1978

Days of Heaven (Director: Terence Malick)
Nominees: Coming Home, The Last Waltz, Midnight Express, The Tree of the Wooden Clogs, Gaman, The Lovers' Wind

Oscars pick: The Deer Hunter
Nominees: Coming Home, Heaven Can Wait, Midnight Express, An Unmarried Woman

As I get older, my tastes mature and become a bit more sophisticated, and sometimes my opinions on certain things swing wildly from what they were 30 years past. Case in point -- in 1978 I thought The Deer Hunter was one of the most daring statements on the war as I'd ever seen. Watching it today its emotional impact is dampened. It feels contrived, there's less depth than I remembered and Michael Cimino -never a director who understood the need to tighten things up- stretches out the film long after the point has been made. The first hour alone is a slog and could have been cut in half and not lost a thing.

On the other hand - 30 years ago I thought Days of Heaven was this overlong bit of nothing. All I remembered of it was pretty pictures of people sitting around in empty fields. Watching it today, its tale of hardship and romance and heartbreak as told through the eyes of a young girl is mesmerizing. The visuals are beautiful, like Andrew Wyeth's "Christina’s World" come to life. And the movie is considerably shorter than I thought (and shorter than what we now get from Terence Malick).

Its poetic structural rhythms struck a chord in me, and it struck that chord without the manipulations and excess found in Deer Hunter. There's an economy, even the quiet moments where it appears nothing is happening... something is happening. Everything on that screen is important to the feeling, and composition and tempo of the film. Days of Heaven is criticized as having no point, of being too emotionally distant but I like how Roger Ebert summed it up in his review..."What is the point of ``Days of Heaven''--the payoff, the message? This is a movie made by a man who knew how something felt, and found a way to evoke it in us. That feeling is how a child feels when it lives precariously, and then is delivered into security and joy, and then has it all taken away again--and blinks away the tears and says it doesn't hurt."

I don't hate the Deer Hunter, but it's not the film I thought it was. Heaven, on the other hand, reveals itself as something more: A hypnotizing work of poetry and art.

Heaven's strongest competition came from one of the greatest rockumentaries ever filmed, Martin Scorsese's look at The Band, in The Last Waltz. And Hal Ashby's Coming Home has held up remarkably well. It is still as moving as ever.

Best Actor: Volker Spengler, In a Year with 13 Moons
Honorable Mentions:
Dustin Hoffman, Straight Time * Anthony Hopkins, Magic * Robert De Niro, The Deer Hunter * Brad Davis, Midnight Express * Ken Ogata, The Demon * Richard Pryor, Blue Collar * Gary Busey, The Buddy Holly Story * Alan Bates, The Shout

Best Actress: Geraldine Chaplin, Remember My Name
Honorable Mentions:
Isabelle Huppert, Violette * Jane Fonda, Coming Home * Glenda Jackson, Stevie * Goldie Hawn, Foul Play * Ingrid Bergman & Liv Ullmann, Autumn Sonata * Micheline Lanctôt, Blood & Guts * Annie Girardot, The Key is in the Door

Supporting Actor: Christopher Walken, The Deer Hunter

Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith, California Suite







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1977

Annie Hall (Director: Woody Allen)
Nominees: That Obscure Object of Desire, The Ascent, Eraserhead, Providence, The Model Couple, A Special Day, Elisa, vida mía, Stroszek, Peppermint Soda

Oscars pick: Annie Hall
Nominees: The Goodbye Girl, Julia, Star Wars, The Turning Point

'77 was stocked with critical darlings -- there was Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Three Women, Saturday Night Fever, and for the arthouse crowd, Killer of Sheep, The Last Wave  (Peter Weir's dreamy end of the world story set to Aboriginal mythology), and David Lynch's nightmarish Eraserhead.

Others that dipped their toes into the waters of greatness include...

Luis Buñuel's final feature, That Obscure Object of Desire, about the frustrated efforts of an older man to woo a younger woman named Conchita (played by 2 different actresses). It's a sexual game of cat and mouse (but who is the mouse?) – Desire is beautifully absurd, and of course, being a Buñuel film, it includes a mix of politics and religion. The old master capped off his career on a high note and it will be strange not seeing his name popping on these write-ups. I gave him his first Felix in 1928-29 for the short Un chien andalou, and for Best Picture in 1930-31 for L’Age d’Or, and again in 1967 for Belle de Jour.

The Ascent from Larisa Shepitiko, is a grueling war film about 2 soldiers, Soviet partisans who are captured by the Germans and tortured. One of the men sticks to his beliefs while the other gives in. The film is steeped in Christian symbolism and is thematically reminiscent of Dostoyevsky’s writings.  The camera work and direction is extraordinary, the music often nightmarish -- It all matches the stark, brutal story to create a film experience that is harrowing to the core.

Annie Hall was Woody Allen's critical breakout, and while some rank it behind Manhattan. I disagree; Manhattan dances around many of the same relationship landmines but doesn’t have a 5th of the warmth and humor, nor is it as keen in its observations. Manhattan sometimes annoyed me, Annie Hall charms. It's an exuberant look at love told in flashbacks... and what a clever way of integrating those flashbacks. Hall boasts of an intelligent script, and it was also hilariously funny. All these years later, and the scene with the spider still gets me howling with laughter.

It has been a while since I went along with Oscar's choice (1960 and The Apartment to be exact) but when they’re right, they are right.

Note: I've since watched and added Providence, The Model Couple, Stoszek, Elisa, vida mía and A Special Day to my list of nominees.

