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OT: Movie recommendations

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dly64:

--- Quote from: moremojo on July 11, 2006, 10:15:19 am ---Getting back to movie recommendations, have you heard of an Indiana-born filmmaker named Curt McDowell? He was born in Lafayette, in Tippecanoe County, in 1945, and moved to San Francisco in 1965 to attend the Art Institute there. In the early 1970s, he began making films in earnest, under the tutelage of his teacher George Kuchar. In 1975, these two collaborated on what is still probably McDowell's best-known work, a black comedy called Thundercrack!, which gained some notoriety on the midnight-movie circuit in the late Seventies. The film is distinguished by Kuchar's idiosyncratic, zanily poetic dialogue, beautiful black-and-white photography, and a truly great performance by the lead actress, a classically trained thespian named Marion Eaton. I think Eaton is one of the greatest actresses to have appeared on film, but she remains relatively obscure to mainstream audiences.

The best film of McDowell's I have so far seen is his later short Loads, which is a masterpiece of homoerotic cinema. McDowell succumbed to complications from AIDS in 1987, but is fondly remembered by the many who counted him as a friend.

Scott
--- End quote ---

Hi Scott - I never heard of Curt McDowell. I know a lot about films and directors from the 1920's - 50's and then again from the 80's - current. I would like to study and learn more about the films from the 60's and 70's. Unsure why I have that black hole. Maybe it is because I was born in the 60's and raised in the 70's and I have this distorted view of that time period. I know there are some great films. I have yet to fully explore them, however.

Other than some of the more mainstream/ well known films (such as "Deliverence", "Midnight Cowboy", "Easy Rider", etc.) do you have any suggestions?

moremojo:

--- Quote from: dly64 on July 11, 2006, 08:30:07 pm ---
Other than some of the more mainstream/ well known films (such as "Deliverence", "Midnight Cowboy", "Easy Rider", etc.) do you have any suggestions?

--- End quote ---
Oh my, do I. Here are some films from the 60s and 70s that I consider great:

The Ladies' Man (1961), directed by Jerry Lewis. A comic masterpiece of mise-en-scene. Anyone who doubts Lewis's formidable powers as a filmmaker should take a look at this one.

L'eclisse (1962), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. My favorite film by this great Italian director. A poetic rumination on how modern civilization atomizes and isolates human beings from one another, thereby, ironically, making the need for human contact all the more precious and necessary.

Mamma Roma (1962), directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. My favorite movie by this filmmaker, though not necessarily his best. This is a late slice of Italian Neorealism, graced with a wonderful starring performance by Anna Magnani.

Le mepris (1963), directed by Jean-Luc Godard. One of the best movies made on the actual process of movie-making. Distinguished by sumptuous location shooting in Italy, a sensuous star turn by Brigitte Bardot, and a rare performance by director Fritz Lang, who plays himself.

Il deserto rosso (1964), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Antonioni's first film in color, which he uses to striking symbolic effect. This film's theme of environmental degradation is as timely now as when it was made. Essential viewing.

Gertrud (1964), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. The great Danish director's last film. This film has grown in importance to me over time, as I now consider its theme (the call to love, and the price paid for idealistic adherence to that call) to be absolutely central to the human experience. Like Brokeback Mountain, this is one of the supreme cinematic explorations of the mysteries of the human heart.

Pierrot le fou (1965), directed by Jean-Luc Godard. My favorite Godard film. A rich and zany melange of love story, crime thriller, musical, and there's even a weird touch of fantasy in there somewhere. Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo star as the two star-crossed lovers.

Au hasard Balthazar (1966), directed by Robert Bresson. The story of a donkey's life in rural France becomes a strange parable for the sins of man, and of how they are inflicted by them upon their fellow humans and the other sentient beings sharing the planet with them. Balthazar is the name of the donkey, and the animal playing him gives one of the great cinematic performances. Man's cruelty to the living things of the earth has rarely been evoked so lyrically. This is one of the most important films ever made.

Unsere Afrikareise (1966), directed by Peter Kubelka. The Austrian Kubelka was hired to accompany a group of rich tourists on a safari in Africa to shoot footage for a promotional travelogue. What he ended up making stands, along with Au hasard Balthazar and Brokeback Mountain, as one of the most important movies ever. A brilliantly edited avant-garde short also serving as a scathing indictment of man's cruelty to animals and of a latent neo-colonialist attitude by Westerners towards the 'Third World'.

Playtime (1967), directed by Jacques Tati. A dazzling modernist masterwork, wherein contemporary Paris is seen as a futuristic behemoth negotatiated and benignly transformed by a plethora of tourists and denizens. Virtually non-narrative, this is a graceful comedic ballet, an avant-garde epic, and a science fiction spectacle all rolled into one.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), directed by Stanley Kubrick. One of my favorite Kubrick movies. I love the grandeur, mystery, and lyricism of this seminal science fiction opus.

Andrey Rublyov (1969), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. A mesmerizing portrait of medieval Russia, seen through the fictionalized eyes of the great eponymous artist of the title. A major work by one of the most intensely personal of the great filmmakers.

So that's a selection from the 60s. The 70s will need to wait for a later time. Gotta run...

Until later,
Scott

moremojo:
Hi again, Diane--

Continuing along the tangent I addressed yesterday, here is a selection of films from the 1970s that I consider great:

Walkabout (1971), directed by Nicolas Roeg. This is another film that has grown in importance to me over time. Two children of European descent stranded in the Australian outback are befriended and saved by an Aboriginal youth undergoing the rite-of-passage of the title. An understated meditation on the gulf between the two cultures ensues, with an affirmation of the shared humanity of all depicted. This is one of the great landscape films, showcasing the harsh beauty of the Australian continent's vast interior.

