Nixon Wasn't The Only One
Jesse Walker continues his review of cinematic years ending in "8." He's now looking at the 60s.
Some interesting choices. A little Bergman heavy, perhaps. (Here's my take on Bergman.)
His top choice is Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime. Maybe my memory is bad, but I think I ran into Jesse a few years back during a showing at the Egyptian.
I don't particularly like The Lion In Winter--play or movie--but it's a genre I generally don't go for. (I can name a lot of costume dramas from the era--the 60s, I mean, not the 12th century--that I like less.)
Jesse knows I'm not fan of Clint Eastwood, though Coogan's Bluff (thanks in no small part to his best director, Don Siegel) isn't bad. I'm also not a big fan of Leone, but I think Once Upon A Time In The West is his best work--every shot is a painting.
I've always considered 2001 an intriguing failure. Great design, sure, but essentially a fascinating 80-minute film inside a pretentious mess twice that long.
A few other movies of interest that year:
I'm a little surprised not to see Monterey Pop. I'm generally not a fan of concert movies, but this one's an exception. And where is The Producers? Like Orson Welles, Mel Brooks never topped his first feature.
1968 was also a good year for some worthy cult films, such as The Swimmer, Pretty Poison, Petulia and Targets. A bit more comic are The Party, No Way To Treat A Lady and even Barbarella and Head.
There were also more popular films of that year that still hold up, such as Rosemary's Baby and, to a lesser extent, The Thomas Crown Affair and Will Penny.
Then let's not forget Destroy All Monsters, a great monster movie with the best title ever.
And 1968 also saw Ice Station Zebra, Howard Hughes' favorite, which he watched incessantly in his final years.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:26 AM
1 Comments:
Bergman heavy but not Seigel heavy? (Or -- God forbid -- Howard Rodman heavy?)
We did run into each other at Je t'Aime Je t'Aime. As I recall, we had the same thought about the possible Vonnegut influence, but figured out that the timing was such that they must have come up with the idea independently.
If I were listing the year's best scenes, The Producers would be represented twice: for the Hitler tryouts and the "Springtime for Hitler" production number. The rest of the movie is pretty uneven, though. Brooks didn't figure out how to sustain the laughs all the way through a movie until he got to Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles -- and then he promptly forgot.
Like you, I'm not a big fan of pseudo-historical costume movies, but I think The Lion in Winter's witty script and sharp performances allow it to transcend the genre.
I haven't seen Monterey Pop, though I've seen so many clips from it that it feels like I have. And I don't care for Targets, though I do like some of the other cult movies in your list. Head is probably my favorite of the lot, though it ain't Top 20 quality. Neither are the undeniably enjoyable Thomas Crown Affair and Rosemary's Baby, though I haven't seen the latter since I was in high school and I suspect I would revise my opinion upwards if I watched it again today.
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