🎭With all those great movies, came lots of great acting. And I was really happy to be able to award one of my favorites, Dirk Bogarde. The film, Providence, begins with a story within a story (written by Gielgud's character). Bogarde plays his son, and though it's considered a supporting role, he has so much screen time and is so central to his father's novel that one could consider him a co-lead. What I liked about Dirk here, is that he has to play to two extremes. In one he's part of a literary melodrama, in the final (real world?) section, his acting becomes more natural. I also like the scene when his wife asks him who Helen is (whom he just spoke to on the phone). And he stops and looks confused. It's the first time we ever see him at a loss for words. When asked again who Helen is, he replies, "I don't know". Probably because the author (his father) hasn't fleshed out that character yet.

Also, while I gave Gielgud the Acting award. Marcello Mastroianni made it real close with some of his best work.

Best Actors: John Gielgud (lead) and Dirk Bogarde (supp), Providence
Honorable Mentions: Marcello Mastroianni, A Special Day * Richard Burton, Equus * Sanjeev Kumar, The Chess Players * Woody Allen, Annie Hall * Fernando Rey, Elisa, vida mía & That Obscure Object of Desire * Bruno Ganz, The American Friend * Yves Beneyton, The Lacemaker * Ken Takakura, The Yellow Hankerchief * Boris Plotnikov, The Ascent

Best Actress: Diane Keaton, Annie Hall (pictured top) & Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Honorable Mentions: Isabelle Huppert, The Lacemaker * Geraldine Chaplin, Elisa, vida mía * Shima Iwashita, Ballad of Orin * Sophia Loren, A Special Day * Smita Patil, Bhumika * Eléonore Klarwein & Odile Michel, Peppermint Soda * Yoon Jeong-hee, Night Journey

Supporting Actress: Vanessa Redgrave, Julia (pictured left)


Also... Tatiana Papamoschou, Irene Papas and Kostas Kazakos in Iphigenia

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1976

Cría cuervos (Director: Carlos Saura)
Nominees: Jana Aranya (The Middleman), Rocky, Taxi Driver, Outlaw Josey Wales, Chinese Roulette, Insiang

Oscars pick: Rocky
Nominees: All the President’s Men, Bound For Glory, Network, Taxi Driver

Back in the day I was thrilled with Rocky's win. I remember it being the first theatrical release I went to see by myself, and I remember how I fell in love with it. I couldn't get it out of my head. I even bought the novelization and the theme song on a 45.

It boasts a colorful cast: Burgess Meredith as the irascible trainer Micky. Carl Weathers, Burt Young, and Talia Shire. At the lead was Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote the picture and was a Hollywood underdog himself. He came from the school of Brando, and his Balboa is a close cousin to Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront - a broken down fighter who gets a chance of realizing his dream at fighting for the title. It's a sweet story, a romance more than anything - empowering as we relate to and root for the little guy. While it has inspired scores of  'underdog beats the odds' sports films, what was different here was that Rocky loses the bout. The point wasn't to see him crowned champion but to examine what it means to give it your all and prove to yourself that your no bum. While there was a series of sequels, each more polished than the next; none matched the heart and honesty of the first. It's a special film and I wouldn't call it an Oscar mistake as some do, though today I'd rank several ahead of it...

Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is a gripping tale of urban and mental decay. Robert De Niro is brilliant as the sociopath Travis Bickle. Although he narrates the piece, it's the actor’s physical attributes -his expressions and body language- that lends the performance its strength. Author Danny Peary felt that... "Unlike Marlon Brando or Jack Nicholson, De Niro’s characters are too inarticulate to be effective if they explode verbally, so they must become physically destructive." With that in mind, what happens at the end is inevitable. Taxi Driver is an unpleasant though engrossing look at desperation, loneliness, and a city's seedy underbelly.

While Rocky and Taxi Driver were very much 70s films, the art house production, Cria cuervos (its title comes from the Spanish proverb "Raise ravens and they’ll peck your eyes out") feels contemporary- even though it has allusions to Franco's fascist regime. Directed by Carlos Saura, it's a contemplative movie that centers on a young girl and her sisters who have lost their mother to cancer. Cuervos doesn't romanticize childhood and instead looks at how dark these so-called 'days of innocence' can be. Ana (played by Ana Torrent) believes she has killed her father (who she blames for her mother's death), imagines her own suicide and plans the poisoning of her Aunt. Somehow she doesn't come off an evil figure. I don't know if Torrent was as great an actress as some believe. She's got this open, expressionless face that doesn’t reveal a lot - and we as viewers could be projecting our own feelings on to her. Never the less, she does have these haunted, soulful eyes that draw one in and allows us to feel empathy for her.

Ana is visited by strong memories, visions of her dead mother, played by Geraldine Chaplin (who also pulls double duty as the adult Ana) and through it all we experience both the vast loneliness in life, as well as the intimacy of Ana's interiority. Cria isn't a slam bam, easy watch for the masses. It's somewhat enigmatic and moves like a slow dream. But its multifaceted collision of grief and detachment, memory and family, stayed with me long after the final credits rolled.

Note: I've recently watched Satyajit Ray's Jana Aranya - which is a powerful story of a young man caught in a moral dilemma - and added it to the list of nominees.