Solyaris (1972), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. A sort of Soviet response to Kubrick's 2001, this major work by the great Russian director, adapted from a novel by Stanislaw Lem, is actually a more subtle, mysterious, and human film than that might suggest. At some point in the future, humanity has discovered in the recesses of space an ocean-covered world (the planet of the title), the liquid matter of which seems to be sentient. This alien ocean begins to interact with the scientists sent to study it in unexpected and confounding ways. Natalya Bondarchuk, playing the wife of the main character, is riveting and unforgettable.

Der Tod der Maria Malibran (1972), directed by Werner Schroeter. Made for West German television (ZDF), and first shown in that format, this stands as one of my all-time favorites. Non-narrative for the first half or so, at midpoint the film's beguiling images and sounds coalesce into the story of the legendary opera singer of the title (who lived from 1808 to 1836), but refracted through the lens of fantasy. With a cast comprised almost wholly of women and transvestites, this is still perhaps the gayest film I've ever seen. Schroeter is interested here in evoking the gay male fascination for female performers. The lead performer here, Magdalena Montezuma, reveals herself as one of the great actresses of cinema.

El espiritu de la colmena (1973), directed by Victor Erice. A landmark film in Spanish cinema, this is set in the period immediately following the Spanish Civil War. A little girl gets her first taste of moviegoing by seeing James Whale's Frankenstein, and comes to identify with that film's pathetic monster. A quietly haunting meditation on the psychic scars of a ravaged nation.

Celine et Julie vont en bateau (1974), directed by Jacques Rivette. An exciting, funny, and ultimately haunting comedy/drama/fantasy set in summertime Paris. The two young ladies of the title stumble upon a haunted house in Montmartre, and become unwitting participants in the strange story that is continually repeated within. Their unravelling of the mystery serves as the means by which the filmmaker explores the apparatus of the cinematic medium, and the vagaries and joys of cinema spectatorship. A lovely, unforgettable movie.

Barry Lyndon (1975), directed by Stanley Kubrick. My favorite Kubrick movie, this is one of the most beautiful period films ever made. Sumptuous art direction, technically brilliant cinematography, and Kubrick's always inspired use of music combine to make this an exquisite cinematic experience to savor. Features one of my favorite character actors, Murray Melvin, in a small but key role.

Salo o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975), directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The last film Pasolini made before he was murdered, this is an adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's obsessive and monumentally disturbing work The 120 Days of Sodom, with the action updated to the waning days of the Second World War, and the setting transposed to northern Italy. A controversial and harrowing expose of the evils of Fascism, the movie ultimately becomes a nihilistic glimpse into the darkness of the human soul. Though difficult to watch, I consider this film to be of vital importance. Yet, though I claim it as a masterpiece, it is unusual among such entities in that I have no desire to ever see it again.

Erogeny (1976), directed by James Broughton. A happy antidote to the brutality and despair of Pasolini's last opus, this radiant little film celebrates the beauty of the human body and the effulgent joy of carnal love. A young man and a young woman, naked, together, suffused with tenderness. A male voice-over recites a poetic text comparing the body to an endlessly fascinating and contoured landscape, ripe for exploration and appreciation. Contemplative, quiet beauty--a lasting gift.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1976), directed by Chantal Akerman. Perhaps the greatest film ever to come out of Belgium. Delphine Seyrig stars as the eponymous character, a widow with a teenage son who supplements the household income by regularly prostituting herself from out of her flat. In between her time with her son and her visits from clients, she spends her day cleaning her home and preparing food. The movie shows these activities in real time, emphasizing the stuff of daily existence that most other works of fiction barely mention or elide altogether. A sympathetic, ultimately disturbing portrait of one compromised human being's existence is revealed, while the textures and rhythms of everyday life receive a respect rare in cinema outside the work of such masters as Yasujiro Ozu and Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Eraserhead (1977), directed by David Lynch. A strange, often disturbing film that is infamously difficult to describe or synopsize. There is much to admire and muse upon here: striking black-and-white photography, a brilliant, conceptually rich soundtrack, and one of the weirdest mutant babies ever devised for a fantasy film.

The Scenic Route (1978), directed by Mark Rappaport. One of the finest cinematic treatments of complex, adult relationships I have encountered. The film tells the story of one woman's journey towards self-discovery, accompanied (or not, as is sometimes the case) by her boyfriend and her sister. Clever mise-en-scene and solid performances bolster the rich profundity of the film's themes.

Being There (1979), directed by Hal Ashby. Quirky black comedy, starring Peter Sellers in the role he was born to play. Emptiness made funny or painful, or both, this satire seems remarkably prescient when confronted with the powers-that-be in contemporary America.

Scott

dly64:

--- Quote from: moremojo on July 12, 2006, 11:07:42 pm ---Hi again, Diane--

Continuing along the tangent I addressed yesterday, here is a selection of films from the 1970s that I consider great:

Scott M. 

--- End quote ---

Wow! You have given me a great list. I like that you have so many foreign films.

I have seen a couple of the ones you have suggested (albeit not many!). "Being There", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Erasurehead" and "Barry Lyndon". Those are all great .... so I think we're on the same page.I will print out your suggestions and start watching!!

David In Indy:
Speaking of foreign films, has anyone seen "Get Real"?

It is an excellent movie from Great Britain about a high school teen dealing with his homosexuality and his coming out to his friends and family. Ben Silverstone and Brad Gorton star in it and both give excellent performances. I think the movie was made in 2000. If you haven't seen it, you should!  :)

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