiction of crumbling American values remains the pivotal film in the career of the invaluable director and film historian Peter Bogdanovich." MB: Criterion page for the film]
Macbeth (UK: Roman Polanski, 1971)
[Criterion: "Roman Polanski imbues his unflinchingly violent adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy of ruthless ambition and murder in medieval Scotland with grit and dramatic intensity. Jon Finch and Francesca Annis give performances charged with fury and sex appeal as a decorated warrior rising through the ranks and his driven wife, scheming together to take the throne by any means. Coadapted by Polanski and the great theater critic and dramaturge Kenneth Tynan, and shot against a series of stunning, stark British Isle landscapes, this version of Macbeth is among the most atmospheric and authentic of all Shakespeare films." MB: Made in the aftermath of the Manson Family's murder of Polanski's young pregnant wife Sharon Tate and the resulting cultural obssession with the murders, he seemingly injects the darkness one would suspect he felt into an amazing adaptation of Shakespeare's tragic play.]
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (USA: Robert Altman, 1971)
[Criterion: "This unorthodox dream western by Robert Altman may be the most radically beautiful film to come out of the New American Cinema. It stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie as two newcomers to the raw Pacific Northwest mining town of Presbyterian Church, who join forces to provide the miners with a superior kind of whorehouse experience. The appearance of representatives of a powerful mining company with interests of its own, however, threatens to be the undoing of their plans. With its fascinating flawed characters, evocative cinematography by the great Vilmos Zsigmond, innovative overlapping dialogue, and haunting use of Leonard Cohen songs, McCabe & Mrs. Miller brilliantly deglamorized and revitalized the most American of genres." MB: Criterion page for the film.]
Mon oncle Antoine (Canada: Claude Jutra, 1971)
[Criterion: "Claude Jutra's evocative portrait of a boy's coming of age in wintry 1940s rural Quebec has been consistently cited by critics and scholars as the greatest Canadian film of all time. Delicate, naturalistic, and tinged with a striking mix of nostalgia and menace, Mon oncle Antoine follows Benoit, as he first encounters the twin terrors of sex and death, and his fellow villagers, who are living under the thumb of the local asbestos mine owner. Set during one ominous Christmas, Mon oncle Antoine is a holiday film unlike any other, and an authentically detailed illustration of childhood’s twilight." MB: The film is available on Youtube via the NFB of Canada for free.]
Murmur of the Heart (France: Louis Malle, 1971)
[Criterion: "Louis Malle’s critically acclaimed Murmur of the Heart gracefully combines elements of comedy, drama, and autobiography in a candid portrait of a precocious adolescent boy’s sexual maturation. Both shocking and deeply poignant, this is one of the finest coming-of-age films ever made." MB: Criterion page for the film.]
Punishment Park (USA: Peter Watkins, 1971)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "In this fictional documentary, U.S. prisons are at capacity, and President Nixon declares a state of emergency. All new prisoners, most of whom are connected to the antiwar movement, are now given the choice of jail time or spending three days in Punishment Park, where they will be hunted for sport by federal authorities. The prisoners invariably choose the latter option, but learn that, between the desert heat and the brutal police officers, their chances of survival are slim."]
Straw Dogs (USA: Sam Peckinpah, 1971)
[Criterion: "In this thriller, perhaps Sam Peckinpah’s most controversial film, David (Dustin Hoffman), a young American mathematician, moves with his English wife, Amy (Susan George), to the village where she grew up. Their sense of safety unravels as the local men David has hired to repair their house prove more interested in leering at Amy and intimidating David, beginning an agonizing initiation into the iron laws of violent masculinity that govern Peckinpah’s world. Working outside the U.S. for the first time, the filmmaker airlifts the ruthlessness of the western frontier into Cornwall in Straw Dogs, pushing his characters to their breaking points as the men brutalize Amy and David discovers how far he’ll go to protect his home—culminating in a harrowing climax that lays out this cinematic mastermind’s eloquent and bloody vision of humanity." MB: Criterion page for the film]
Walkabout (Australia: Nicolas Roeg, 1971)
["A young sister and brother are abandoned in the harsh Australian outback and must learn to cope in the natural world, without their usual comforts, in this hypnotic masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg. Along the way, they meet a young aborigine on his “walkabout,” a rite of passage in which adolescent boys are initiated into manhood by journeying into the wilderness alone. Walkabout is a thrilling adventure as well as a provocative rumination on time and civilization." MB: Criterion page for the film]
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (USA: Mel Stuart, 1971) [Rotten Tomatoes: "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is strange yet comforting, full of narrative detours that don't always work but express the film's uniqueness. ... The last of five coveted "golden tickets" falls into the hands of a sweet but very poor boy. He and his grandpa then get a tour of the strangest chocolate factory in the world. The owner leads five young winners on a thrilling and often dangerous tour of his factory." MB: Adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book with a charismatic acting turn by Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. Later remade by Tim Burton in 2005 with Johnny Depp in the role.]