Best Actor: Robert De Niro, Taxi Driver
Honorable Mentions:
Pradip Mukherjee, Jana Aranya * Clint Eastwood, The Outlaw Josey Wales * John Wayne, The Shootist * Peter Finch & William Holden, Network * David Carradine, Bound for Glory * Sylvester Stallone, Rocky * Dustin Hoffman & Laurence Olivier, Marathon Man * Tetsuya Watari, Yakuza Graveyard

Best Actress: Hilda Koronel, Insiang
Honorable Mentions:
Sissy Spacek, Carrie * Liv Ullmann, Face to Face * Jodie Foster, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane * Mona Lisa, Insiang * Andrea Schober, Chinese Roulette * Margit Carstensen, Satan's Brew * Annie Girardot, Docteur Françoise Gailland * Dominique Sanda, The Inheritance * Shohreh Aghdashloo. Chess of the Wind

Supporting Actor: Chief Dan George, The Outlaw Josey Wales

Supporting Actress: Jodie Foster, Taxi Driver

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1974

Chinatown (Director: Roman Polanski)
Nominees: The Phantom of Liberty, Woman Under the Influence, Every Man for Himself, and God Against All, Young Frankenstein, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Conversation, La prima Angélica, Badlands, The Man Who Sleeps, Chorus

Oscars pick: Godfather Part II
Nominees: Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, The Towering Inferno

Godfather Part II was all right, not as good as the first and certainly not the best of the year, but all right. My problem with it is that it's too calculated and melodramatic (the overblown abortion argument, the soapy sibling interaction). The bits with the trial didn't work at all -- and Pacino -perhaps trying to mimic Brando's quiet brooding power- instead comes off as if he's doped up on Thorazine.

Bottom line: While I nominated 11, 1974 was all about 1 - Roman Polanski's iconic neo-noir -slash-psychological drama Chinatown. 

Chinatown reveals its sordid mysteries without Godfather 2s contrivances and forced melodrama. The picture is about as tight and flawless a production as has ever been made, a textbook example of how to create a masterpiece - not a frame of it rings false, even when it shows off its lurid side at the end.

The script by Robert Towne might be the one of best ever written for the screen+, evoking the ghosts of Phillip Marlow and the like, while coming off fresh and -in the end- the equal of those noir masterpieces that came before it. It was director Polanski who brought those words to life and who rewrote the finish to make it a darker, tragic piece. Pitch perfect casting includes Faye Dunaway, who looks like she stepped out of the 1930s. And Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes, a sarcastic, hard-nosed, but honest detective who takes a routine ‘unfaithful husband’ gig and winds up smack dab in the middle of a land-water scheme, and a dirty secret one powerful city leader would like left buried.

Watching it with Godfather II -- I can't fathom how Chinatown failed to win the Oscar and win it in a landslide. I know many will vehemently disagree, but this is an Oscar blunder. Godfather II was decent enough, but Chinatown was a work of unparalleled genius.

+ Update: Sam Wasson's book, The Big Goodbye (2020) reveals that Towne had some uncredited help on the script, and that Polanski's role in reworking the storyline was more encompassing than just tweaking the ending.

Best Actor: Gene Hackman, The Conversation
Honorable Mentions:
Jack Nicholson. Chinatown * Gene Wilder & Peter Boyle. Young Frankenstein * Peter Falk, A Woman Under the Influence * Dirk Bogarde, The Night Porter * Nino Manfredi, Bread and Chocolate * Martin Sheen, Badlands * James Earl Jones, Claudine * John Hurt & David Warner, Little Malcolm

Best Actress: Gena Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence
Honorable Mention:
Ellen Burstyn, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore * Margit Carstensen, Martha * Charlotte Rampling, The Night Porter * Faye Dunaway, Chinatown * Sissy Spacek, Badlands * Hanna Schygulla, Effi Briest * Goldie Hawn, The Sugarland Express * Diahann Carroll, Claudine

Supporting Actress: Cloris Leachman, Young Frankenstein

Supporting Actor: John Huston, Chinatown

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1975

The Travelling Players (Director: Theo Angelopoulos)
Nominees: Mirror, Barry Lyndon, Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Dersu Uzala, Love and Death, Dog Day Afternoon, Fear of Fear

Oscars pick: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Nominees: Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville

Oscar did well in picking its top 5, but over the years I've discovered a couple of productions that eclipsed all others. The first is The Mirror, one of many masterpieces from Tarkovsky. The other is Angelopoulos' complex and challenging the Traveling Players. A 4-hour slice of brilliance that is also so complex and challenging that I needed help understanding it. As I knew nothing of Greek history and was not real versed with Greek theater. I found that help here... worldscinema.org

The picture spans 13 turbulent years in Greek history, from 1939 to 1952. All of which is viewed through the eyes and experiences of an acting troupe. Who are trying, and often failing, to stage a performance of 'Golfo the Shepherdess'. The players themselves are based on characters from the myth of the family of Agamemnon.

As mentioned in that link, times shifts add to the complexity of the picture. I quote... "For example, the players enter a town during the 1952 election campaign and arrive at the central square in 1939. In another brilliant scene, a group of fascist collaborators leave a New Year’s Eve celebration dance in 1946. As the camera tracks them for some 300 yards down the street they gradually undergo a transformation from a group of singing, drunk, staggering and seemingly harmless right wingers to a full-fledged fascist group marching in lockstep to martial music. As the uncut seven minute shot ends, the camera continues to track this group as it merges with the crowd at a victorious Papagos rally in 1952."

I also like the quote from Theo in describing his film... "In THIASSOS even though we refer to the past, we are talking about the present. The approach is not mythical but dialectical. This comes through in the structure of the film where often two historical times are dialectically juxtaposed in the same shot creating associations leading directly to historical conclusions… Those links do not level the events but bypass the notions of past/present and instead provide a linear developmental interpretation which exists only in the present.”

In addition, I adored Jaws, which was the most entertaining effort on the season and one I'd award for editing (Verna Fields) and score (John Williams). Kubrick's gorgeously detailed Barry Lyndon was under strong consideration for the top prize; it would be given Felix's for costume (Milena Canonero), art direction & production design (Ken Adam) and cinematography (John Alcott) - the film is a wonder to look at, and camera wise, you have both beautiful, expansive outdoor shots, and intimate, interior scenes lit by candlelight (see the clip above). It's painterly and smartly staged - visually sumptuous.

