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