Nominees: The Sorrow and the Pity, Double Suicide, My Night at Maud's, True Grit, Burn, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Goyokin, The Dependent, L'Enfance nue, The Night of Counting the Years
Oscars pick: Midnight Cowboy
Nominees: Anne of a Thousand Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello, Dolly! Z
I liked Oscar's pick Midnight Cowboy, but I love, love, looooove Z! Costas-Garvas' political conspiracy thriller tells the tragic true story of the Greek Governments sanctioned assassination of leftist pacifist Georgio Lambrakis. And it tells this story with heart and intelligence, nail-biting tension and black humor, all wrapped around stylish direction, cinematography and a kick-ass score. Z has come under fire in some circles as being too slick. Its critics suggest that politically tinged tales should be dry and documentary-like and whatever. I don't agree ~ movies, even political movies should be whatever they want to be, and reflect whatever vision the director has for it. Logic like theirs would have robbed us of such artistic sociopolitical triumphs as The Passion of Joan of Arc, and turned Z into a sterilized copy of dryer material, bereft of that which made it distinct. And if it was anything, Costas-Garvas' film was distinct, entertaining political art.
Z really caught fire in America and was the first film to be nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film. It won the foreign award. In a way, Oscar was having its cake and eating it too.
While I found and nominated several gems from around the globe, I also left out a few critical faves: While Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows is considered the director's peak masterpiece by many, I found it too cool and aloof. That icy tone fit perfectly for a movie like Le Samouraï but received a frosty reception here. Some folks champion the western The Wild Bunch as the year's best, and I thought it was good but not great.
Honorable Mentions:
Jon Voight, Midnight Cowboy * Jean Louis Trintignant, Z * Michael Sarrazin. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? * John Wayne, True Grit * James Mason, Age of Consent * Tatsuya Nakadai, Goyokin * Richard Burton, Anne of the Thousand Days * Peter Cushing, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed * Utpal Dutt, Bhuvan Shome
Honorable Mentions:
Jane Fonda, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? * Jean Simmons, The Happy Ending * Suhasini Mulay, Bhuvan Shome * Mia Farrow, John and Mary * Shima Iwashita, Double Suicide * Inga Mickytė, Gražuolė * Geneviève Bujold, Anne of the Thousand Days * Glenda Jackson, Women in Love
I also liked Catherine Burns in "Last Summer", and Diana Rigg in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"
Supporting Actor: Robert Ryan, The Wild Bunch