🎭 For my actress award, I'm evoking the "Fassbinder Exception" in order to select one of my favorites, Margit Carstensen. In a piece once posted at Filmstruck (now defunct and moved to that messy hellhole Tumblr, so good luck finding it), Jeff Stafford called her one of Fassbinder's "most gifted actresses" and wrote that she "...gives a riveting performance as Margot and it is a more muted and subtle portrayal in relation to her highly operatic range of emotions in Fassbinder’s Martha."

Best Actor: Jack Nicholson, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest & The Passenger
Honorable Mentions:
Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon * Michael Caine & Sean Connery, The Man Who Would Be King * Giancarlo Giannini, Seven Beauties * Roy Scheider & Richard Dreyfuss, Jaws * Maksim Munzuk, Dersu Uzala * Robert Mitchum, Farewell, My Lovely * Shin Saburi, The Fossil

Best Actress: Margit Carstensen, Fear of Fear
Honorable Mentions:
Margarita Terekhova, Mirror * Isabelle Adjani, The Story of Adele H * Stockard Channing, The Fortune * Brigitte Mira, Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven * Mari Törőcsik, Mrs. Dery Where Are You? * Carol Kane, Hester Street * Glenda Jackson, Hedda * Rachel Roberts, Picnic at Hanging Rock * Maja Komorowska, A Woman's Decision 

Supporting Actor: Robert Shaw, Jaws

Supporting Actress: Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest







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1973

Day For Night (Director: François Truffaut)
Nominees: Jesus Christ Superstar, Amarcord, The Last Detail, American Graffiti, Belladonna of Sadness, Paper Moon, High Plains Drifter, Duvidha, Kamouraska, Ana and the Wolves

Oscars pick: The Sting
Nominees: American Graffiti, Cries and Whispers, The Exorcist, A Touch of Class

One fun thing about this undertaking is watching the industry grow and change, different movements, directors, and actors. And the actor of the early 70s for me was Jack Nicholson. In Hal Ashby's Last Detail he plays petty officer "Bad-ass" Buddusky, who has the unpleasant task of escorting a young sailor to a Naval prison. It's a movie that's funny and shows some heart. Detail joins nominees like my much beloved Jesus Christ Superstar (a musical I've adored from the first album release on through its stage production).

At the top of the heap is a movie that's pure, unfiltered joy- Truffaut's Day For Night. Like Fellini’s 8 ½ it’s a movie about making a movie... though it lacks 8 ½'s surreal qualities. In fact, it was so straightforward at the start, I feared that it might turn out to be a bore. But as each scene unfolded, I was slowly and inexorably beguiled by the film's charms. 

What makes Day for Night extra special was that it was made by a cineaste for cineastes (and cinephiles). For example – there's a scene where an actress can't get her lines right, and she wants to recite numbers as dialog as she did for Fellini. That’s a wonderful nod to those who know that for years, the Italians didn't have the equipment to film visuals and audio at the same time. They had to dub in everything –sound, dialog, and music- in post. So one could get away with speaking gibberish. Later in that same sequence, the camera pulls back you see pieces of paper tacked up and taped all over the set. These are the actress's lines, posted on cue cards, which is a trick Brando was famous for.

Actor tantrums, director's manipulations, dull moments between takes.... the studio cat! Above all though, this wasn't a cynical, bitter Godard-style take on the subject. This was a warm and funny tribute to the medium Truffaut loved with all his heart.

The Sting was a red-hot movie, in a year with several red-hot conversation starters, like the scary and sick Exorcist. There were a lot of productions that had people saying, "You gotta see this..." Sadly, on one occasion that buzz occurred after a death (Bruce Lee finally getting the attention he deserved).

While I thought The Sting was good, I wasn't fond of Bergman's highly touted Cries and Whispers.  I thought it went overboard on the arty pretenses, rather self-conscious in its affectations - gaudy, as it devolved into something akin to art-house parody. And I say this as an admirer of the director’s work.

🎭 Finally: I know some feel Oscar made a blunder with its Best Actor selection; I've even been on sites where they rip Jack Lemmon's performance to shreds. I can't go along with that; Lemmon was phenomenal to my mind. Running the emotional gamut with his work, but never overplayed it. It's sincere, powerful... and yes some might call it Oscar Bait (and Christ I hate that term, because so what, it's also an incredibly committed and honest portrayal of a man at the end of his rope. It never came off like a Jon Lovitz 'Master Thespian' play for praise.). 

Note: This category was overcrowded - a few I like who missed the final cut... Ryan O'Neal, Paper Moon, Edward Fox, The Day of the Jackal, and Robert Shaw, The Hireling

Actress? Oscar usually throws kids into the supporting pool, but with Tatum O'Neal, you can't even evoke the side-kick rule. If anything, Ryan's the sidekick... she's the boss. And she's also my Best Actress in a Leading Role. With Tatum placed in her correct category, I needed a supporting player. There were plenty of good ones, but it was the -sometimes- underappreciated Candy Clark who stood out among the crowd. It’s not an outsized performance, but it is a memorable one. In that, she brought personality and levels to what could have been a throwaway part (the blond bimbo who's there just to give Toad something to do). She’s a unique construct - in the way she moves and delivers her lines and in the odd things she talks about (goatsuckers). Debbie is funny/peculiar, a little restless, and -as evidenced in what she says to Toad at the end- a sweet person.

