Nominees: Persona, War and Peace, The Face of Another, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Blow-Up, Closely Watched Trains, Au hasard Balthazar, The War Is Over, Knight Without Armour, Almost a Man, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Man for All Seasons, Pharaoh
Oscars pick: A Man For All Seasons
Nominees: Alfie, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Sand Pebbles, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
1966 was a great year in film, and one of the most challenging to write about. I've struggled mightily to piece together a reasoned appraisal of my top 2 cinematic giants.
Bergman's Persona, for example, is a puzzle - a mystifying mix of hallucination and dream and reality, used to address the nature of identity. Some critics might call it pretentious, but I don't see that as a detriment, because the director is so damn brilliant that he’s able to pull it off. Plus, I don't believe that this is showiness simply for the sake of showing off.
Liv Ullman stars as an actress who suddenly stops talking in the middle of a performance. Her doctor suggests that she take rest at a seaside beach house and assigns a nurse (Bibi Andersson) to look after her. And that sets the table for a relationship that shifts from caring to abusive -- and what is real is difficult to discern. The film engages the brain, as well as the eye, as it's wondrously surreal. That Persona is such an enigma is one of the reasons I enjoy it. The movie blows my mind.
And there there's Andrei Rublev, Tarkovsky’s slow, episodic and mostly invented look at the life of Russia’s great icon painter. It's a sweeping journey, and one I found difficult due to its fragmented chronology -the way it would suddenly jump to another time and place- and that at times Rublev wasn’t even present during an event.
However, I was stunned by the striking imagery: from the opening scenes where we see a man whisked away on a hot air balloon, to the beautifully crafted sequences with the pagans in the woods. And with subsequent viewings I could see things a little more clearly, I'd catch the details and threads that wove from episode to episode. And after doing a little research into the history and symbolism, I was able to then simply sit back and experience the film in all its glory - to soak in the horrific violence as well as the inspired acts of creation. To be thrown into the blood and mud and paint... and horses. To experience the scope of the human condition and all the pettiness and jealousy, wonder and even kindness there.
Persona is a product of its time. I love it dearly, but Andrei Rublev is ageless; there is so much to see, so much to feel. Like the paintings shown in a burst of color at the end, it never loses its power to move. (I posted more thoughts on the film and the 183-minute cut here... letterboxd.com/andrei-rublev)
Other top pictures I enjoyed: The Chase, The Hero, Le Deuxième Souffle, Wings
Best Actor: Richard Burton, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Honorable Mentions:
Tatsuya Nakadai, Sword of Doom & Face of Another * Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons * Michael Caine, Alfie * Per Oscarsson, Sult * Wallach, Eastwood & Van Cleef, GB&U * Jacques Perrin, Un uomo a metà * Uttam Kumar, Nayak * Walter Matthau, The Fortune Cookie * Max von Sydow, Hawaii * Donald Pleasence, Cul-de-Sac
Honorable Mentions:
Tatsuya Nakadai, Sword of Doom & Face of Another * Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons * Michael Caine, Alfie * Per Oscarsson, Sult * Wallach, Eastwood & Van Cleef, GB&U * Jacques Perrin, Un uomo a metà * Uttam Kumar, Nayak * Walter Matthau, The Fortune Cookie * Max von Sydow, Hawaii * Donald Pleasence, Cul-de-Sac
Honorable Mentions:
Elizabeth Taylor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? * Lynn Redgrave, Georgy Girl * Anna Karina, The Nun * Maya Bulgakova, Wings * Michiyo Aratama, The Thin Line * Ayako Wakao, Red Angel * Anouk Aimée, Un homme et une femme * Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan!