1972:
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Germany: Werner Herzog, 1972)
[British Film Institute (BFI): "Shot entirely on location in the wild Amazonian jungle, Aguirre stars the volatile German star, and Herzog's regular, Klaus Kinski as a power-crazed explorer in sixteenth-century South America who leads a band of conquistadors through the Amazon in search of El Dorado. An ambitious exploration of doomed adventure and savage beauty, Aguirre remains one of Herzog's most extraordinary and brilliant achievements."]
Cabaret (USA: Bob Fosse, 1972)
[Youtube: "Bob Fosse uses the decadent and vulgar cabaret as a mirror image of German society sliding toward the Nazis, and this intertwining of entertainment with social history marked a new step forward for movie musicals." Rotten Tomatoes: "Great performances and evocative musical numbers help Cabaret secure its status as a stylish, socially conscious classic. ... In Berlin in 1931, American cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) meets British academic Brian Roberts (Michael York), who is finishing his university studies. Despite Brian's confusion over his sexuality, the pair become lovers, but the arrival of the wealthy and decadent playboy Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem) complicates matters for them both. This love triangle plays out against the rise of the Nazi party and the collapse of the Weimar Republic." MB: An innovative musical at the time because it combined flamboyant, sexy staged scenes in the titular cabaret with socially conscious subject matter as we see the early days of the rise of Nazism.]
[Rotten Tomatoes: "Given primal verve by John Boorman's unflinching direction and Burt Reynolds' star-making performance, Deliverance is a terrifying adventure." Leigh Paatsch: "This gripping drama was a controversial release back in the early 70s, and its distressing intensity hasn't really diminished in the decades since. Just remember, once you go with its powerful flow, there ain't no turning back."]
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (France: Luis Buñuel, 1972)
["In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined. Fernando Rey, Stéphane Audran, Delphine Seyrig, and Jean-Pierre Cassel head the extraordinary cast of this 1972 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film." MB: Criterion page for the film.]
The Godfather (USA: Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
[Rotten Tomatoes: "One of Hollywood's greatest critical and commercial successes, The Godfather gets everything right; not only did the movie transcend expectations, it established new benchmarks for American cinema. ... Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, this mob drama, based on Mario Puzo's novel of the same name, focuses on the powerful Italian-American crime family of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). When the don's youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), reluctantly joins the Mafia, he becomes involved in the inevitable cycle of violence and betrayal. Although Michael tries to maintain a normal relationship with his wife, Kay (Diane Keaton), he is drawn deeper into the family business." MB: A young, unproven director, tasked to adapt a popular crime novel, and gifted with young actors that will become legendary, creates the first of a trilogy that will become one of America's greatest/influential epic stories.]
The Harder They Come (Jamaica: Perry Henzell, 1972)
[Criterion: "Reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff is Ivan, a rural Jamaican musician who journeys to the city of Kingston in search of fame and fortune. Pushed to desperate circumstances by shady record producers and corrupt cops, he finally achieves notoriety—as a murderous outlaw. Boasting some of the greatest music ever produced in Jamaica, The Harder They Come brought the catchy and subversive rhythms of the Rastas to the U.S. in the early 1970s." MB: Criterion page for the film]
Solaris (Soviet Union: Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
[Criterion: "Ground control has been receiving mysterious transmissions from the three remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is dispatched to investigate, he experiences the same strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his consciousness. With Solaris, the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky created a brilliantly original science-fiction epic that challenges our conceptions about love, truth, and humanity itself." MB: Based on the great Polish science fiction author Stanislaw Lem's novel, it was also later remade by Steven Soderbergh in 2002. Criterion page for the 1972 film.]
State of Siege (France: Costa Gravas, 1972)
[Criterion: "Costa-Gavras puts the United States’ involvement in Latin American politics under the microscope in this arresting thriller. An urban guerrilla group, outraged at the counterinsurgency and torture training clandestinely organized by the CIA in their country (unnamed in the film), abducts a U.S. official (Yves Montand) to bargain for the release of political prisoners; soon the kidnapping becomes a media sensation, leading to violence. Cowritten by Franco Solinas, the electrifying State of Siege piercingly critiques the American government for supporting foreign dictatorships, while also asking difficult questions about the efficacy of radical violent acts to oppose such regimes." Criterion page for the film]
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