Best Actor: Jack Lemmon, Save the Tiger
Honorable Mentions:
Vincent Price, Theatre of Blood * Robert Mitchum, The Friends of Eddie Coyle * Jack Nicholson, The Last Detail * Carl Anderson & Ted Neely, Jesus Christ Superstar * Sean Connery, The Offence * Balraj Sahni, Garm Hava * Edward Woodward, The Wicker Man * Al Pacino & Gene Hackman, Scarecrow * Donald Sutherland, Don't Look Now

Best Actress: Tatum O'Neal, Paper Moon
Honorable Mentions:
Florinda Bolkan, A Brief Vacation * Sarah Miles, The Hireling * Julie Christie, Don't Look Now * Geneviève Bujold, Kamouraska * Ellen Burstyn & Linda Blair, The Exorcist * Ana Torrent, The Spirit of the Beehive * Geraldine Chaplin, Ana and the Wolves

Supporting Actor: Christopher Lee, The Wicker Man

Supporting Actress: Candy Clark, American Graffiti

* Note: Badlands played in one festival in 1973, but didn't go wide until 1974... which is the year I'm placing it in.


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1972

Last Tango in Paris (Director: Bernardo Bertolucci)
Nominees: Cabaret, Solaris, Deliverance, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Godfather, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, The Heartbreak Kid, The Mattei Affair, The New Land

Oscars pick: The Godfather
Nominees: Cabaret, Deliverance, The Emigrants, Sounder

I know, I know, The Godfather is considered a work of genius. Some even consider it the greatest movie of all time. Not selecting it is like bypassing Citizen Kane or Casablanca in many folk’s eyes. While I enjoy the feature, most of my love for it stems from my admiration for Marlon Brando's performance.  His voice may be a raspy whisper, but his presence echoes like a sonic boom. And even though he doesn't have a lot of screen time, he’s the heart and soul of the entire production. The movie as a whole… Yeah, it’s great but I believe there are better.

One strong contender for the Felix was the musical Cabaret - which made a big splash in 72. It actually won several international awards for Best Picture over the Godfather, and it earned the Best Director Oscar for Bob Fosse. But edging past that and Solaris...

By Oscar's rules, Last Tango wasn’t eligible for a Best Picture award until 1973 – but since Felix plays by global rules, and Tango played worldwide in 72. Tango is eligible in 72.

The year belonged to Brando. It was his return to greatness -- a comeback after the tumultuous 60s that nearly saw him blacklisted at its close. It was a short-lived return - we will never again see him reach these highs as an actor, but in 1972 he was in two of cinemas finest. Though in regards to the highly regarded, though controversial Last Tango, I'm one of the few who feel that it isn't simply one of the better films of the year, it's the very best. The Italian made movie is about a recently widowed American named Paul who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman.

While I think Tango is brilliant, I always struggle to articulate why. I resist over analysis because I don't want to lose the powerful emotional response I have to the picture and to Brando's searing performance. This is a movie that deserves to be discussed and explored, but not at the risk of putting out its fire. Saying that, here are a few moments that stick out for me.

Brando's acting is unbelievable and unlike anything he has ever done before. Marlon throws off all artifice to offer up something disquieting. He peels back the layers and gives completely of himself. He was asked to improvise scenes and in those moments he draws stories from his own life.

The sequence at his unfaithful wife's deathbed is unsettling in the way it expresses unvarnished and painfully real emotion. It is said that the scene made Dustin Hoffman so uncomfortable that he hid behind his seat as it unfolded. Ebert called it the greatest piece of acting Brando had ever done. It is not a moment to be viewed in an unlit room with the family. It’s hard to watch this man swearing at this woman’s corpse, crying and releasing all the hurt and resentment he's feeling.

There are also subtle touches. At one point Brando wanders off during a conversation and stands by a door. I wondered at first what the hell he was doing; did he have his lines posted nearby? Then a shock of realization worked its way down my spine... that's what he did when before he found his wife’s body. In the film Paul keeps turning off leaky facets, no explanation, no speeches, it's just something he does. And it struck me that when he came home; perhaps he called his wife’s name. Hearing no answerer he tried the bathroom door, he called out again, put his head to the door and could hear the drip, drip, drip of the bathtub. He enters to find her...

Bertolucci never tells us if this is the case, he never gives us the full story. He simply drops hints and lets us speculate (for example, why does the woman cleaning up the blood, stand there with a slight smile?) It’s a chilling aspect to the story and the performance.

Last Tango in Paris isn't a date movie; it isn't truly sexy. The sex isn't sensual and is often humiliating. The two do share some laughs (the film is not without humor) and she wants to break the rules of anonymity but he refuses -- until something clicks inside of him, which makes him change his mind. That ending was controversial, criticized as pretentious or overblown -- but I felt it fit, it works for me - the whole of the film - the arc of this relationship, works perfectly for me.

I understand I'm committing a kind of film blasphemy, and of all the alt-Oscar reads I've looked over, I'm the only one who bypasses the Godfather as the years best. I'm not trying to be a rebel without a cause - contrary and defiant for defiance sake. It’s simply that I genuinely and most emphatically feel that Last Tango in Paris is the best movie of the year. And my opinion is based primarily on the emotional reverberation that tears into me whenever I watch it. As brilliant as the Godfather is, it doesn't pack that kind of visceral wallop. (And honestly, if it wasn't Tango, it would have been Cabaret winning the Felix. And if not Cabaret, then Solaris).

My Best Actor can be no other, but what of my top actress? While Margit Carstensen gave a blistering performance in Bitter Tears, it's more a monologue - and while I liked that - I prefer to see a life lived. Out and about, with a character arc that unfolds on screen in action, not just words. Margit will win in a later film, for acting that had that "life lived" feel to it. So this year I'll go with Liza.

Best Actress & Supporting Actor: Liza Minnelli & Joel Grey, Cabaret
Actress Honorable Mentions:
Margit Carstensen, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant * Susannah York, Images * Iva Janžurová, Morgiana * Cicely Tyson, Sounder * Glenda Jackson, The Triple Echo * Rita Tushingham, Straight on Till Morning * Micheline Lanctôt, The True Nature of Bernadette * Liv Ullmann, The New Land 

Best Supporting Actress: Natalya Bonderchuk, Solaris

Best Actor: Marlon Brando, Last Tango in Paris (pictured up top) & The Godfather
Honorable Mentions:
Al Pacino, The Godfather * Klaus Kinski, Aguirre, The Wrath of God * Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty & Ronny Cox, Deliverance * Michael Caine & Laurence Olivier, Sleuth * John Wayne, The Cowboys * Paul Winfield & Kevin Hooks, Sounder * Max von Sydow, The New Land * Gian Maria Volonté, The Mattei Affair * Yves Montand, Cesar and Rosalie


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1971

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Director: Robert Altman)
Nominees: Szindbád (Sinbad), A Touch of Zen, Harold and Maude, Mon Oncle Antoine, Dirty Harry, Walkabout, The Last Picture Show, Straw Dogs, Silence, The Emigrants, The Goat Horn, You and Me, Interview, Fiddler on the Roof

Oscars pick: The French Connection
Nominees: A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, The Last Picture Show, Nicholas and Alexandra

A superb slate of films is offered in a year that engaged filmgoers with productions that were smart, challenging, and unconventional. Movies like Nicholas Roeg's Walkabout were intriguing puzzles, while Straw Dogs was Sam Peckinpah's violent reflection on the nature of manhood. And in the years since posting this, I've watched and added several masterpieces to my list of nominees, including Larisa Shepitko's You and Me, Zoltán Huszárik's Szindbád (Sinbad), and King Hu's A Touch of Zen.

Each one of these I number among my all-time favorites, and each is worthy of the title "Best Picture of the Year". But one, in particular, stood out.

Robert Altman is kind of a hit and miss director for me – the overlapping mumbling voices, and improvisational feel of his work can sometimes annoy and distract (as with the ultra-irritating The Long Goodbye), but McCabe & Mrs. Miller –which stars Warren Beatty as a gambler who is building a town, and Julie Christie as tough as nails hooker- is an absorbing anti-western. Slow brewing and atmospheric, it subverts many of the genre's conventions: Such as staging the iconic final gunfight, not under the blazing sun, in a dusty tumbleweed-filled setting, but in a blinding white snowstorm. And it doesn't tie everything up under a neat bow - no one is redeemed, no one saves the day. Overall though it is less about storytelling than creating tone. I believe it's Altman's best film, though it wasn't warmly received on its release. Something it has in common with another top candidate I wanted to spotlight.

Harold and Maude. This is such a special picture to me, It tells of a quirky romance and friendship between a young man obsessed with death and an eccentric old woman who lives life to the fullest, It’s a funny movie, often wickedly so -- as when Harold's mother fills out a computer dating form for her son but gives answers as she sees them. And after he sabotages that first meet-up, with a fake suicide attempt, Harold gives a knowing look into the camera – he’s made us co-conspirators in this game.  Despite its idiosyncratic nature, it's an affecting love story. H&M is one of my treasures -- which features superb Cat Stevens music and Harold's cool modified Jaguar Hearse (Oh how I covet that car).

But for all my love of H&M, it has a few off-key moments, and I believe the Altman film is the overall tighter production, which is why I’m giving it the Felix. (Of Note: McCabe & Mrs. Miller was produced by Bert Schneider, who along with last year's best director Bob Rafelson, helped create TVs the Monkees)

As for the cop flick, The French Connection, which won the Oscar. It was decent enough, but it wasn’t Best Picture material in my eyes.

Acting? Loads of the good stuff: I really liked Kitty Winn in The Panic in Needle Park and Julie Christie in McCabe, but it was Jane's year, hands down.

Best Actor: Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange
Honorable Mentions: 

Oliver Reed, The Devils * Richard Attenborough, 10 Rillington Place * Michael Caine, Get Carter * Gene Hackman, The French Connection * Topol, Fiddler on the Roof * Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka * Bud Cort, Harold and Maude * Warren Beatty, McCabe & Mrs. Miller * Max Von Sydow, The Emigrants * Zoltán Latinovits, Szindbád

Best Actress: Jane Fonda, Klute
Honorable Mention:
Julie Christie, McCabe & Mrs. Miller * Kitty Winn, Panic in Needle Park * Jenny Agutter, Walkabout * Tuesday Weld, A Safe Place * Ruth Gordon, Harold and Maude * Lili Darvas and Mari Törőcsik, Szerelem * Liv Ullmann, The Emigrants

Supporting Actor: Andy Robinson, Dirty Harry

Close Runner-Up: Donald Pleasence, Wake in Fright

Supporting Actress: Barbara Harris, Who is Harry Kellerman...







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1970

Five Easy Pieces (Director: Bob Rafelson)
Nominees: The Conformist, The Debut, Kes, Patton, The Butcher, Days and Nights in the Forest, Witchhammer, King Lear, The Confession, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

Oscars pick: Patton
Nominees: Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, M*A*S*H*

My top contenders include the perplexing and fascinating The Conformist, which is about a fascist assassin. The film's unique structure owes much to the editor - who injected pieces of footage as flashbacks into the narrative, much to the delight of director Bernardo Bertolucci. And I thought Jack Nicholson was electrifying as the restless and short-tempered Bobby Dupea, in the existential road picture, Five Easy Pieces. In which a blue-collar worker –who is more than he seems- heads home to visit his dying father.

In addition: Costas-Garvas' harrowing The Confession was an incredible follow up to his Felix winning Z. I enjoyed Kes (played at a festival in 1969, but didn’t get a wide release until 70), Ken Losey's slight, naturalistic tale of a British schoolboy who raises a falcon. And the Oscar-winning Patton, whose thin story is lifted by an explosive performance by George C. Scott.

Of the remaining Oscars nominees: Love Story was horrid goo. Airport was decent and best known for popularizing the disaster movie fad of the 70s - and Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H* is a film that consisted of a chaotic string of skits. It features the director's normal, rambling, freeform style.

For me, it was a toss-up between the Costas-Garvas, Bertolucci, and Rafelson flicks, and I elected to go with Five Easy Pieces. It was one of the “American New Wave” films that briefly ruled in the late ’60s to mid-70s, which were helmed by directors like Hal Ashby, Peter Bogdanovich, and Bob Rafelson. The film is psychological reality -- an unpredictable look at a smart, talented man, who is dissatisfied, self-destructive and at a loss as to who he is or where he’s going. He has no tolerance for BS, or the traps life puts in his way. As he says... "I move around a lot, not because I’m looking for anything really, but ’cause I'm getting away from things that get bad if I stay." With those words in mind, it should be no surprise what he does at the end, even though it's upsetting.

The movie's hallmarks include the bit during a traffic jam where Bobby leaves his car, hops in the back of a truck and plays the off-key piano that's packed there (and takes Bobby ‘God know where’ as the truck drives pulls off on to an exit). The sequence at the restaurant where special orders do upset 'em, and the talk Bobby has with his sick father, who might not even comprehend what's being told him, are 2 other highlights.

Best Actress: Inna Churikova, The Debut
Honorable Mentions:
Stéphane Audran, The Butcher * Tuesday Weld, I Walk the Line * Carrie Snodgress, Diary of a Mad Housewife * Catherine Deneuve, Tristana * Chieko Baisho, Kazoku * Angela Lansbury, Something for Everyone

Best Actor: Jack Nicholson, Five Easy Pieces
Honorable Mentions: 

Yves Montand, The Confession * Gian Maria Volontè, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion * Dustin Hoffman, Little Big Man * George C. Scott, Patton * Gene Hackman, I Never Sang for My Father * Nicol Williamson, The Reckoning * Jason Robards, Ballad of Cable Hogue * Peter Sellers, Hoffman * Georgi Taratorkin, Crime and Punishment

Supporting Actor: Chishū Ryū, Kazoku

Supporting Actress: Dominique Sanda, The Conformist

Special Award - Best Ensemble: Days and Nights in the Forest - Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Pahadi Sanyal, Samit Bhanja, Robi Ghosh, Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose, Aparna Sen, Simi Garewal (pictured)

Note: Women in Love was first released in the UK in 1969, which is why Oscar winner Glenda Jackson is missing from this season's list of nominees. 


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1969

Z (Director: Costas-Garvas)
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.

Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman, Midnight Cowboy
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

Best Actress: Maggie Smith, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
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

Supporting Actress: Pamela Franklin, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

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

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1968

Once Upon a Time in the West (Director: Sergio Leone)
Nominees: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Great Silence, The Valley of the Bees, Romeo and Juliet, Petulia, Rosemary's Baby, Kuroneko, Memories of Underdevelopment, We’ll Live Till Monday, The White Room

Oscars pick:  Oliver
Nominees: Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, Rachel, Rachel, Romeo and Juliet

Ye gads what a season- and I didn't even nominate Oscar's winner, the musical Oliver - which is a pleasant enough movie, I liked it – though I wouldn't say it quite reaches up towards 'best picture' type magnificence. 

Just about everybody who second-guesses the Oscars selects, 2001: A Space Odyssey for 1968. And after finally seeing to on the big screen I can see why. It's an incredible experience. 

Just behind it...

Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was magnetic and moving and had me completely wrapped up in the story and characters. I also was gobsmacked by Richard Lester's unique Petulia - very much a 60s movie, it's notable for its quick edited flashbacks and flash-forwards. Tonally unconventional, it goes from kooky romantic to bizarre gaudy grim to melancholic. Petulia stars George C. Scott & Julie Christie, who are both fantastic. And features a lingering score from John Barry (of James Bond fame) and dynamic camerawork by Nicolas Roeg.

While college students were having their minds blown away by Kubrick's Space Odyssey, something more down to Earth -but equally as spectacular- was doing the same to mine. Sergio Leone's grand and epic Spaghetti Western, Once Upon a Time in the West was one of those special, elevated film experiences.

The first time I saw Leone’s masterpiece I was left slack-jawed and speechless, but I’ll try and find my voice for this posting. Sometimes a movie can be something you enjoy as a spectator, other times a movie asks that you participate and engage. And sometimes it does all that and more: Writers Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento gave us an expansive story, with several plot threads that are adroitly woven into an explosive whole (I won't go into detail as one of the joys in this film is in the discovery). The ensemble cast, which includes Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Claudia Cardinale, breathe life into these interesting people they portray, and their interactions are a huge plus. Photographed in widescreen splendor by cinematographer Tonino Delio Colli and scored with beauty, whimsy, and power by the great Ennio Morricone. "Once Upon" expertly and ambitiously blends drama, mystery, suspense, outrage, humor, sex, and psychology. My admiration and affection can’t be overstated, and I consider it, with Eastwood's Unforgiven and Ford's The Searchers, the greatest western ever made.

Postscript, with spoilers: While casual or younger viewers might not understand its impact, Henry Fonda's first appearance set the uneasy tone of the film. Fonda often played men of reason; there was gentleness and warmth in him. And the first time he rode up onscreen, with those sky blue eyes of his, I thought "Oh good, he’s here to save the day." And then he guns down a boy in cold blood. Holy shnikey -- that was unexpected. People back in the day, my father included, couldn't believe it. Leone stole the breath from our lungs and let it be known that appearances would be deceiving from here on out.

Best Actor: Peter O'Toole, The Lion in Winter
Honorable Mentions: 

Toshirō Mifune & Lee Marvin, Hell in the Pacific * Max von Sydow, Shame * Charlton Heston, Will Penny & Planet of the Apes * Boris Karloff, Targets * Vyacheslav Tikhonov, We'll Live till Monday * Alan Arkin, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter * Burt Lancaster, The Swimmer * George C. Scott, Petulia * Alan Bates, The Fixer

Best Actress: Mia Farrow, Rosemary's Baby
Honorable Mentions: 

Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter * Claudia Cardinale, Once Upon a Time in the West * Vanessa Redgrave, Isadora * Tuesday Weld, Pretty Poison * Liv Ullmann, Shame * Julie Christie, Petulia * Joanne Woodward, Rachel, Rachel * Patricia Neal, The Subject Was Roses * Beryl Reid, The Killing of Sister George 

Supporting Actress: Beverly Garland, Pretty Poison

Supporting Actor: Henry Fonda, Once Upon a Time in the West

Also liked Jack Albertson in The Subject Was Roses, though he was more a co-lead 






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1967

Belle de Jour (Director: Luis Buñuel)

Nominees: Marketa Lazarová, La Musica, Le Samouraï, Scattered Clouds, The Plea, Two for the Road, The Graduate, Samurai Rebellion, Bonnie and Clyde, In the Heat of the Night, Cool Hand Luke

Oscars pick: In the Heat of the Night
Nominees: Bonnie and Clyde, Dr. Doolittle, The Graduate, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

A movie that gets better every time I see it, earns the Felix in '67.

In Belle de Jour, Catherine Deneuve stars as Séverine, a sexually frustrated Paris housewife who secretly spends her afternoon hours working in a bordello. The film has its toe in the surreal, and leaves viewers with unanswered questions (what's the deal with the cats - never seen but heard and referred to. And what's that buzzing thing in the box? It doesn't matter, what matters is Séverine's reaction to it and how that contrasts with the other ladies' responses). There's a nod to Godard's Breathless (but is that a tribute, Bunuel wasn't a fan of the director) another to Millet's painting The Angelus (which might actually be a nod to Dali, who had an obsession with the painting and was of the belief that it held messages of repressed sexual aggression). The Criterion essay called Belle a "...gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression.” Oh, and Deneuve is stunningly beautiful, even covered in muck she's a goddess.

Of my nominees, The Graduate was a movie I loved as a teenager and still like today. Critic James Kendrick accurately noted the film's "...satirical view of the affluent American upper class as a morass of immaturity and corruption hidden behind beautiful houses and garden parties."  The script has bite and a lot of laughs, The performances, and the Simon & Garfunkel tunes are memorable, and it boasts one of the greatest final scenes in film history.

Marketa Lazarová is considered the greatest Czech film of all time... and yeah it's hard for me to argue with that. It's a stark, brutal, yet poetic slice of medieval delirium. A second viewing was better than the first, a third helping might even see it unseat Belle.

In the Heat of the Night was Oscars pick, and it's a good one. Challenging, suspenseful and human. It addresses racism, big city North vs. small city South prejudices, all wrapped around a murder investigation.  Steiger won a much deserved Oscar, but I'm going the Cannes rout and award this as an acting pair because he and Sidney Poitier were so good together.  I like the contrasts between the two men: Steiger rough and loud to Poitier's elegance and educated manner.

As for my supporting actor, there was a bunch to chose from. Alan Arkin in Wait Until Dark, Terence Stamp and Alan Bates in Far From the Madding Crowd, Hackman, Bonnie and Clyde, Tom Courtenay, The Night of the Generals and Oscar winner George Kennedy in Cool Hand Luke, I was originally going to go with Peter Cook in Bedazzled, but upon a re-watch I think he's more of a co-lead with Dudley Moore. Out of them all, I found I liked Peter Finch's work in Madding Crowd the best. Finch plays the older suitor to Julie Christie's Bathsheba Everdine. Watching the way he comes undone over this woman, just loses all reason, was quite impressive. The way that desperation plays out on his face - wearing the expression of someone trying to keep it together, but failing at every step.

Best Actor: Sidney Poitier & Rod Steiger, In the Heat of the Night
Honorable Mentions: Robert Blake, In Cold Blood * Toshirō Mifune, Samurai Rebellion * Sidney Poitier, To Sir, with Love * Alain Delon, Le Samourai * Dustin Hoffman, The Graduate * Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke * Marlon Brando, Reflections in a Golden Eye

Best Actress: Audrey Hepburn, Two for the Road (also Wait Until Dark)
Honorable Mentions: Catherine Deneuve, Belle de Jour * Geraldine Chaplin, Peppermint Frappe * Anne Bancroft, The Graduate * Edith Evans, The Whisperers * Julie Andrews, Thoroughly Modern Millie * Ruriko Asaoka, Thirst for Love * Yōko Tsukasa, Scattered Clouds * Sandy Dennis, Up the Down Staircase

Supporting Actress: Julie Harris, Reflections in a Golden Eye

Supporting Actor: Peter Finch, Far from the Madding Crowd







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1966

Andrei Rublev (Director: Andrei Tarkovsky)
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

Best Actress: Bibi Andersson & Liv Ullmann, Persona
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!

Supporting Actress: Wendy Hiller, A Man for All Seasons

Supporting Actor: John Mills, The Family Way

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